Today started off with my plane's neck pillow under my head. I initially woke up at around 5:00 am to the sound of people singing, which is because we are very close to a mosque and their call to prayer is very early. At 7:45 I woke up to dogs barking and got ready for the day. Our breakfast consisted of toast, jam, and tea. The boys made their way up to the apartment where we talked about the day and I read over a few verses in the bible- 1 Timothy 5, and Proverbs 31. We were told to read over these chapters because they had to deal with God's widows and how to serve them and also serve God. We have been lead very well throughout this 1 day of being here in Cairo! It is crazy that it has been only 1 day. It seems as if we've been here a week already. We made our way into the actual city of Cairo. Cairo driving compares to nothing that I have ever seen. There is a "honking" language, 3 honks = Im coming, 2 honks = move, 1 long honk = im mad, and get out of my way. haha. There are also flashing of lights that are involved, but I haven't got that one down yet. We finally made it to the widows ministry.
We walked in to see about 60 women and some small kids sitting down looking at a woman speaking. It is so difficult being in a country that you absolutely have no idea what people are saying. At least in Mexico I can pick a few words here and there. . .but arabic. . theres no way! Last night I prepared some songs for the worship music by writing down the chords and lyrics in my journal. When we got there, the first thing we did was break up and pray for the widows. I was drawn toward these two women sitting next to each other. I laid my hands on them and began praying. As my eyes were closed and my prayers were being heard, I felt another hand touch mine, a shoulder fitting under my arm, and a cheeck against my arm as well. A woman decided that she wanted me to pray for her and nuzzled her shoulder under and kept her cheek on my arm. It was so amazing praying for the women who couldn't even understand my prayers. After that another woman made a signal for me to come over. I came over and smiled, she grabbed my hand and placed it on her knee. She made a fist with her hand and I realized she was asking me to pray for her because her knees were hurting very badly. I prayed for her and some other women as well. After the woman preached a little, it was our turn to sing a couple of worship songs. Before going on we explained the songs and what they meant. We did stronger by hillsong and our God by chris tomlin. It is so awesome to think that our american songs are making their way all the way to egypt. After that one of the guy members of the trip gave his amazing testimony! Such an amazing story of Gods glory through all things, even death and suffering. We got to spend a lot of time playing with the kids who were all wanting our camera's to take pictures. I had to let some kids down though and wouldn't let them use mine. haha. A woman walked up to me with a very very small baby. It had to have been only weeks old. I held that baby so tight and rocked it back and forth and it never cried : ) I loved him. haha. After that we said our goodbyes (which consist of a very european kiss on both cheeks) and made our way off to lunch. (This was 1:30 pm).
We ended up at a Shawarma place. haha. It is crazy. They have meat on a giant vertical rotisserie where they slice off the meet (chicken or beef) and place it in a pita bread, wrap it like a burrito, and grill it. Since there weren't any places to sit, we decided to sit down on the ground, right across from a butcher's shop where he had 2 slaughtered lambs, hanging on a hook, and still bleeding. . it was a great sight to see while we ate our Shawarma. haha. This lunch was very filling, however, my stomach didn't necessarily like it too much. We made our way back into the van where we drove around a little bit for some Italian Coffee, which is quite big in Cairo. The only funny thing is that it is all iced coffee. I of course had a diet Bebsi (Egyptians can't say the letter "p" like "puh" sound, so they use a "b" instead so park is bark, push is bush, and pepsi is bebsi). After this we were all passed out in the car because we were all so tired.
We made our way back to the house where we sat and talked for a short while. The awesome and intimidating part of this was that our "papa" (the man we are staying with) told us that we must tell everyone our testimony in 2 minutes or less and they would critique them. I sat there and was really confused. . . critique my testimony? Okay, I guess so. So of course I was the second one chosen. My testimony is so long, because it seems like I have had a lot of struggles. When I was done, the one part they said that they felt a strong connection with was not a struggle that I had, or a depressing event in my life, but it was one of the moments where I felt God move me in Mexico, and confirming it in moving a little girl to silence and stillness (I can explain later if you want) But I realized then, that our testimonies are not about us, they are about God. And the moment we start making them about us, is the moment that we take God out of the picture. It was hard for me to get a critique, but it humbled me very much in knowing that the moments I share with people must be the moments that are consumed by God.
After that we all prayed that our bags would get here!!! (8:00 pm now) Because we are definitely on day 3, and its getting a litttllee nashty. Three team members and I had to take a taxi to our next destination because our van's muffler is apparently broken in half? We ended up at the big park which about a square mile. It is amazing because it overlooks the city of Cairo and all you can see for miles and miles is lights of the city. There were a whole lot of people at the park just walking around and enjoying the night's breeze. We called this the Cairo's Mount Bonnell because all we saw were couples, couples and more couples. It was very strange though to see the culture of the Egyptians while they date. They are not stand offish at all which is what my first thought would be. There was no kissing though. haha. We ended up at the top of the giant hill where we overlooked the lights. Then we hear the call to prayer. This was insane because all we heard were all the mosques in Cairo having speakers of sounds that sound like monks singing. It was so loud it actually made me have some anxiety because I felt so small. It is very strange being in a culture where the christian is the second class citizen. It is humbling but also very intimidating. Anyway, we moved on and I felt like we needed to talk with some people. Me and two others went off and these girls actually came up ant talked to us. Needless to say we spent 2 hours with them walking around the park laughing at each other because we couldn't understand, talking about food and boys and other girly things. It was nice to see that we could make friends so far away. Hopefully we get to see them again.
All in all, it was a huge long day, and I got to see a lot of things. It is 2:00 am and I am writing so I apologize if nothing made sense. haha. Miss you guys a whole lot, but keep us in your prayers!!
Thank you for whoever prayed for our bags! lol.
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