To begin, I am humbled by the commitment of people to fast and pray in order to deepen their relationship to God and to discern how to live faithfully in the world. I feel privileged to have spent four hours praying one morning with Pastor S. who does this everyday for four hours. It makes my own routines pale by comparison and urges me to make changes in this area of my life. We visited the site of the oldest monasteries in the world. To read of the lives of these desert fathers, and there were mothers as well, is to see giants in the land of faith. It would be one thing to visit a historic site but these are living monasteries where this same life of devotion carries on today. The setting of these places in the desert along the Red Sea was mystical. I took off my hiking boots many times over those days. Indeed. the places we were walking was holy ground. These monasteries were established in the 4th Century and are vibrant communities today.
We have been asking ourselves since we got back, “So now what?” I feel something has shifted in me and I am grateful for every encounter over the last two weeks.