Day one - Egypt (sleep, food, and driving)

June 23
Today, after our so-called nap (not an actual true night’s sleep) we woke up at 8am for breakfast in our hotel. Down 4 flights of stairs, in an elevator that had a maximum capacity of 5 people allowed, and across the lobby was the quaint little dining hall. I think they prepared a special meal for us… because I saw the locals eating what looked like some sort of bean mixture and of course with flat bread to dip. No utensils, just tiny napkins. On the contrary, our meal was a scrambled egg “pie” that was cut in the same manner – it was double layered, along with flat bread, fig jam, butter, and cheese. Completely edible (for me that is)! Not to be rude, but the cheese was very salty and almost crumbly. Can I say that I wasn’t a big fan of the cheese? Needless to say, Adam’s love for cheese grows stronger while we are here.

After Breakfast, another quick nap - maybe more mini that quick, then off to the lobby with our luggage. Maximum efficiency in the elevator was two people and two suitcases. It was crazy confined though. By this time it’s 11am locally and we’ve been in this country for a total of 8 hours. We headed off to our next destination... we were picked up in a big casino-sized tour bus, loaded our luggage below and off we went. I need to talk about the craziness that people endure everyday with regard to Egyptian commuting. Let me preface this by saying I thought the drivers in Japan were insane, mainly because they drive “offensively”, not defensively. Meaning they change lanes when they want to and you better be the one watching out!

Where do I start? I guess I can say I’ll never complain about our traffic in San Diego (in comparison to Egypt). I understand, fully, why the cars are more narrow here than anywhere else I‘ve been. Painted lanes on the roads are only suggestions. Drivers hover over them and constantly squeeze in an additional lane that shouldn’t exist! Folks drive here with one hand “at-the-ready” to lay on the horn! They use the horn to let others know they are trying to get into another’s lane (courteous pre-cutting someone off) and to notify fellow drivers to get a move on (stop blocking traffic). Do they use seatbelts? Absolutely not! I even saw a child that looked to be 6 years old on the lap of an adult man in the passenger seat. Did I mention that no one or anything was in the backseat? Helmets are also a rarity for those that ride motor-bikes. I’ve see tandem riders and not in the typical fashion that Americans ride double. The driver rides “normal”, but the passenger “dangles” off to one side. Can you say dangerous? Or life support?

So far we’ve made all our destinations in one piece… well 9 pieces actually. Thank you for your prayers of safety, they are being answered!

-Tiffany

The layover.

June 21-22
And we’re off! After leaving home we had 12 hours of traveling, which for most of the team, had a really difficult time sleeping, so the first part of the trip was a bit rough. But we made it through with God’s awesome power. We had a 9-hour layover in Amsterdam and got to walk around the city a bit. We went to Amsterdam Centraal, and found out that it is the also called, City of Bikes. While there is an amazing train and bus transit system, the majority of people ride bikes or motor scooters... and the rebels do it without helmets—take that California helmet law! But then again, the most common accident is tourists getting run over by bike riders, but it is truly a fantastic scene to see a parking garage for bicycles. We walked all around Amsterdam and ending with the Van Gogh Museum and then a sprinter back to the airport. We then boarded another plane that would take us from Amsterdam to Cairo. The 4-hour flight seemed really long but honestly it was our favorite as the pilot made the take off and landing the smoothest out of the three planes we got on. We were greeted by the HUGE city of Cairo with a 3am 81° humidifying sauna and then the short trip to our hotel.

Thank you again so much for the support and prayers that you have given to our team to assist the making of this trip, we are so very grateful. We would ask that you continue to pray for us. Please pray for safety, ease of weather acclimation, and relief from jet lag. Please pray for our hearts and minds to be continually focused on God and not the things that may detract us (weather, sleep, etc.) and that we would continual seek after His purpose for us on this trip; whether that be the people He may place on our hearts, the things He may ask us to do or the actions that He will take to help grow our faith.

Again, thank you—we’ll be updating soon!

- Amanda

In Preparation & Prayer...

