Bread is Life

We have an interesting news phenomeonon here in Doha. We get the US news, courtesy of ABC and CBS, everyday. Now, mind you, it is a day later than you in America get it, but we get it. I find out what is going on in the US, and the world, via Charlie and Katie. It's a real connecton for me. Keith gets his news by reading the Houston Chronicle online. I just don't have the patience for that!

If you happened to catch Katie on the Thursday evening news this week, you might have seen a couple of segments on the ever rising price of food, both in the US and around the world. The around the world segment was filmed in Cairo, Egypt. Of course, that caught my eye and ear. The video showed groups of Egyptians waiting in bread lines (okay, more like frantic groups) attempting to secure their allotment of sustenance for the day. Many, many Egyptians are poor, making the equivalent of 2 US dollars a day to live on. The bread, which is inexpensive in our eyes, but not theirs, has become the absolute basis of their survival. We saw those very same bread "lines" when we were in Egypt. At one point, when we were taking a horse carriage ride through a city and happened upon a bread distribution center, the driver was complaining that the price of bread had gone up to 1 US cent per piece. According to CBS, even the Egyptian military has been enlisted to bake and distribute bread.

In our hotel in Cairo there was a precious little lady who sat out by the pool area each morning to make bread for the hotel workers. One day, when I stopped to admire her hard work and take a few pictures, of course, she insisted that I take a piece of the delicious, hot bread, fresh out of the oven. I accepted the precious gift and savored it thoroughly. We did not speak the same language, but communicated perfectly, nonetheless, mostly through our smiles.

The Egyptians often refer to their bread as aish, or life. Most appropriate, as it is what is keeping many of them from starving. Let us remember to be generous and prayerful to the Bread Of Life, towards our fellow citizens, both at home and abroad, who are hungry. We do not want to ever take for granted the blessings that we have been given.

I am the Bread of Life.

John 6:35