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.
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.]
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