Egypt’s theme song:
“I’ve got a River of life flowing out of me. Makes the lame to walk and the blind to see. Opens prison door sets the captives free. I’ve got a river of life flowing out of me.”
These past few weeks we have been in the middle of Egypt, along the banks of the Nile and the desert. That river is truly the life source of the country. I’ve read all about it in my history books, but it is something completely different to see and experience it. The banks are fertile and growing. Everything is in abundance. If you keep moving out east or west of the river you will come to a point where the scenery dramatically changes from this green, tropical paradise, to a hot, dry desert. It is sudden and abrupt. The river’s water only gives life to a certain point, and then you can see the effe
cts on the land that isn’t connected to the source.
When we came to Egypt I didn’t know what to expect. God is so full of surprises though. When Gary, Katherine, and I made it to Cairo from Turkey, we only had a about 5 hours to rest before we left with the rest of the group to our ministry location. That was surprise #1. The second surprise was that we would be working with the Coptic (Egyptian) Orthodox Church. I didn’t even know what that was or that it existed. The third surprise was that there would be a long bus ride through Egypt to this place.
I hadn’t even expected to make it this far into the trip, so when our bus passed right alongside the pyramids, I almost had a cow. I couldn’t ignore the beauty of the western boundaries of the Sahara, no matter how tired I was. It was a sweet time relishing in God’s provision to get me this far into the trip, and for expecting Him to do mighty things in the week
ahead.
We arrived in our village and were immediately escorted into town by the Egyptian Tourist police. These AK-47 wielding guys picked up the trail just outside of town and led us straight into town where the Church compound was located. At the compound or host, Evelyn, took us to our residence for the week. It’s actually the Bishop’s residence, and he lives in style. His home had enough room for all 22 of us, and then extra space for handing out. It was beautiful and we were quite thankful to be out of the cold. Just two nights before we had been sleeping on the streets at the ferry dock in Samos Greece.
I moved into my room, and got settled with a long nap to recover from all the traveling. Everybody woke up from their fitful sweaty sleeps and moved downstairs to discuss our ministry plans. Evelyn had arranged for us to have lots of options as far as the ministry f or the week was concerned. Immediately I k
new that God had big plans for this unexpected time in Egypt.
The list of options included an orphange, and I was raising my hand to volunteer for than before the words were all completely out of her mouth. Lana, Estee, Sarah C., and I were going to visit a girl’s orphanage ev
eryday of the week and minister to them. We’ve been to the orphange in India and loved on so many kids through the camps in Bosnia, that we could hardly contain our excitement for this ministry. We were ready to love some kids.
I also volunteered to lead the organization of some of the events for the week. This was actually the first time I had stepped up for this kind of stuff on the trip and I was really excited. Since God is keeping me on this trip, and I’ve deepened my faith in Him lately, I guess I’m just doind more and more risky things. I thought I would organize our ministry for their youth service. There were suppopsed to be 1000 students there! What could I do in a service like that?
After we fnished organizing our ministry plans, our first duty was to attend the English Reader’s Club. The discussion that night was about freedom. God was already orchestraing the minsitry from that first night. As we talked with our new Egyptian friends about fre
edom, there was some confusion. What we were trying to explain didn’t seem to come across the language and culture barriers. We finished the night out, but God had plans to continue that discussion later in the week.
Sarah Cruz and I had been talking about this one song she wanted to write a drama to. It’s called “Set Me Free” by Casting Crowns. So in the heat of the day that week, when nothing was going on, we decided to work out all the details of the drama so we could eventually teach it and use it. Because I’m a drama queen I got really exci
ted and in two days we fnished making up the entire drama. With little to do in a meeting for 1000 kids, I thought the time was right to use our newly created tool. We put out a casting call at dinner, and Laura and Chad showed up for practice. Chad would be playing the role of Jesus, Laura would be Demon #1, Sarah was the distressed girl, and I would be Demon #2. It was hard to find time to pracitce between all the different ministries that were going on, but we squeezed it all in during our small ounces of freetime.
As the youth night approached we spent some time praying for what else to do. So, I got Jacques and Laura to give their testimonies, Gary to lead everyone in some small discussions, and the Red Team to preform our old faithful, “In the Light.” God had put the theme of “freedom” together for us. We prayed some more for the ministry, and went into the service. Surprise again! Instead of 1000 students, there were only about 100! At least we were all mentally prepared to speak loudly and make big dramtic movements for the dramas. I think everyone heard fine though. As we began the program, more peop
le came in. They applauded when Jesus sets the girl free from all her bondages, and listened intenetly to the real life stories of my fellow racers. We had to cut our discussion short because in Egypt women like to get married at 9:00 PM, but we made arrangements to meet on the roof afterwards and talk with everybody. We were able to make lots of friends that night, and God used it to explain the true meaning of freedom. At the end of the week we visited the English Reader’s Club again, and they were all talking about how they were finally understanding the concept. It’s a difficult idea to wrap you mind around. We have to surrender to gain freedom and as free beings we are to submit to God-given authroities. God is so amazing to work all that out and touch lives with it.
At the orphanage that week we got to love on 8 little girls who were really well taken care of. Their “mom” made sure they were always clean and the church provided food and housing for them. But they still craved the love and attention of others. The mom is
a busy woman with all 8 of them to take care of. But, when we got there no girl’s hands were left empty. We always had a girl on each arm. Jesus is truly the only one who can give us the love we all desparately seek. We had an amazing time singing songs, teaching the girls dramas, painting nails, and doing crafts. All of them had beautiful dark eyes. At the end of the week they made us little cross necklaces and sang us farewell songs in Arabic. I miss them already.
It was an amazing week working with a different part of the Body of Christ. It was so neat to see how different and yet sincere their worship was in the Coptic Church. We learned that God has always had big plans for Egypt. The prophecy in Isaiah 19:19 is true. The hearts of the Egyptians will turn to God. They are the fertile plants growing on the bank of the river of life. They just happento be on the banks of the Nile when they do it! Continue to lif
t up our brothers and sisters in Egypt. They face persecition for their beliefs and thus need a boldness to preach the gospel. These people were very dear to my heart and it’s been one of my favorite ministry locations of the year.
I’m glad God brought me to Africa. I’m glad He is still providing all my needs. Thanks for giving to the cause of the World Race and promoting the Gospel fo Jesus Christ worldwide in this ministry. Many of us are still in need financially and we ask that you seek the Lord about supporting us. We have so much ministry left to do. God is amazing and wants to orchestrate more lessons on freedom all over this continenet. Pray for us, please support us, and thank you for keeping up with our ministry!
– In Christ – Ashley
