In approximately an hour or so, we will be on our way to the airport,waiting for our flight to Egypt!!! I realized the other day that I haven't mentioned anything about the missions trip ahead of me, so I figured what better way to spend my last bit of time with this wonderful piece of technology (my computer) than to write a quick bit about this journey I'm about to embark on.
First off, there are six of us going, a refreshing change from the other two missions trips I've been on to Mexico where we had upwards of 100 high school students. Paige is my small group leader, and her and her fiance Jeremy are co-leading the trip. Paige's mom who is a pastor in Sacramento is also joining us, as well as Jeremy's roommate Bo, and my dear friend Hannah :)
Today we are flying to Cairo, Egypt (with a nice layover in Amsterdam). There we will meet Pastor Gamal Hanna, who will show us all around Cairo for our first couple days there. Then we are taking a 7-8 hour train ride to the waaay south of Egypt, to a little village called Tema. Because this is a village and there are many, many of those, to see about where it is, look for the city of Aswan. I've been told we're relatively close to there.
Tema is where Pastor Gamal and his wife, Moni, and their family lives. We will be staying and working with them for the remainder of our trip. We don't really know much about what exactly what we are going to be doing, but I'll do my best to explain what I do know.
In Egypt, at least in Tema and the surrounding villages, they have church everyday. From what we have planned for and what Pastor Gamal has told us, we will be visiting 20 churches within 13 days. At those we will be rotating between our team, sharing our testimony (which is slightly different than an American testimony. It's more of 'how have you seen God in/throughout your life?'), as well as giving an encouragement to them--kind of like a very mini sermon type thing. We also know that one of the days we will be visiting an orphanage in Tema, which I am SO excited for! We've brought a bunch of clothes and goods to leave with Pastor Gamal and his church, as well as things to do with kids--coloring books, bracelets to make, a soccer and football, etc.
Because we aren't entirely sure what is going to happen while we are there, it has helped guide our prayers, in the sense that we pray that God would just open our hearts and our minds to what He has for us. We don't want to get stuck in the bubble of expectations and miss out on something amazing He is doing right in front of our faces.
We are also so excited to witness the amazing faith that the people there have. They live in a country that is 90% Muslim, a good majority are rather poor, and all they have to lean on is Christ, something that not a whole lot of Americans can relate too. I have no idea what it is going to look like, but I'm pretty sure astounding won't even begin to describe their faith and the depth and genuineness of their faith.
That said, I am slightly anxious, but beyond excited to go. I cannot wait to see what God has in store for us there! I am going to be (at least attempting to) journal everyday so I don't miss anything. When I get back I plan on writing it all on here so that everyone can read it and I don't have to worry about leaving any of the good stuff out! :)
See you in 2 1/2 weeks!
...♥ C
No comments:
Post a Comment