Things are calm in Maadi so far & we are inside observing
the curfew from 7pm-6am.  Church services will go on this
Friday and we will pray for the country--the most powerful
response a Christian can have!  Here is a report from
Healing Grace Ministry (Egyptian-based) that we support
to give a different view than you are hearing on the news:

Since Morsi's ouster on July 2, there have been two
pro-Morsi/Muslim

Brotherhood (MB) sit-ins in Cairo. One was in Rabaa (in Nasr City) and one was in Nahda Square (in Giza).  For the past week, the government has been warning the protesters that they were going to clear the sit-ins.  Yesterday morning, they acted on their warnings and began clearing the squares using tear gas, gunfire, and bulldozers.  The MB retaliated violently, attacking Christians across Egypt.  More than 20 churches were
burned, Christian homes and shops were attacked,
a Christian orphanage was attacked and burned,
and more that we likely aren't aware of yet.

In Minya and Beni Suef, the regions where the many
of Healing Grace villages are located, the following
places were burned:

• Mar Mina Coptic Orthodox Church (Southern Minya)
• Gad El Seed Evangelical Church (Southern Minya)
• Anba Mosa el Aswad Coptic Orthodox Church (Southern Minya)
• El Amir Tadros Coptic Orthodox Church (Central Minya)
• YMCA (Northern Minya)
• Saint Joseph Sister Catholic School (Central Minya)
• Saniem Assembly of God Church (Southern Minya)
• El Dahabia Ship (the 1st Seminary in Egypt, built by missionaries 150 years ago)

The interim president put the country under a State
of Emergency for the next month.  A curfew has been
imposed for 7 major regions, including Cairo and 
Minya.  We don't know how long it will be in effect,
but it will be for a while.

How has Healing Grace been Affected?

There is a general feeling of intimidation among the
Christians.  All churches are closed.  AWANA Clubs
have been suspended until further notice.  All Christian
shops are closed.  No one is going to work in the fields.
Everyone is staying home.  

Unfortunately, we have a few specific incidents affecting
our staff and villages.
- After a successful Children's Conference yesterday
morning, our regional Field Manager, Ezzat, was robbed
on his way home.  All of the children had made it home
safely, but he was stopped along the road and robbed
of everything.  The only thing they left him was his car.
We praise the Lord that he wasn't harmed physically.
- The families in An Nasareyah are being harassed by
the MB.  They are pounding on the Christian's doors
and blaming them for Morsi's ouster.
- In Saniem, the church's main hall was burned.  One
of Healing Grace's preschools is housed on the 2nd
floor of the church, but the fire didn't reach that high
and the preschool was saved.  We praise the Lord
that no one was injured.

What's Next?

What will happen in the coming days is unknown.
It has become fairly common for demonstrations
to occur following Friday prayers and with yesterdays
events, we anticipate tomorrow will be a big day.
We are playing things one day at a time.

How Can I Help?

Pray!  Specifically, pray for:
- A peaceful Friday when we expect demonstrations

to be the largest.

- The nation's leaders (political and religious) as they

speak and act, influencing what happens in the coming

days.

- Wisdom for our staff as they make decisions for

themselves and the children/families we serve.

- Safety for everyone in Egypt.

Egypt from an Egyptian Christian perspective

Steve and Karan: We have been in the US since June 15, so we are watching with prayer the still unfolding events in Egypt.  God is at work, but remember His timetable is not ours!  We hope and pray that we can return to be part of His kingdom work August 9.  Here is a writing from Egyptian Christian Ramez Attalah who directs the Bible Society of Egypt.
   

Dear friends,

 When I wrote last Wednesday July 3rd about the remarkably peaceful mass demonstrations against President Morsi, I could not have imagined that by that night he would be deposed and the next morning we would already have a new interim President!

 On Thursday the majority of Egyptians partied on the streets all night celebrating the downfall of the man and his Muslim Brotherhood (MB) party.

 Why did Egyptians vote for Morsi then demonstrate for his removal? 

Last year Egyptians had to choose between a former Mubarak-regime army general and a Muslim Brotherhood leader for president. Many abstained from voting and among those who voted for Morsi were liberal Muslims and a small percentage of Christians who were really voting against a Mubarak candidate.
   

