Dear Friends,

Thanks to all of you who write. I appreciate your support and prayers.

I wonder how things are in the U.S. now, if people are as frightened as it seems of anthrax. We get U.S. news on the Internet, and it seems as if things are settling down a bit.

Here in Egypt people are less occupied with political issues now. CEOSS, our partner organization for whom I work, sent a donation to a fund for victims and their families via Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. And I’ve just written a concept paper, a pre-proposal, concerning Egyptian-American dialogue in which people would talk about recent events, about relationships between the West and Middle East, and about peoples lives.

Bob Ellis, who works in the International Health Ministries office, and Victor Makari, area coordinator for the Middle East, are visiting right now. They will be visiting various projects and I will accompany them to Beni Suef and Minia, two areas in which CEOSS has development projects.

This will be interesting for me since I’ve not traveled to either of these areas, which are in the southern part of Egypt. Locals refer to it as Upper Egypt, which is confusing to me. These are the poorest areas of Egypt. CEOSS guest rooms are in a small houseboat on the Nile. I’m looking forward to spending two nights on the river.

Tomorrow morning I lead the Friday morning worship service for CEOSS office personnel. I’m going to tell them about myself, about growing up in the church in southwest Virginia, about the influence of my grandmothers and the visiting missionaries to my church, the Friendship Baptist Church. I still remember missionaries from the Congo speaking about their work. The novel by Barbara Kingsolver, Poisonwood Bible, reminded me so much of them. Have any of you read this book? What do you think?

I hear from my family via e-mail. It’s a good thing that they write this way because regular mail delivery here is still difficult. It seems that mail is not forwarded, that anything other than first-class mail, such as magazines, papers, etc., will not arrive. I haven’t received more than four pieces since arriving. I suspect that outgoing mail is just as problematic.

I haven’t found a home congregation yet. There are church services on Fridays and on Sundays. Fridays (because it’s a Muslim country and most places are closed, though we at CEOSS are open). I’d love to go to an Egyptian church, but know from experience in Palestine that a congregation worshiping in Arabic feels as if they’re on display when ministers or foreigners visit, so they’re not always entirely comfortable, although always hospitable.

News from Palestine/Israel continues to be sad. A friend who went into Bethlehem after soldiers pulled out said it was really badly damaged, which is especially sad after all the money the Palestinian Authority invested in preparing for the millennium visitors who never arrived.

I thank God for my health, which continues to hold up, for my family, and for a connectional church like ours that continues to support mission personnel in this region, especially right now when continuing presence is so important.

Until next month, God bless.

Layne

The 2001 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 143