London . . . from the Bible to the Beatles

Is it time to go home already? Both of us are having a difficult time grasping that our trip is soon coming to an end. Incredible does not do it justice. The next time you hear from us, Lord willing, we will have arrived safely at home and on to real life.
The last few days we have spent in London and have thoroughly enjoyed our time here. It is a city of many nations and tongues, a little bit of heaven and a lot like New York City.
We have walked and walked and walked and ridden train after train and managed to see many of the tourist sites like Buckingham Palace, Parliament, Tower of London, Tower bridge, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abby (this city is overloaded with old churches) and some out of the way neighborhoods. We spent time at the British Museum which has a lot of old stuff, like really old stuff and then walked to the British Library where we saw more old stuff including the two oldest complete manuscripts of the Bible (Roger was in his element) and manuscripts of Handel’s Messiah, Beatles original manuscripts, the original Alice in Wonderland and many, many more famous works. Soo fascinating!
Today we worshiped at All Souls Anglican church and it was exhilarating. The church was packed with people of all ages and from many nations. Between the organ, orchestra and fabulous singing of the congregation and choir and excellent expository sermon on James 3, it seemed like we were experiencing a little bit of heaven.
While we were walking the streets of old London today, it reminded us of a Dickens novel with the narrow cobblestone streets and small shops. Charming. We would love to return to see more of the city as well as more of England.
As we traveled around the world and followed the World Cup, both are coming to a close tonight. We are grateful for the time that we have had together celebrating our more than forty years of love for each other, for the many cultures that we have experienced and how they have widened our worldview and for the many wonderful people whom we have met. One thing that we have observed is that people all over the world are basically the same; looking for something or someone to fix the wrongs of the world. We know the answer is in Christ.

Portugal . . . Cascais, Sintra, and Lisboa

We just arrived in London (obviously we are a little late in getting this posted) after spending a wonderful few days in Portugal. What a delightful country. It must be Europe’s hidden gem. To make the stay even more enjoyable, we were able to spend some time visiting with our friends, Robb and Anna and their kids and hear more about their ministries with the Christian school in Cascais, Young Life, and MOPS. It’s always exciting to hear how God is using willing hearts to further his kingdom. We knew that we were in a western country when we noticed that baksheesh was missing from the daily run of life, the people drove with some semblance of order, although equally fast, and the streets were clean (not that all western streets are clean . . . just cleaner). Oh, and the euro.
While in Portugal, we were able to see and explore centuries-old castles, cathedrals and palaces; walk the cobblestone streets (As an aside, every country that we have visited on this trip has decorative sidewalks . . . no plain cement slabs for these folks. It’s amazing that everyone doesn’t end up with broken bones but I guess that they are used to walking on them.) of Lisbon and Sintra, a charming, though touristy, small town in the mountains near Cascais; eat our share of “pastries de belem”, yummy sweet custard tarts that you can find everywhere; enjoy beautiful vistas from various points in Lisbon and Sintra; became pretty adept at taking buses, trains, trams, the metro and even an elevator (not what we would think of an elevator to be) to wherever we wanted to go and eat some popular salted cod dishes, a staple in their diet (sorry Portugal, but we vote for Jamaican salted cod dishes, like ackee and salt fish and callaloo and salt fish . . .yummy); witness a major traffic jam in the narrow, hilly streets of Lisbon due to a protest by workers. We’ve enjoyed it all. With such a short time there, we might just have to make a return trip to see all the sights that we missed.
Now to explore London . . .

Egyt: From Cairo to Sinai

Ahhh, Egypt. We have a love /hate relationship with you. We love the felucca (sail boat) rides on the Nile and walking along it at sunset. We love the pyramids, the Citadel and the history represented in the Egyptian museum. We love Coptic Cairo. We love the food, especially koshary, a rice, lentil and macaroni dish that is an Egyptian favorite. We love Zamalek, the area in Cairo where we are staying, which is full of beautiful old buildings and huge trees, offering shade from the hot summer sun. We love St. Catherine’s Monastery and Guest house and the beautiful setting in the shadow of Mt Sinai (we even walked up . . . at night, no less, and down the mountain and can still move). We love the Metro with its very low price. We love the old mosques and the Islamic architecture present everywhere. We love the cool breeze that somehow always seems available to cool one off. We love worshiping, as we did tonight, with many Egyptian believers and seeing many come to know Christ in a huge Evangelical church. We love the beauty and kindness of the Egyptian people and the vibrancy that they bring to life and their sense of community, so lost in western culture.
Unfortunately, we are less than thrilled with your idea of baksheesh, or what we would call a tip or begging, for any information requested or offered without request. Because we are not used to being constantly hassled, this makes life difficult, especially in tourist areas. We have lived in a country where being conned was common, but it pales compared to your brand. You have it down to a science.
We are disappointed with your lack of tourist-friendly sites, considering you make a huge amount of money from tourism . . . a map of the site might be included in the entry price. Of course, all of this does provide jobs for the many seeking to be guides.
We have added your drivers to the millions of drivers worldwide who are maniacs on the road. Trying to cross the street in your country can be a nightmare
All this being said, now that we have been here once, we would return with a better understanding of what is expected of us and our outlook would be different. There are many things yet to see here. Tomorrow we will be leaving for Portugal and entering a more western environment where the lifestyle is again different.
As most of you are celebrating the July 4th holiday, be grateful for the freedoms afforded us in the USA and yearn for a sense of community exhibited by countries like Egypt. May we, as believers, demonstrate true community as taught by Christ.