Cacophony in Cairo

It's midnight in Egypt's capital, and the streets have come to life. Blaring car horns (which Egyptians prefer to stoplights for traffic control), children squealing (they stay up to all hours here), and the plaintive tones of the Muslim call to prayer, broadcast over the loudspeaker of the closest mosque -- each sound revealing something different about the fascinating Egyptian culture.

We arrived late last Wednesday, greeted at the airport by my friend Dusty Ellington, who has moved here with his wife and two young sons as a Presbyterian missionary serving on faculty at the only Protestant seminary in Cairo. Already, our conversations have given us an intriguing -- and inspiring -- glimpse of the Christian church in Egypt, as well as of its host culture, Islam. I'll share just a few thoughts and observations.

• Though only 10% of the population here is Christian, the church in its myriad forms (Coptic, Catholic, Protestant) is amazingly vibrant. We attended the church the Ellingtons have visited many times and found a children's program bursting at the seams (sound familiar?). 
• The Muslim faith runs deep here. It's not uncommon to see men with callouses on their foreheads from their five-times-daily prayer sessions (prostrate, heads to the ground). 
• Strict moral guidelines mean that the crime rate is very low, and both drinking and sexual promiscuity are virtually unheard of. 
• Most women cover their heads, and some taxi drivers listen all day long to readings from the Koran. 
• As Dusty said, "I'd always heard that Muslims don't have a personal relationship with God, but it's clear that stopping to pray five times a day leaves them with a powerful sense of closeness to God." I'm trying to heed the calls to prayer on my own terms, pausing to cultivate my own relationship with God.
• Once again, the economic disparity is staggering. An annual salary of $500 is considered quite good, and while Egyptian products and services are relatively inexpensive, imported goods are pricey (a Toyota minivan runs $100,000). 
• Sherri (Dusty's wife) reports that a Christian family she knows stays up all night every Saturday praying for Egypt -- and the economy in particular.
• Finally, the Egyptians value relationships over anything else. That means a stranger will offer to help with directions, and then invite you over to dinner. It also means that once an Egyptian introduces him/herself by name just once, you're expected to remember it! Dusty and Sherri have both made great progress in Arabic, an effort that endears them to cab drivers, shop keepers, and their peers.

Our touring highlights have included a falucca (traditional sail boat) ride on the Nile and an overnight trip to Alexandria, where we visited the Greco-Roman Museum (as one NT scholar said to another yesterday, "There's a lot of really old stuff in there!")

Tomorrow our family heads to the Sinai Peninsula to follow in Moses' footsteps. We'll begin our ascent at 2am, hopefully reaching the summit in time to greet the sunrise. Pray for our stamina; keeping up with our kids has grown quite challenging!

With continued thanks for your prayers and support,

Suzanne