Most probably the most touching visit we made in Egypt was to the Sixth of October centre for handicapped children. Because it truly highlighted the brokenness of our world, but above all, it unmistakably showcased the unfathomable love of God and His ways which are so much bigger than what we can imagine.
As I stood in the middle of a home for handicapped children in Cairo, amongst children who would have been killed by their parents if not for this place and its people, heaven came down despite poverty, sickness, a dilapidated building, struggles and tiredness. But Heaven came down because people devote their whole life to helping a single child, who cannot hear or see or with some other handicap (I do not like to use any such word to label these people, for they too are perfect works from God’s hand, but I only use it so one can understand the situation), to eat, to live, and to glorify God with his/her smile and pureness. And I promise you, those children put a smile on God’s face and a big one that is, no matter how broken they are in the eyes of mankind. Dare I say, they are the most whole people on earth.
Heaven came down because people decided that others, these children, are just as important as they are before God's eyes and that they have no right to give any priority to themselves. Heaven came down because people realised that life is not about finding your next thrill nor pleasure or comfort but that it is about sacrifice so you can receive life in its fullest as it was meant by GOD. Heaven came down when the blind played the violin and the down syndrome boy played the drum, and the workers and all the rest danced to the music made by the mute. Heaven came down, for God would have not wanted to miss this moment - this moment of joy. This joy that is found in servanthood. This pure joy found in HIM. And nothing else.
Do not get me wrong, I am unsure of what I am saying or asking from us as the un-persecuted part of the Body of Christ. Whether we should also, like the few staff members of that centre, work without much or any rest and give up all that is Worldly and pleasurable to the flesh. But I was told, and I believe, that when one organ in a body decides to keep the blood from flowing through it because of selfishness and pride or any belief it might conjure up and tries to keep all of the oxygen and nourishment for itself, the whole body, it included, will die.
As it stands in 1 Corinthians 12:12-27, “12 There is one body, but it has many parts. But all its many parts make up one body. It is the same with Christ. 13 We were all baptized by one Holy Spirit. And so we are formed into one body. It didn’t matter whether we were Jews or Gentiles, slaves or free people. We were all given the same Spirit to drink. 14 So the body is not made up of just one part. It has many parts. 15 Suppose the foot says, “I am not a hand. So I don’t belong to the body.” By saying this, it cannot stop being part of the body. 16 And suppose the ear says, “I am not an eye. So I don’t belong to the body.” By saying this, it cannot stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, how could it hear? If the whole body were an ear, how could it smell? 18 God has placed each part in the body just as he wanted it to be. 19 If all the parts were the same, how could there be a body? 20 As it is, there are many parts. But there is only one body. 21 The eye can’t say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 In fact, it is just the opposite. The parts of the body that seem to be weaker are the ones we can’t do without. 23 The parts that we think are less important we treat with special honour. The private parts aren’t shown. But they are treated with special care. 24 The parts that can be shown don’t need special care. But God has put together all the parts of the body. And he has given more honour to the parts that didn’t have any. 25 In that way, the parts of the body will not take sides. All of them will take care of one another. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. If one part is honoured, every part shares in its joy. 27 You are the body of Christ. Each one of you is a part of it.
The last thing I want to do with these blog posts is to let you feel dismayed, for in that state we are prone to turn to despair. And in despair, we cannot be of service to God. We are then as such, locked in a cage to which we were given the key yet choose to remain a prisoner for all hope seems lost to us. Yes, we may mourn for the state of the world, but our mourning should arise from true love. And the overwhelming emotion should not be our sadness or anger or anything else but love. As it stands in 1 Peter 4:8, “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.”
Yet we cannot, me especially after this privilege that I was granted to see the persecuted church, go unchanged. Because how can our lives remain the same if we know it ought to be different? If we know it ought to praise God more. If we know we should take His word more seriously. If we know we should have a far greater revering fear for God. And if we know that we should put more faith in God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in every aspect of our lives.
