It's been about three months since we moved to Germany. Those three months have mostly been spent setting up our home, getting Marco settled in school, and setting up appointments and meetings for the next three months.
We are entering an important period. Over the next 3 months, we will be meeting with national leaders, missionaries, and other key leaders throughout the Middle East and Europe. This past week I was in Central Germany talking with the national leader here about our future work and collaborations together. From October to June, much of our time will be spent in these kinds of meetings as we begin our work in the region.
Tomorrow all three of us are going to Egypt to meet with a number of people there--including national leaders--as we set the next stage for Church of God work in the region. It's a time of healthy transition there. There is emerging young leadership (which is what Three Worlds is about), and the opportunity to see some new, exciting things come about.
We will be in Cairo for a week. The schedule is pretty packed, but I've promised Marco I will take him back to the Pyramids and the National Museum. The three of us were in Egypt last year (when these pictures were taken) and Marco really fell in love with the people and the culture. It is one of my favorite places in the world to visit.
As many of you may know, Jamie grew up in Egypt so her Egyptian family has become my family. It is always like going to see old friends. And it reminds me very much of Costa Rica, culturally speaking, in many different ways.
We will be joined on this trip by Sharon Skaggs (Jamie's mother) who works at Global Missions and will be representing the North American Church of God as we say "goodbye" to Franco and Bea Santonocito who have been serving in Egypt and in the Mediterranean region for decades. We are having a special time of celebration for them as we present them with a number of gifts on behalf of the Church of God, Global Missions, and our region. We will also be discussing details regarding the transition of leadership in this region. It's a big week for us. And since this place has always been special to the Skaggs family, we really want to get it all right.
In addition to numerous meetings and celebrations, we are hoping to have some time with old friends and Marco and I want to do our regular ritual of morning Green Tea (and Mango juice for Marco) on Road 9 in Maadi, Cairo. That little street has to be one of my favorite places to be in the world--and that's saying a lot. Last year I found a place where we could get online and update the diary. We'll see if we can do that again this time. There's lots of internet cafe's, but since I'm so incompetent with computers, I wasn't always able to figure it out.
We've also been invited to the Cairo Opera--so we are all having to take extra fancy clothes.
Hopefully, I'll be able to write more very soon.