Egypt

They were tired, battered, and fleeing for their lives. The army was on their heels. Not only had they stood strong during the plagues, the persecution, and the whips of the slave drivers, but they were now being led by one man who seem to have brought so much pain with him.

Their leader stood with courage. He had been given orders and was carrying them to the best he knew how. He felt blind and unsure of his next move. He could hear the wave of whispers from the people in the crowd, “They are almost here… why, why did we follow this man? We’re about to be massacred. It would have been better if we had stayed.” Even so, their leader had yet to complete his mission, so he pressed on. As he and the crowd crest the hill their hearts sank as they saw what was before them. Surely they would now die.

“Let my people go.” Moses recalled his repeated request to Pharaoh. God commissioned Moses to do just that. Although such a task seemed impossible, God provided. It took perseverance and trust, but God followed through. Now His people were free and yet trapped between army and sea. The Israelites stared at Moses with angst in their eyes and fear in their hearts. He looked heavenward and approached the sea with passion. The army was advancing. So was the Lord. Moses raised his staff into the air and with great strength, struck the sea.

Time stood still. Egyptians and Israelites stopped at the very view before them. They were mystified. God was in the sea. They now understood. He too was in the plagues, in the death of the sons all throughout Egypt, in the cloud of dust by day and fire by night… and now their eyes were open to see that He too was in the water before them. He’s in everything. Moses claimed victory for the Lord and placed his sandaled foot onto the coral-ed sea floor. He was in the presence of the Lord. He turned around and welcomed the Israelites to join in on a great once in a lifetime adventure...

To walk with the Lord THROUGH the Red Sea.

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When I approached the Red Sea, I didn’t quite get the same experience… although when my goal was snorkeling, I’m glad that the sea did not part. As the waves rocked me and I swam further out I couldn’t believe what I was doing. I was swimming in the very sea of miracles. There were so many amazing sites in the sea. Colorful coral, large and small fish, star fish, great depths… so many cool things to look at. I wonder what it was like the Israelites crossed that sea.


On the way to the Red sea, our plane soared over a range of rocky mountains. Ryan squinted his eyes and looked out the window and told me to look for a mountain top with a small white church on top. We finally found it and as I’m staring at it Ryan said “That’s Mount Sinai.” “Wait…… hold on…. WHAT???????” Mount Sinai….. the mountain that Moses met God. The mountain that the Lord gave Moses the Ten Commandments. The mountain right below me was THAT Mountain. Can I just pass out already??? Haha. I was in awe the entire time I was in Egypt.


My trip began with us going to the top of this mountain outside of Cairo to get a great view of how big the city was. It was HUGE. The view was spectacular. Only in the Middle East would you find huge mosques that take the cake and are the focal point in the skyline.

The sun setting over the city allowed for some sweet pictures… and so, of course I had to take tons. The place we were at was the home of an Egyptian Coptic Church within a cave of the mountain.


It was an awesome structure. Everywhere there were carvings of bible stories and scripture in Arabic.



The next day I got to spend two hours in the Egyptian museum. Unfortunately no camera’s were allowed inside the building so I can’t provide you pictures of the Rosetta stone, King Tut’s Mummy, and other fascinating items but they are there! It was kind of insane how the Museum is set up. I’m used to museums in the US where EVERYTHING is blocked off so you cannot touch. Guards are everywhere. One time I was at an art museum where my friend Ethan touched a piece of Art and got verbally beat up by the guard who had nothing better to do than protect that one piece of art. Now, however, priceless artifacts were just out in the open in Egypt. When I first got into the museum I was overwhelmed with all the tour guides speaking Arabic so I just went on my own. I found these sweet wooden carved coffins that at one point cased the Mummy of an Egyptian Pharaoh. So I look around and I touched it! I waited… and no guard was there to verbally beat me up! SAWEEEET! I was touching Mummy coffins and I didn’t feel a bit morbid. It was art, it was history, and I was getting a chance to encounter it all. I was touching the coffins that Egyptians long ago carefully carved out. Although it was a coffin, it was their art. Their chance to let out their creativity, to express to others the beauty they see in a single object. And it was beautiful. As you can see from my pictures, I’m obsessed with textures, color, and antiqued items so of course I spent a long time looking at everything.

The museum was so big that I probably only saw 60% of it within two hours. I was amazed with how many artifacts they were able to discover. Other than the beautiful carved coffins, my favorite part was the parchment writings in Ancient Egyptian. Each small icon painted on weathered cloth was beautiful. I tend to think anything is beautiful though…. Poor Ryan had to stop and wait for me to take all these random pictures of things such as these bricks that had Arabic written on them. I just thought it was beautiful.


