Egypt Journal #8

JOURNAL: November 24, 2006 - Friday - 11:39 p.m.

The pace of the trip over the past couple of days has made it next to impossible to find time for journaling. The little free time I have had has been spent reading and trying to finish some of the books I brought along from my classes.

We are in the Sinai now, near the monastery of St. Catherine and staying these next two nights in a hotel here. Tomorrow, we tour the monastery (which is Greek Orthodox) and then climb Mt. Sinai, or what in Arabic is called "Jebel Musa."

Last night, we were at a hotel on the Red Sea, on the African side of the Suez Canal. We toured the monastery of St. Paul yesterday afternoon. It is ancient and is named after the original Egyptian desert hermit - St. Paul, who even St. Antony recognized as the first Christian monk. The monastery was small and sparse, and the monk who led us around had an ancient look about him (although he was probably only middle-aged). This was easily the most austere place we have visited.

This morning, we visited the nearby monastery of St. Antony, an extremely popular pilgramage site for Copts. Our guide was Abba Ruwais, who combined holiness and humor in a way much like Abba Nicodemus at St. Bishoy. Father Ruwais spent a great deal of time with us, and David Grafton, from the Protestant Seminary in Cairo (who is now travelling with us), said that this was exceptional treatment. He said that Father Ruwais commented to him as an aside that he liked our group a lot.

Two observations: 1) the monks at St. Antony claim that the physical monastery dates back to the 4th century. The church of St. Antony inside has the most impressive frescoes we have seen, and Father Ruwais claimed that the dome dates from the 5th or 6th century. St. Antony's relics are under the main altar, which we saw. That little church simply defies description.

2) Father Ruwais did all that he could to make our visit an act of worship. He blessed us with oil - on the forehead for our thinking, on the throat for our speaking, and on the wrists for our acting. He splashed us all with water from Antony's spring as a blessing. He prayed the Lord's Prayer with us in each of the two monastery churches. And he gave us each a small loaf of the type of flat bread that they use for Holy Communion (still warm from the oven!). It was a tender, beautiful form of evangelism. He was a man who seemed to be filled with the peace of God in everyway.

One other thing - when we were in the bookshop and I was talking to Father Ruwais, he casually took my right arm, rolled up my sleeve, and drew a picture of St. Antony on my forearm with a ballpoint pen. I am looking at it right now. Simply remarkable. Father Ruwais was so tender in all that he did, and he preferred to walk or stand while holding someone's hand - male or female, it did not matter.

Tonight, we drove 6 hours to cross the Suez canal (through an underground tunnel) and drove down the Sinai coast. Very tired now, but excited about tomorrow.

Missing Emily. Yesterday was Thanksgiving back home, and we spoke briefly on the phone.