Year 3 in Egypt

Aren’t you glad you subscribe to this very erratic blog, so you don’t waste time keeping on checking back for nothing?? (To subscribe check earlier post instructions.) So lots to catch up ... The ministry-school year ended well.

After visiting parents in Texas in June, we took some days off in our timeshare in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. It was a wonderful time and served as a graduation celebration for Travis.

At church, we began a trial Saturday night worship service at church (to complement the African service and Friday night service) to see if it would open up additional ministry opportunities. Since the work week here is Sunday through Thursday (mosques worship Friday mornings), Friday nights proved to be a challenge for some people’s schedules with school activities and work events. So after the seven week trial period, we thought it was worth the extra investment to continue as ministry things kicked off this August. The ministry year has started with good energy and enthusiasm (it’s been an 8+ out of 10, Bob!). We have had a good influx of new people who have become involved. (Over the last two years with the world economy down, we have had fewer expatriates (“expats”) arriving, especially families. This year that trend has slowly begun to reverse).


We have also re-established key outreach partnerships that had been put on hold. One of the things that drew us to this church was the great outreach opportunities. It has been our goal to redevelop outreach to bring it back to the center. We have partnerships with two schools for Sudanese refugee children, an institute to train pastors for African churches, a prison ministry to non-Egyptian inmates, a more affordable K-8 school for expat families, a women’s service organization (involving many non-churched women) that helps the needy local population. We are praying about finding a local medical ministry opportunity. Though all of this is positive external results, the real foundation and energy is helping people see and embrace how God is working in their everyday life. Steve continues to keep working on this focus for himself as he lets go of past patterns.

Karan is now full-time at Cairo American College (CAC). She not only is doing “Learning Support Services” for sixth grade, she also teaches two classes of sixth grade language arts. So her work load has definitely increased as she is working long hours learning a new curriculum (back to her days at Shaw Middle School). We have joked that Karan’s life verse is now Genesis 15:12, “As the sun was setting, a deep sleep fell over him, and a thick and dreadful darkness descended.” Even with all the extra work, she loves what she is doing.


She is able to impact student’s learning in real and tangible ways, while being embedded in a great sixth grade team. She also likes being less spread out among grades and administrations as last year. Naturally this makes for adjustments with Steve working both Fridays and Saturday nights (Karan’s days off). One of the compensations is that we will take one weekend off a month. Not coincidentally, a couple in the church that own a resort condo on the Red Sea 1½ hours away, have offered it to us to use. So God has provided a retreat place not too far away! We still are working on the relationship dynamic change that both of us working full-time brought our last few years in Spokane and are now before us again. (Do you ever wish you could arrive at a comfortable place that you don’t have to grow and adapt anymore?!)

Alex played short-stop in the varsity baseball tournament that was here in Cairo in late May. He had a great tournament, especially defensively and hit two doubles and a few singles and sacrifice bunts.

He had a great summer back in Spokane for 5½ weeks renewing friendships and even making a few new ones. He did break his thumb during Hoopfest (world’s largest 3 on 3 street basketball tournament with over 20,000 players). That limited his activities including receiving batting coaching. He was still able to take driver’s ed. Now we have to figure out how to log an additional 25 hours of driving time in Egypt so he can try to get his driver’s license next summer (the legal driver learning age here is 18). He loved being there, but at the same time he looked forward to returning to Egypt to his friends and activities here.

Alex made the varsity soccer team and is one of the starting mid-fielders. The team travels to Brussels the second week of November for a tournament. This has been an even more challenging academic year with chemistry, integrated math 3, third year Spanish, advanced placement English, a very detail-heavy American history class, and speech. Junior year is supposed to be the hardest year at CAC. Next summer, Alex wants to look at the University of Washington, which is fairly challenging to gain admission. Brett recommends Western Washington University, but Travis warns Alex not to become a hippy eco-nerd if he goes there. We will also look at some other state schools next summer. Alex is also involved in youth group and likes it a lot. It is a great supportive group.