Within a year since being narrowly elected, Morsi had violated every one of his campaign promises. 

Shortly after his election he began acting much more like a totalitarian dictator than as an elected official, and soon gave himself full executive, legislative and judicial powers. Instead of choosing the best and most capable people to lead the country with him, he replaced nearly all government Ministers and most of the 27 regional Governors by people from his party. Most of these were incompetent for the positions to which they had been elevated. In turn these leaders did the same with the people under them. 

As a result, the performance of Morsi and his government was extremely poor in almost all areas – economically, financially, politically and from a security point of view. Moreover, he was leading Egypt rapidly towards the dark tunnel of political Islam, the ideology which he and the MB espoused. In doing so he and his party succeeded in rapidly alienating themselves from most Egyptians who realized he was really not interested in their welfare.


   The greatest blow to Political Islam in recent history 

Egyptians are deeply hurt by what they perceive as a complete lack of appreciation by many Western and other allies for the enormous liberation they have achieved. The BCC claimed that the peaceful demonstration against Morsi by more than 30 million Egyptians was probably the largest demonstration in the history of humanity!

 Since it was founded in 1928, the MB has been striving to establish an Islamic state in Egypt which would eventually encompass the Arab world. Gaining power in Egypt was their first political breakthrough.

 The complete failure of the first Muslim Brotherhood “political Islam” experiment is a terrible shock for them and “miraculous” (this word is often used in the media) for many Egyptians who were convinced the MB were here to stay! The worldwide consequences of most Egyptians’ rejection of political Islam as a viable option are a serious set-back to the MB theocratic political dream. Islam is no longer “the political solution” as the Islamicists claimed. It has been tried in Egypt and has failed to win the approval of the 21st century Muslim masses. This will have dramatic implications for many of the countries the MB influence in the region (Syria, Jordan, Gaza, Libya, Kuwait, Qatar, Turkey, Tunisia among others) and worldwide.
   

What next?

 Most Egyptians believe the only way to have liberated themselves from the iron grip of the MB was with the army’s help. But they are also looking forward to returning to a civil State as soon as possible. So the sooner we can have new Parliamentary and Presidential elections the better. 

To do so, there needs to be a political reconciliation with the MB followers, who have been protesting on the streets since the removal of their leader and are continuing to incite their followers to violence. Their anger at being ousted is understandable. But the violent and destructive way in which they are protesting is creating havoc in the country. Unlike the peaceful millions who were on the street to remove Morsi, the hundreds of thousands of MB protestors are terrorizing the areas in which they congregate. This aggressive protest, and retaliation to it, has very sadly resulted in more than 130 deaths to date and more than 4000 wounded!
   

Please pray for a breakthrough in this complex, dangerous and very sad deadlock.

Egypt is and continues to be a Muslim Nation

It is very important to emphasize, in no uncertain terms, that Egypt’s vote against “political” Islam was actually a vote for “moderate” Islam. The tens of millions of Muslims who protested on the streets last week will be celebrating Ramadan (which begins this week) with great fervor and deep religious commitment. What they protested against was the MB narrow understanding of Islam being forcefully imposed upon all Egyptians.
   

During and following the January 2011 revolution, Christians in Egypt regained close relationships with their Muslim friends and neighbors and felt very much at peace living among a Muslim majority. During Morsi’s presidency Christians feared that Egyptian Muslims as a whole were espousing a version of Islam which would not have been hospitable to Christians. We sighed a deep sigh of relief this week, realizing that the vast majority of Egyptian Muslims were moderates who wanted to share Egypt equally with us.


   Back to Nation Building

: Having been side-tracked by the MB takeover, we all now want to rebuild our Nation on the basis of true justice, freedom and equal opportunity for all. Please pray alongside us that this dream will be achieved without discrimination or recrimination. 

Pray for us at the Bible Society as we again seek to promote these crucial values which come from God’s Word.



With thanks and concern,


Ramez Atallah, 
General Director 
The Bible Society of Egypt.

Another World Outside Your Door

This is a follow-up story to our previous blog posting earlier today. 

