Day 106, Alexandria, Egypt

Time for another update for everyone back home!



I'm sitting here on the second floor of a Starbucks I found in a hotel along the beach of the Mediterranean Sea in Alexandria, Egypt. I'm enjoying something American for a change, a luxury we haven't tasted in far too long. This past week has been difficult, but relaxing in a way.



On January 1st we traveled from the compound in the desert to an apartment on the coast of the sea. I was very surprised to find that our team, which is used to concrete rooms without heating or A/C and poor lighting with "lovely" bathrooms, would be staying in an apartment that looks out over the sea. The Lord really blessed us. Alexandria has been a breath of fresh air for us. After weeks in Cairo and Luxor, our team had been worn out by the constant stares and spiritual heaviness the cities provided so abundantly for us. Thank you Cairo and Luxor. Alexandria is a tourist city and the locals are used to seeing foreigners. In Cairo and Luxor we couldn't go ten feet without two or three men or kids trying to get money from us. The constant whistles and the never ending conversation of:



"Welcome to Egypt, would you like a carriage ride?"
"No thank you, we aren't going far"
"Only 5 pounds"
"No thank you"
"Only 5 pound, very cheep"
"No thank you"
"Please sir, very nice, very nice, good price, anywhere you like to go"
"No thank you, I will walk"
"Whats yer name?"
"Nick"
"Welcome to Egypt, come now, get in, only 5 Egyptian pounds, anywhere you like"
"No thank you, I am not going far"
"Yes yes, where are you from?"
"America"
"Welcome to Egypt, lucky boy, four wives, ooo lucky boy" (Pointing to the girls from the team)
"Yes, very lucky"
"Yes, only 5 pounds"
(here is where I started ignoring them....walked ten feet, and started the same exact conversation with another Egyptian man)



We haven't found any of this in Alexandria, no one begging to show us around, give us carriage rides or tell me how lucky I am to have 4-7 wives. After getting settled into the apartment we began to prepare for any kind of ministry we could find. There has been a local girl who has been helping us get into different places to do outreach. One thing that has been constant in our team is our own prayer times as a team. So many times this week I have had my own time in the morning where I read and pray and then we meet as a group and the verses I read and things I prayed about on my own somehow weaved themselves into what the group read in a devotion or we pray about the same thing. Its really amazing to see how God is speaking to each of us individually and giving us something to bring to the group.



We started our ministry with a trip to a girls orphanage.....



Our translator went with one of the other girls from our team to buy gifts for the orphans, and the rest of our team went straight to the orphanage. When we arrived we walked in and tried to start a program but found out that no one there spoke english.... This made things very difficult. It was an uncomfortable feeling being there. Something was stirring my spirit and I noticed it on the faces of the other team members also. There were many young girls who were playing with our hands and smiling, but I could tell they feared the older ladies that worked there..... I saw one of the women smack one of the girls on the back because she was laughing too loud.... The old ladies didn't want us there. We couldn't speak to anyone so we called our translator to find out where they were. For 30 uncomfortable minutes we tried our best to play with the girls, while one of us talked to our translator. We found out that the women at the orphanage didnt know that our team was a team of foreigners, and they didnt expect men to be there either. When our translator came with the bottles of bubbles and candy we tried to hand the girls the bubbles but the looked scared all of the sudden and wouldn't take them as they eyed the old ladies who were watching them. I stopped and said that if we were not going to be received here and weren't welcome that we needed to leave. The women told us that there were older ladies asleep upstairs and that we needed to leave because we were making too much noise and that we should come back the next day. We left, only to receive a call from the translator that evening to inform us that we were not welcome back at the orphanage.



From that orphanage we were told that we would be going to a boys orphanage. I had been asked to lead the outreaches here, to plan the program and get things going. As we rode in the van to the next orphanage I was going over what I would say and do, what dramas we would do, what message I would share, when we would give them presents and such. We pulled into the stone walls and got out. The first thing I saw was a mentally handicapped teen rocking on a special swing.....I prayed that this wouldn't be a home for mentally handicapped boys because my program and our dramas would be useless, we weren't prepared for this. God answered my prayer.....it wasn't a home for mentally handicapped boys, it was a home for old men and women....the "boys" at this "boy's orphanage" were the oldest "boys" I have ever met. They were all like 80 years old!