We got to go to an Egyptian market that day too. Everything was beautiful! I got to buy a few Middle Eastern Looking candle lamps (glass), which amazingly made it back to Kenya without being broken!



That night we got to meet up with one of Ryan’s friends and have dinner on the Nile. Another one of the amazing biblical references on Egypt. Hello, baby Moses’s personal little river to royalty! It was a beautiful place. His friend was hilarious, he wanted to know American phrases so that he could say it to all his Egyptian friends. He, unfortunately liked to try them out on our waiter. So phrases like “Get lost” or “Scram” didn’t go over so well with our waiter. We tried to teach him context too… it was good for a good laugh though!


The next day Ryan and I headed out for the Pyramids! Before we left for them, however we had breakfast. We sat at a table and although there were tons of open tables, a Nigerian man decided to sit with us. We all shared some small talk and he found out that we were Americans. He looked at us in all seriousness and with a strong Nigerian accent and asked this question: “Are you Asian-Americans or Afro-Americans?” I seriously did not know what to say. I just looked at Ryan with my food just resting in my mouth. I knew if I swallowed I’d probably choke as I was already holding back my laughter. I mean really? As if we look Asian or African…and as if those two were the only options we could be.” Ryan just looked at the man and said, “Oh no, sir… we are just regular American.” Not sure what a regular-American is either but I guess since we weren’t the other two options that fit better. After breakfast though and as soon as Ryan and I got in the elevator, we died of laughter and have since referenced that question many times.!


Ok, back to the pyramids! I saw them from a distance and couldn’t believe it! The cool pyramids I saw in National Geographic and history books was now RIGHT in front of me! Ryan surprised me with a horseback ride through the pyramids! ☺


The one thing he didn’t know, though, was that I had never ridden a horse! Haha. Here’s how my first experience went down: I was pretty nervous but more nervous about my horse getting spooked by something and then galloping off into the desert with me on its back. As we were walking down the city streets to get to the sands of the desert, a car rounded the corner I too was rounding. He was driving really close to me and a little too aggressive. I thought for sure my horse was going to get spooked. My instant reaction was to do all possible to not have the car hit my horse. And my reaction was to kick my legs out so that the car would hit me and not my horse. Next thing I know, my foot hit something and the man’s side mirror was flying into the air and landed a few feet to my left. Ryan was in front of me and didn’t see it happen so I tried to do that yell/whisper thing to get his attention. “Ryan, Ryan….. I just kicked off that guy’s side mirror OFF and I think he’s pretty mad.” Sure enough, I turned around and the man had stopped his car and was getting out to retrieve his mirror. That should teach him to drive more carefully around horses and nervous tourists! ☺ His car was still there when we got back from our tour but thankfully there was on repercussions!


The pyramids were awesome! I stopped my horse constantly to take pictures. They were HUGE! I just kept saying “Oh my….. Oh my….” Then Ryan pointed out the Sphinx. ... WOW!


It was all amazing and beautiful. I snapped tons of pictures and just loved being there. With my brother. He was incredible…


totally fluent in Arabic. I would suggest hiring him if you ever want to tour Egypt. Best tour guide, and best translator! It never ceased to impress me. Hearing him speak really taught me that perseverance pays off. He’s been taking Arabic for about seven years now and now can speak it amazingly well! I felt privileged to hang out with him in Egypt where he could use this skill of his.



After the horse back ride, we walked around the pyramids for a few hours, touching them, taking sand from them, and just standing in awe. We got a horse carriage ride back down to the bottom of the LONG hill and ended our experience with PIZZA HUT!!!!!!! This pizza hut had the best view! Here’s a view from our window looking out at the pyramids could it get any better than that? Pizza and pyramids. I submit that it cannot.

We got invited to an anniversary party to one of the hottest lounges in Cairo and so we went. I got to meet up with an Egyptian millionaire, owner of the lounge, and the Paris Hilton male equivalent of Egypt. I had to laugh because I’m just a little missionary in Kenya and here are all these big-wigs. Life.


The next day we flew out to Dahab to spend some days at the Red sea. It was SOOOO relaxing. Our hotel room was right on the Red Sea and had a beautiful view. Nights were spent lounging at many of the town’s lounge restaurant where you sit at low tables and lounge on pillows. So relaxing!


I was sad to say goodbye to Ryan because it was sooooo fun! Thanks for everything, Ryan. You are the best older brother, EVER! ☺



My flight home was pretty eventful too! I happen to get the plane that held the Kenyan Golf Team, Cameroon’s Pro-Futbol team as well as Congo’s Pro-Futbol team. For a Red-eye flight, it was pretty rowdy!



And THAT, my friends is my trip to Cairo in a big nutshell.! I’ll be writing about my trip to the Kenyan desert as soon as I edit the photos!