Tuesday, June 21, 2022

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.


 

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