Month: April 2013

Photo Essay Re-Blog: Easter Dinner With A Muslim Family In Dar el-Salam – Robert Johnson

Peanut Gallery: Egypt is in turmoil… it has been for a long time. But now, the world is watching. The news is filled with stories of political unrest, violence, persecution and international forces jockeying for position and influence. But what about ordinary Egyptian people (mostly muslim)… the poor people who do not make news headlines and are just trying to get a life – such as it is.

Robert Johnson, in this photo essay gives us a rare insight into the lives of these ordinary people. For more of Johnson’s photo-journal insights on Egypt – click here.
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My Extraordinary Easter Dinner With A Muslim Family From One Of The Poorest Cities In Egypt

Robert Johnson | Apr. 1, 2013, 7:20 AM

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/easter-dinner-in-dar-el-salam-2013-4#ixzz2PazWniwM

When a man I met on Friday invited me to his family’s home for Sunday dinner, it was an uncommon offer. When the invitation turned out to be in Dar el-Salam, one of Egypt’s most poverty stricken areas, Easter afternoon turned into a once-in-lifetime affair.

The road to Dar el-Salam is dirt and a crest of smoldering refuse lines the middle of it, picked over by cats, dogs, burros, kids, and collectors trying to bring home any money they can. It took four attempts to find a cab driver willing to take us. When we arrived, the man who invited me, Hani, sat with a group of 10 or so other men at an outdoor cafe. A small part of the local mafia family, he said he’d grown up beside them and they specialized in “whatever makes them money.”

From what I could tell their enterprise includes drugs and theft, but whatever it is offers them neighborhood wide-respect. They took me to a place I couldn’t have imagined and perhaps no one from the outside could have gone without a personal escort from them, definitely not an American with two big noisy cameras.

Back through the dusty, narrow alleys, past broken-down billiard tables shoved into mud brick rooms, haphazard grocery stores, and untold apartments, we came to a dead end.

A massive bed of gravel and rock led to a sheer cliff wall and the skeletal remains of apartments destroyed by the last rock slide.

dar-el-salam-2The families whose homes they took me into were unlike anything I’d ever seen, and far from hiding the situation they were in, the residents let me stomp into their home because they wanted to let the world know how they lived. They’d appreciate a bit of help from the new government, just picking up the trash would be a nice start, they said.

I’ve yet to meet someone happy with the results of the revolution and these people were no different. Their neighborhood started to slide about eight years ago, and has gotten dramatically worse in the past couple of years. Water bills have nearly doubled, rents have gone up and incomes way down.

One Muslim family of seven sleeping in a subterranean room invited us to stay for Easter dinner. An incredibly gracious offer we had to decline, as we made our way to Hani’s father’s apartment.

Dinner was on the table when we arrived. A big plate of French fries and a new bottle of Ketchup sat before the seat of honor, the middle of the couch where I was directed.
There’s just enough to get by on now, barely. When people like this can no longer feed their kids, they’ll have nothing to lose. Already they pine for the days of former president Mubarak.

Here are a few pictures from the visit. I’ll post a longer feature on the experience next week.

Robert Johnson/Business Insider

dar el-salam-17They did not have much, but they were all smiles and offering to share.

Robert Johnson/Business Insider

dar el-salam-20Washroom off the kitchen

Robert Johnson/Business Insider

dar el-salam-10Stairs

Robert Johnson/Business Insider

dar el-salam-13Without enough money, women are forced to share the same space as the men

Robert Johnson/Business Insider

dar el-salam-33Easter dinner, with French fries and Ketchup for the first American they’ve met

Robert Johnson/Business Insider

dar el-salam-35And then power went off, my host said it’s because president Morsi is selling electricity to Gaza. And charging 30 percent more than it cost under the former president.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/easter-dinner-in-dar-el-salam-2013-4#ixzz2PavhPaQ1

Geoff Surratt: My Prayer for Rick and Kay Warren – Re-Blog

Geoff Surratt: My Prayer for Rick and Kay Warren
By Geoff Surratt

angels_prayer-300x199My heart as a parent breaks for Rick and Kay Warren in the tragic loss of their son Matthew. While the pain of losing a child is almost incomprehensible to me, I can’t imagine having that loss splashed across the home page of every leading news website. And piled on top are the idiots who have never met Rick or Kay, but feel now is an appropriate time to spew their special brand of evil hatred. While I can’t alleviate their pain, protect them from the prying eyes of the insatiable media or throttle the fools who attack a family while they are down, I can at least share what I know of the character of this family.

During my time working for Rick at Saddleback I saw the heart of a gentle and loving father and grandfather. Between services almost every weekend most of Rick’s grandkids come busting into the greenroom with their parents in tow looking for Papa Rick. In doesn’t matter if George Bush, Tony Blair or CNN is there, Rick has time for a game of Tubby Tubby. (For the uninitiated, Tubby Tubby is when Rick lays on the floor and stacks the grandkids on his stomach. He then wraps his enormous arms around them and rolls from side to side calling out “Tubby Tubby” while the children collapse in squeals of laughter.) After a round of Tubby Tubby everyone grabs a juice box out of Papa’s refrigerator and Rick heads to the stage to preach another sermon to the Saddleback family.

