Cave Churches Rock... ha get it? ROCK? :)

Dearest Persons,
I can not even begin to describe the things I saw today. It was absolutely amazing. We went to this place called Garbage City. It is the "Christian" section of town. Muslims are not able to deal with garbage, so the people here make their living recycling garbage. The smells are... well, you can imagine. The above picture is taken from the place I will describe next which fascinated me, but the reddish buildings are all Garbage City and then behind in the distance you can see the Cairo skyline. To the left is the famous Citadel and Mohammad Ali Mosque. It really looks like a fortress or castle, it's really kewl. The next picture is of this HUGE mud puddle in the middle of the city, and the third is a picture of these little boys that Bryce was playing with and took their picture outside of the orphanage. They didn't tell us where we were going... just that we were going to Garbage City so we're walking through the trash, the people, the... everything... and we come to this massive ornate gate. As we enter, the atmosphere completely changes. We have just entered this place of huge rock with Biblical Scenes carved on the sides of the rock. It was breathtaking. I hope that you can get a glimpse of that in the few pictures that follow of the rock. Then, the following are pictures of the cave churches that we visited. It was so amazing... I felt worse than Gayle, I was crying all day!! :) The first held 20,000 people and was literally in the side of a cave. I have dreamed of the day I could visit a church where the people worshiped in a cave on the side of a mountain. I can not WAIT to go there on a Thursday night for a Coptic Christian Worship Service! It was like experiencing Willow Creek for the first time only like one million times better. Wow. I am still amazed. The other cave church was completely indoor and the acoustics were amazing... we all sang and it just rang out. It was amazing. The third cave church was arranged in three parts... one for Christians, new believers and non believers. I guess that's how the early churches met. And there were these sweet cushions for seats. It floored me that such a massive Christian community exists... first of all in the middle of such a Muslim City, and secondly in the middle of Garbage City. It was incredible. Jesus lives in Egypt! (Not that I didn't know that, but it was as if I FOUND him today.) :) Oh... and then I got some hot kids music about Jesus in Arabic. It's the greatest ever, I'm actually listening to it as I type. Hoping it doesn't drive my roommates crazy. I can't wait to be able to post more and more pictures of what I've been seeing and experiencing. I love you so much!! Leave me messages, ok?
In His Firm Grip,
Your Kara Joy

P.S.
The thing I have missed the most while in Egypt this far is peanut butter! Theirs is like real peanuts and slimey. I dunno, it's ok but it's not peanut butter. Tonight we went to an American Grocery Store and I bought a jar of peanut butter and ate it like all the way back to our flat. There is NOTHING like good crunchy peanut butter straight out of the jar... especially if it is not contaminated by anyone's armpit, aye boys? :)