Egypt -- Jim & Donna's Excellent Adventures, Pt.13

     Like Moses, we came down from the mountain, rode back into Asyut with our police escort, and had lunch across the street from our hotel boat at a place called "Cook Now." I did not realize at the time, but next to Cook Now were government buildings with a very heavy police presence that included a fixed machine gun mounted on the bed of a pick-up parked just outside the gate. A sign of the times, I suppose. And no pictures, of course.

 

    At Cook Now we had kabob with flat breads and French fries, although I am not sure "French fries" is what french fries are called in Egypt. Then over to the floating hotel for an hour to rest and dress for the evening service. 

    While we were resting in our room, I heard children's voices nearby and discovered a little boy and little girl riding in the back of a row boat right outside our window. A man was rowing past our boat against the current. His oars were large and square, unlike the round oars we are familiar with. After a bit, he reappeared, rowing out in the middle of the river, which was also carrying back the way he came. When he had gone far enough down-river, he turned the boat into the current again and rowed back well upriver before again turning toward shore. By doing this repeatedly, he was making his way across without losing sight of his landing point on the other side.

 

    At 6 or so we headed for Pastor Kamal's church for a service with the youth at 7. We
arrived a little early, so Pastor Kamal showed us around. The church needs repairs but we were told government regulations required the third floor be roofed over before renovations could begin on other parts of the building.

 

    There were several rooms on the second floor that would clearly be too small for a growing church and the building itself lacked "facilities."

     We all had opportunity to speak during this "youth" service after a considerable time of singing that followed the pattern we were now familiar with.

    The youth service seemed to have the usual mix of old and young and middle aged folks, so we were not certain what distinguished it as a youth service.

Donna spoke about her mother's faith, which was expressed as a natural part of her being, of the way she thought and acted.

I spoke about "surprises" in my Christian life -- from surprising our pastor by answering an altar call when I was seven to finding myself in Egypt speaking to a church of believers as a old(er) man.

And Danil gave a testimony as well. As a Haitian, he found he loved the heat and the rice that was served frequently at meals.

   One of the things I will carry with me from this and other worship services were women ululating during specific songs. It was both surprising to our unfamiliar ears, but also thrilling.

    After service we went upstairs to Pastor Kamal's house for pizza! We brought out gifts we had brought on the trip, including some calligraphied Bible verses contributed by Donnie Stockin that looked nice on an end table. Pastor Kamal's oldest daughter took a group photo for us to remember the occasion by.

We arrived back on the boat about 1 a.m., with instructions to be ready to go at 6:30 in the morning in order to make the train to Luxor. The night was short, but we did in fact sleep like rocks.

 

Egypt -- Jim & Donna's Excellent Adventures, Pt.12

    In all the years I spent in Sunday School growing up, paying rapt attention to my hard-working teachers, I never remember the question of what Jesus and his parents actually did in Egypt during their brief exile to escape Herod's angry response to the quiet departure of the Wise Men. Matthew is the only Gospel writer to tell the story, and his account is a mere six verses.

    Tradition, on the other hand, clearly treasured in Egypt, can provide many details and a number of revered sites. One is just outside of Asyut. The Virgin Mary Monastery in Dronka is built into a cave on the side of a mountain outside of Asyut. The cave is the most southern point the Holy Family is believed to have lived during their exile. It is a seriously long hike if one is traveling by foot and donkey.

 

    How much of this traditional narrative is factual as we think of it is impossible to say, but it is held to be authentic by the Coptic Church. Pilgrims come here as they would to any site regarded as holy. Many will stay for retreats as well as to worship at this place, so new facilities are being constructed to accommodate them.

 

 

 

    The cave itself is huge, not at all the kind of cave one might imagine for spelunking that would require a headlamp and belly crawls. My photographs are not very clear but this one will provide a sense of scale and modern amenities -- electric lights, paved floors, walls to restrain those who would travel into dangerous spaces, pews and an altar for worship services.

    One of the most interesting features for me were the stylized painting of the Holy Family depicting them at various points on their journey. The one below shows Mary and Jesus riding a donkey with Joseph walking with the Nile in the background. There is a sailing craft in the background, which suggests river travel as an alternative to travel by foot and is in fact thought to be their form of travel back home.

