This was also our second year to witness Eid al Adha the festival of sacrifice in late November, which happens about 70 days after the end of Ramadan (which every year starts 10 days earlier). It commemorates Abraham’s almost sacrifice of Ishmael (not Isaac).
In the days before the weekend festival, you see sheep and goats gathered in preparation. Then early in the morning, the call to prayer is nearly an hour long, then the sacrificing of the animals in people’s front yards or out in the street begins. The street dogs and cats have a feast of their own for days.
Alex’s second year has been quite a contrast to his first year. Last year he barely made the team coached by an Egyptian who valued individual skills.
This year’s team was coached by a South African who valued team play (like in Spokane coaches). Alex not only made the JV soccer team, but was team co-captain and co-MVP for the season. He made the travel team to Dubai they were one of the most feared teams. The other teams targeted Alex to knock him down since he was the playmaker, so amidst his bruises he realized it was a back-handed compliment.
He also made the JV basketball team again and it looks like he will get a good bit of playing time and likely travel to Abu Dhabi for the tournament in February. His group had first choice this year for the Week Without Walls trips, service or culture learning opportunities around the world and in Cairo. So with his first pick this year (he will be fourth [last] group to pick next year), he chose the Panda Conservatory in Szechuan province in southwest China. He is also discovering the exotic international girls around him (we’ll leave it at that…)
Travis arrived mid December after his first quarter at Eastern Washington University. His wrist was broken in two places in September and we were afraid of nerve damage, but it appears he will have full range back, though the end of his thumb is still numb and his fingers tingle. A physical therapist says he will still get more feeling back over time, but it will be over a year for it to be near normal. All the extra time gave Travis time to study without working 30-40 hours per week. He ended up with a 3.6/4.0 for the quarter. Travis will be staying until June 1 to do his internship in international relations with an Egyptian woman in our church who runs her own business: Global Strategic Consultants (www.gsc-egypt.com). He will also be her teaching assistant at American University Cairo in her public relations/international marketing class.
Brett will be here for a little over three weeks. He had a very good quarter at Western Washington University with art and photography related classes. He had to take a free hand drawing class (including a section on nudes) with no background in art. He feels like he learned and developed and his instructor looked forward to helping him advance in the next class Winter quarter. He submitted his portfolio and got accepted into the graphic design major! So for now he has a double major, which might be useful since photojournalism is not exactly a booming job market in today’s world.
Karan is still working every other day at Alex’s school (CAC) in special education while still navigating the political waters. She gets worn down with some of the dynamics and feeling treated like a second class citizen, but her principal is very supportive. She loves being with the students in helping them succeed and learn to overcome their challenges. We are glad Karan is part-time and hope she can stay that way from a time perspective. If she goes full-time she will have more clout and ability to help kids, but the cost to church and family will be greater.
Karan returned to her roots and was Elizabeth in the Christmas pageant at church. She was back to her she was pretty animated and humorous self on stage. It was first time to work with live animals and their unpredictability. No camels “unloaded” (one year the camel splashing sound drowned out the voice on stage). And no sheep mounted another during Mary’s solo like in a previous year. It is interesting in this Middle East setting to tell the Christmas story to over 1000 from different cultures and religions.
Steve is happy to have a Director of Administration here and settling in. Dave has removed a great amount of the administrative load. We are dealing with the challenges of moving to Friday evening services (instead of Friday morning--the time of Muslim worship). We now compete with social events and leisure since this is the very middle of our weekend in Egypt. We also have seen fewer "expats" coming into Egypt with the world economic downturn. But the spirit is good as we have stressed training and equipping people to push outside their comfort zones and become involved in kingdom opportunities right outside their door. Our hope is that people's lives will change from being in this amazing setting so that they can return to their home churches and bring a missional mindset. There is a good spirit of unity among the leadership!
On Christmas Day, we drive to Israel to rent a car for 9 days in Israel. We are driving across the Sinai (Egypt) to Eilat, Israel. Then we drive to Masada by the Dead Sea and stay the night. Then drive to Galilee and explore for two days. Then drive down to Jerusalem for four days. We return to Cairo on January 2.
In His Grip!
Steve and Karan
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