Arrival in Egypt

We arrived in Cairo, Egypt on October 17, 2024, after 25 hours in transit from Salt Lake City. Today is Friday and we attended the 2 branches. The first was the international branch and the second the Arabic branch. Members are from all over the world. Many from Sudan, but also Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Uganda and, of course, the USA. 

The picture on the left is our branch building that has room to grow. There was only one  branch until four years ago. Now about 40 or so people attend each of the two branches.

We are very fortunate to be in Cairo. The existing couple, the Kevin and Amy Livingstone, have been here for about 18 months and have been great with us. They picked us up from the airport, helped us get a phone and groceries, walked with us to church, and had us to dinner again today. The two other people that ate with us are relatively recent converts. Waleed is from Syria and was a Druse before his baptism last year and George is from South Sudan. They were fun to converse with at dinner. I started my Egyptian Arabic word dictionary tonight and have my first 13 words from them.

To the left is a picture looking out one of our rear windows. We have a very spacious apartment the is only a ten minute walk to the church.  If you look at the center of the picture on the left, you can see a small shack where people are living. There are almost 21 million people that live in Cairo and many live in poverty. The vast majority of the members from Africa are refugees. Waleed left Syria because of his opposition to its government and his life was threatened. His family came initially with him to Egypt, but have since returned to Syria. His misses them very badly, but he cannot return or he might forfeit his life.

Likewise, the continuing war in Sudan has displaced millions of people. We are excited to begin our service here. It will be unique and very different in many ways from the time we spent in the Lord's service in southern Africa. Tomorrow we have a service project at the new "gathering center" that the Livingstone's help create at 9 am. We hope to begin making contacts and developing humanitarian projects also. One of the members works for the USAID and he is willing to connect us with NGOs involved in beneficial humanitarian work. 

Now we just need to get over jet lag and settle in!




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