Egypt v. ISIL

An Update from Egypt,
and a few things our friends in the West should know...

Once again, Egypt is making headlines and some of our friends may be worried for our safety, and want a little more information than the repetitive soundbites and "expert analyst" commentary that you get on the American "news" networks.

As always, it's important for us to stress that we are NOT experts: three years of living and learning in the Middle East is like completing Pre-K when it comes to this complex, historically & culturally rich part of the world.

Secondly, and equally as important, what we share is not in anyway a critique of any culture, religion, political leader or policy.  We are guests and observers here, and we attempt to pass along the news as we read it through various links and updates to those who may want a personal take and additional information.

What's happened recently:

• sporadic, continuing random acts of violence disrupt daily life, largely targeting police or military, but also transportation infrastructure

as presented by British risk analytics firm Verisk Maplecroft

• January 25, 2011 Revolution anniversary led to some demonstrations and marches in which people were harmed and even killed as police attempted to keep the peace (see excellent photo gallery and captions here)
• February 11, 2015, disgruntled, eager fans attempting to enter a narrow passageway into a football (soccer) match got into verbal and possibly physical altercations with police; the use of teargas and other attempts to keep the fans in order led to disorder and panic.  As people attempted to flee, the steel structure that had been raised to funnel fans into the stadium also collapsed, leading to more than 20 deaths from the stampede and collapse.
• Since January 2015, more than 20 Egyptians working in Libya have been kidnapped.  One group of Christians were kidnapped from where they worked, separated from their Muslim co-workers by ISIL terrorists.  In a similar incident, but not perpetuated by ISIS, a group 21 Egyptian fishermen were kidnapped in Libya and, as I write this, are reportedly to have been released in Libya.

• February 15, 2015, on a video released by ISIL, 21 Christian Egyptians are seen being marched out along a Libyan shore where they were gruesomely executed.  The kidnapped individuals were all from the same community in Upper (southern Egypt), working in Libya because there was little economic opportunity for them here in Egypt.  As many as seven Christian Egyptians may be still held hostage by ISIL (see tweet below).  Within hours of confirming the deaths, the Egyptian military responded with a bombing raid into Libya by their Air Force, as well as making appeals for international intervention into Libya.

• February 17, 2015, the Egypt military deploys throughout Egypt as a precaution to aid police should any retaliatory effort be made by extremists associated to the Libyan group targeted by Egyptian air raids.

Things our friends in the West should keep in mind:

• The difference between ISIS and ISIL - you have likely seen the two sets of acronyms thrown

  

  differing ideas of the "levant" region
  - from Wikipedia

  around synonymously, and may wonder what (if anything) is the difference.  ISIS stands for "Islamic State of Iraq & Syria" and really was the first organized extremist threat we were all watching spring out of the Syrian conflict and into Iraq.  ISIL stands for "Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant" - the "levant" is a much broader territory that can reach (depending on depiction and definition) to include Syria to the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt, as well as Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan.  The switch to this term ISIL from ISIS indicates the recognized political agenda of the extremists to "conquer" and control a much larger region than just Iraq & Syria.
• The Egyptian Christians were NOT kidnapped out of Egypt.  The worry of seeing "Egyptian Christians" in the headlines is that some are assuming these were taken from or even killed in Egypt, which is not the case.  As mentioned above, these individuals had sought opportunity, despite warnings to stay away from Libya.
• Yes, Libya borders Egypt to the west, but both nations are huge - Egypt is closer in land mass to Alaska than Texas--it's so much bigger than our western paradigm of a "little corner" of the continent of Africa.  There is legitimate threat on the border between Egypt and Libya, but it's a long way from the population centers along the Nile which is eastern/central Egypt.
• The vast population of Muslims in the Middle East are appalled at ISIS and ISIL.  Some of you may need to read that again.  Egypt is about 90% Muslim in population, with about 9% Christian; the Muslim community mourned with the Christian community at the executions on the Libyan shore.  Muslim clerics went to share condolences with families of the victims in the village, as well as to Christian leaders there (see photo gallery here).  Muslim political leaders personally went to the Coptic Pope in Cairo to express sympathy and solidarity.  Thousands of friends, co-workers, and neighbors grieved together.  In the same way, Jordan, which has a higher percentage of Muslim population to Christian population (about 93% 6% respectively), was appalled at the execution of their pilot--a Muslim pilot--by ISIL, a group identifying themselves under the same religious name.  Both of these nations have millions of citizens living, working, studying, and even playing on teams together--Muslim and Christian, side by side.  The idea of universal hatred and ill-intent of Muslims toward Christians is a farce, often sensationalized to sell some story or agenda.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to sit down and have one of our regular dialogues with Dr. Latif, a pastor who serves as the national leader of the Church of God in Egypt.  Despite the difficulties in the country today, there was no worry, no apprehension for the future, no gloom and doom over the conflicts east, west, and internally.  There was peace.  Church of God congregations stretch from the population centers of Alexandria and Cairo down into villages in Upper (southern) Egypt, villages like those mourning the loss of 21 of their own.  All of them are reporting that things are well.  We filmed this brief video update as a way to encourage our friends and supporters in the West to see and hear that peace, and to know how to pray for the opportunity in witnessing the peace and hope of Jesus Christ our Savior, in in a time like this.