Travis finished his internship here in Cairo at the end of May and graduated in June with his bachelor of arts in international relations. He did very well in his internship which taught him some marketing and public relations skills. But he could hardly wait to return home and escape living in Egypt, not to mention being at home again with his parents. He is now working as kitchen manager in a sports bar in north Spokane, but has had his hours reduced, which is bringing considerable financial strain. He is looking intensely for a permanent job that can actually pay the bills (especially with student loan repayments starting soon). Let us know if you have some leads in sales or marketing or public relations.

Brett is in his fourth year at Western Washington University in Bellingham. He is finishing the coursework for a photojournalism major this quarter, but has also decided to major in graphic design. If his portfolio at the end of this year is accepted, then he is moved into the final senior sequence of courses next year. We still find it hard to believe that our math and science high school student has gravitated into the art end of the spectrum! Brett stayed on campus this summer to do a journalism internship and take two courses (and ride his mountain bike often enough to have two significant crashes and a mild concussion—he now wears body armor and traded up to a full suspension bike). I think the highlight of his summer was a mountain bike trip to the trails of Whistler—ride the chairlift up to the top and cruise down on groomed biking trails. He is still living in the same house with some other Christian guys, and still attending the same small family church.


We love hearing from you all. As busy as life is, we need each other to encourage and be encouraged in community. We welcome visitors and would love to stay up to date on your lives!! We give you incentive with a picture of El Gouna on the Red Sea (in case the previous Luxor pictures were not enough). You hardly know you are in Egypt—the water is warm and the snorkeling and diving world-class.

Overcome By Grace,

Steve and Karan

A Year of Transitions

We apologize for our negligence in keeping up our blog postings. Life seems to fly by at an accelerated pace the older you get! As usual it has been an eventful and stretching time with rarely a dull moment. At church we are making

progress in transitioning from a big staff, big program, big budget past phase to fewer staff, targeted programs, smaller budget to emphasize mobilizing the grass-roots. While this has involved more people and less sitting and watching, it isn’t quite as much fun as the big buzz of the glory years. So as you can imagine this has become a stretching experience for Steve to surrender living up to his perceived expectations of what looks good and successful in order to learn to trust God’s calling instead. It’s his own “Gideon” learning experience!

Karan meanwhile continues part-time at Cairo American College (CAC—not an actual college, but a K-12 prep school). She has been able to make progress in the learning support services (LSS—aka mild special education) program in middle school so that they are talking next year about perhaps giving her the

6th grade learning support students. It has not been without its challenges to navigate the politics of established patterns. Meanwhile the high school LSS program has been a much smoother integration with Karan’s training and background. All in all, Karan has seen some students respond as they learn to make the adjustments that turn on the light of learning for themselves.

Alex is having a great year. In JV basketball, he sprained his ankle in pre-season practice and we feared he would be out for a month or more. But he healed quickly and used an ankle brace, so was able to travel to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as a starter where they won the tournament.

This year Alex’s group (based on last name letter in the alphabet) had first choice in Week Without Walls in late February, so Alex chose a service learning opportunity at a panda conservatory in the Sichuan province of China. It was a bit less “hand-on” than the orangutan rescue in Indonesia last year. Next year his group chooses last, so he may be closer to home since the exotic locations are usually taken early.

Varsity baseball is now underway and this weekend they are hosting a team from Jordan. He is playing short-stop mostly. Usually the baseball team travels to Europe for an end of season tournament in late May, but this year Cairo is the host location. In between sports practices and games, Alex finds some time for school. He has actually improved his grades and made honor roll this past quarter. The school workload is definitely quite demanding, as you would expect from a college prep school. He also is involved in youth group when his homework load is not too great. He definitely likes Egypt better this year, but still looks hugely forward to his six weeks back in Spokane starting in mid June. He will start driver’s ed this year, so will be in morning classes.

