May 2002

Dear Friends,

I don’t know why the time here seems to go so fast. A third of my contract has already been fulfilled.

Let me start this letter with a report on Miss Sanura, the retired nurse who lost her eye. I wrote about her in my newsletter last February. The prosthesis was put in a couple weeks ago, and she looks better and is back to her old cheerful self again. She worries about losing the small amount of vision in her other eye, so please keep her on your prayer lists.

In the middle of December, I had a knock on my door, and there was a young Egyptian man. He said his name was Mohamed, and he had been a friend of the American couple who lived in that flat and taught in the mission school across the street, and he had come here often to practice conversational English. They had told him I was coming, and he should come and talk with me. I told him I was busy with Christmas coming up, but would let him know after the holidays. I closed the door and promptly forgot about it! On December 27, he came knocking on my door again. Well, I said, the Eastern Christmas was January 7, and there was still New Years, so could he come back after that? He said yes, and this time I decided I’d better think about it and make a decision. I decided to talk with Dr. Mamdouh, the medical director. He said to have the meetings in my office, not in my flat, since I was living there alone, and he wanted to talk with Mohamed.

About two days after Eastern Christmas while I was on my way to the office, I ran into Mohamed. I slipped in and told Dr. Mamdouh that Mohamed was there. The two men talked for a few minutes, and then Dr. Mamdouh said Mohamed could meet with me in my office, but not in my flat. So now I have two students, and both of them very bright.

I always tell you I am safe, and I am as far as the way you are regarding my safety. However, I didn’t take into account the train system. I had been to Cairo and was returning to Tanta. The train pulled into the station and stopped, and the passengers for Tanta started for the front of the car. A young man helped me with my suitcase and as we neared the front of the car, we met passengers getting on.

When I finally reached the door, the train was moving! The man with my case said "jump," and I thought, "It isn’t going to get any slower." I jumped and fell headlong into a mud puddle! Everyone on the platform came to help me. I heard Dr. Sammy say, "I’m here, Shirley." Fortunately, the Holy Spirit was watching over me. I could have broken any number of bones, or could have rolled off the platform and under the train, but all I had was a skinned knee and mud from head to toe.

I had a visit from Chris Doyle, a PC(USA) missionary who lives in Bethlehem with his Palestinian wife and their two young boys. I asked Chris about the suicide bombers, and this was his reply: "If your house was torn down because Israeli settlers wanted your land, or if your school was tear-gassed for no reason, or if you were stopped from having enough water because the nearby Jewish settlement needs to water lawns or fill swimming pools, or if your mother is taken out of bed at 3:00 a.m. and taken to the Jordanian border, never to return, or if your father or child is killed in front of you, how would you react? My guess is that you would fight back in the only way you could. This doesn’t mean that I or most people support terrorism, but that the frustration is understood." Since then, Bethlehem has been under siege, and we here pray for Chris and his family’s safety daily. So far, he has been able to e-mail us that they are safe. He hopes to get to Egypt some time this month.

Dr. Adel, one of our doctors, and his wife, took me to see a monastery in a nearby town. It has just one monk, but there was a long Coptic service and I did meet Father Peter, who spoke some English, and I talked with him twice.

Several weeks ago I had the pleasure of sharing my flat with two doctors. They were born in Egypt, but have spent the past 34 years in Maryland and are now U.S. citizens. They came as volunteers for three weeks and were very helpful. My social life was enlivened by my being included in invitations to Dr. Louis Elias’s brother’s home and his sister’s home for dinner.

Now I am looking forward to a visit from my 16-year-old grandson the first of June. I will take my vacation then and spend it with him.

Grace to you, and peace,

Shirley Birth

The 2002 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 138