There were perhaps a dozen of these semi-circular painting around the room.

    The community below the Monastery at the foot of the mountain features traditional square structures of brick; and beyond that, in the flat valley, farmland. 

    Turning my attention just to the right of the square buildings and clearly a part of the Monastery complex is a domed chapel under construction. I always find construction materials and methods interesting, especially when they differ in significant ways from our own. In China it was the bamboo scaffolding that drew my attention. Here it is the ladder up over the central dome.

    Perhaps the most encouraging element of a visit like this is the presence of crosses atop churches. Christians have been a continuing presence in Egypt longer than they have anywhere else on earth. Certainly longer than the church has been present in North America.

Now when I think about those six verses in Matthew that tell us about our Lord's "flight to Egypt," I will have some more specific idea about what that flight might have entailed.

Egypt -- Jim & Donna's Excellent Adventures, Pt. 11

                                             

 [Top photo: view of Nile from our room.]

     Since my first missions trip in 2004 to help the Wesleyan church in Vladimir, Russia, specifically to make contacts with local men through basketball, I have reflected often on the usefulness of my role in these situations. I mean, what would be useful to say for these circumstances.

    Both our Dads Team and our Boys Team had a lot of contact with members of the Russian teams we played, both on the court and over dinner. But as the Russians' handful of English words proved as limiting as my two or three badly pronounced Russian words, verbal communication proved difficult. We were given one opportunity, using a translator, to speak to a youth group. I don't remember what I said, but I was uncomfortable about it. What I do remember were the "tuned-out" looks on the faces of the teens. I felt badly about what seemed a wasted opportunity.

    Now, as the saying goes, I am older and, I hope, just a bit wiser. I listen better. I pay attention. I do not imagine I always have good advice to offer. 

    We met with a group of pastors after breakfast on Tuesday morning, our one day in Asyut. We pulled some chairs into a circle in the large common room on the boat where we had just eaten breakfast. Pastor Kamal asked us to introduce ourselves and perhaps to share a bit while he translated. One by one we explained who we were and why our church we had sent us to Egypt.

     Four pastors in addition to Pastor Kamal introduced themselves and explained both their ministries and their vision for future ministry opportunities.

    I won't attempt to render names or church locations since what I heard and noted in my notebook does not clearly coincide with actual places, except for the desire of one pastor to build a church in New Asyut. "New" Asyut is a bit like Badr City in that it is one of the entirely new cities the Egyptian Government is building. This pastor hopes to build a new church near the new university that is under construction there. That said, when I did a  "google map" search for New Asyut City, all that came up was a rendering of a hi-way and an empty spot in the desert about a half hour to the west of Asyut.

    Other pastors we heard from are facing the same rebuild, remodel, replace issues that prompted the Nekheila Church to tear down and replace their nearly 100 year-old structure. While these are clearly "needs," most of what we heard were also what we might call "good problems" in that the churches are growing and the Christian fellowships are multi-generational. The pastors are looking to the future in terms of the present rather than in some way clinging to the past. 

    When our time together ended with prayer, the pastors, some of whom had traveled several hours to greet us, remained to have their own discussions. Our team left for a visit to the Virgin Mary Monastery in Dronka. We felt good about our interactions -- what we had learned and how our understanding of the Church in Egypt has been enlarged.

 [Below: a view of town from our hotel boat.]

Egypt -- Jim & Donna's Excellent Adventures, Pt.10

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    The Nekheila Church in Asyut is the oldest Wesleyan Standard Church in Egypt. It was established a little over 100 years ago by the Standard Church of Canada, which merged with the Wesleyan Church some time later. It was the Centennial of the establishment of this church in Asyut that we were originally asked to attend as representatives of Houghton Wesleyan Church. The appearance of Covid-19 on the world stage, of course, delayed the celebration, and then the Omicron variant prevented us from traveling when the official celebration went ahead last December.

