St Luke's Church Eccleshill - Articles from "The Link"

News from Egypt

Extracts from the latest prayer letter from Chris and Angela Chorlton, our mission partners in Beni Suef, Egypt. All their letters are on our web site.

Our new flat is surrounded by fruit stalls, banks, shops and bakeries. Bread is the staple diet of most Egyptians, in fact the word for ‘live’ and ‘bread’ are the same! Bakeries are recognisable around town because they look like small prisons – they need the bars and a little hatch to dispense the bread as the crowds can be huge. You can hear a bakery by the shouting from a few streets away. Buying bread is not for the faint hearted! The first few weeks using our local bakery I was a bit of a celebrity, and always seemed to jump the whole queue (or mob!) each time. But then I suddenly lost my ‘Kosah’ and was kept waiting for ages each time.

‘Kosah’ is Arabic for courgette, but it also means ‘influence’ or ‘in the know’ and is usually a little dodgy. So for example when I give my students their exams back, the ones with a high mark will all get a comment like ‘Kosah’, meaning they only did well because of ‘influence’ with me!

At the bakery I noticed that a lot of the other people in the crowd often gave something to the guys behind the bars, like cigarettes. Being a non smoker I got my camera, took some pictures of the guys, and gave them all copies. This needs to be repeated monthly, but I have regained my ‘Kosah’!

Please continue to pray for the Christians of Egypt. There was quite a clash between Christians and Muslims not far from here a few weeks ago. Such things are not really talked about here so we felt quite detached from it all until the other day when Anna came home from nursery saying: “We have to pray for the baddies that they won’t put fire on the churches again!” (Quite a good translation we think. Not sure what the Arabic was, but nice to see they are teaching the power of prayer at her nursery!)

The evangelical (protestant) church in Beni Suef took part in the recent Global Day of Prayer. It was great to attend and pray with them for the numerous problems in the country and our town – such as high unemployment, violence, drug use, black magic, divorce (high among Muslims – rare in the Orthodox church), distrust among faiths and denominations ... . We were disappointed that the Orthodox Church didn’t take part. An Orthodox friend commented “We pray EVERY day, we don’t need a ‘day of prayer’”. So there is plenty of work to do here knocking down prejudices and misunderstandings on both sides. The day of prayer would have been a great opportunity to create a spirit of unity, badly needed here among Christians.

Chris Chorlton

	*St Luke's Church, Eccleshill - The Link* magazine** The Link is published monthly at 40p (Senior Citizens 35p), and we deliver free within the parish and post copies (at the reader's expense) to those who request it. Please contact us if you would like a free copy for a trial period. August 2007, Page 6.
Home Page. Index of articles: by subject, by date. In this issue: (August 2007) Prayer, Appointments, Hymnwriters, Egypt, Covenant. Other letters from Egypt.	News from Egypt Extracts from the latest prayer letter from Chris and Angela Chorlton, our mission partners in Beni Suef, Egypt. All their letters are on our web site. Our new flat is surrounded by fruit stalls, banks, shops and bakeries. Bread is the staple diet of most Egyptians, in fact the word for ‘live’ and ‘bread’ are the same! Bakeries are recognisable around town because they look like small prisons – they need the bars and a little hatch to dispense the bread as the crowds can be huge. You can hear a bakery by the shouting from a few streets away. Buying bread is not for the faint hearted! The first few weeks using our local bakery I was a bit of a celebrity, and always seemed to jump the whole queue (or mob!) each time. But then I suddenly lost my ‘Kosah’ and was kept waiting for ages each time. ‘Kosah’ is Arabic for courgette, but it also means ‘influence’ or ‘in the know’ and is usually a little dodgy. So for example when I give my students their exams back, the ones with a high mark will all get a comment like ‘Kosah’, meaning they only did well because of ‘influence’ with me! At the bakery I noticed that a lot of the other people in the crowd often gave something to the guys behind the bars, like cigarettes. Being a non smoker I got my camera, took some pictures of the guys, and gave them all copies. This needs to be repeated monthly, but I have regained my ‘Kosah’! Please continue to pray for the Christians of Egypt. There was quite a clash between Christians and Muslims not far from here a few weeks ago. Such things are not really talked about here so we felt quite detached from it all until the other day when Anna came home from nursery saying: “We have to pray for the baddies that they won’t put fire on the churches again!” (Quite a good translation we think. Not sure what the Arabic was, but nice to see they are teaching the power of prayer at her nursery!) The evangelical (protestant) church in Beni Suef took part in the recent Global Day of Prayer. It was great to attend and pray with them for the numerous problems in the country and our town – such as high unemployment, violence, drug use, black magic, divorce (high among Muslims – rare in the Orthodox church), distrust among faiths and denominations ... . We were disappointed that the Orthodox Church didn’t take part. An Orthodox friend commented “We pray EVERY day, we don’t need a ‘day of prayer’”. So there is plenty of work to do here knocking down prejudices and misunderstandings on both sides. The day of prayer would have been a great opportunity to create a spirit of unity, badly needed here among Christians. Chris Chorlton
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