Day 4 – God is good; we sing and shout it!

My final two days in Frankfurt (  We decided that we would definitely go to the Coptic monastery during the day and then chill in Frankfurt, before meeting Sayedna Anba Bolous (Bishop Paul – Bishop of Mission Affairs) who is passing by after a long convention in UK. However plan did not quite work out:

In Day 3, after the prayer meeting, Johnny & Remon became Samuel’s guests at home. It was their last night in Frankfurt before flying back. So we agreed that some of us will go to the convention when we woke up. However, time dragged its two little feet, and we ended up staying home waiting for different things to happen such as Peter Khalil to pick up the refugees as well as errands that Samuel needed to do around the house. I found it to be the perfect time to sit down, chillax, go online and chat with some of my friends (even a notorious voice conversation over msn which the whole house held against me for the day!!) and just chitchat.

It was early evening when Samuel took me to the monastery, and that was a blast! The monastery felt modern from outside (compared to the ones in Egypt!) but when you step inside, you feel like you stepped into one of the really old, and traditional Coptic churches, with the wall painted with stories from the Bible, as well as the wooden benches, the Coptic art all over and the blessed bodies of some of our Coptic saints. We went into the altar and it was just the continuation of the authentic Coptic feel; three altars, and the paintings … everything. We stayed there to pray for a long time, probably half an hour … I did not want to leave.

I remember that when Amy got back from her Egyptian trip, I felt jealous and a tid bit sad. With my military situation I cannot enter Egypt for a certain amount of time, still to be decided by God. It is not like I miss Egypt as a country, but one of the three things I miss a lot is the monasteries and the churches over there. When I step into one in Egypt, I feel I became part of a great history that engulfs the place. I feel like I want to spend some time there to just sit and meditate on God and His wonders. I felt miserable that day. However, God, always being merciful and gracious, found a way for me to step into that feeling again, without risking my life in Egypt ;) It was amazing, something I will not forget.

The visit included a small chapel as well, that had the same features as the main church. Overall, if we did not have to run that day to catch  Anba Boulous, I would have loved to stay there for the night.

So we run back to get a couple of Samuel’s friends from the station and then head to Samuel’s house (the other Samuel, who was the second culprit of the glass mess we had in our convention ( ). There, Saydena was talking about commitment to service. Apparently, he was not too happy with the level of service in Germany. It was a day all the people who were there, bowed and asked for forgiveness for their lack of commitment. I felt no different than these guys. I had a lot to confess and ask forgiveness to, especially my laziness and lack of solid commitment to widen the Lord’s reach in Dubai.  A humbling prayer session followed. Much needed.

So, OK … after a lot of KFC (I seem to be eating that a lot in Germany!) and more chitchat, we decide to go back home. Saydena invited me to go with him and Morris to Stuttgart the next day – to leave at like 6 am! It was already 2:30 when we finished. I slept at 4 that day – for only an hour an half.

After visiting Stuttgart, I regretted I did not sleep more and missed that trip … :-D