Mission News
June-July, 2005
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything,
by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your
hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
~Philippians 4:6-7
The fish was staring at me and I was staring back.
Fortunately, my fork gave me the upper hand.
The venue was Balbaa, one of Alexandria’s many seafood restaurants.
The occasion was something of a farewell dinner as Karen, Aaron, and I
joined two Egyptian pastors for one last round of seafood before we head out of
Egypt. That meal was not my last
farewell and certainly not the only one. Two
days later, Karen and I were invited to the home of Sanaa, one of our English
students, so we could share a meal and say goodbye.
When I return to Cairo I’m sure there will be at least one more such
meal to mark the end of a year in Egypt. However,
friends, coworkers, and fresh fish aren’t the only things I am bidding
farewell. There are many more
things (both good and bad) that I will be leaving behind as I return to
Virginia.
Over the past few weeks I have been preparing myself for
my departure and have been noticing all the things I will miss about Egypt –
in season produce year round, fresh strawberry juice from the stand across the
street, young students who write me love letters when they are supposed to be
paying attention in class, freshly baked bread on every corner, the hospitality
and generosity to strangers that are a huge part of Egyptian culture, taking
taxis across the city for less than a dollar, sunshine nearly every day,
conversations in broken Arabic with the friendly old lady with two teeth who
sells tomatoes at the market, walking almost everywhere, and regular
opportunities to meet and interact with an amazingly diverse community of
Christians. Of course, there are
also many things that I am looking forward to about my return to Virginia –
spending time with people I haven’t seen in a year, air conditioning, shorts,
trees, silence, clean air, driving, being able to understand and speak to
people, and walking outside without being harassed.
In preparing to leave Egypt, I am not only sad about the
things I will leave and excited for the people and things I have missed for a
year, but I have found myself growing anxious about transitioning back into
American culture because of the ways I have changed in Egypt.
At this point, I have no way of knowing how significant these changes
are, but for the past eleven months, I have learned to live with only the
material goods that fit in two suitcases. I
have grown accustomed to living more simply, to functioning without certain
modern conveniences like fast food, cable TV, and a car.
I have learned to appreciate what I have and not take so many things for
granted. This is a valuable lesson
that I hope to bring with me from Egypt, but I fear when I am surrounded by
advertisements and people telling me I need all these conveniences, it will be
harder to appreciate what I have.
In addition to my view of material goods, I think being
in Egypt has also helped me appreciate the non-material blessings of my life.
Every day in Cairo or Alexandria I encounter people who don’t have
nutritious food to eat or well-built homes in which to live.
I see people who are not here by choice, but because they were forced to
flee their homeland due to violence and war.
Here in Alexandria I am working at a school for children with
disabilities. Despite the
challenges they face daily, these kids are extremely fortunate not to be among
the majority of disabled Egyptians who end up begging for handouts on the street
or homebound with no one to care for them.
The two maids who work at the school where I live in Cairo and clean my
apartment are both, like most lower class Egyptians, completely illiterate. Although seeing these people struggling around me is not
something I enjoy, it has caused me to be thankful for my caring family,
comfortable home, well-stocked pantry, stable political environment, education,
and any number of other blessings that we tend to take for granted in the US.
Currently I am struggling with the anxieties of not
having a job, of acquiring the responsibilities
that come with marriage, and of returning to my own culture, having been so
deeply affected by another. Amidst these fears, I am reminded of Anthony, a Sudanese man I met just a few weeks ago at the
Alexandria Community Church. He
fled his home in Sudan seventeen years ago and has been living in Egypt, not a
citizen of Egypt, and not having refugee status, which could enable him to be
resettled in a western country. After
seventeen years in this limbo, he has decided it is time to return to Sudan and
plans to leave Alexandria at the end of this month, the same time I return home.
Unlike me, however, Anthony does not know where he will live when he
returns to Sudan. In fact, he does not know if the village from where he came
still exists. He does not know what
kind of work he will find, how he will support himself, or even how many of his
friends and family members are still living.
With such a new peace in Sudan, he cannot even be assured that that he
will be going home to a safe political climate. As we shared our prayer concerns in church this week, I found
myself inspired by his faith and reminded that God has promised to provide for
our needs. Whether it be an
uncertain journey into a war-ravaged country after seventeen years away, a plane
ride across the Atlantic to an eagerly waiting fiancé, friends, and family, or
some other life transition, we can trust God to guide us, provide for us, and
give us peace.
Please continue to pray for all the volunteers as we
return home and begin a new chapter of life.
Salem,
Lisa
June/July newsletter of Lisa Burke,
serving as a YAGM with the ELCA in Cairo, Egypt |
