This past week has been filled with classes. It is so interesting that this has become the norm, this is life now.
Yesterday, Friday, us MESPers met up with a Coptic Orthodox church and went to their retreat center called Anaphora where we spent time together talking about each other's faith background.
It was so interesting that people who both would label themselves as Christians are very different. The Coptic Orthodox church is a church that has been traced all the way back to St. Mark and has inhibited Egyptian since that time.
We sat around in small groups and discussed our backgrounds and then got into other heavier topics like gender roles in the church, cultural impact and other things. The greatest thing that I realized is how the Coptic Christians answered in a unified answer whereas we Americans differed greatly on our own views. It was very hard to be given the task to "represent American Christianity". I have never before felt like I actually needed to stick up for Protestantism. Also just our cultural difference, I felt like often it was a traditional vs. a more post-modern way of thinking.
No one afterward could stop talking about all that had happened, we MESPers learned a lot about each other in that time and about the Coptic church. Though there were times of frustration in our small circles, we learned a lot which was good.
Tonight we go bowling with all of our Egyptian friends! It should be fun!
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Our home-stays are tomorrow and so I will not be posting this week until next weekend. I will try to keep a journal and update on the whole time. I am very excited but also kind of nervous to have to get used to really unfamiliar thing! They keep warning us that it will be awkward in the beginning. I know it is going to be great!
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