    Please note from these pictures that the facilities look newer than 100. That is because the original building was torn down and replaced with a modern facility just prior to its Centennial. Government regulations would have prevented this congregation from replacing or extensively renovating the old church building once it reached 100 years, and the old structure was inadequate. 

    The platform area and the floor is constructed of several varieties of domestic stone, quarried just a bit further south in Egypt. Stone is generally a cooler and more durable building material than other, perhaps more traditional, building materials.

    In these photographs, our teammate Chandra is giving a testimony and her husband, Matt, is preaching. Pastor Kamal, Superintendent of the Egyptian District of the Wesleyan Church is translating, as he did in Badr City and at his own church the night following.

    You may also note the keyboard/synthesizer that was expertly used by a worship leader in all services we attended. Fans, like the one pictured near Chandra's head, kept air circulating, and screens on both sides of the platform projected words to the songs we were singing. As the worship leader shifted from one song to another, a young woman at a computer located the song file and kept pace with the verses as needed.

 

 

    Usually, too, the worship band included a guitarist and a drummer using a small electronic kit.

    As I have stated elsewhere, I was constantly amazed at how uplifting these times of worship were despite our inability to comprehend Arabic. We experienced the same sense of fellowship and presence of the Holy Spirit we had felt in Korea where the language barrier for us was absolute.

    Here, too, the music was loud, but it did have the benefit of drowning out noise from the outdoor PA system that crackled to life to irritate and compete with the worship service.

    At the conclusion of the service we were led to the door, where we shook hands with nearly everyone in attendance. We were told "welcome" or "thank you for coming" even from the most timid. Several of the children circled back to shake our hands twice.

The man in the tie is Pastor Bashir. Following the service we were taken upstairs to his home for dinner and to meet his family.  His wife, Iness, was "great with child" so we felt badly that she and her daughters had had to host North American visitors who, having eaten at 4:30 that afternoon, were not all that hungry at 9:30.

    Pastor Bashir's oldest son, the worship leader, spoke excellent English. He expressed gratitude that we were able to attend the service, noting especially our participation in the worship songs he was leading.

    As had become our routine we headed back quite late to our rooms. We were escorted around Asyut by a police car, which we had thought would end once we arrived in the city. Driving rapidly through the streets of Asyut reminded me of late night driving in China, shifting from side to side, finding openings, avoiding various small vehicles, families on scooters, farmers on wagons or tractors, VW bus-taxi vans. But for the flashing lights and the siren we might not have noticed the differences.

    Then we found our boat on the Nile, our room, and immediate undisturbed sleep.

Egypt -- Jim & Donna's Excellent Adventures, Pt.9

     In the Hollywood movie version of our journey from Cairo in lower Egypt to Asyut in middle Egypt, we focus on police check-points, on the black-capped Isuzu pick-up with soldiers facing gun ports while gripping AK-47s, on animated exchanges in Arabic between police captains and our driver, and on the nearly bumper-to-bumper of the speeding police pick-up and our white van. The camera anxiously scans the desert for, well, we are not sure.

    In the home movie version, all of these things played out -- except that the camera was focused on less dramatic things: houses that had been partly demolished to make way for the new super highway leading out of Cairo; small mosques appearing every so often along the roadway; uniformly barren desert. Or just maybe this version included buffalo being hauled in the back of a small pickup. Leaving aside the question of how this farmer got three adult buffalo onto the bed of his truck side-by-side, the camera would find mostly desert, desert, more desert.

  

 

We left Cairo on our own and picked up the first of a series of escorts somewhere beyond the greater Cairo area. For a number of miles we saw people walking beside the road, merchants selling things at the checkpoints, men selling soft drinks, older women near driver's windows holding out packets of tissues (Kleen-x). 

Here and there, new cities were being built in the desert after the fashion of Badr City. 

Eventually, we encountered no more foot traffic. We stopped twice for bathroom breaks and several times at checkpoints. Otherwise, there was not much to see until green fields began to appear as we approached Asyut.

 

    Approximately midway between Cairo and Luxor, Asyut is not the kind of tourist destination upper and lower Egypt are known for. The well-know antiquities are in the north and in the south.

