Our time here in Luxor is almost done. We have been around the city quite a bit. This week we did many prayer walks around the city. I found out that this was the religious capital of ancient Egypt and there are many ancient temples to the Egyptian gods. There is a lot of witchcraft and pagan rituals here. Many horses and carriages are adorned with witchcraft charms. The most obvious is a charm shaped like a hand. Little metal hands dangle from everything....you can feel the spiritual tension with these charms. I was told that the Muslims here mingle witchcraft and voodoo in with their Islamic beliefs. If the Muslim chants shouted over the loud speakers all over the city five times a day aren't enough to constantly remind us that we are on a battlefield here, these charms do.
I just took a break from writing this letter to go up on the roof and pray with the Egyptian team. Our team split up today. They will be going to a different city. Up on the roof we had them stand in the middle as we prayed. Esther, one of our girls, said God gave her a vision of our team joining hand around their team and praying protection over them, except we were facing outwards. When we told them what we were going to do, one of the married women on the Egyptian team looked shocked. We joined hands, facing outward, and prayed for spiritual protection over them. After our prayer the woman from the Egyptian team asked her husband to share the dream he had before they left for their outreach. He had dreamed that his team was huddled together and a group of people were surrounding them, facing outward, fighting for them, protecting them, and when we prayed for them this is what happened. It is amazing watching dreams and visions come to pass.
We hiked to the top of the highest peak in Luxor this week, it is the mountain that makes up one side of the Valley of the Kings. To get there we had to make our way through the Egyptian markets and get a ferry ride across the Nile. Then we hopped in the back of a truck and traveled out of the city to the base of the mountain in the desert. From there we climbed 3,815 stairs which brought us a little over half way. The rest was climbing up loose rocks and through crevices. I was surprised at how little some of the team complained. lol. We all made it to the top and had a time of intercession. We buried Bible verses and proclaimed God's Kingdom in Egypt.
I continued on without the group and climbed around the rim of the mountain. On the other side (side opposite the city) I found myself looking out only a few lesser mountains below, and beyond that.....nothing but desert. A few minutes passed before I realized something that I haven't heard in a very long time: Nothing at all. It was completely silent...I mean COMPLETELY. Most of the time when we say it is quiet, you can still hear the leaves of trees, or faint almost unnoticeable bugs, or far off cars. Up here there were no trees, and no wind, no bugs, no people nearby, and we were miles and miles from the nearest car. I stood there in awe...I held my breath so I wouldn't hear it and stood completely still. It was an amazing experience. It makes me think about the moments before God created the earth. There was nothing at all....all was silent......It is easy for us to enjoy and marvel at some of the amazing sounds God creates, but we never really marvel at the beauty that God creates with silence. Silence isn't just the absence of sound, its something God created and true silence is something to stand in awe about.
We also made it into the Valley of the Kings, well, a few of us did. We made our way underground into the tombs. As I looked at the carved walls with all their hieroglyphics I noticed the sarcophagus of the ancient pharaoh (I wont mention his name). The mummy had been taken out and put in a Museum in Cairo, but his sarcophagus had a small gap between the lid and the base, allowing something small to be slipped in if someone could manage to do so without the guard noticing. I traced my fingers over the hieroglyphics and stooped down and got my Bible and journal out of my bag. I smiled as I left the tomb. I left a small piece of the Kingdom in that little room.
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