Friends words cannot express the gratitude within me for your support in sending me to Egypt. I wont lie to you, I was hesitant in trusting the Lord to provide for me to go. Yet He remains forever faithful and abundant in His love that regardless of my fear, He provided a way. The even crazier part was that all seven of the Ministry Apprenticeship students were able to completely raise their funds in full as well. God provided beyond our abilities and even our resources in order that we would all travel to the Middle East to share His kingdom.
Missions have continually marked my life and I continue to see the Lord move in incredible ways every time. This trip was no different. As you may know I’ve been in Tacoma, WA for two years now with Catalyst Seminary, immersing myself within community to help connect with Gods heart. The program has showed me what a biblical lifestyle looks like in modern day, what surrender to God looks like in a culture thats telling a generation to do the opposite, and how the great commission is truly intended for us to go out and share the gospel to the unreached. Catalyst has surfaced this very part of my heart, a part that has always been designed to be full of The Fathers love, connected with His plan and surrounded with love from relationships within the church body.
Truly I tell you all, my friends, Tacoma has changed my life.
This past trip to Egypt the Lord showed me what He has in store for me. However, before I get to that I’m excited to share about what happened while we were over in Cairo, Egypt. We didn't know much going in, the schedule kept changing and everything planned was constantly being shifted around. However the team had prayed before we even knew where we were going and knew wherever we stepped foot, the Lord wanted to raise up Josephs around us. He desired to pour out refreshment to the people we encountered, and He wanted to breathe hope into a broken people. When we landed in Cairo, the atmosphere immediately weighed on us and we knew this would not be an easy task. Yet, with zeal in our hearts and the Lords promises of all things being possible through Him, we walked confidently out of that airport.
The flat where we were going to be housed for the trip was in a outer suburb called Garbage City. It’s where most of the christian population live because its amongst the trash and the pigs, so in a predominately muslim nation, it made sense to put the christians with the trash. The poor also lived there, and because of the lack of a trash and recycling structure, it was also a means for people to work and sort the trash. As we walked down the streets, you couldn't help but be met by a pungent smell that overcame your senses. Our comforts started to be challenged and our flesh was screaming that this is too much. But we remained in Garbage City refusing to let discomfort stop Gods plan and went to what was next on the agenda. We started with house visits and ministering to the local community. We went in groups to pray for families and share the gospel to the surrounding homes in the neighborhood. The Holy Spirit showed up during those visits and healed hearts and spoke to salvation to children. Those times we simply walked in faith of where we should go, listened to what should be said, and spoke in love and compassion about the love of Christ. It was in the simple obedience and sharing of the gospel I was reminded of how the Lords created my heart to come alive!
We also partnered with YWAM and a team from Norway to worship and pray original design over the students attending the school in Cairo. We spent a day teaching Freedom material and praying original design over every student and visitor on the base that day! Truly nothing is more heart stirring than seeing Gods children be told how God has created them and how much He knows them through and through.
There were a couple days where the girls and guys split up and ministered in different places, the women went to a local foreign prison and the men spent a day teaching at a local church. When we went to the prison, we had a two hour drive to get there then about a four hour wait time to actually get inside the prison all the accumulate to a total of thirty minutes of visiting time. I’ll tell you what though, that thirty minutes was worth every second of driving and waiting. I met this women who was also from Russia, and her story was tragically beautiful. Without sharing too much I can tell you a little bit of her story. She’s from St. Petersburg, Russia (just like me) and she came to Egypt to visit and fell in love with an Egyptian man. They got married, had two boys and we’re living their lives to the best of their know how. Through unfortunate circumstances and shifty government policies she ended up in prison under false accusations but unable to prove her innocence she remains stuck in the foreign prison left to wait out her sentence. Her heart is hardened to the Egyptian people, believing they are all liars and cheats, her heart is angry at her husband for not fighting for her freedom, and her heart is broken for the missed time away from her sons as they are growing up. I saw a lot of who I used to be in her, in her independence and anger but I so thankful to just be with her and show her love and attempt to speak hope back into life’s circumstances. I got to pray with her, then as a group we all got to worship and sing praises to our Jesus and suddenly the entire room shifted for a moment and hope was rising around so strongly it was almost tangible to grasp. It was thirty minutes that marked my heart and she will never leave my memory.
Ending our time there we continued to visit churches and minister around the local neighborhood. We were seeing salvations, healing and people experiencing the love of God like they never felt before. People we were meeting were learning how to walk in freedom and begin to hear God on their own for the first times.
One of my favorite places we visited while we were there was called The Cave Church. Named so accurately because it was truly a cave in a mountain that was discovered and a church was made out of it. The story behind its start, well God moved a mountain in order for this church to exist and only came about through prayer from a few that so desperately craved a place to worship together. We met some of the local pastors in the church and were honored to pray for them as they needed, one was healed of a poorly healed broken knee injury and went from slowly limping to walking in strides with confidence in every step. The other was healed of stomach pains and invited us into the preparation room. (Fun fact: Women are not allowed in that room and all four of us girls were invited in.) It was an honor, and the presence of the Lord in that room was too much for words. Our only response that any of us could fathom was to pray, to thank God for His goodness, to pray for revival to come to Egypt, to pray for the church to bring in the multitudes, and to worship because its all we could do.
Yes we toured, rode camels and saw the coolest ancient sites in our entire lives. Yes we got to hang out with some of the most fun people I’ve ever met. Yes we heard peoples stories and found revelation for our own lives in the lessons they’ve had with God. Yes we prayed for many, loved on more, and taught all that we knew. Yet more importantly, yes we followed God, in His steps that were planned from the beginning of time for our group to walk in. We said yes to Him when He called us to go and in every moment after.
That was our teams trip to Egypt, and you helped me get there. So thank you from the bottom of my heart, with all my being for believing in me to go to the nations to see the love of Jesus be spread in the Middle East. I wouldn't have been able to go if it were not for your prayers, love and support!!!
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