    As noted in my last post, we had armed escorts not so much because of recent terrorist activities in the area, as to dissuade "opportunists" from stopping cars or vans to take what they could take. Which is not to say terrorism isn't possible, it just hasn't been frequent here.

    As we approached Asyut, we began to see green fields alongside the road, which among other things told us we were near the Nile. 

    We arrived at our river boat hotel in the early afternoon. The boat, one of many serving the same function lined up at the docks, had once carried overnight passengers up and down the river, but from all appearances had long been decommissioned from that service. Its former elegance had become a bit, well, shabby since its heyday. 

 

We slept well on the single beds. Not visible beyond the red curtains, which helped to keep the sun and heat out, was the Nile. If I hadn't been in a hurry, I could have tidied up -- closed the suitcase, removed the backpack, and so forth, before taking this picture.

 

 

On the other hand, you are seeing the whole room -- except for the bathroom, which managed a toilet, a sink, and a shower stall, with just enough room left over for one person to turn around in.

We didn't have a great deal of time to get ourselves settled before we had to head out to eat, then to find the church for an evening service.

This part of our home movie ends with the first item from our late afternoon lunch, flat bread and savory dipping sauce. So good. And a visual delight. It was only a few hours but already it seemed like our race through the desert was fading from memory.

Egypt -- Jim & Donna's Excellent Adventures, Pt.8

 

  We had a police escort to the Old City, Cairo, which is not due to immediate danger, as one might imagine, as much as to forestall "incidents" of opportunity that would hurt tourism.  An attack of any sort, whether organized and deadly or, more likely, random and nuisance, is bad for business -- so we had picked up the police escort, complete with flashing lights and various sirens, and went racing through Cairo's narrow, crowded streets. It made eating the take-away difficult. Most of us ate some and gave what remained (a whole "wrap," not a half eaten purchase) to the driver and security guard.
     

 

    We left our van near the police checkpoint at the entrance to the Old City and made our way down several narrow passageways heading for the Cavern Church, Abu Serga, named in honor of two early Christian martyrs. Although it has been rebuilt several times in its long history, the church is very old. It is located next to Ben Ezra Synagogue, the oldest synagogue in Egpyt, which we surely would have visited had it not been closed for renovations. 

    Tradition holds that Ben Ezra marks the spot where Pharaoh's daughter found Moses in the reeds. Tradition also holds that the Cavern Church, Abu Serga, marks the site where the Holy Family stayed for a time during their flight to Egypt recorded in the Gospels.

     In this passageway we passed this ancient wooden door. As I am a collector of unusual door images, especially ancient wood doors, I lingered as long as I could for this nun to shut the convent door, but her conversation continued so I took this picture and raced to catch up with our group.

 

    The little cross near the top of the church sign is a form of the cross that we found tattooed on the inside wrist or on the fleshy part of the hand between thumb and forefinger on many believers. The first explanation I heard for these tattoos was that Christians had their babies tattooed soon after birth so that they would not be stolen and raised in another tradition. I have not found confirmation for this explanation, but it has a strong appeal even if it is tradition more than fact. 

    As an interesting aside, I learned that the Babylon noted in 1 Peter 5:13 ("She who is in Babylon . . sends you her greetings . . .") is likely this area since it was called Babylon centuries ago during a period of Persian occupation.

    From this area but also in the Old City we visited the Hanging Church, so named not for the form of execution but for the fact that the church was built over old Roman ruins, the Babylon Fortress. The nave is suspended over a passage of that fortress.

    Even when you are working hard to pay attention, to see and to hear as much as possible, there are too many instructive, fascinating, and gorgeous things to take in -- including this little girl who was sitting mid-way up the 29 steps to the Hanging Church. I asked her parents' permission before I took her picture, by the way, just in case anyone wonders. In my travel experience, two things are nearly always true: children are always a delight to photograph and parents are always pleased that you take interest in their child.

    I'm not as sure about the can of Coke, but she did not seem inclined to set it down.

    Access to the Old City was closing, so we had to hurry back out through this checkpoint, where the soldiers sat with their automatics, chatting and watching while our van approached to pick us up.