Living in Cairo, we become so used to the fast-pace of life and tall buildings blocking the sun, that we forget there is another world outside our door.  Global Health Facts says that 57% of Egypt’s population lives outside urban areas.  Much of Egypt is a great and sprawling desert punctuated with tiny islands of humanity living in villages.  I recently visited some of these villages with Healing Grace Ministries and I will never be the same.  Life in the village has a decidedly different pace and flavor governed more by the calendar than the clock.

These villages are like villages in other parts of the world: narrow dirt streets shared with goats, cows, donkeys, and chickens.  Not a tree or blade of grass such as grace the garden suburbs in Maadi are to be found in these villages.  The buildings are two-story plain block of the same gray-brown color.  Multiple generations live in one and two room flats with cement floors and open windows that do little to keep out the cold or heat or the constant flies.  Occupants sleep on the floor or on wooden benches covered with a thin cushion, if they are fortunate.  One two-year old naps during our visit while flies crawl on his head, yet he doesn’t stir.  (I wonder how does your body learn to do that?  If a mosquito even so much as buzzes my ear in the middle of the night, I bolt up and turn on the light to begin a battle for survival!)  For those raised in a higher standard of living, the sights, sounds, and smells are startling.  But if you were to only look on the surface, you would miss the true heart of these villages.

We sit and talk with these families about their lives.  Some are seasonal farm laborers, others work in quarries, and still others have no job.  Many of them have little education because they had to go to work to help the family survive.  We meet teenagers who are only now going back to school to pick up where they left off years ago.  An older widow tells of begging for food after the family stopped providing for her.  She is slowly going blind, as she has been told it is too late to remove the cataracts robbing her sight.  One man tells the tragic story of his life of many years ago.  He was a highly-skilled tailor until the day a group of men assaulted him and broke his hands and beat his head.  He could no longer work and had to beg, but his now disfigured appearance frightened people away.  His head trauma altered his behavior and he began beating his wife who then began beating the children.  The word desperation doesn’t even begin to describe their situation.  How does a family even begin to recover from such misfortune??

Yet the mother telling this story smiled and talked with remarkable hope and joy, while her husband worked at the sewing machine making a galabeya, running the machine with a chain between two toes.  The difference was that a pastor in the village cared enough to reach out to her traumatized husband and take him to a doctor to receive treatment.  Healing Grace (a local Egyptian ministry that works with and through local Egyptian village churches) came to the village and began to help, giving food so some would not have to beg.  The older widow danced with giddy joy when she received her food bag.  (I recalled with shame my irritation last summer when my new laptop did not arrive on time before I was to return to Egypt.  My attitude had an adjustment after witnessing this scene!)  The local village church and Healing Grace also offered classes on mothering so she could learn how to balance love and discipline instead of beating her children.  Her husband was taught how to be a good husband and father.  He received a loan to purchase a sewing machine so he could begin making a living again with his partially functioning hands.  The village churches and Healing Grace also work to encourage families to keep their children in school.  In some villages they have even provided water filtration systems so the whole village can have clean water and not fall victim to the constant diseases from contaminated water.

When I live in isolated affluence, I need my eyes opened to the rest of the world.  I can share my physical resources, but I also need to share my heart.  I need to see others with less material goods as valuable human beings who have something to offer me.  If I only come to share my resources as a “benevolent” gesture to “those people” so I can feel good about myself, then I miss a greater blessing.  I need to come with humility and see how needy my own heart is.  These people encouraged me and made me feel valued.  They reminded me that an abundance of material goods does not bring happiness.  There is an inexpressible joy and warmth when a little girl sings a song to you that she learned in school.  It puts a new perspective on love—something my hurried world needs much more of!

Egypt -- Year 5 and still pressing on ...

Revolution Day 2013

We seem to take longer and longer between postings, so I apologize.  Our first year of “empty nest” is nearly behind us as Alex completed his first year at Gonzaga University in Spokane.  We have a good year, but it has been an emotionally draining year.  The political situation for the last several months has been quieter than it was in November-December, but that is not necessarily a good thing.  The discouragement and fear among locals has been palpable.  Everyone waits for the government to do something, particularly economically and security-wise.  The local currency has fallen dramatically in the past year to 7:1 (it was 5.5:1 when we arrived in 2008).  There are petrol shortages so diesel trucks and tractors wait days in line.  Purse-snatchings and robberies are on the rise and the streets of Maadi are not nearly as safe as they used to be.  We have had several church members fall victim.  “Rolling blackouts” sometimes twice a day for an hour each have already sporadically begun.  There are promises of daily blackouts of 2-3 times per day in what has been dubbed “the summer of darkness.”
Each month I tell myself that I must set aside time to post a blog.

