October 2003

From The Far Side

Dear Friends and Prayer Partners:

Greetings and blessings from all of us here in Amman! We are all doing well here, but have been really busy since the boys have re-entered school at the beginning of September. This month a retreat was held in Egypt for PC(USA) mission personnel in the Middle East. It was a wonderful time of fellowship and connection with our fellow PC(USA) mission partners. It was also a great time for meeting up with people from Louisville that we hadn't seen in quite a while.

After the retreat, which was essentially a long weekend, we spent almost a week in Cairo with the boys. Nadiim and Adeeb had been waiting for quite some time for this trip because they had been wanting to see the “Land of the Mummies,” as one storybook they have refers to Egypt. They did see the Cairo Museum that houses the rich artifacts of Egypt's glorious past, but they also had the chance to see some of the people that I work with in Cairo.

One of the men I work with through Joining Hands Against Hunger and his wife were recently blessed with the birth of their fourth child, their third boy. It was a blessed event, but not an easy one. The wife of my friend gave birth through Cesarean section and then developed a serious infection in the area of the incision. This had been caused by a microbe that she picked up due to the area in which they live, where the average life span is 60 years. Hala and I wanted to visit with them in order to say congratulations, a very necessary duty within Arabic culture. This person lives in an area of Cairo called Moquattam.

I have told you about Moquattam before. It is the area of the city where all of the garbage collectors live, with the garbage that they collect. It was important to Hala and I that Nadiim and Adeeb see this area where people live. That may sound strange to some, but we felt that it would be very important for them to see children who are not nearly as fortunate as they are and to know that Egypt is a land of many realities.

Their reaction to it all was not what I thought it would be. They asked questions and showed curiosity about this new reality. I think that I can honestly say that kids are rather amazing in this light, they didn't act shocked in any way, as most adults would, but rather told me that they wanted to work like me and Hala when they grew up and finished school. That made me very proud, because I could tell that the ministry of Hala and me is having a positive effect on our children. They looked to the poor and wanted to help in some way, they want to show Jesus' love to the needy. Now, I realize that this may sound like the ravings of some proud parent, and I guess to some extent that is true, but I think it has more to do with noting the innocence within children. We adults seem to lose that along the way some how. Shouldn't we all try to get back to that innocence some how, wouldn't that please Our Lord to whom we are all children? Jesus said, "I assure you, anyone who doesn't have their kind of faith will never get into the Kingdom of God." (Luke 18:17)

Now that we are back home in Amman, and back to our regular busy schedules, we watch the news of what is happening in the countries around us. One has to wonder what is going on, there is obviously a much darker and deeper picture happening behind the scenes, than the one that we are having fed to us. It is all quite in the need of some serious prayer. I do hope that you will continue your prayers coming to this region of the world. Whether it is for the situation in Iraq or in Palestine, our ministry in Egypt and Palestine or for both, know that they are truly needed and much appreciated.

May the Lord Bless and Protect,

Chris, Hala, Nadiim & Adeeb

The 2003 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 156