Egypt - Our Presentation, Part 2

     Americans tend to be impatient when it comes to speeches. But from what I understand in some cultures a speech is more than tolerated -- it is expected. I have come up a bit short a time or two over the years as I have found myself unprepared to say anything on such occasions. As often happens after the fact, I wish I had said something.

    When we were asked to travel to Egypt as representatives of our church to join the Centennial Celebration for the Standard Wesleyan Church of Egypt, I anticipated that a speech might well be expected.  This time I wanted to be prepared. To that end, I prepared a number of options. The first of these, naturally, was the short presentation comments I offered in my last post.

    My second set of comments, a speech if you will, would be ready if the circumstances demanded I speak at great length. As a teacher for nearly forty-five years, I learned to talk at length, sometimes even without advance preparation. Think of it as an occupational hazard. For this occasion, as one might imagine, I wanted to do more than just fill the time. I wanted to speak to the relationship that we would like to see develop between the Egyptian church and our own North American church. 

    My plan was to develop the ideas that follow:

    For the past several years I have found myself returning to a very short episode found in three of the gospels. The few recorded details note that Jesus is teaching in a room crowded with those who wanted to be near him. Finding they could not push through those packed into these tight quarters, Jesus' family sent word, passed no doubt from one person to those in front of him, that "your mother and siblings are outside. They want to see you."

    In Mark's telling of this moment, Jesus' family is concerned for Him. They were worried that Jesus was somehow out of control; "out of his mind" is the wording in Mark 3:21. None of the gospel accounts give us a videographic narrative, but it would seem evident that Jesus had attracted the kind of attention and crowds that celebrities always seem to attract. People wanted to see him, hear him, touch him -- they wanted more.

    Jesus had been doing good things. With the advantage of seeing the whole drama, we know why things unfolded the way they did. We can put the pieces together. But in the midst of events, the family did not. Mary had been told by the angel that her expected son would save his people, but that was over 30 years before. Clearly, she had no specific idea what this process would look like, how it would unfold, what form "salvation" would take. 

    So, like any mother, Mary was worried.  Rumors spread quickly and often. The religious leaders were often angry with Him. The sick and the desperate were pulling at his shirt tails, getting in His face. The crowds were stifling.

    It is in this context, then, that Jesus is told his family is outside, wanting to see him. To this request, Jesus surprises everyone with a question of his own: "Who are my mother and my brothers and sisters?"

    There is much to be drawn from this simple rhetorical flourish. Jesus, who was often misunderstood, might easily have been misunderstood here, too. 

    But for us, at this moment, in this place (sanctuary), the point that Jesus makes is found in the next verse. Jesus looks around at those who have followed him into that room, who were crowded around to see more, to hear more, to know more, to be closer to him -- and he says, "here is my family!" 

    When I look around, I proclaim to you that here are my brothers and sisters. That is why I have been sent to represent our church at this, your occasion of celebration: we are family. We are all here precisely and specifically because of Jesus. It is a clear and powerful point: while the exclusive claims of biological or national or political identity have their place, in the Kingdom of God those claims matter less, far less, than the Kingdom bonds of family.

     

    

Egypt (3) -- Our presentation

    Words of greeting from Houghton Wesleyan Church to the Standard Wesleyan Church (the denomination) of Egypt have already been delivered on our behalf. Had we been able to make the trip to Egypt ourselves, we would have presented gifts from our church on Saturday at the official celebration. Our gifts were both monetary and symbolic, in the form of a high quality reproduction of Roselyn Danner's watercolor portrait of our church.

    Because I was expecting the presentation would require a little speech, I had made notes for what I would say, notes I expected to tailor or expand as specific circumstances indicated. My notes, which are copied below, were intended to express our local commitment to the work of the Standard Wesleyan Church of Egypt and our solidarity with the people of those congregations. 

    In our absence, the Superintendent of the Atlantic District in Canada offered to make presentation in our behalf, an offer we accepted with gratitude. I sent along my notes to indicate our thoughts, fully expecting he would convey what was on his heart in that moment.

