The constant beeping of horns and persistent heat added to the dreamy feeling as I looked at the city pass by. "What am I doing here?" the question pounded through my mind as I struggled to keep something resembling a good attitude. Day one of outreach and already I felt burned out.
Our traveling begun on Sunday, July 1, when my team left Kona HI and started the three day journey to Cairo Egypt. It was one of the longest trips I've been on, over thirty hours of traveling. On the positive side we got to spend eleven hours in Munich Germany, which was such an amazing blessing! (Got to have some of that awesome German Coffee!) That helped to break the trip up a little but by early Wednesday morning when we finally arrived in Cairo, we were exhausted. I had slept for about three hours on the whole trip. So after collapsing into bed and thanking God for AC in the bedrooms, I slept for twelve hours straight.
So lets just say that waking up in an extremely hot foreign country does not help with the confusion of a groggy mind. I woke up on Wednesday more confused then I think I ever had been. I knew where I was but had no idea what time it was. Having no clock meant that I spent about fifteen minutes stumbling around our apartment trying to find the time (which when I did find I assumed had to be wrong because there was no way I had just slept an entire day away.) The clock said 5:15, whether that was am or pm I couldn't tell and since I was the only one up I had no one to ask. Finally after about 20 minutes of trying to figure it out (including getting on google to google the time in Cairo Egypt) I finally came to the conclusion that I had been asleep for twelve hours. and it was in fact 5:15pm.
Now to top off the jet lagged, sleep deprived state I was in, I had also been getting a cold the last few days of traveling. This cold decided to rear its nasty head as soon as I woke up after having been asleep for twelve hours. All together it is safe to say I was not exactly in the best mental/physical state. After about an hour, once everyone was up, we met with one of our translators to go over a few things. Once we had talked a few minutes we all went for a walk to see some of the city.
Cairo is probably one of the most bland cities when it come to architecture, almost all the building are plain concrete and look almost exactly alike. The streets are littered with trash and full of cars. Now all this being said the people here are amazing and extremely hospitable. One of the things our team has to get used to is the constant staring, for me this isn't a huge deal but I feel for the girls on our team who have to deal with the stare down of every guy we pass.
So as we walked through the streets of Cairo our first night I struggled to take it all in, the crazy traffic, the beautiful yet very strange language, and the constant staring of everyone we passed by. After walking for about a half hour we got some awesome fruit drinks at one of the local shops. Our leader, Paul, then went into one of the other local shops to buy a cell phone for our team. While the rest of our team waited outside, I stood silently a few feet away, thankful for a moment to rest and let my mind process all the strange sites. Suddenly I see an Egyptian man walk up and offer a high five, I, not knowing a bit of arabic or the culture return the high five. What follows is a series of high fives and fist pumps followed by the man simply walking away without saying a word. I must have looked quite confused and bewildered since a pair of young egyptian men standing near by laughed and said in broken english "egyptian fun", that is all the explanation I got.
On Thursday we spent the day getting some much needed rest and going over what we would be doing while we are here. I'm so thankful for the apartment we have here, the bedrooms and living room have AC and the kitchen is super nice. It is such a blessing to be able to come home to a restful place like this. My team was able to just spend some quality time with each other on Thursday and just get our bearings on our new life here.
The following is a small glimpse into what Friday morning looked like.
The van jostled through the busy streets as my congested head continued to pound and tired eyes stared out the window. "So this is Cairo." I thought as the buildings swarmed passed and the cars drove madly down the streets. Honna, our driver, drove the van care freely through "light" Friday traffic on our way to Garbage City. My first impression of Garbage city was simply that it was exactly what I heard and expected it to be. A city trash dump thrown on top of part of the city. It was literally a city full of garbage; garbage on the streets, garbage on the buildings, garbage everywhere. As I looked out the window I watched trucks caring sacks full of garbage weave down the crowded narrow streets. One of the first sites I see is a decapitated dog rotting by the road on top of a pile of garbage. "people live here, and walk these streets every day." I think as I watch children running down the streets. A cart with donkeys rests beside the road as men collect garbage in large sacks. For the first time since getting to Egypt I was thankful for a cold so that at least my plugged up nose blocked out some of the smell. Still the smell of garbage was ever present and I was thankful when our van made its way higher up in the city.
At the top of a hill sat one of (if not the) largest Coptic churches in Cairo. It is in fact a cave church, basically a church built inside a massive cave. This particular cave church could seat fifteen thousand people. It was interesting to see the massive structure and the orthodox feeling of the church. Paintings and carvings cut into the walls depicted Christ, the virgin Mary, and other significant figures of the Bible and coptic Church. Having never seen eastern orthodox churches before the closest thing I could relate it to would be a Catholic Cathedral.
After getting a tour of the Cathedral we spent time talking with the different Coptic Christians outside of
the church. While Coptic Christians would call themselves Christians most of them believe in salvation by works and their religion is very much based on doing good deeds to get to heaven. It was interesting to hear their different beliefs. After talking for a couple hours with some of them we then hopped back into the van and headed home.
It was on this ride home that the discouragement really set in. During our time of talking with the Coptics we had split into two groups. My group ended up talking mostly about politics with a few Egyptians there, which was interesting but didn't really result in anything meaningful or significant. Thankfully the other group had more success and were able to encourage the people they talked to and share some of their thoughts on Christianity. So it was on this drive back, where I felt the discouragement set in. My cold had zapped all my strength and the heat had dealt an equal blow of weariness. It was in this moment that I began to wonder what my purpose for being here was. It was then that the taunt came. "Did you really expect to just walk in and change this city? Did you really expect there to be no fight, for there to be no hardship? Did you think that a few hours of prayer could tackle centuries of darkness? That a small group of people could change a city full of strongholds? Do you really think you are strong enough for this?
It was a challenge, a question of how resolved I was to stick it through and continue to seek the Father's face. Living here won't be easy, I don't want it to be easy; I need to continue to rely on the Father for the strength to continue and pour out His love on the people here. And nothing that Satan does can withstand the love the father has lavished upon His people.
So here is a small taste of my first few days here. I'm so honoured to by in this amazing city. It is cool to see God move in amazing ways. Thank you all for your prayer and support. It means the world to me! I love you all and will try to keep you updated on what is happening here!
Blessings,
David