Egypt Update 2015_02_16 from Ken Keli Oldham on Vimeo.

As always, if you have specific questions about the ministries we are serving here in the Middle East, feel free to contact us.  We are blessed to be among such strong, wonderful believers and to learn from them, as well as to live in this land of history and centrality to the Biblical narrative; our faith continues to grow here, and we count it a blessing to call Egypt home.

Thanks for your continuing interest, thoughts, prayers, and encouragement.

#PrayForEgypt

Smart, Brave, Crazy?

The view of earth (top) from Mars Rover; image found on
on this link.

I know that I've commented on this story before, whether on social media or in conversations with friends.  It's the story of Mars One, an "interplanetary nonprofit" who asked for volunteers who were willing to make a ONE WAY trip to Mars, to be the first human "settlers" there.  Apparently, more than 200,000 people applied.

They're down to 660 finalists.  Four seats are all that's available for a launch into history...

Sounds a little too sci-fy for you?

There wouldn't need to be any cryogenic sleep chambers; the projections are that it would be a nine-month trip.  In about the time of a school year, you would leave friends, family, community, country, continent, Starbucks and Sears Roebuck behind for ever, landing on another planet, and begin attempting to put down "roots" with three other individuals for the rest of your days.

Sound a little crazy?

Walker Lamond wrote this article stating that as he had a chance to speak to a few of those 660 finalists, he learned that "they are all really smart, incredibly brave, and a little bit crazy."

As I commented on social media when I first heard of this story in the last year: if you add faith to that crazy, you have the makings of an international minister!

I know that we had family members and friends who thought we were a little bit crazy (maybe not smart and brave).  I often joke when I tell our story that a part of the year long evaluation process was a psych exam to determine if we were the right kind or wrong kind of crazy.  I know that people really thought we were crazy when a couple days after our official appointment to live in Egypt, the January 2011 Revolution began with millions of people filling Tahrir Square.

But I know that predecessors through the ages were far more crazy than we.  We didn't leave Starbucks--we get it quite regularly; we didn't leave McDonald's, we just moved to where McD's delivers.  We have internet, Skype, instant messaging, MagicJack phone lines, and all sorts of other means of communication.  It didn't take us months to arrive, only hours.  All of our predecessors left family and friends, and the familiar, with months or more than a year between correspondence.  Their's were often true one-way tickets: with family members often dying on the way or soon after arrival to their new environments, our predecessors in international ministry service often purchased coffins to use as their shipping containers.

Mr. Lamond and the folks at Stateless Media who made the video embedded below are a little obsessed with the "no-sex" side of this leap into space, so that's why I give this...

...WARNING, the following video clip has "mature" themes and language and may not be suitable for younger audiences; also note that the views, opinions, and thought-processes of the producers, directors, or those interviewed are not necessarily those of our family, 3W, Church of God Ministries, or any supporting individual or church.

Disclaimers aside, this video is fascinating to me and worth discussion on many levels, which I'll list below--it's why I am revisiting this story and writing about it here!

If you've watched, let's discuss...

Intro (thru 1:05) - Significance and purpose - we all want to know that we matter, that our lives meant something.  These people all represent different types of motivations, but I bet at their core, they all 660 individuals have a desire for significance.

Are you (and if so, how are you) striving for significance in your own life?

Meet Ryan, UK (1:08 - 2:45) - Legacy - "I think the most important thing to do in life is to leave a legacy."  

Do you agree or not? 

How would you define "legacy"?   

How would you define an "important...legacy"? (For example, Hitler and Stalin definitely have legacies, but is this the type of legacy to which anyone should aspire?)

Ryan aspirations include to "inspire a new generation," and "the beginnings of a first civilization on another planet."  What are your legacy aspirations?

Meet Dina, USA (2:46 - 3:56) - Saying Goodbye - having said goodbye to the country and culture of her origin, and her family as a result, Dina doesn't think that this will be that hard.

What makes saying goodbye difficult?  What makes it easy?

Dina says, "I do not feel like I need a family to survive or exist."  What about you?  What makes a family, a family?  What makes these relationships important, necessary to exist? What parts of your family experience can you do without?

