Focus on the Good

A widely circulated photo of Christians surrounding Muslims during their prayer time to keep them safe.
Egyptians are using whatever they can find to make barriers into neighborhoods to protect the people and their belongings.

These next 2 photos are of the men who have come together and are protecting the streets, literally around the clock.


The whole world is watching what is going on in Egypt. It is kind of surreal being here at this time. As my younger son said "It's kind of cool being here right now." For those of you who know him, you understand. Our family has received so many emails, phone calls, and posts on Facebook to tell us they are praying for us. There is nothing like being in a country going through a revolution to help you get thrown to the forefront of peoples' minds. We are so thankful for all of the prayers.

The sad thing is, in lots of cases, people who have reached us have told us of things they have heard on the news that is not true or are over exaggerated.

For one, someone told us they heard on the news that the US was recommending all US citizens should get out of Egypt. A dear friend of mine called Washington, and my husband called the US Embassy here. They both told us the same thing. They said they are advising Americans, if they have enough food, to stay put. They did not know why people were getting the idea the US was promoting the idea of "getting out". There are reportedly somewhere between 50,000 and 90,000 Americans in Egypt, and the last I heard, there had been only around 2,000 that have left.

Another thing that had been reported was that the violence had turned towards foreigners living here and that foreigners were being hunted down, kidnapped, etc. This is very untrue. The Egyptians are very focused on the revolution. They are very focused on coming together, Christian and Muslim, young and old, rich and poor, for one reason: their freedom. They are not even thinking about the foreigners living here right now.

One of the things that can really hurt is the way the media goes about reporting the news. Usually they focus on the bad things that are happening. They fail to focus on the good things. There are so many good things happening here. Neighbors are helping each other. We have met neighbors we may have never met before. They are asking if we are doing ok and if we need anything. We had neighbors bring us water one day when the water had been turned off. This has never happened before. Neighborhoods all over Egypt have formed "Neighborhood watch" groups, to protect their homes, families, and friends.

As a Christian, I read from the Bible that we go through trials. Those trials come into our lives to make us stronger. This is our prayer for Egypt right now. We are praying that what they are going through right now will make them a better and stronger nation. There have been inspiring pictures of people helping each other and putting their differences aside, such as the picture above of the Christians surrounding the Muslims to keep them safe as they pray. This mirrors what happened a few weeks ago when Muslims surrounded churches to keep them safe after a bombing of a church in Alexandria.

How ironic as I am sitting here writing this that CNN is doing a report on how people are helping each other with food and drinks down in Tahrir Square. It is showing how everyone is bringing food and drinks and sharing it with each other. They even offered the reporter and the camera man some. I hope that many across the world see this report of acts of kindness amid all of the reports of violence and anger.

So, even though there have been very rough times during the last week and a half, there is a lot of good coming out of the situation as well. As we say in Egypt, elhumdulallah (sp?), which means "the praise goes to God". This is our prayer.

The Citadel Mosque in Cairo

The Citadel Mosque is a really neat place to visit when one comes to Cairo. It is beautiful from the inside out.

One of Cairo's most popular tourist attractions is the Citadel which houses a number of museums, ancient mosques and other sites, located on a spur of limestone that had been detached from its parent Moqattam Hills by quarrying. The Citadel is one of the world's greatest monuments to medieval warfare, as well as a highly visible landmark on Cairo's eastern skyline.

Pictures From the Past

An old sausage press.


Can anyone tell me what this is? (Answer on bottom.)





The picture above, that I asked about, is a toaster. Some of you may have known, but it really threw me at first.

These are just some more pictures I took at Wilson's Creek Battlefield.

A Trip to the Past

Our family took a short drive last Saturday to an area very close to where we live called "Wilson's Creek Battlefield". It is a national park and is an area where a battle took place during the Civil War. Today, August 10th, is the anniversary of that battle, and because of the anniversary there were some special activities that went on there this past weekend.

The first thing we did was watch a movie that was about 20 minutes long about the battle that took place at Wilson's Creek 148 years ago today. I'm not much of a history buff, but I do admit the movie was quite interesting. Missouri was one of the only States that was split on its decision whether to stay with the Union, which was the Northern States, or go with the Confederates which were the Southern. The battle was considered a victory for the South, but it was not a strong enough victory to take Missouri away from the Union.

The next thing we did was park the car and walk a beautiful scenic route back to the site of a mill was called Gibson's Mill. As you can see, it was a beautiful, sunny day and a nice day for a walk. Doesn't the creek look inviting?

The beautiful, green path we walked.

After this, we went to see a house that was actually there during this famous battle in Missouri. There was a family that lived there called the "Ray" family. There were 12 people who lived in this small house, and then a slave and her 4 children that occupied a cabin in back of the house. The house has been redone but still has the original fireplace. The house was occupied till around the 1960s. During the battle, most of the family stayed in the cellar which was under the house. When the battle was over, they left the cellar, only to find all kinds of dead and wounded soldiers all over their yard and fields. So, the house served as a hospital during and after the battle.

The original fireplace.

The house of the Ray family.

The next thing we watched was a demonstration of how the soldiers shot a cannon and how the infantry loaded and shot their weapons. This was very interesting to me. The cannon took around 6 to 7 men to operate it. In both this group and the group of men in the infantry we took notice of how there were even very young men, practically still boys, who participated. This is not unlike what it would have been like back then.


There was lots of other things to do and observe, but by this time, we were 2 hours past our lunch time. So, we decided to call it a day. Tim and Dillon went back the next day and went to the museum and to a seminar on how to trace your ancestry back to Civil War times. Tim really enjoys tracing his ancestry and has done this for many years, but that will be a topic for another post here soon.

Tomorrow, I'll try to post some more pictures of this adventure, as there were just too many to post in this one post.