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July 2020
Dear friends,
I looked in amazement at the two small children before me, proudly wearing their masks. “Who taught you to do that?” I asked. They answered that it was their mom, who is one of the cleaning ladies at the Center of Love (the CL) at the Mokattam Garbage Village (MGV). I felt proud of her--lovely, young Howeida, illiterate but still teaching her kids well!
 Covid-19 hit the MGV hard! But before it started, we at the CL had started training the children how to cope with it, especially through social distancing and washing their hands well. We taught them to sing Happy Birthday twice while washing!
But in mid-March, unfortunately, we had to close because cases started appearing in the MGV and we knew our children would be especially vulnerable. This was a great sadness for us all as these children and young adults really need the daily teaching, training, Physical Therapy, Speech Therapy, etc. they receive at the CL . We also felt very badly knowing how much their moms love the chance to be temporarily relieved of what in some cases is a great burden to them.
 Since April, the number of Covid-19 cases has spiraled and many people at the Village have died, including both a mom and a dad of two of our children. But we are grateful to report that the past three weeks there have been no deaths and the number has greatly reduced, praise God!
During all of this time a group of about ten volunteers from the Family of Love (the group that also works with the Chronically Ill  at the MGV) have been meeting every Friday at the CL to pray for the situation at the Village. Afterwards, they’ve distributed bags of food to the needy on their list at the Village. However, as the summer has gone on and many people not on the list have lost their jobs, they have also given food to some of the neediest of these people. Some of you reading this letter have helped to contribute towards this need, either through special giving or through the regular gifts you give towards the Center of Love.
Another encouraging development has been in the medical field. There is a good hospital that  belongs to the church but it does not have a Covid-19 department. But with the help of special gifts both in and out of Egypt, the Family of Love and the St. Simon Hospital have bought 20 Oxygen Tanks and a Ventilator. Meanwhile, some of our brighter youth at the MGV who are training to be doctors of different kinds have regularly visited afflicted people, taking the O. Tanks to their homes and teaching them how to use them. Of course this is under the supervision of highly-trained doctors at the Hospital. They have also been invaluable in terms of collecting statistics.
This has all been under the direction of Mahrous Fakhry. It has reminded me  of the early days over 22 years ago when the work among the Challenged and Chronically Ill in the Garbage Village was begun by a group of volunteer youth, including Mahrous They felt burdened for these people in their village and started visiting them. What first attracted me to join this new ministry was when I saw the young people bringing the sick to church, sometimes carrying them on their backs!
So the work continues…partly by a new generation of youth! God is still in control and calling people to ministry…even in these very hard days!
Breaking News: the decision has just been made to start re-opening the CL on August 10th. Praise the Lord!
In His love,
Rebecca, Mahrous and Sherry
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