Meet Jeremias, Mozambique (3:58 - 4:40) - Starting Over - "I think this world is not a good place to live anymore; we have so many diseases, so many army conflicts, natural disaster, we have inequities, we have so many problems that I believe it's not possible to solve.  I would like to see a better world, comparing to this one, and I think a good way to solve those problems is to start from the beginning."

Genesis 6:5-8, "The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.  The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord."

Starting over is not a new idea; it repeats itself in individual lives broken by events that lead them to run away, break up or divorce relationships, perhaps even attempt suicide; within societies, revolutions are the collective desire by many to start over.  

What do you wish you could just start over?  

A lot of people may say that starting over is easier than trying to fix what is broken; but what hidden "costs" might there be to starting over?  What is common requirements are there to "fixing" that which is broken?

Jeremias' family (4:40 - 5:05) - Family Left Behind - either his father, or grandfather says, "For those who stay here on Earth, it will be as though this person has died.  For us, this person doesn't exist.  ...He goes there because it is God's mission.  It is humanity's mission."

We have often felt that it was easier for us to go than for our families and friends who we had to leave behind.  For us, there was purpose in leaving, but can you imagine what holes that leaves with family and friends, in those left behind? 

Those who leave for international (or in this case, intergalactic) service need support, but so do the families who are left behind.  What type of support do they need and how might you be able to provide it?

Ryan's fatherlessness (5:06 - 7:11) - Abandonment? - This is an emotionally deep and difficult part of the video, with so many layers of vulnerability and feeling.  There's Ryan's straightforward portrayal of his biological father's "conscious decision not to care for" himself and his sister.  There's the obvious emotional connection between Ryan and his sister, as well as with his grandparents, and with a grandfather still wrestling with the possibility of his grandson leaving forever.

Ryan confesses that a lot of the traumatic parts of his life are from people "abandoning him".  A part from physically leaving someone, how else might someone feel "abandoned" by us?   

I think this is an important question for discussion and reflection as we are called to be this loving family as the Body of Christ; yet the growing testimony of many people outside of the Church in western cultures (whether believing in Jesus or not) is a feeling of being unwanted and uncared for by the Church-- sadly, those who are to be known by the very sacrificial love of Jesus Himself.  Diagnosing how we abandon others, repenting of it, and making proactive steps to prevent it in the future are necessary.

Dina's thoughts on love  (7:12 - 7:29) - What is love? - Dina says, "I think that love is a word that refers to an emotional need.  I have never felt [it] and I don't think that I believe in it.  I believe that nobody has this type of emotional effect on me.  Love is not something that I need."

How do you define love?

Is it necessary, why or why not? 

Jeremias' thoughts on falling in love (7:30 - 7:58) - Love Problems - Jeremias says, "If I fall in love before I go to Mars, I will have a terrible problem to deal with that."

Paul says, "Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do" (1 Corinthians 7:8).

What complications do romantic love (even marriage) have to fulfilling an extreme call of service?  What advantages does it have?

Final thoughts (7:59 to the end) - Crazy, Death, and Success - Interviewer asks all a final question, "Let me offer the following thought, and I want you to comment on this.  I think the Mars One mission is a great and noble idea.  But there is a contradiction.  The only people who could go on that spaceship, who could commit to going to Mars forever, have to be somehow crazy.  True or untrue?"

To which Dina replies, "Define crazy?"   

• Well, what is "crazy" for you--how would you define it? 

• The British pop artist Seal released the song "Crazy" in 1991 with the chorus, "No we're never gonna to survive unless we are a little crazy." 

• I have always liked this song because I think that the call of God on each of our lives leads us beyond our comfort and into some definition of crazy to those around us so that we might fulfill a grander purpose, and, in the end, also find that significance to which we have been searching, even longing.

Jeremias declares that, "I'm not afraid of dead.  I'm afraid of something in this life, but no, I'm not afraid of dead.  We're all going to dead."  

• Are you afraid of dying?  Why or why not?  How does this fear (or lack of) shape your life, your choices, your future?

Ryan, imagining he faces some horrific end, states that if he can look back and know that what he did (not how he dies) mattered, then "in the end it does make it worthwhile to me."

• How do you measure success for your life?  

•  Reflect and Respond: "What you risk reveals what you value." - Jeanette Winterson

Dina says, "You're going to die, whether here or there, it doesn't really matter.  Why you are going to die is what matters for me."

• Reflect and respond: "Our lives are written in risk: those we take, and those we don't." - John Maxwell 

Well, that's just some of my thoughts from watching this a couple times.  What are your thoughts and takeaways from this developing story and/or video?