Travis has been living with us since mid December while he does his international affairs internship with Global Strategic Consultants (see our December blog). It is a business

emphasis in public relations and communication, and he has liked it and done very well according to his supervisor (the picture is Travis, Mona Zaki his supervisor, and the president of the Czech Republic). He manages some of the public relations for the Egyptian Philharmonic so gets to attend some of their concerts (not exactly his cup of musical tea). The teaching assistant part of his internship has also gone well. Travis definitely likes the business side of international affairs more than the government side. He finishes in late May and will graduate (God willing and Travis turns in the required paperwork) in June. It seems hard to believe! He now begins the real world challenge of finding a job. His wrist seems to be near normal now.

Brett is our lone family member left back in the US. He has survived another drawing class and is now into the thick of graphic design basic courses.

This quarter will tell the story of whether he wants to stay in the program as a double major, or just graduate next winter only in photojournalism. He flew to southern California in early April to do a training seminar with Nikon or someone like that and really got a lot out of it. He will be doing a university communications internship this summer so will stay in Bellingham.

This past spring break we went to Austria for a ski/snowboard vacation. It was a great time and there was plenty of snow—almost too much snow since

grooming couldn’t keep up with the week of storms while we were there. We didn’t get to do any cross-country skiing, but did eat a lot of sausages and other pork products. Steve and Travis sampled lots of Austrian beer (they recommend Steigl). The start of the vacation was harrowing as Lufthansa didn’t have Steve’s ticket that he had booked on Lufthansa.com. In classic Egyptian fashion at the Cairo airport they said it wasn’t their problem and he would have to buy one on the spot for an exorbitant price. After some calls to the Lufthansa office in the US, they agreed to issue the ticket for the original price (that they had never charged to our credit card) only shortly before the plane was scheduled to depart. Needless to say, customer service is not a top priority in the Middle East. Then in the Munich airport, Steve managed to lose his passport—yep pretty dumb, huh? Someone found it and turned it in so that the potential nightmare never made it into reality.

School ends June 1 and then we begin our yearly pilgrimage back home. Hopefully we won’t wait another three months to post our next blog! Don't forget you can sign up to follow the blog. You have to create a google ID, but so far no one has complained about being spammed after doing it. So give it a try!

Israel trip

We returned on January 2 from our “pilgrimage” to Israel. It was an interesting, invigorating, and challenging experience. We are still sifting through the varied and sometimes conflicting emotions. Very early Christmas morning, we drove across the Sinai to Taba, Egypt and went through 6 Israeli checkpoints to Eilat, Israel. It took a full hour. We rented a car and began our drive up and down the length of the country. The Negev desert in Israel looks similar to the Sinai desert. Our first night brought us to En Bokek on the southern edge of the Dead Sea. It was our first exposure to full Shabbat. Candles were lit, prayers recited, shawls and head coverings worn, and stores closed.

The next morning’s breakfast would be mostly cold food since cooking is considered work. The weather was barely warm enough for a float in one of the saltiest body of water on earth at 1385 feet BELOW sea level. They say you don’t sunburn—if such a thing is even possible for Steve’s skin. It is impossible not to float, and the water has an oily quality to it.

From there, most of the daylight was spent on a 50 minute hike 3300 feet up Masada where Herod had a palace and the Jews in 73 AD were seiged by the Roman legions until they all committed suicide. Travis was NOT happy about the walk up. That evening we drove to Tiberius on Lake Galilee and ate at a very good hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant and sampled European beer (except for Karan and Alex).



The next morning (Sunday) in the light of day we marveled at the natural lush green beauty of Galilee in winter. It looked a lot like the rolling hills of the Pacific Northwest (minus spruce trees). We drove to the possible site of Peter’s famous profession of faith in Matthew 16 and the feeding of the multitudes, but the church enshrining the site was closed for the day. So we drove to the Mount of Beatitudes and that church was closed until 2:30 pm. As it turns out, many of the “holy” sites are guesses based on oral tradition that the Roman Catholic Church made centuries ago, so they built churches to commemorate events. So you go realizing you are remembering an event more than finding a specific place.