    We were told that we would not be going to an evening service despite earlier plans to do so. We were driven back to the hotel instead to make ourselves ready for travel to Asyut in the morning -- our heads jammed full of the sights and wonders of Old Cairo.

[Photos below are from in and around the "Hanging Church"]

    Above is an example of fine geometric design and stonework inlaid wall around a large inner courtyard.

    To the left is a carved wood window "screening" found in another courtyard area.

    This tall stonework pulpit is supported by stone pillars representing the apostles. The pillars are all unique just as the apostles were all individuals. Judas and "Doubting" Thomas are represented by the dark stone pillars toward the back. If you count the pillars you will realize there are actually 14, not 12, so as to account for Jesus himself and for Judas' replacement.

    Below is a side entrance to the Hanging Church with decorative carving, stonework, and inscriptions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Egypt -- Jim & Donna's Excellent Adventures, Pt. 7

     On an ordinary Sunday morning from any time in our long lives we would have made our way to a church service; but on our Sunday morning in Cairo we headed for the Egyptian Museum. The schedule called for attending an evening service at Dr. Atef's church in Cairo, which sounded good, so missing a Sunday morning opportunity seemed about right.

     The Egyptian Museum, soon to be replaced by a new national museum, is an "old school" museum in many respects. Its 170,000 artifacts are set out in large rooms and open corridors, which are very accessible; but many of the small items, such as the diminutive  likeness of Cheops, are in wood framed glass boxes that reflect extravagantly. It is very difficult to get a clear photograph of any item in those boxes without some interfering reflection. And often the identifying label was, unlike this one for Cheops, a typed card stuck in a little frame such as one used to find in libraries -- for those who might remember such things. 

The fun fact about Cheops is that this small statue (3" more or less) is the only likeness of him found to date, yet he is responsible for construction of the Great Pyramid.

    The Egyptian Museum Cairo website has better photographs for those who wish to see more.

 

Since religion was a significant factor in ancient Egyptian life, the Priest was a powerful figure in Egyptian society and especially at court. Their influence was assured and their advice heeded because they "held the keys" to a person's passage to the next life. This carved wood figure shows that assured demeanor one would associate with so much power and leverage. The wood would have been covered originally with painted plaster. This depicts Ka-aper.

 

As a writer I am naturally fond of depictions of those in the trade. This Scribe comes originally from Memphis. Scribes are powerful figures since they are among the few who would have been literate. His words gave shape to the Pharaoh's commands, and quite naturally (like the priest) he would have wanted to be represented in the king's tomb to be included in that journey to the afterlife. This carving is represented on the 200 Egyptian Pound note.

 

As spectacular as the the Kings and Queens are, I find myself drawn to commoners. In this case, a servant, porter in death as in life, carried what the Pharaoh would need for his journey to the afterlife.

 

 

These extraordinary paintings were taken from the floor of an excavated tomb. Unlike wall or ceiling art, floor paintings would be quickly degraded  and obliterated by tourists.

 

    This is a cane sleeping mat, totally unlike the wonderful mattresses we slept on during our stay. Notice the reflection of light and other tourists on the "old glass" enclosures.

 

 

    The name over this door speaks for itself. The room is narrow and has the feel of an "old museum" I referred to above. For those inclined, there are dog, cat, and crocodile mummies preserved here as well as animal coffins and tools for animal embalming -- all behind prohibitively reflective glass.

 

This fully preserved carving of Ramses II is described as colossal. He is on a pedestal, but even without the pedestal he must measure at least 15 feet high. Everything in the sculpture means something. The left foot forward and the straight beard, for example, mean he is depicted as living. Compare this depiction to the little carving of Cheops.

    Queen Hatshepsut, a unique female Pharaoh, is usually depicted with male attributes, the dark skin and the false beard, for example, simply because women were not supposed to take that role. If I remember correctly, this head was damaged deliberately after her reign to diminish her memory. Note the typed information card attached to the display stand.

    As much as I would have liked to view all 170,000 artifacts on display, our time in the museum drew to an end. Our tour guide assured us that we had seen some of the most important pieces, albeit quickly, so we scooted to our van for an escorted drive to Old Cairo, grabbing take away for lunch as we rode.