What Keeps You From Church?

My morning reading this morning was begun with this question “What Keeps You From Church Today?”. I thought this was funny since my immediate answer was “4000 miles and about 12 hours of air travel.”. I wasn’t going to church this morning because I was on this trip. I had a good time devoting on the upper deck of the ship that was harbored in the Luxor area (Nile). The fisherman were up early getting their day’s catch out of the Nile.

We began the morning with a visit to the large temple of Karnak (built to the God Amon (the Sun God) on the opposite end of the city. They once were joined by an avenue of Sphinx (the animal body-man faced animal) that allowed for the Gods to come together during a festival of fertility during the spring (the goddess Mut and the God Amon were responsible for the fertility of the Nile and the land)

Karnack was another amazing architetural feat. I couldn’t believe the height of the columns in the inner court. Much of the symbolism of the temple is the same as the Biblical temple model (outer court, inner court, holy of holies).

After a morning at Karnack we returned to the boat to set sail on the Nile. An afternoon of sailing brought us down the Nile which is lush with green lands and farms. The people were along the banks of the Nile today swimming and spending an afternoon together. Many of them hollered and waved at us as we past along. I guess the most shocking site was seeing the people bathe along the Nile. (I didn’t look at them long!--honeslty!)

We arrived at the Esna Locks around 5:00 PM or so. The last time this trip took place in March it took them 12 hours to get throught the locks. Let me explain that you are basically held captive in the Nile and are incessantly barraged by the Feluca captains who are trying to get you to by their wares along the Nile. We didn’t encounter this because we moved through the Locks within about 2 hours and moored for the evening at Esna.

The night was capped off by the crew of the ship doing a Native Nubian dance night for us in the lounge. It was festive to say the least.