May 2005

Dear Friends,

Tonight I chased my 2-year old in his airplane pajamas down our Cairo sidewalk in the dark, trying to expend some energy before bed. As we ran, we were passed simultaneously by an electric train on our right and a cart pulled by two donkeys on our left. Both beat us. This is Cairo—technological and agrarian; rich and poor; Western and Eastern; always fascinating. It is steadily becoming home.

At the three-month mark, we wish to share some of the things that cause us to give God thanks, and some ways we would appreciate prayer.

Our environment

We feel thankful for our neighborhood, which is a lively, exciting place to live. We can buy fruit or vegetables from a woman sitting on the sidewalk as we return from printing something at one of the Internet cafes. We buy fresh-squeezed juices on the street and fresh bread from a bakery behind our apartment building. Soldiers and security guards from the neighborhood call out to us when they see us in other parts of town. Every day we rub shoulders and have opportunities to build trust with both Muslim and Christian Egyptians. Even though our hair and skin color make us look very foreign, the locals have accepted and welcomed us kindly.

Seminary students

These young Christians are true gems. They are faithful, eager, and godly young men (and a few women) from Egypt and surrounding countries. We went with three of them on a day trip to the pyramids. Hani is a former tour guide. He is a bright student who takes his classes seriously. He will be ministering soon in a church in Giza, a nearby city of a few million.

Arabic

Our whole family enjoys progressing with the language, the primary focus of our first years of work here. We feel increasingly able to communicate about what we need done, where we want to go, and what the weather is like (pretty easy—every day is sunny!). However, we have a lot further to go before we can have in-depth conversations in Arabic, which is extremely important for developing friendships with Egyptians and for ministering at the seminary. Currently Dusty teaches or preaches in English with a translator. However, this does not allow him to teach as interactively as he feels is necessary for training pastors. We appreciate continued prayers for our language—we have found that Arabic is not a language one just “picks up” without concerted effort—and also that learning Arabic will help us to understand and relate to other differences in the culture around us.

Our family

We like Cairo and enjoy our growing friendships, though the changes haven’t been easy. Life takes a great deal of time and energy to manage, and sometimes we feel we are just treading water to survive. It is difficult to establish family routines here, even things as basic as when to eat our meals or which day of the week to attend church! Finding enough time to study Arabic is hard, too. We are thankful that Christopher has begun to sleep a little better, and we hope this continues to improve. We feel some homesickness and perhaps culture shock at times, but that is usually balanced by the friendliness of most Egyptians, the fascinating environment of this city, and our deep conviction that God is the one who brought us here.

Some have asked how we are doing in light of recent bombings that have taken place in Cairo. Like most Egyptians, we are saddened and disappointed. But we don’t feel personally endangered. Our safety concerns tend to be concentrated on everyday problems that arise from living in a relatively poor and developing nation. In particular, streets are dangerously crowded with all manner of vehicles and pedestrians moving in different directions all at once, and our children went without seatbelts every day for three months until we bought our own car. Besides the traffic issue, a variety of accidents are far more common here than back in the States, due to malfunctions (we had an electrical fire in the boys’ bedroom) or negligence (bricks fell near our heads from a building under construction). We appreciate prayers for all types of security as well as for God’s peace to permeate this region.

We thank God for your partnership with us in ministering to and alongside the church in Egypt. We are thankful to be here!

Blessings to all,

Dusty, Sherri, Clayton, and Christopher

The 2005 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 159