Another day at Tahrir Square

The uncertainty about the future, the lack of physical security, and the despondent atmosphere wear you down after awhile!  But as I have written before, God has not abandoned Egypt.  Do you remember the explanation that the Chinese word for “crisis,” how it’s made up of two symbols: one for danger and the other for opportunity?  That has never been truer than now!  People are telling me of questions and conversations with others that have never happened before.  God is mightily at work!  We forget that the Bible tells the story after story of how God shakes the nations and individual lives in the midst of transition and turmoil.  It’s an exciting time to be here, but we are TIRED!  So the church is giving us an extra couple of weeks this summer.  We will visit parents in Texas, vacation for 17 days in Hawaii (mostly on the Big Island & a few days in Kauai), then 3½ weeks in Spokane.

            Now for a family update.  Adding to our “stretching” is in December we had three … count ‘em … three separate floods that buckled the hardwood floors in our new flat.  Having loose and swollen boards all around is bad enough, but the real “stretching” is dealing with the workmen who are not the most competent, reliable, or honest in the world.  Steve sometimes wondered if his constant level of frustration was an indicator that it was time to move elsewhere (like Asia where things are organized).  (He eventually settled down to realize the problem is more in him and his need for control than in the circumstances.)  Karan has had a challenging year in teaching.  For a variety of reasons, this group of parents has been more difficult and demanding.  Karan is not used to being told by a parent: “you are my problem.”  We are all on a growth trajectory so God is winnowing out some things that she has to let go of in the "pleaser" category.

March locust swarm at Pyramids

            Alex’s first semester at Gonzaga went well by nearly all measurements, but he wasn’t expecting to have reverse culture shock.  After all, he went from third through eighth grade in Spokane, plus his oldest brother Travis was living there.  But Alex missed Egypt and his Egyptian friends and expected his American relationships to have the same level of closeness almost immediately.  The problem is that Middle Eastern “family” has a much more connected feel than the American model.  (If you want to unpack this idea in an incredibly profound way from a biblical framework, read our friend and former working colleague Joseph Hellerman’s book “When Church Was a Family.”)  Alex is now a “third culture” kid—you don’t fit your home culture as well, but you don’t fit where you came from completely either.  Second semester was emotionally easier, but it is not a quick adjustment back!  Alex is currently back here with us for the month of May before returning to work this summer as a camp counselor at Mount Hermon Christian Conference Center near Santa Cruz, California.

           Brett has continued his graphic design internship at the very same Mount Hermon organization.  He is now hoping to look for a job in the San Francisco area in September.  He likes the work experience, and an even better thing in this internship is that they are also working on developing people and team skills.  So this summer Alex and Brett will have a chance to be together more—should be interesting!

            Travis is still working for Verizon in Spokane.  He has moved up to lead salesman and is being promised an assistant manager position “soon.”  He was offered that position in Hermiston, Oregon (40 minutes south of Richland-Pasco, Washington), but the extreme rural setting was more than Travis could envision.  So he waits and hopefully will still be Spokane when we arrive in July.

Steve & Karan at Ephesus, Turkey

            Our travels took us back to Austria for a (mostly) cross-country ski vacation in early January.  Then Steve went to Kuwait (nothing much to see here, folks) for an international pastors’ conference in April.  In early May, we went to Istanbul and western Turkey to tour the ruins of the cities of the seven churches of Revelation (remember there weren’t actual church buildings until the 4^th century AD).

