A friend of mine was recently in Egypt. Over Jasmine Pearl Green Tea, she shared with me tales of her time spent there. Traveling as a Christian short-term missionary with a handful of others in a Muslim run country, they were forced to say they were "tourist on holiday" and not "missionaries." Out of all the things my friend and her team saw and did in Egypt, one place she described has stuck with me in daunting fashion.

Outside the city of Cairo sits another city: Garbarge City. It is believed that during the 1950's a powerful Islamic leader, President Nasser, uprooted Cairo's Christian population, known as Coptic Christians, and relocated them to what is now known as Garbage City. Garbage City is massive in size and is home to thousands of families. The city serves as the dumping ground for Cairo's waste. Those living in Garbage City make their livings sorting through heaping piles of trash, looking for anything that can be recycled or salvaged and later sold again. Although Cairo and its surrounding cities are up to date with their standard of living, it is not the case with Garbage City. The city lacks running water which forces its inhabitants to live in sub-human conditions in the midst of thousands of pounds of other people's trash.

1. Located under the rubbage in various locations throughout the city, you will find internet cafe's. (Maybe someday soon a Coptic Christian Garbage City resident will stumble upon conversantlife).

2. The Sisters of Charity, a Mother Theresa order, run an orphanage there, providing basic needs for so many abandonded children. The idea that these women, who do not have to be there, but rather choose to be there out of nothing else than desiring to honor the mandate to care for the poor, the sick, the widowed and the orphaned, is overwhelming to me.

3. Within this depressing city, exists the Cave Cathedral, also known as Garbage Cathedral. With 20,000 attendee's, Garbage Cathedral is the single largest Christian church in the Middle East. I don't know about you, but I am blown away by this.

I hear the disturbing stories of the inhumane conditions the inhabitants of Garbage City are living in and I hear about the Sisters of Charity and this mega-church within its walls and I can't help but think of the collision of two kingdoms. The kingdom of this earth is infiltrated with the garbage it produces. Yet, the kingdom of Heaven is filled with the fragrance of its King Jesus.

I'm an optimist. Can you imagine if one day, Garbage City, the members of Garbarge Cathedral, along with the Sister of Charity rose up in unison, singing praises to the Father? I imagine a day to come when the heavens will no longer tolerate such a perversion of Gods creation any longer and all nations will call upon the name of living Savior in adoration.