St. Andrew's and St. John's

After a very long day yesterday, we were all very excited to have the opportunity to sleep in a bit this morning. Some went with Dr. Grafton to the American University book store, while others enjoyed free time.
We met up again at about noon to walk over to St. Andrew's Church, where Dr. Grafton was the pastor, to hear about the ministry that they do there with the refugees. We heard from the directors of the children's program, the adult program and from two members of the staff, who were both refugees. We quickly discovered that the many issues that surround refugees here in Egypt are more complex than what meets the eye. A long and tedious process is involved just to be recognized as an official refugee, and even after that happens (if it does) the rights that it offers are very few. It is clear that the work and ministry that the people at St. Andrew's are doing is so important and needed in the community.
After a wonderful lunch of Egyptian take out, we got to hear about the program that is done with the young refugee men who are part of the gangs here in Cairo. The director of the program, Natalie, sat with us and told us all about the program and how it has grown over the past few years to make an impact on the violence and crime.
We were then lucky to be able to meet with two women from the Mennonite organization here in Cairo. There are not any Mennonite churches here in Egypt, rather they see their job as supporting those churches that are already here. These women shared with us their perspective of what it is like to be a western woman in this culture, something we as a group of mostly women, had been struggling with.
This evening we traveled to St. John's Anglican church to hear the priest there, Paul-Gordon Chandler, speak about a topic which he is clearly passionate about, the relationship between Christians and Muslims. We sat and listened to him for about an hour and a half (and could have listened easily for at least another 2 hours!) as he spoke about Mazhar Mallouhi and how he is a Muslim follower of Christ. Chandler uses Mallouhi in his book, Pilgrims of Christ on the Muslim Road, to give examples of how we are more alike in our faith than we know. An image he used that was particularly helpful for me was that of the Muslim symbol of faith, the crescent. The part of the moon that we see, the crescent, is the things about our faith that are different, but the part of the moon that we can't see, represents all the parts of the two faiths that we hold in common. If we build our relationships based on these shared things, than we can start to look at the parts that are different. He gave us many many things to think about, that I can only begin to scratch the surface now.We leave in the morning to travel to Mt. Sinai and visit St. Catherine's Monastery. Can't wait!
Blessings,
Stina Schaeffer