Notes for Presentation to the Standard Wesleyan Church of Egypt on the occasion of their Centennial Celebration.

 It is an honor for us to have been invited to join our believing brothers and sisters in Egypt to celebrate your Centennial Anniversary, now a year behind us. It is a joy to be here, to see your faces, to hear your voices, and to experience for so short a time your hospitality and fellowship. We bring you warm and enthusiastic greetings from the Wesleyan Church in Houghton, New York.

A little over three years ago we were made aware of an opportunity to partner with you as you had your own window of opportunity for building in Badhr City permanent structures for ministry. We eagerly accepted that opportunity; the Lord’s people enthusiastically shared their resources, and we have prayed for God’s work here. Today you have many friends in Houghton who feel a strong connection with the Standard Wesleyan Church in Egypt. Every Sunday our pastor prays for the Church around the world.

Our visit today has several purposes beyond the moments of celebration that we have the honor of participating in: we want to reassure you of our continuing interest in and commitment to the partnership we joined three years ago; we want to encourage and to affirm you as you live for the Lord in this great metropolis; and we want to see for ourselves who you are, how you live and how you worship, so that our church body in the US might be better informed.

To underscore our continuing commitment to you and our young partnership, we have brought with us a small gift as a contribution to your building projects. And we have brought a portrait of our church, the Houghton Wesleyan Church, painted by a Houghton artist. The painting bears an inscription to remind you of our love, hope, and commitment to God’s work here. 

***

Egypt (2) -- Obstacles and such

    The comedy team Bert and I had a story in their repertoire about a dyed-in-the-wool old-time Mainer trying to give directions to an out-of-state motorist who had asked how to get to Millinocket. The Mainer launches into a set of directions only to stop and begin an alternative. He stops again and launches into a third set of roads and turns only to stop again. After a significant pause he concludes in an unmistakable down-east accent, "Come to think of it, you can't get there from here."

 

 The sketch resonates with most of us, not because we necessarily know this bumpkin, but because the experience is common: it is the frustration of finding obstacles everywhere we turn. We sometimes call it "jumping through hoops"; we sometimes think of it as bureaucratic "red tape." In retrospect the telling of these stories is funny. In the moment, they are anything but funny.

    Such was our experience preparing to travel to Egypt. Modern international travel, which is complicated enough, has been increasingly complicated by the uncertainty of Covid outbreaks and the resulting border restrictions and national protocols that raise the risk of, should we say, "complications" almost moment to moment. What is good today is out of the question tomorrow.

     

    When we learned in late August that the trip to Egypt was back on, the positive effects of vaccinations world-wide having lowered travel restrictions, we began to navigate the many details necessary for 21st century travel. These details are familiar, of course, but they can be complex and puzzling for anyone who has not traveled since the onset of the pandemic, including specifically us.

 

    On the Sunday before travel-day we got the required Covid prc test, which confirmed that we are in the clear.  We had already been vaccinated twice, boostered, insured, and equipped with a surplus of high-end masks.That was our last medical/technical/procedural hurdle. Our passports were in order, vaccination cards secured, e-tickets on the smart phones, ArriveCan(ada) forms in place; bags packed and repacked; refrigerator cleared of perishables; plants watered.

 

 On Tuesday afternoon we drove to our hotel in Rochester, checked on the early morning shuttle to the airport, and went to dinner. The plan was to drive to our son's house after dinner so that he would keep our car for us while we were out of the country.

    At this late point we received a call from the Church asking whether we had read "the" email from our travel group leader, who had given the all-clear the day before. No, the answer would be No. We both have smartphones but we had not been checking emails. When we did get on to read the email, we learned that the new Covid variant, Omicron, was spreading and that conditions for travel out and reentry, specifically along our route through Canada, had changed and were likely to change again during the time we expected to be in Egypt.    

    As people of faith we had prayed all along that open or opening doors were a green light, which necessarily meant that a closed door was a red light. The sudden tightening of Canadian regulations in response to Omicron spread was a clear indicator for us. So we did not get on the plane. 