I've been asking God to prepare my heart for this upcoming ministry trip and these are the concerns I'm asking about:

- To have compassion for everyone I'll be interacting with.
- To see people through God's eyes.
- To not be desensitized to the conditions of what I will be seeing.
- To not have fear when sharing the Gospel, but solely rely on God to work through my weaknesses and fears.
- To not be so quick to offer up solutions when I see them (and offend others in doing so).
- To be mindful and observe their culture without offending.
- To be genuine.
- To not have such a picky palate while I'm there.
- To continue to bond with my fellow teammates.

I ask that you, the readers of this blog, to pray these things for me as well. This is a first for me and I want to bring God glory in this step of faith and obedience.

Praise the Lord! We are around 87% (or a little more) in our funding efforts! God is providing! We have one more garage sale coming up on June 5th and 8 hours of volunteering for the SD rock & Roll Marathon on June 6th to help complete our funding!

Keeping you posted- Tiffany

In Preparation

It seemed as if it took forever for the trip to be here and now it is right around the corner. I am so excited that momentum is picking up from the lull that we were having what seems like a few weeks ago.

I am so excited to be ramping up and the only thing that I am worried about is I feel like I am getting sick. My body is constantly tired and I have no energy (work, school and life is to blame). Please continue to pray that God will strengthen my body, give me energy to power through the next couple of weeks until I start my vacation time and that He will keep this sickness at bay until after the trip preferably :)

We have a two support raising events this Saturday (garage sale and support dinner), half of me is saying, "ahhhhh," and the other half is saying, "yippeeeee." I keep praying that God will use these events not only to grow the excitement and cohesiveness of the group, building us up for the weeks that we will be overseas and away from the familiar. I also hope that it will allow us to see just how blessed and loved we are, not only the event turnout but also how the Lord will use it. Secretly I'm hoping this is one of those "bless your socks off" times.

As a team, we know that money is tight and that not everyone can financially support us. Please know that we desperately need your prayer. The power of prayer is awesome and if you would partner with us in that way, our amazing and wonderful God can handle the rest.

I am so grateful that I am on this team and what we will be able to do in the Middle East that I'm trying to make sure that I don't forget to let God in on the process. My natural instinct is to want to be in control, and I can't. I am so anxious to see how God uses me and my teammates and I am trying to stay fixated on that, and leave myself checked at the door, pray for that too :)

Thank you for the love and support.

--Amanda

FUNDING UPDATE: We're currently still about $10,000 behind on our fundraising. We will buy plane tickets for 6 team members today. Please pray that God would provide the funds to pay for the other three! We still have a huge mountain to climb. In addition to your prayers, there are three ways you can help: 1. Team Benefit Party this Saturday! 2. Garage Sale this Saturday! 3. Volunteer to direct traffic at the rock and roll marathon in San Diego on June 6th. Contact adam(at)hammill.com for further information on any of these events or if you have items you can donate for the garage sale. Thanks so much for your support!!

Praying...

O LORD God Almighty, who is like you?
You are mighty, O LORD, and Your faithfulness surrounds You.
You rule over the surging sea;
when its waves mount up, You still them.
You crushed Rahab like one of the slain;
with Your strong arm you scattered Your enemies.
The heavens are Yours, and Yours also the earth;
You founded the world and all that is in it.
Psalm 89:8-11

For the last week I keep coming across verses about His faithfulness. If His strong arm can scatter our enemies, then He can protect us. If He is able to still the waves, the He can still our hearts. If the earth is His, then He is in control of this trip... That's what I need to remember.

Pray our hearts are prepared for this trip and the hearts of the people we meet.
Thank you so much for your prayers,
Sarah

Funding update...

Thanks so much again for praying and supporting our team!! Just wanted to give a quick update on fundraising. We're still at only 38% with just a month and a half left until our trip, so please pray for some miraculous provision! :o) We are also having a garage sale on May 15th, so it would be amazing if you could put aside some unneeded items for us to sell to help reach our fundraising goal! Details will follow as to what you can do with donations for the garage sale. Thanks again so much for your support!!

Adam