Kay has amazing mother’s heart which has been broken again and again as she has seen her children struggle with enormous challenges. She walked with her son Josh and his wife as Jamie went through a terrifying battle with brain cancer. She comforts and supports her daughter Amy through years of struggle with a difficult to diagnose immune disease. In the midst of all of the challenges her children faced Kay waged her own war with breast cancer. And she did all of this with beauty and grace in the harsh spotlight of public scrutiny that she never asked for.

Woven through all of the challenges of leading a world famous church, answering the demands of thousands of church members and hundreds of thousands of admirers, fueling a worldwide movement to stamp out AIDS and to care for orphans, Rick and Kay have dealt as quietly as possible with the mental illness that finally led their youngest son Matthew to take his own life this past week. Very few people outside of family, close friends and Saddleback staff members realized the daily anguish Rick and Kay dealt with as they desperately tried to help Matthew. Many times Rick or Kay had to cancel public appearances at the last minute to try to help Matthew through another crisis. When I got the email on Saturday morning saying that Matthew had died I knew all that I needed to know. Matthew had ended his long and tortured battle the only way he saw possible. And a family who have known more pain than most could endure now have to face the worst and face it while the world looks on.

My prayer, and I hope your prayer, for Rick and Kay and Josh and Jamie and Tommy and Amy and all of the Warren family is that they will experience the peace that Paul speaks of in Philippians, a peace that passes all human understanding. Rick and Kay are wonderful parents and grandparents. They are remarkable leaders. They are kind and caring people. But today they are hurting and brokenhearted humans, just like you and me. Will you join me in praying for healing that can only come from God?

Morning Reading: Luke 18.9-14 (NLT) – humble yourself

Reading: Luke 18.9-14 (NLT)

Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else: “Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else. For I don’t cheat, I don’t sin, and I don’t commit adultery. I’m certainly not like that tax collector! I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’

humble yourself“But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

Scripture Song: “Humble Thyself in the Sight of the Lord” – James 4.10

Egypt update: Funeral Attacked at Egypt’s Biggest Church as Religious Violence Kills Six Copts (Christianity Today)

Peanut Gallery: Please click on the links scattered throughout this article. They will give you a quick overview of what’s taking place in Egypt today.
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Funeral Attacked at Egypt’s Biggest Church as Religious Violence Kills Six Copts

(UPDATED) President Morsi to Pope Tawadros: ‘I consider any aggression against the cathedral an aggression against me personally.’
Melissa Steffan

Update (April 8): CT’s Cairo correspondent offers a thorough roundup at Arab West Report.

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An injured man was helped outside the main Coptic Christian Cathedral in Cairo on Sunday. Coptic Christians make up about 10 percent of Egypt's population.
An injured man was helped outside the main Coptic Christian Cathedral in Cairo on Sunday. Coptic Christians make up about 10 percent of Egypt’s population.

A riot during a funeral for four Coptic Christians has ignited sectarian tensions in Cairo once again. A clash that killed four Christians in a northern suburb simmered over into the funeral at St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in the capital city, killing two people and injuring at least 90.

The weekend, which left six people dead in three days, marks the worst violence against Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt’s population, since the election of President Mohamed Morsi late last year.

The Associated Press reports that “the clashes at the St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Cathedral began just after hundreds of angry Christians left the complex to stage an anti-government march following the funeral for the four Christians killed in sectarian clashes Saturday.”

A Coptic Christian hurt in attack on mourners Sunday. (Morning Star News photo)
A Coptic Christian hurt in attack on mourners Sunday. (Morning Star News photo)

The scores of Muslim rioters who attacked funeral goers “[pelted] the mourners with stones … flash-bang grenades, tear gas, fire bombs, and other improvised weapons [and] set cars ablaze,” according to Morning Star News.

Following the fighting at St. Mark’s, Morsi condemned the attacks and ordered an investigation of the violence, promising protection for both Muslims and Christians.

CT previously has reported on Egypt and violence against Coptic Christians there, including a dispatch from Cairo on how Egyptian Christians were feeling on the first anniversary of their nation’s revolution. Egypt’s Copts are facing the future under an Islamist regime, including a hastily completed constitution that limits some previously guaranteed personal freedoms. Most recently, CT reported on the possible rise of Coptic evangelism in Libya and Sudan.

In addition, CT reported on the death of Pope Shenouda, the former leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church, and also on the election of Pope Tawadros last year.

posted by Melissa Steffan

Morning Reading: Luke 18:1-8 NLT – persistent prayer

Reading: Luke 18:1-8 NLT

One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up.

image

“There was a judge in a certain city,” he said, “who neither feared God nor cared about people. A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, ‘Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy.’

The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, ‘I don’t fear God or care about people, but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!’”

Then the Lord said, “Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly!”

“But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?”

Prayer: Lord Jesus – Make me as persistent in my love for you… as you are in your love for me. Holy Spirit – Help me to express my love for you in prayer. Heavenly Father – Hear the cries of my heart… and grant me your peace. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Spiritual Song: “One Thing Remains” – Jesus Culture