   
     The Centennial celebration for the Standard Wesleyan Church of Egypt will go on without us, as it should. We are disappointed, of course; Egypt would have been wonderful and an opportunity to meet the church folks there would have been a joy.   

    Still, we are confident we made the right decision. 

 

 

Egypt -- Let's Do It

    Well, we are headed for Egypt. Who would have thought??

    When it became clear that our journey to Egypt was likely, the restrictions of the Covid-19 Pandemic having eased, we informed our adult children and a number of close friends that the trip was "on"-- our tickets had been purchased! 

    Everyone we have told expressed a desire to go to Egypt . . . someday. Several said, "Take me with you!" Others noted, wistfully perhaps, "Egypt is on my 'bucket list'."

    It is not surprising that Egypt is an enviable destination for many people -- any five year old can identify pyramids and sphinx and, likely, the picture language of hieroglyphics as well. Egypt conjures up for us thoughts of the ancient ruins we have seen in picture books.  We think of the gold death-mask of King Tut. For many of us, too, stories featuring Egypt from the Bible are part of the narrative of our formative years. The Egypt we picture is unique, storied, exciting, mysterious, and somehow out of reach. Who wouldn't want to visit Egypt given the opportunity?!

 

 

    Once in full research mode, I dug out my fifty-year-old, archaeologically-detailed, photograph-heavy, coffee table book from under a pile of similarly large-formatted books that we have accumulated. Apparently the wonders of many ancient civilization have attracted our interest over the years.

    With a journey to Egypt just around the corner, I have finally been motivated to read the book. The photographs I have examined many times, of course, so my mental images and impressions of these ancient wonders have already been burned into the grey cells. Images such as the three sampled here are the images I will take with me as we head for Egypt to see the real things. 

    Being there, the experience itself, will replace those photographic familiars with sensations of an entirely better sort. They will be vivid and all encompassing. I expect, as we say, to be "blown away."

 

 

 

    Apart from these ancient wonders that draw tourists, those of us who grew up in North America know very little about modern Egypt. Our information is partial, haphazardly accumulated, and, I'm afraid, badly remembered. And it's not just our famously short attention span. What we learn when Egypt makes the news here mostly concerns "events" of importance to us. What is "news worthy" has a narrowly North American focus.

    What we think we need to know nearly always centers on the dramatic, the noteworthy, the violent or the cataclysmic as well. This is true of domestic news as well as international news. For these reasons, what I know about modern Egypt consists largely of assassinations, protests, popular uprisings, disruptive changes of government, and catastrophes that might affect us, such as the huge container vessel that found itself wedged across the Suez Canal this last March. We seldom want to learn the larger context or to know the whole story. And tomorrow's news quickly displaces today's.

 

 

    When we add to these current events the fact that I know virtually nothing about how Egypt developed  between the ancient Egypt of the Bible stories and the Suez Crisis of the 1950s, well, one can see why my learning curve is necessarily steep. My ignorance is great.

    None of this is "fair," of course, but it's what we are working with. It is within this context, then, that my wife and I were asked to travel to Egypt with a North American church delegation to join in a centennial celebration for the Standard Wesleyan Church in Egypt. We were asked to represent our local church at commemorative services. We will bring words of greeting and encouragement. And we will learn.

    Significantly, we will see a side of modern Egypt we have never seen, a dimension we had not known before. What has lacked detail will be overwhelmed with new sights and sounds and faces. We will begin the process of changing the mental images and attitudes we bring with us -- replacing them with real people, real places, real culture -- newly instructive sights, sounds, smells, and sensations.  

    There are many things we would like to do, places we would like to go before we are no longer able. There won't be time to go or to accomplish all these things, of course, and eventually we won't have the energy. The Covid-19 crisis has brought our limitations into sharp focus. 

    The idea of a 'bucket list' with items to be ticked off, however, is not for us. It is too limiting. One trip to Egypt will be great, I am sure. As teachers we know that the experience will surpass the information from books. But once can hardly be enough. If this journey to Egypt is at all like our experiences with other journeys, we will be overwhelmed by how much more there is to learn, by how much more still lies just beyond, just beneath what we are able to see this time.