Cairo!

Through the wonders of modern air travel, I've come today from Zurich, Switzerland, to an utterly different world -- Cairo. It's difficult to imagine two more different places and cultures. We spent yesterday seeing important Christian sites in Zurich -- including Zwingli's Church and the place where Anabaptists were drowned in the Zurich river -- under a cold, rainy sky. I marvel at how well organized, efficiently run and clean Switzerland is -- and how spiritually sterile it can seem. Yet new life is sprouting and God is stirring up the ancient wells.

This morning we boarded a half-full Airbus 340 and after less than 4 hours we touched down on the other side of the Mediterranean -- it might as well be the other side of the planet. It's warm, dry, dusty, smoggy, crowded, chaotic and -- well, the opposite of Switzerland.

I had a window seat and was hoping I was on the right side. I was -- the right side being the left. I mean the right side to see the Pyramids. As we made our approach into Cairo airport, suddenly they were just there out my window, just like we've seen them in pictures all our lives. It's striking how close to the city and the green zone near the Nile they are -- literally right on the edge of the town.

As we flew over the Nile I kept wondering where exactly Jesus might have been with his parents - and where exactly was Moses in the basket. They were actually here - I've never been to a place where major events of the Bible happened and important people actually lived. But there were the Pyramids that were already 2,500 years old when Jesus was here. And there was the Nile. If the Pyramids are ancient, the Nile is virtually eternal. And from my window in the sky I could so clearly see how all of life depends on this thin strip of water flowing through this extreme, bleak desert.

The other thing I noticed were all the Minarets -- the towers at every Mosque from where the faithful are called to prayer. There are Mosques everywhere. So here from my airplane window I could see the ancient Pryamids, the eternal Nile, and somewhere in my view places where Moses, the Children of Israel and Jesus, our Prophet Priest and King actually lived. And the Mosques -- everywhere the Mosques.

We left the airport right in time to get caught in the traffic crunch as everyone rushes home to eat. It's Ramadan - the Islamic holy month were Muslims fast from food and water from dawn to dusk - and make up for it in the evening.

I can shake the feeling that I'm very close to the source - in more ways than one. God is on the move here too. More on that later. Tomorrow we see the Pyramids and lead worship for the evening service. Tonight we sleep.