A trip to Ain Sukhna for Grade 8 students 
51 of our 8th grade students recently had an amazing opportunity to take a trip to Ain Sukhna to visit and get a tour of a huge fiberglass factory. After the grand tour, they were invited to enjoy a delicious Chinese meal, this was a first for many students! What a special treat! On their way home, they made a stop at the Suez Canal, giving everyone an opportunity to stick their feet in the water and learn a little history about the Suez Canal, which is considered to be the shortest link between the east and the west because of its unique geographic location.  This canal is an important international navigation link between the Mediterranean Sea at Port Said and the Red Sea at Suez. It‘s considered to be the first artificial canal to be used in travel and trade. The whole idea of establishing a canal linking between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean dates back to the pharaohs who dredged a canal link in between the River Nile and the Red Sea.

Choir/Dancers Perform at an Embassy event
What great exposure our students are getting!  They’ve received several invitations to perform this year.  One at an Embassy function in February and more invitations coming up in March -to sing and dance at several International Food Fairs. The 13 girls and 1 boy choir was chosen out of many enthusiastic students who have been practicing and doing try-outs for the opportunity to perform.  The group is well received wherever they go. We’re so proud of them. They love any opportunity they are given to perform; they shine in the spotlight and it’s obvious to everyone who watches them.

Two Paint Teams
You can imagine, with 470 students, their families, plus 35 staff, and a number of volunteers coming through our doors each day, we can always use a fresh coat of paint from time to time.  What a joy it is to have people who like to shower us with blessings of their time, talents and kind efforts. This adds such beautiful colour to our world – many thanks to many hard working hands!

Social-Emotional Learning Workshop

Just recently, seven students from our Grade 6 & 7 classes were chosen to attend a full day workshop at an international school, with over a hundred students from other local schools. During this trip, students were given the opportunity to experience up to 30 different exercises and activities relating to friendship, respect, empathy, responsibility and self-expression.  

When debriefing a few days later with our students, they all agreed it was a very helpful workshop.  One participant shared the most important lesson for her was learning how to handle depression. She said many students and their families are suffering from depression in their refugee community and it was helpful to learn that they are not alone; that they should share their pain with others who may also be going through hard times. They were surprised to hear similar situations that others were going through and realized how much it helps to support one another through difficulties.

In one of the exercises, students were shown a picture of an iceberg.  Although you can see an iceberg, in actual fact only 10% of the ice is above water.  The remaining 90% is below water and cannot be seen. The exercise was to help students learn that they can’t judge someone by first appearances.  There’s so much about a person that can’t be seen. We don’t know what’s going on below the surface in a person’s life so don’t judge and criticize fellow students.  Students said they also appreciated hearing and learning about the importance of respecting one another and taking their studies more seriously. Now the challenge is, how can we bring some of what they learned into our AHLC population?  That’s what we’re hoping to discover in the days ahead.

Prayers are welcomed…

A neighbour who complains regularly that our students are too noisy has been calling the police and wants to chase us away.  A few weeks ago he entered school with a stick and started beating several teachers who were in the front reception area. He even broke some glass in a classroom.  Thankfully, no one fought back and no one was seriously injured. We’re praying for him, and for ways to resolve this problem peacefully. We need God’s wisdom.

Thank you for taking the time to read our newsletter. We sincerely appreciate and are very much grateful for your support. We look forward to communicating with you again soon!

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Address:  Sarayat Branch
2, Mostafa Kamel.  Maadi, Cairo - Egypt
Account Name:  MCC Maadi Community Church
Account Number:  11018400019184 USD
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