A much needed break!

We spent a few days at this beautiful hotel in Taba.

a few days at the seaside

We're going across the Sinai to the Red Sea for a few days.  Hope the weather improves!!!

See you soon.

Worship confessional

Everything was a bit off (from my point of view) in our Thursday evening service last night.  First of all, I've been ill all week with a really heavy cold/flu virus, even taking a day off work on Tuesday, and I'm still really congested.  So my voice isn't working right, and my brain certainly isn't working right.  The things I would normally say to introduce songs etc just came out a bit garbled!

Added to that, we hadn't had our usual weekly rehearsal because Monday night was the church SGM when we voted on Steve Flora, so musically we were a bit messy, and we really blew the intro to "What can I do (Halleluia)".

Also, there was a really cold wind last night and seeing as we meet semi-outdoors, that kept some people away so there wasn't the usual energy level in the congregation.  We did pray before the service that God would use us in our weaknesses, and so I really hope he did - it's just I'm not sure I saw any obvious evidence of it!

The new interim preacher, Wayne Boldt, did a great job though.  He's a great communicator - a real storyteller, and I think we're going to have some fun working together over the next two months until Steve arrives in May.

It's a yes

Steve has accepted the job of Senior Pastor at MCC. It's official, I have a new boss.  I'm a little bit excited and a little bit nervous.

The waiting game

Last night we voted to invite Steve Flora to be our new Senior Pastor. The vote went well, with Steve scoring 90% Yes - a good strong vote of confidence in him, and so now it's up to him and we just have to sit back and wait. Will he, won't he?

Personally, I'm sure he'll take the job. Whatever the outcome, it is a new season here at MCC, and we're looking forward to seeing what happens next in the continuing adventure that is life in Cairo.

Florafest

For those of you who don't understand and think I have been celebrating all the delightful ways we can use margarine, these last two weeks we have hosted Steve and Karan Flora, who came to have interviews for the post of Senior Pastor at MCC.  It all seemed to go very well, and we as a congregation will vote on whether we want him tonight.

That's a bit weird isn't it?  A guy comes, he preaches for two weekends, he endures a question and answer session with the congregation, and then they say yup, that's the man for us, or, no, we don't like him.  Voting on a single candidate isn't even particularly democratic because there is no oppostition candidate.  It would be much more fun if we had two candidates and we could pit them against each other.  Competitive preach-offs, who has the most charming Pastor's Wife, Bible knowledge quizzes, my seminary was better than yours etc etc.  Now that would liven up a quiet winter season in church.

I think we should draw lots - far more Biblical than voting.