There goes the whole program I planned....woohoo....



Our dramas were designed for children, not old men. So we sat with them, prayed with them and shared a little bit about our lives and about God. When I went to go pray for one of the two handicapped teenage boys who were there I noticed his right hand was strapped to his wheelchair.... I tasted anger flicker in me for the first time since I left home. I quickly extinguished the anger and went to hold onto his other hand when I saw his sleeve slide back a little bit to reveal a deep rope burn on his left wrist, it was a big scar, half and inch wide and probably 1/8th inch deep. It was a scar but had fresh cuts in it also, telling me that they had been tying him down for a while. I felt my jaw clench as the anger burned violently in me. Instead of praying for healing, like we told the man in charge of watching them, I prayed against those men who were doing this to him and prayed for God to put him in the care of those who will treat with with love. Other things happened but I will try to keep these stories short.



Lemme try to be more brief. lol. We went and did a program at a church for youth yesterday, I spoke about sharing our faith and told the story of Jeremiah.



Yesterday our team talked about the prayer that Jabez prayed in 1 Chronicles 4:10, and prayed that God would bless our team. After our outreaches in the churches here we went out to grab something to eat. We were told that we were being taken to a nicer restaurant. It was indeed, what a blessing, an amazing break from the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and tuna and rice that has been making up our diet. At the end of the meal we all stood up to leave when one of the servers came up and asked us to be seated because the owner of the restaurant wanted to honor us..... No one knew or had seen the owner...we asked our guide if this is normal or has ever happened here before and she said it was very unusual... In a few minutes the servers brought several platters of fruits up to us! What a surprise! We ate them and the owner came to greet us and see how we were doing. He was very pleased to speak with us and learn our names and where we came from. After talking with him for a while we all stood up to take pictures with him and then got ready to leave when he told us to sit again for another surprise. We sat down and the servers brought up another desert of chocolate and vanilla pudding and jello with fruit in it! It was such a blessing! We had an abundance of food and desert last night. We asked for God to bless us that day, and He sure did!



One last story:
This morning me and Esther got up and made our way to Starbucks. About half a mile from the apartment I noticed a guy walking behind us. I didn't think anything about it.... Esther was on my right side and on her right was a stone wall. A few minutes later, mid-sentence, something made me stop and look up to see the man walking close to Esther, trying to squeeze between her and the wall to get past. Something made me immediately pull Esther to me to let the man pass.....He walked one step infront of us to the curb then stopped and turned around. We kept walking, I thought it was odd that he didn't continue walking, but shrugged it off. As weapproached Starbucks Esther said that her pants were ripped and pointed to a little tear, about two inches long, behind her right pocket. I said I was sorry, I never really know what to say when people say random things like that. Then she said that they JUST ripped, when the guy tried to pass her....This alarmed me, the stuck her fingers through the cut and said that she was bleeding a little. The man had cut her with a knife. We got to Starbucks and she went into the bathroom to wash up, I headed back to find the man. I knew that the other girls would come to Starbucks in a little bit and didn't want them to pass this guy. I could not find him. Esther was a little shaken up, but we knew this was an attack from the enemy to sow fear into our team. After every good outreach the enemy tries to shake us up, to scatter us and cause us to fear him. Me and Esther prayed into the situation and the Lord removed all fear from her and showed us more clearly the battlefield we are on here. The enemy will come against us but the battle is already won.



I am excited about our time here. We have more ministry here tonight and then we leave tomorrow to head back to the desert compound. Next Friday we leave Egypt and fly to Budapest for 1 day before heading to Mumbai, India. For those of you I haven't spoken to, I hope you had an amazing Christmas and Happy New Years!! I love you guys and hope to hear from you soon. Rebecca Pruett sent me an e-mail this morning with a verse I really liked and want to share with you all.


“These things I plan won’t happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed.” Habakkuk 2:3

Thanks Rebecca! I love hearing from you all and, as always, look forward to hearing whats going on in your lives back home!

In Him,
Nick Huber