I would easily describe Egypt as my most "successful" and enjoyable visit to a Muslim, Arab speaking nation, yet.
Our month here was stacked with divine appointments and wonderful experiences.
The climax of all these experiences happened last night when we found ourselves sitting in front of a Liquor store (photo left), 1h30 in the morning, giving a Bible study to Christians in desperate need of some fellowship.
I'll summarize some of the experiences:
In Cairo I met a guy on the street who wanted to know more about Christianity. That's usually enough to draw your attention, but the conversation really took off when he said that he is also reading the Bible and has seen two visions of Jesus.
In the visions he is running from some sort of danger when Jesus tells him to relax and just believe in him. Incredible.
I spent about three hours with him roaming the streets of Cairo. Deep in conversation. I also had the opportunity of showing him the places in the Quran where it speaks well of Jesus.
He is not fully convinced of the Gospel yet, for instance he still struggles with the fact that Jesus died, but he's fully interested in Jesus.
From Cairo we moved to Dahab.
In Dahab, among the many Muslims, we met quite a few Christians belonging to the Coptic church. All of them in desperate need of discipleship and fellowship. Many of them are just nominal Christians, caught in the sometimes legalistic traditions of Christianity.
There is also no church in Dahab or set way for them to meet each other weekly. So once a month or so they travel to the closest Coptic Church 100km's away in Sharm El-Sheikh, attend the Sunday service and then return to Dahab again.
But they have no knowledge about something like a Bible study, weekly fellowship or House church so no spiritual growth is taking place.
They also work extremely hard. The one guy, let's say, John, runs a General Store. His friend, Jim, runs the shop next door which is the Liquor store. Jims brother Pete runs a Jewelry store down the road and the 4th guy, Bob, also runs a Jewelry store.
None of them owns his own shop, they are just the managers. And they are open everyday from 8 or 9 am to 1h30 am the next morning, 7 days a week! Just to keep their bosses, the owners, happy.
But it is these guys that we slowly befriended and then finally got them to join us in Bible study. Only problem was they had no other time than 1h30 in the morning.
So for the past three nights that's what we've been doing. And that's how, on one of the nights, we ended up in front of Jim's Liquor store with our Bibles in our laps.
On Sunday we are traveling to Sharm El-Sheikh to go visit the Coptic Priest there. Hopefully we can discuss the future of these Bible study groups in Dahab.
Please pray for John, Jim, Pete and Bob (all pseudonyms of course) as they discover the value of fellowship.
Now for the tropical fish: Dahab, of course, has some of the most beautiful coral reefs in the world. As I snorkel it is striking to see the stark contrast between the barrenness of the Sinai desert and the array of bright colours when you dip your head below the water.
I pray that the hearts of the people here will be the same. That when you dip your head in their hearts you will see God's splendour.
Even though the only place we could find to do Bible study was between stacks of Heineken and Stella cans.
God will rescue this nation.
Left: The big team on top of Mt. Sinai
Left: Explore Africa at Anafora