Whatsoever |
Whatsoever |
Extracts from a journal - recording a journey in the Sinai desert with school girls, teachers and Bedouin guides. A journey for our times. Provision of needs : so little and yet enough. Only what could be carried by the camels and provided by the Bedouin Silhouettes appear in the dipping sun. The sun is raking light now as we stop on the edge of the plain. People are rushing to get camp made quickly before the sun sets. Camels are hobbled, grazing but prevented from wandering off, enjoying not having the constant cry of ‘ari’ to move them on. Boys are searching for brush wood for a fire as the sun sets over Mount Sinai. The next day after a morning on the camels, we stopped for mid-morning tea, miraculously produced but the Bedouin: some brushwood, stone, a flame and then water quickly boiled and tea made. We sat in the shadow of a carved pink rock and looked towards a massive mountain in etched pink and yellow, rising sheer from the sand into the deep blue sky. Life in the desert There are more living things here than we first thought: it is not really a barren place. We were shown small melons growing low to the rock which are used for curing rheumatism and in childbirth. As we approach a camp place there were gargling calls of flocks of migrating storks, circling briefly to look at us and then off in formation on their journey from Europe to Africa across this boundary region. We saw a wheatear, a black and white chirping bird, and some ravens who seemed to know that leftover food was available. Once in the distance we could see trees and bushes of an oasis Lunchtime Eventually we came to a place for lunch in the shade of a huge rock. The Bedouin make a fire then make bread in a washing up bowl. A small round of dough is quickly kneaded, rolled with the salt canister, passed from hand to hand to make it larger and thinner, and then put on an upside-down curved pan over the fire and cooked. We ate this with salad – cucumbers and tomatoes, fish, houmous and tahini. Men quietly disappear to wash and then say their prayers. The children are loud, chattering. The camels are brought back, grunting. In the distance are blue hazy hills. One is Mount Sinai– a place of instruction and covenant from God. We carry fresh vegetables – small cucumbers, squashy tasty tomatoes, potatoes and onions- with us in wooden boxes, 2 tied to my camel. The camels drink no water on this trip. At the end they will go to the camel park and the sheikh will let them have their fill of around sixty litres each. They stop when they can to eat the plants – tough and thorny things but they can cope. They produce woolly hair during the winter to keep them warm and then in the spring it is pulled off and used to weave woollen rugs, saddle coverings and for tents. One of the camels is four months pregnant – the gestation time is 12 months. The bedu children do not know how old they are. They too are tough and wiry and want to play games and climb up rocks. Evening feast That evening, arriving at the head of a sheltered valley the sheikh is there to meet us in his jeep. He has come to say hello to the Bedouin. In no time at all they have made a camp – a fire, mats around camel saddles, cooking by a rock with the aid of a gas canister (reduces the use of fuel wood). We quickly have to get ourselves organised before the sun goes down. We each disappear behind a rock to wash and change into clothes that will do for bed. Then we gather around the little fire, the bedu squatting nearby around their blaze. Another miraculous meal appears – rice, sausage in tomato sauce and chips! The leaders have been peeling and slicing potatoes and deep frying them for us and served with salad. After dinner the girls disappear for their giggling gossip and we leaders talk a little and a little bedu boy. We share Arab and English words for biscuit, fire, salt. Then he shows us his writing skill – the 2 words he can spell in English which he writes out in the sand are ‘Toyota’ and Jeep! The fire began to go out. We break up some twigs but can’t manage to blow it into life. An elderly bedu comes over, puts his face right near the fire and blows and again, miraculously, huge flames appear. Provision in every way The next day there is a beautiful ride to a lunch place, shaded under a huge, honeycombed rock. The girls went and tested echoes in the cleft of the mountain then ran whooping down the sandy slope. We sat and drew pictures. The little children threw stones at cans – expertly. I walked away and sat on a ridge looking out over the wide open plain and hills offering small prayers, praising and thanking and knowing how great God is, how great and how small and yet how cared for each of us are. I felt truly relaxed, open and thankful: he wonderful sense of being cared for my others. Context of the Bible
How strange and unexpected that God should choose such a barren place to reveal himself. Perhaps it is always necessary for all else to be stripped away for us to cease to be distracted. Distraction is the curse of our age. The children of Israel in the desert grumbled about being there got fed up and didn’t believe that this would be any better. But they were provided for miraculously. Special provision was made. Exodus 16 v 2-5. In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.” Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.” God provided quail and ‘manna’ (the seeds of the tamarisk bush). We saw evidence of unexpected life in the desert, we experienced such care and provision for our needs, we were able to give thanks for abundant provision each day or our journey.
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WhatsoeverThe posts are 'postcards' on my journey through faith and art. The name 'Whatsoever' comes from Philippians 4:8 in the Bible : Categories
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