When we visited the cave church at garbage city, we were told of a story, a true story. And it is about a normal man Simon the Tanner, or leather worker to put it more plainly. You can please go read more about ‘the miracle of Mokattam mountain’ on the internet. In short, it all started with a friendly debate that the Caliph (the chief Muslim ruler) of Egypt presided over. It was on the topic of religion and present was the Coptic church’s Pope and the caliph’s Jewish minister. After a while, it was evident that the Coptic Pope got the upper hand in the debate, so the Jewish minister, in an attempt to catch the Pope off guard, quoted the famous verse of Matthew 17:20 which states, “…if your faith is the size of a mustard seed you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’, and it will move; nothing will be impossible for you.” He then demanded that the Pope should prove his religion’s validity by literally moving a mountain with his faith, and the Caliph gave more than just his agreement. He said that if the Pope would fail to do so, all Coptic Christians in Cairo would be expelled, enslaved or executed. The story further goes about how the Pope found Simon, a man of such faith that he gouged out his right eye after he had lusted towards a woman for whom he had to do work for once. The story precedes that Simon instructed the Coptic Pope to gather his priests, monks, and those of Christian faith at the foot of Mokattam mountain. The Caliph with all of his officials and soldiers needed to be there too. When the time came, the Pope as instructed by Simon had to chant the words “Kyrie Eleison” (Lord have mercy) a total of 1200 times, in three sets of four-hundred chants… The mountain lifted three times with an earthquake that swept over the mountain whilst the people stood up to worship GOD. And the Caliph stood shaking, admitting the correctness of Christianity.
This story set in motion many waves of thought in my mind. For it is not just a story, it is History that was written down by the Caliph, the one who once was against Christ. It seemed all too familiar. Saul becoming Paul, a ruthless mercenary out to destroy Christianity becoming one of the greatest missionaries and Martyrs of the church – and whilst he was going about proclaiming the word of the Lord he wrote down, not just stories but History. And that is what the Bible is, well many of it at least. (please do not neglect the fact that there are many genres and types of literature between which we, with the help of the Holy Spirit, should decern)
We too often treat the Bible as stories from which we should or can learn life lessons, as a self-help book that uses parables and fiction to teach us life’s most valuable lessons. And though it does teach us how to live in harmony with God if we read the Bible correctly with the help of the Holy Spirit, we usually want the Bible to speak to our greatest needs at that specific moment by providing us with a verse of wisdom or one that gives us courage or hope. But how do we soften the word of God if we think that to be its purpose? For the Word of the Lord is Him reminding us of Who He is, of reminding us of what He has done for us despite our rejection and the pain we have caused Him. Of Him reminding us that we truly need Him, reminding us that He wants our undivided trust.
The greatest reminder is History. It is proof that HE is and was and always will be. The Bible is Truth, but how do we so often treat it? Yes, it is true that we should read it within the context of the culture of when it was written, but everything in the Bible is there for a reason – it is not there just to serve as parables for us to use nor was it written to sound nice during Bible studies or in a sermon. It is to be taken up very seriously!
But how fortunate are we to have lost the power of the Word? Because if it had its full power in our lives and society, I am pretty sure that all men, myself included would have lost both of their eyes at some point in their life. A world full of blind men. And this is true for many other things, and not just pertaining to men. For men and women alike are equals in sin. The question arises still, to what extent should we follow the Bible if Simon shows us that true dedication to God's Word will require sacrifice and goes beyond just lessons and stories? The Bible is in fact truth. It is God’s Word.
I have not yet come to a conclusion, but I cannot ask anyone to gouge out their eye or both. For that would leave the world in a much wearier state than it already is. Or maybe not, I honestly don’t know. And the more I have come to try and figure things out the more I have come to realise that I will have to be content with my misty mirror [1 Corinthians 13:12], for I will never see the clear picture here on Earth. Just as a moment in Christ's presence, or seeing Him would mean my death because His glory is far too great for me to comprehend, so having all the knowledge and wisdom would be overwhelming to the point a thousand miles north of madness.
But what do we do? How should we feel? I think it all comes back to humility. For yes, we are going to mess up badly at times in our life. I have messed up greatly in the past, but the fact that nobody is perfect, and that is true of everybody, does not make it any better to be sinful. How much should we help one another to walk the narrow and rocky path – the path of patience and not the wide passage of pleasure? For then we always awaken the risk of closing people down to the truth or looking past the log in our own eye. Because how can we really say that we can help anyone if the greatest truth is that we cannot really even help ourselves – any small thing that is true and good in our lives is only a matter of GRACE. None of these words that you are reading can be attributed to me, for if it is worth your while it is only by GRACE that it is written through my hand.
So how can we help one another to grow in Christ Jesus? By praying and fasting perhaps… And by submission in humility before our brothers and sisters and above all else - this is a BIG above all else - GOD. Let us humble ourselves before God, and let out fear for Him be greater than the fears that reside in our hearts.
A wall sculpture of Simon the tanner inside the smaller cave church at Mokattam mountain.
An outside view of the Garbage City. You have to drive through it on extremely narrow streets filled with overloaded vehicles to get to the cave church.
A blind man playing the keyboard at the Sixth of October centre that we visited.
A courtyard on the ground floor of the Sixth of October centre, here they store carpets and instruments that they make and sell to raise an income for the centre as the support of Christian organisations are very scarce in Egypt.