February 2004

From the Far Side

Dear Friends and Prayer Partners:

Greetings and blessings from the Middle East! We here do pray that this finds all of you well and surrounded with the blessings of our Savior!

At the beginning of this month, I needed to be in Egypt at the monthly meetings of the Joining Hands network, which is called “Together For Family Development.” They were very productive meetings, two days for about eight to nine hours of meeting together each day. What came out of those meetings was the core program of the network. They have decided to focus their work on child laborers—specifically the health and education of these children, as well as issues of training for better opportunities.

While I was in Egypt, I traveled to the village of Gaáfar in Upper Egypt. Upper Egypt is southern Egypt for those who don’t know this. I had gone down in order to meet with a new organization in a village close to Gaáfar and to discuss with some of the people at the organizations in Gaáfar and El Fashn (part of the JHAH network) the issue of English language training. In our network, all of the representatives speak English quite well, except for those in the villages of Upper Egypt. They feel it’s important for them to learn some English in order to be able to communicate with our brothers and sisters in the Des Moines, Iowa Presbytery.

Thus, the organizations with the network in Gaáfar and El Fashn (El Fashn is very close to Gaáfar) appointed a couple of people from each organization to meet with me in hopes of starting an English language training program. I would essentially train them and they would teach the others at the organizations. (I had been an English teacher in the West Bank for almost ten years before going into mission with PC(USA)).

Two things about the trip that stick out in my mind strongly. First: the amazing amount of respect that these people have for their parish priest (Both Gaáfar and El Fashn’s populations are mainly Coptic Orthodox). Secondly, the night life in the village.

While I was meeting with the four who had been chosen by their organizations to learn English, the parish priest came into the room and sat down. After greeting him and kissing his hand in the expected manner, I was not able to get anyone of the four in the room to answer any question that I put to them. I therefore stopped what I was doing and asked the priest if he would like to learn English. Of course, he said that he did not, but instead wanted to talk to me. He had decided that I should give him enough money to build a new church in the village. After explaining to him that it may be a bit difficult for PC(USA) to help him with this request, he told me that I should therefore personally provide him with these funds. My response was, “Inshallah” (God willing).

This is actually a very typical experience for a U.S. mission worker. Many of the communities that we deal with see us as rich Americans. It is expected that we give to our focus communities whatever it is that they need. It doesn’t matter if we try explaining that we don’t have lots of money to give away, no matter how worthy the cause; it’s simply assumed that we have it. Now, during this entire dialogue, not one person in the group spoke up, if the priest looked their way they turned their heads, when he stood they stood and after he sat they sat. It’s really impressive the amount of respect for the church and the shepherd that they have.

The second point that stuck out was the night life in the village. I spent the night in the house of the director of the organization in Gaáfar. He had put his four children out of their room and gave that space to me to sleep. However, before retiring to his home for the evening, I was brought around to each of the family members, showed the livestock, jumped on by a goat, and filled with hot, dark, sweet tea and Seven-Up. Unlike in the United States, the entire social life is built strictly around the family unit. Going outside of that unit and visiting friends not a part of the family is done, but not usually at night. Night is the time for the entire family to come together and talk, drink tea, and watch soccer (if there is any on the TV). They welcomed me into their fold while they made fun of my Arabic, I was the evening entertainment to a certain extent. (My Arabic is of the Palestinian dialect, which is different from the way the Egyptians speak.)

The village is a nice place in many ways. You have to get used to many of the things found there, but there is a simplicity that is welcome and in many ways beautiful. But I guess it must be a difficult life without 250 channels on the TV, Internet, and computers and a telephone in every room.

Many Blessings,

Chris, Hala, Nadiim and Adeeb

The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, pp. 318, 321, 323