A Pleasant Surprise

Those of you who have been reading my blog might be thinking a couple of things. I was told by a friend that I've written some intense stuff since I've been here and after reading through all my blogs I would have to agree. I guess I've just been doing a lot of thinking and I feel like letting you guys know about it. It's a lot better than just giving you a play-by-play of my day because if I did, it would be pretty much the same all the time.

            Yesterday was a different story. It's time to lighten up the mood and focus on the simple and pure joy of a game called tennis. A lot of you know that I love this game. What you may not know is that I even brought my racquet to Egypt hoping by some miracle I would live next to a court. That is not the case so my racquet has been collecting cob webs in the corner for the past month and a half. Yesterday after PE one of my students asked me if I played tennis. I told him yes and that I had even brought my racquet. He got all excited and told me to go get my racquet. I did and met him at the volleyball court. I don't know why I never thought of this but he said that another SM from last year liked to play tennis so they would untie the volleyball net and tie it around the base of the poles. It was just like a regular tennis court minus the lines and the fact that the net didn't stop the ball. Minor detail. One advantage though was that the sand around the court helped stop the ball when you hit it out. Even as I was playing I was thinking, now this is something to write home about. I mean we even had all three surfaces in one. Mostly concrete for the hard court. Grass and weeds popping up through the cracks. Wimbledon anyone? And finally the sand that accumulates around the edge of the court makes for a perfect clay like surface. I think even Nadal would be impressed with my hit and slide. I only fell once.

Just simply being able to hit the ball back and forth with someone made my week. Plus the viewpoints and comments that some of the students have just make me laugh inside. One of them asked to see my racquet and upon examining it, told me that the one he got in his small village is better. Who am I to judge, maybe it is. Another student ran to his room and brought back two Badminton racquets. When I tried to explain what sport those were used for he didn't really get it. Come on how do you explain a "birdie" to an Egyptian?

All in all it was a great day in Egypt. Definitely have to do it again sometime.

Service

"For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many" - Mark 10:45

             I have been in Egypt for exactly 41 days now. Most of which have been spent on this campus. I have excepted the monotony and even somewhat grown to like it in a way. I get to hang out with students all day long who are all smiles and love to make fun of my Arabic. Plus I get to teach a PE class full of students who actually want to be there. No they don't always enjoy the running and the sit-ups but once the game starts there is no stopping them. It seems a lot better than having to study for mid-terms right now. Or study at all for that matter. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Thanks Dad.

            Counting blessings is easy. Using those blessings to effect how you treat others......... yeah we all know the answer to that one. Since I have been in Egypt I have asked God for two things. I have asked him to give me wisdom and to give me love. Two things that I have lacked for a long time. My freshman year in High School would have to be, without a doubt, one of the best years of my life. I was finally going to the school I had always dreamed about, playing on the sports teams I had always dreamed about, over half my friends were upper class-men, and I had a girlfriend who was a grade ahead of me. Sounds a bit too Hollywood when you put it that way but hey, that was my life. And you know what the best part about all of it was? I had a relationship with God to back it all up. It was the first time in my life that I truly felt him. I felt him during vespers, during church, friday nights at home with my friends, friday nights at the Brasses, and even when I played sports. I could feel him working all around me and I couldn't help but get excited.
I've learned a few things since those days. Everything that shimmers also fades. Everything that blooms also wilts. Everything that is built-up also becomes dust. Now I'm not trying to be a pessimist here but we all know it's true. Nothing in this world satisfies. Of course it will for awhile, maybe a year, maybe ten, but eventually it all comes crashing down. I have been searching for that feeling that I felt my freshman year ever since then.
Every time that I feel God isn't listening or has stopped working in my life he slaps me in the face with exactly what I asked for. Not always the way I would have liked but we can all agree that God gives us what we need, not what we want. I asked for wisdom. Specifically to show me why I feel so distant from him and everybody else around me. The answer was Service. From the moment you stepped off that plane you were thinking about how you were going to change YOUR life. Thinking of how YOU could further YOURSELF. Thinking of how this experience was going to help YOU in the years to come. I will admit I walked around this place feeling pretty sorry for myself the first month. I never thought about going out of my way for anyone else. I just wanted to do my job and go home. I tried to tell myself that I wanted to get to know the kids. Than why do you not stick around after class is done, make sure the kids have balls to play with, and maybe, just maybe, try playing with them outside of class?  Now trust me this sounds a lot more intense than it really was. It wasn't one of those moments where I broke down crying, feeling like the scum of the earth and asked God to forgive my evilness. No. It was just a small voice inside saying, Hey wake up bro, you wanna get to know these kids? Than try hanging out with them. Try worrying about whether they have fun stuff to do after school instead of what your friends are doing back home. Not that I don't care what's going on in your lives but you get the point.
This last week was the best week I've had in Egypt. Besides the fact that I had the coolest experience on Monday (my parents can tell you that story) and we had two days off, one for a National Holiday and another for an SA field trip. I actually began to hang with the kids when I didn't have to. This is when I began to realize the element of love that I have been missing. And this goes back even before Egypt. Now this is not an excuse, but being a college student makes it very easy to focus on yourself. After all, it is about figuring out what you want to do for the rest of your life which is also very important. To be quite honest if you don't focus on yourself, you won't survive. Yes it is true, feeding the homeless will not score you extra points on your next A&P test.  The element of love that I had lost was Service. Now I'm sure it didn't always show on the outside but on the inside I had become very selfish. And I'm sure it took longer than needed but God finally got through to me. Even if I had to come half-way around the world to hear it. It's almost like I knew all along what I was missing, but I wasn't in a position to fully realize it back home. I was too safe. I had too many things I could fall back on to distract me from it. I lost my need and ability to listen to God because I had so many other things to listen to. It seems almost embarrassing now writing this because it's nothing new. It's not like I came to some great revelation, it's just the fact that I can finally acknowledge it. If I had read this blog last year, I probably still wouldn't have understood. I would have closed this page, turned some jazz music on, opened up something to study, and turned the TV to Sports Center. (I would mute it though because it made me feel like I wasn't actually watching and being distracted by it if there was no sound) See what I mean. Too many voices.

Everyone is different. God knew I needed this year, so he sent me here. Not everyone at Union needs an entire year in another country to figure these things out. I do. I've realized I'm not patient enough with my Mom. I always knew that but I had more "important" things to worry about. She loves me more than anybody else in the world and never misses a chance to tell me so.  God knew that I needed some time away from those distractions. A chance to breathe per say. He knew I needed to be away from my life at home so I could begin to appreciate it, and to know where to make changes. He is the one who got me here. Now all I have to do is listen.