So we drove to Korazin to see the ruins and imagined Jesus healing and preaching there. We then continued 45 minutes north to Tel Dan nature reserve—the site of the religious worship center for the Northern Kingdom. The hike was much easier this time. We drove back to the now open Beatitudes Church and imagined the grassy hill filled with 15,000+ people. It was a long way down to the Lake. We ate a St. Peter’s fish that night in Tiberius where parking is as sparse as at a Southern California beach on a holiday.

The following day was our visit to Mt. Tabor—the “declared” location of the Transfiguration (it could have been at Mt. Hermon). There is a church on the site and a great 360º view. We drove to Nazareth and were caught in a traffic jam (felt and looked a lot like Egypt because of its Arab population) that made us miss the 11 am tour of a restored first century village, so went to the ruins of Megiddo to see the future site of Armageddon. The surrounding valleys could easily accommodate a battle with millions.

The afternoon tour of Nazareth Village was enjoyable to see the historic recreation from a Christian-Arab point of view. Then began the looonnnggg 3 hour drive to Jerusalem on roads that seemed to have stop lights every five minutes while traveling hungry grouchy young adults and teen. Streets in Jerusalem are twisting and constantly name-changing with no highway numbers, which is all incredibly confusing. After an hour and a half of being lost, we finally hailed a taxi and followed him to our lodging place.

The next morning began our two-day tour of the Old City with a Christian guide. Our first impression of the Old City was that it was like a giant bazaar or flea market with a Jewish section with shops, a Muslim area with shops, an Armenian area with shops, and a Christian area with shops. Sprinkled throughout are churches commemorating Christian events—like the stations of the cross on the Via Dolorosa and the resurrection. There are also lots of archeological excavations on the east side of the city as well as below the Temple Mount. Our kids response was: “Oh boy more ruins that all look the same!”

The Church of the Holy Sepulcher was one of the places of contradictory feelings. Is this the real site of the Resurrection (there is another tomb outside the city that makes the claim also)? There are several different denominations fighting over their corner in the church. A leftover section of ladder stands on a second story ledge unable to be moved because of Christian parochial turf wars. It is not Christianity at its best. Still people tour and kiss the stone and touch an oiled rock for a special blessing and answers to prayer. That’s okay if we remember that God is just as present in your hometown and that this site is not any more holy than a believer’s heart (temple) where the Holy Spirit lives.

The Mount of Olives is so populated that it scarcely resembles any picture that my mind had imagined. When Jesus returns to split the mountain in half someday, there will be a lot of property damage! The Garden of Gethsemane was also a bit more manicured and groomed than I think it was when Jesus spilled tears of blood on the night of His betrayal.






Ironically the most inspirational spot for us was the Temple Mount. Ironic because it is controlled by Islam and only open to the public for a couple of hours some days. Non-Muslims are not allowed in the Dome of the Rock shrine at all. I guess they can tell who is and is not Muslim based on some racial profiling method?? Still it is an unspoiled area where the grand Jewish Temple (rebuilt and adorned in splendor by Herod the Great in Jesus’ time) once stood and where the final events of history will unfold someday.

The Holocaust Museum (Yad Veshem) was a serpentine building of zig-zagging rooms that chillingly chronicled the conditions leading to the Holocaust. One gains a deeper understanding of the Jewish hostility toward Christianity after seeing the displays and presentations. Still stories of courage and risk to stand for morality were featured from people of all beliefs and walks of life. I wonder what our world would be like if those 6 million souls had survived? What talents and innovations were lost?


Our final day included stops by the desert oasis of En Gedi where we hiked to David’s water fall and saw caves on the side of the canyon walls that could have been where Saul … umm, “turn aside.” It is an amazing natural area in the midst of the desert. We left Israel after visiting it’s one and only coral reef on the Red Sea complete with tropical fish. I was struck by the incredible variety of ecosystems exist in Israel in such a small area. I think the only one missing is a tropical rain forest! How God has naturally blessed that land, yet how humans have made it such a focal point of political and religious fighting! We truly walked away with a longing … “Come Lord Jesus!”