            The absolute highlight of our ministry year was a trip to some villages several hours outside of Cairo.  We are forming a partnership with a ministry group (www.healinggraceministry.org) out of a large evangelical Egyptian church right on the edge of Tahrir Square.  They are similar to Compassion International, only since it’s not far outside Cairo we have the very important added benefit of being able to regularly visit.  So in early April, we visited three villages to see the incredible work Healing Grace has done.  If you ever wondered if the gospel could dramatically change a community, this was proof positive of the life and village change that God’s spirit can do.  We sat on cement floors in two-room cement huts with farm animals in the next room and listened to their life stories.  We were changed!  We will post Steve’s church blog article about it following this posting if you are interested.

  We return back to Cairo for another year on August 10^th and get to come back to the same flat (for only the second time in our five years here).  So no moving this time—yahoo!!!  Keep in touch!

Egypt's Revolution 2.0?

Cry for Egypt!

Just in case you didn’t notice in the news … Egypt is in turmoil once again.  Revolution 2.0?  Our most up to date reports are on srflora@twitter.com—so if we are tweeting, we are living.  As with previous turmoil, it is taking place in different areas form where we live.  The most recent riots are in Heliopolis to the east of downtown Cairo and Tahrir Square.  Karan’s passport expires at the end of February, so we began trying to go downtown to the US Embassy in mid November.  After a few appointment cancellations due to protests and tear gas around the embassy, we finally made a successful trip this past Monday (December 3).  We walked by the tents in Tahrir Square and all was quiet (eerily so) … the quiet before the storm.

Presidential palace demonstrators

This current protest and clashes between opposing forces of Egyptian society is reminiscent of Revolution 1.0 in February 2011.  Many are terrified and outraged at the recent presidential decrees, yet many more are weary of all the uncertainty, rising crime, and economic chaos that is dragging on, so are less sympathetic to the continuing protests.  This current government is supported by a large number of well-organized (and evidently quite reactive) elements willing to confront the protestors they perceive are de-stabilizing the Muslim Brotherhood government.  The police yesterday stood by while at least 6 people were killed and over 450 injured (so far).  Let’s be clear: these casualties are from Egyptian citizen on Egyptian citizen.

Protests amid tear gas

            Much speculation surrounds the intentions of the current president.  Are these presidential decrees a coup and power grab, a return to yet another form of autocracy?  Or has the president become weary of all the charges that he has done nothing to improve the country, so he has moving to remove the blocks to his efforts to reform the country and put the country back on its feet?  These blocks (in his mind) would seem to be a judiciary filled with Mubarak cronies, a constitution committee tied up in bickering, and the lack of a full Parliament to enact legislation.  Fears abound that soon strict Sharia law will be enacted to include religious persecution, reducing personal liberty, immoral imprisonments over small religious issues, and ravaging the tourist industry through a ban on alcohol, segregated beaches, and an imposed dress code.  There is clearly a more surly attitude on the streets right now.

Coptic Church in Cairo

            So what’s a body to do?  Some ask their expat loved ones if it’s time to come home (we received one such call).  You can only answer that for your own family.  One’s choice to stay or return is between you and God, and it’s better not to judge another’s choices in that decision.  I can only say that we remain convinced of our calling to be here in Egypt—no matter how difficult it is right now.  We don’t feel threatened, but we do get weary.  We nostalgically remember the sense of security and predictability of our first few years here (under the Mubarak dictatorship!).

            But if the truth be told, we also felt a great deal of frustration and despair over the American political dialogue of this recent election season.  We are not referring to the outcome of the presidential election, but to the polarized (and too often hateful) responses of one group of American toward another.  It is uncomfortably similar in tone to what we hear in the news here of Muslims vs. liberals (maybe sans the stones and firebombs in the US version—so far).  God has not left the building in Egypt or in the US!  We may not like recent developments, but make no mistake who is in charge:

¹Why are the nations so angry?  Why do they waste their time with futile plans?  ²The kings of the earth prepare for battle; the rulers plot together against the Lord and against his anointed one.  ³“Let us break their chains,” they cry, “and free ourselves from slavery to God.”  ⁴But the one who rules in heaven laughs.  The Lord scoffs at them. (Psalm 2 NLT)  

Are we responding in ways that honor God and reflect the love and respect Jesus urged?  Are you now praying for your leaders (including those from the “other” political party) as often and as diligently as you posted (and forwarded) on Facebook or Twitter or email your slams against the opposition?  I’m just asking …