We're through, I have managed the trip through a dried up river that only the day before had been over flowing it's banks. Don't ask me the detail all I know is that the water flowing down was cut off at some point about 14 miles upstream at a place called Adam. I was beginning to realise that the God I had been bought up with, the one my forefathers had called God Almighty, Elshadi, was actually more capable than I had given Him credit for. There was something in the fact that this river, that was overflowing had been cut off from Adam. Adam to me was always related to this person in the far reaches of time that had disobeyed God and had caused a whole heap of problems for all mankind down the ages, and yet here I was living through an experience where there seemed to be some kind of sign and connection which said all that has gone before has now ceased and has 'been cut off' . This God, Elshaidi seemed to be making some kind of statement, all your past is forgiven and forgotten, cut off from Adam.
The journey was quite an eventful one. We had just been told 3 days before get all your belongings together and be ready with your bags packed, tent down, camels loaded because we're moving out.
That in it's self was no mean feat, I can tell you. By the time I had got all my livestock together, organised the wife and kids, packed my camels and dismantled my home I am not sure it was all worth it. You see, we had been promised this "promised land" for as long as I could remember. My parents used to talk about it and the word on the street was that God was displeased with us as a community because my parents generation had really messed up and had refused to go any further in the quest for a better life and had even muted the fact that they might be better off if they had never left Egypt.
It was quite amazing when we all had got to the other side of the Jordon river, we were all milling about unsure what to do next when we saw some of our leaders taking stones from the dry river bed where the priests were standing with the ark and bring them up to where we were standing. There was great excitement as we all knew that a miracle had happened which was why we had crossed over on dry land and we all guessed that Joshua, our leader was about to make an alter, a memorial to remind us and those that would follow, about the great miracle of salvation, the release from our wilderness to our promised land. I really hope that future generations recognise that we all need to be released from our wilderness.
What I realised in that moment was that this God, Elshaidi, was interested in me. I had heard about Him through my parents and my other tribe members but it was just hearsay. I knew I had to check this God out for myself, after all He had kept us alive with manna and quails and now had performed some major feat, drying up the river. Well I had never heard or seen anything like it before.
What I knew was that my life would not be the same again.
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