Capturing Egypt in 12 Hours

Hello everyone!

We started the day with breakfast at our hotel (more like brunch at 8:30 a.m.!) and after that we went to the Egyptian Museum, supposedly one of the biggest museums in the world, displaying 300,000 items. Our male guide told us that it would take six months to see every piece, if we only spent two seconds looking at each piece!

Well, we only had approximately two hours, so our female guide, and Egyptologist, did the best she could to highlight some of the most important pieces. This lady spent the day with us and at the end of the day Pastor Bob offered to pray for her husband who is stuck in Dubai because of a sticky job situation involving a former employer who wasn't exactly honest with him. She was so moved and started to tear up. After the prayer, she grab the mic and expressed her thankfulness ("beyond words," she said). She said that she had just asked the other guide, "What sort of people are these who are so tender with their emotions?"

I sure hope and pray that she can clearly see that Christ is the only who makes a difference in our lives. We spent quite a bit of time looking at a painting from one of the Pharaonic periods depicting the judgement day in the conception of the ancient Egyptians. The scene depicts a harrowing experience in front of a multiplicity of gods in which the deceased is asked whether s/he did good or not and then her/his heart is weighed on a big scale against a feather on the other side and if the scale tips toward the heart the person goes to hell, if it tips the other way, the destiny is paradise.

This is obviously not a new concept of "salvation," but nevertheless it still grips your heart when you hear about it because of so many who have died in agony over their final destiny, hoping the gods or a god or even the God will be merciful to them, but without never being sure. Well, I asked our guide which side she thought her scales were tipping. She said, "50/50." I said, "This is too important a decision to be left to chance," then we moved on to something also.

After the museum we went to the "Hanging Church," one of the most famous sites of Coptic Cairo, a church that marks the flight of Joseph, Mary and the baby Jesus to Egypt. From there we went to St. George's church and had a chance to see the crypt where it is alleged that the trio spent two months during their stay in Egypt.

The bulk of our time today was spent visiting the site where the pyramids are. Having studied about this in elementary school and having seen so many pictures, I can't tell you how incredibly amazing it was to stand in front of those monuments of human engineering. The rides on the camels were just a nice touch.

We took time to go to a store where several of our team members ordered cartouches with their names impressed on them in gold. This is also a tradition that dates back to the times of the Pharaos. In the same store we saw a demonstration of how the papyrus plant is turned into paper and bought several paintings made on papyri. This was a very instructional stop and I just wished we had more time.

As I write this, the team (minus my wife, and I and pastor Bob) is enjoying a cruise and dinner on the Nile.

Tomorrow we leave for Jordan. Please continue to pray. I know that pastor Bob is not in the best of health and I am sure he would appreciate your prayers. Things are very good overall.