End of May to 2 of June

May went by rather fast. We had temperatures spiking as high as 111 but then dropping down in the high 80s. We are having some progress with our church membership. Above are 3 investigators who Wael ,in the middle, has been teaching. Wael has only been a member just over a year and I was privileged to be ask by him (below) to ordain him to the Melchizedek priesthood. Two others in this group were likewise ordained.

The Gathering Center was closed almost all of May. The African school (on the banner) has class above us and they had built a classroom without permits. To be cautious we moved our programs 1.2 miles to where we hold church. Last night we had our first classes there again. I helped tutor the children from 4-6 pm, while Kathleen taught piano lessons. We also always bring something for them and they families to eat. There were a lot of people there last night and they went through 2 boxes of fig cookies and I sent out one of the older boys to buy a big bunch of bananas, which were all eaten. The church has had 2 senior couples here and one is being transferred to Lebanon this week. Kathleen and I will be glad to handle everything.

We are with Fady, who is still investigating the church. He is now working 2 hours outside of Cairo and has missed church the last few months. We arranged to meet him for dinner at a restaurant on the Nile. He is going to Canada in a couple of weeks to look for work.

These are Jared Webber, who I replaced as branch clerk (membership and financial), Farajella, who is planning to serve a mission at the end of the year and is the assistant branch clerk, and Lam, who is not yet a member. Farajella was also recently ordained an elder.

The next two pictures are from an NGO, Hand-in-Hand. We traveled there to interview and see some of their work. The lady on the left is an Egyptian and lost one leg from diabetes. Many of the refugees and poor Egyptians lack resources to treat their diabetes and often lose limbs to it. This lady was very grateful and can now walk without assistance.    

The next picture is a lady from Sudan, who lost one leg from diabetes and then had a bomb fragment lodge in her other foot. As a result, that foot became severely infected and when she arrive in Egypt had to have that leg also removed. She was very positive and grateful for the prosthetic limbs. She told us that now she can help her family by going to the kitchen and cooking.

Our friend, church member, and my Arabic teacher, Mariam Hanna, was sick today so we took her a lot of fruit. Kathleen is in the alley leading to her apartment and the picture to the left is the entrance. A very poor area with a very wonderful family.

This coming Friday will be Eid AlAdha, which celebrates the almost sacrifice of Abraham's son. Of course, the Muslims believe it was his older son, Ismael, who was almost sacrificed. Millions of animals will be killed across the Islamic world. Note that the market has no refrigeration and the meat is hanging in the open. 

One last picture of a pretty tree on the walk to Mariam's house. The knobs on the tree were interesting.