December 17, 2007
Dear Friends,
Greetings from Egypt in the grace and peace of Christ Jesus. We hope this finds you all doing well and joyfully looking forward to what 2008 will bring for you and your loved ones.
Sammy celebrated his 4th birthday at his Arabic nursery school with his teacher, Miss Nabeela.
As we look forward to our first full year back in Egypt after our sojourn in Scotland, we find ourselves—like many of you—with increasingly busy schedules. Vocationally, Egypt provides a wonderful setting for both Elisabeth and me to use the talents God has given us to the full. We love teaching, preparing lectures, meeting with students, and participating in the life of the wider Church. God has blessed us with very full lives here.
I recently read Galatians 4:4 where Paul writes, “But when the fullness of time had come….” The phrase “fullness of time” struck me as less than comforting! Life tends to fill up with endless duties and commitments. Besides carpools, work, and everyday obligations, Egypt can also present us with virtually endless opportunities to serve. At times, we feel guilty because we have to say “no” to many legitimate requests. In juxtaposition with the verse in Galatians, I find myself desperately wanting to get away from the fullness of our time!
But reading on changes the landscape, “…God sent his son…so that we might receive adoption as children.” Paul is actually calling people away from enslavement to calendars (4:9-11) and to the freedom that God has brought to us (5:1ff). In other words, because of the action of God on our behalf, we are able to look at our days as blessed opportunities to live as God’s beloved children.
Presbyterian theology has often dealt with ethics under the rubric of “gratitude.” The idea is that our knowledge of God’s love for us creates a desire in us to live out our identity as God’s children. We have seen many of our students and colleagues live out this sort of joyful service.
Wageeh Yousef, Joseph Faltas, and Atef Gendy lead a well attended public lecture on Arabic theology at the seminary's Center for Middle East Christianity. I recently met with Ashraf (one of our graduates) about his work at the Bible Society. To hear him talk about his labors in Bible distribution is like hearing high school boys talking about the NFL. He joyfully spoke of hours of conversations, planning meetings, and book sales with a clear sense of the privilege he has to be serving as he does.
Awsam is another graduate who clearly sees his work as a Christian psychologist as a convergence of vocation and avocation. While running a successful addiction rehabilitation center, he continues to find joy in theology and has been increasingly invited to participate in panel discussions on national television.
Last Saturday, the seminary community gathered for a fellowship day of food and sports. While the time is clearly seen as recreation, it is also a wonderful opportunity to share one another’s burdens and to encourage and care for one another. Long after the official ending time, students, faculty, and cleaning staff continued to hang out together, joyfully savoring the time of fellowship.
Our prayer request for us and those we work with here in Egypt is also our hope for you. We ask that we would be able to live out of the joyful knowledge of God’s love. When the pressures, obligations, and needs that we face seem to be too much for us to handle, we ask for the wisdom to know how to live in this obedient gratitude.
In the grace and peace of Christ,
Darren, for the Kennedys
The 2007 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
158 |
