Of Refugees and Blessings

A Review of Fleeing Herod: A Journey Through Coptic Egypt with the Holy Family
by Phoebe Farag Mikhail

My two year old daughter's favorite song these days is a catchy Arabic hymn sung by the Heart of David Choir in Egypt that, roughly translated, goes "A long time ago/A refugee came to you oh Egypt/A young boy and his family/He blessed your land/He blessed your people/Till your heart was satisfied with His blessings." On June 1, 2014, the Coptic Orthodox Church will be commemorating the feast of the entry of the Holy Family - Jesus Christ, His Mother Mary, and Joseph the Carpenter - into Egypt, a visit acknowledged and celebrated not just by all Christians, but by all Egyptians.

The fascinating book by James Cowan, Fleeing Herod: A Journey Through Coptic Egypt with the Holy Family revisits the ancient story of the Holy Family's flight into Egypt through Cowan's literal tracing of their legendary path. The Bible gives us a few verses of the angel's instructions to Joseph to take Mary and the infant Jesus to Egypt to flee the edict of Herod to kill all Hebrew children under the age of 3, fearing for his own throne. Tradition, history, and archeology provide us more details on their journey, and Cowan revisits all of these in this colorful travel memoir.


I read Fleeing Herod slowly, not because it was a slow read, but because each chapter offered so much to think about. In addition to Cowan's vibrant descriptions of his journey and of each place he visited, he describes the religious significance of each site to the ancient Egyptians at the time, as well as the tensions and fears the Holy Family must have felt with the daily dangers of thieves and bandits on the road, and Herod's soldiers and spies at their tails.

Most interesting to me were the conversations that Cowan chronicles with all of his hosts along the way - sometimes conversations about the holy site itself, but most often conversations about faith that cause Cowan himself to undergo his own personal transformation. By the time he reaches Mount Qussqam at Al-Muharraq, where the Holy Family lived for at least six months before making their way back down the Nile and on to Nazareth, Cowan writes, "I had spent so many weeks on the road re-creating the world of the Holy Family in Egypt. Their journey was a prototype for the one I was making in my head. Every crisis along the way was a spiritual crisis for me,as it had been for them" (p. 225).  The following is an excerpt from a pivotal conversation he later has at Deir al Muharraq with a monk named Father Angelus:

"The Holy Family came to Mount Qussqam because of a prophecy," Father Angelus went on. "God wanted to test his son by placing him in the most arid spot on earth. This was no act of politeness. His son had to be tested, even as a child. We do this with our own children, do we not? The Holy Father is no different: the baby Jesus had to be honed by fire. Otherwise, how could he begin to cut out the evil that was rampant in the world?"
"I have no idea, Father," I admitted.
"Suffering is the only antidote to the poison of the easy life. Mary knew this to be so, as did Joseph. They were like doctors; they administered herbs to their child. He needed to be made resistant to all the slings and arrows of the world. He needed to be made strong  in order to prepare himself for the difficulties that lay ahead. The crucifixion was never going to be a--how do you say it? A cake path?"
"A cakewalk, Father," I said.
"Call it what you will, yes. It takes more than a stroll in a garden to find courage enough to be crucified. Egypt made Jesus the man he became, I am certain of that."
"How can you be so sure, Father?" I ventured.
Father Angelus looked at me. I could feel his eyes boring into me.
"Because," he began, "Egypt is the eternal fire of humanity. It is here that every conceivable thought that has ever been has been properly tested" (pp. 230-231).

The Holy Family entered Egypt as refugees - and as Cowan beautifully takes us through their trip historically, mythologically, and spiritually - we learn how Egypt changed them, how they changed Egypt, and how Egypt became filled with their blessings. Although I have visited many of the sites Cowan writes about, it is my dream to visit all of them on a pilgrimage such as this. If I do, I will certainly take this book along with me.

Baking, Giving and Learning with Kids

By Phoebe Farag Mikhail

We had new neighbors, and I wanted to welcome them with homemade cookies. But I was also having a carpal tunnel syndrome flare up, and could not stir batter without my hands going numb.

A week later and a four-toddler play date, and I had a big box of cookies to give, plus plenty to nibble on at home, too. Baking with my kids is becoming my new favorite pastime.

The last time I baked so many cookies, it was last Christmas, and I made a batch for everyone on our block. My toddler came with me to distribute them, permanently associating baking cookies with giving gifts. So there was very little protest when I removed over half of the cookies he (and three other toddlers) had creamed, mixed, and folded into a box to give away to the neighbors. They were not just giving away their sweets, they were giving away their time and effort – and they were ok with that.

There are other benefits to baking with kids. They can learn so much through baking – reading, counting, fractions, telling time – and even science lessons about how cakes rise and why eggs (or fruit) keep cookies together. 

But when one of our elderly neighbors said hello to my son, and he asked me later if we could bake cookies to give to her, I knew the lesson in giving was the most important one he got from baking together. 

Baking with my toddler has lessons for me, too—lessons that can be applied not just to parents, but also to teamwork and organizations. Toddlers stirring sugar and flour and butter and cocoa and eggs will spill some of it. They will lick their raw egg batter covered fingers. They will dump all the buttermilk into the flour mixture instead of alternating between the two. They will create cookies shaped like trapezoids and blobs. Here are the lessons I have learned from this:

1- Patience, flexibility, and forgiveness. It took me longer to bake when my helpers were much smaller than me and needed step by step instructions. Yelling at them when they spill some flour or lick the batter took away from the fun of the process and risked losing them as kitchen helpers in the future. Besides, I’ve spilled stuff too while baking – so let me take the "plank" out of my own eye first!

My son stirring batter. (c) Phoebe Farag Mikhail, 2013

2- There is a cost to not including the kids – they will need attention anyway, so if I did all the baking myself, I would have been constantly interrupted by their needs and demands, and spent the time fighting them off instead of working together. 

3- The perfect is the enemy of the good. What is perfect, anyway? Cookies shaped like blobs taste just as good as perfectly round cookies. Who cares? My neighbors loved the cookies, and it turned out they had a little boy my son's age, who was so excited to eat cookies made in part by his toddler neighbor.

On our next rainy or snowy day, I’m baking these cookies with my toddler.

What have you learned from doing things with children lately?