Now they have filed a legal challenge to retain their Christian identity and the landmark decision may come as early as next week.

Fighting for Their Faith

Andrew and Mario Labib are 15-year-old twin brothers in Egypt.

They were born into a Coptic Christian family, but their father later converted to Islam and now their government says they are Muslim.

That is significant because that is the designation that will be placed on their national identity cards when they turn 16 in June.

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2010/March/Egyptian-Brothers-Fight-to-Keep-Christian-Identity/

II Corinthians 9:6

2. Never get too old to hold hands.

Psalm 73:23-24

3. Let life’s experience draw you closer together.

Isaiah 64:8

4. Never let a day go by without telling each other, “I love you.”

Proverbs 25:11

5. Learn to bend and not break.

Jeremiah 17:7-8

6. Maintain your marriage with kindness.

Ephesians 4:32

7. Always be best friends with your partner.

Song of Solomon 5:16

8. Always be honest, faithful, and true to each other.

Revelation 19:11

9. Remember the golden rule also applies to your spouse.

Matthew 7:12

10. First make a commitment to the Lord, then to each other.

Psalm 119:106

Marriage is life’s way of proving how opposite the opposite sex can be.

Love may be blind, but marriage is a real eye opener.

Your mate doesn’t live by bread alone; he or she needs to “buttered up” from time to time.

Many of us experience storms in our lives.  I have weathered some in my life.  As a child I lived with a terminally ill brother.  I learned how to deal with the reality of knowing that he was not going to be with us for very long and the guilt of realizing that it could have been me and not him.  God has a plan for everything in our lives.
This past summer we experienced a literal storm in our lives.  My two oldest daughters were on a trip to Mexico with their grandparents and the rest of us were getting ready for church.  I was just finishing getting ready when my husband got the two younger girls in the car.  The sky looked pretty black so Jeff put the dogs in the house.  He pulled the van up close to our back door so that I wouldn’t get wet trying to get into the car.   We live out in the country so the wind can really blow with nothing to block it.  I heard the wind start to pick up so I ran and closed all of the windows.  I heard rain so I ran to the door.  It was raining pretty hard so I motioned to Jeff, my husband, that I wanted to wait a minute until the rain died down a little.  The rain seemed to just get worst.  The wind picked up.  I ran into the living room and looked out the window.  The sky was so black that I really couldn’t see anything..  The wind seemed to be blowing so hard that I started to get scared!  I ran out of the room and as I did, hail smashed through the window that I was looking out.   This wasn’t just any hail, it was the size of a grapefruit!  It smashed the windows in my living room and was blowing down the hallway into my kitchen!  If this wasn’t bad enough, my family was still waiting for me in the Van!
Panic started spring up in my heart!  I could barely see the van anymore because the wind was blowing so hard and there was so much debris blowing past.  I could make out my husband grabbing the baby out of the car seat.  He grabbed her and told Jessica, my 9 year old to lay under him.  He covered them both with his body as the window of the van broke out!  My first thought was that there was a tornado in our back yard!  I didn’t know what to do.  I tried the door handle but the wind was blowing so hard that I couldn’t even open the door.  I thought that I was going to see my husband and baby girls die that day.  I wanted to be in there with them!  If they died, I wanted to die too!  Then I thought about my 11 year old and 13 year old daughters in Mexico.  If I died, they would be orphans.   I got on my knees in that hallway and cried out to God!  I said Lord please protect them!  Please send angles to protect them.  I didn’t know it but my husband was also screaming God please protect us!  What I didn’t know at the time was that Jeff and Jessica were also crying out to God.  Jeff was screaming “God protect us!     The van was rocking back and forth from the wind.   It was totally out of my control and totally in Gods hands.  I felt a peace come over me and I knew that God was there.  I knew that he planned this whole thing out.  I didn’t know why he would do this but I knew that it was him.
I don’t know how long the storm lasted.  It seemed like hours.  In reality, I think that it was just a few minutes.  When the wind started to die some, I tried to open the door again.  It opened but the door to the hall slammed with great force!  I knew that it was still to soon to go outside.  I could see the van door try to open and close again.  My little 9 year old was also trying to get out but her dad said no!
Finally the wind stopped!  There was no movement in the van.  Panic rose in my heart again.  I grabbed the phone and called 911.  I told the dispatcher that we were hit by a tornado and that my family was in the van.  I told her that there was glass everywhere and I didn’t know if they were alive!  Jessica came running out of the van!!!  I was so relieved.  Jeff and the baby came in and I could see that they were ok!  God had protected them.  He protected me also.
Our house was in pretty bad shape after the storm.  We were missing several windows and our roof was ruined.  Our siding was smashed in on the west side.   The carpet had glass embedded in it and water damage.   My garden was gone!  Many of the trees were in bad shape.  One of our trees was blocking the road.  Despite all of that, my family was safe.  I knew that God had protected us from the storm; Jeff said that it was like an angle was covering his body with its wing.   Psalms 91:1,4 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust:  I just kept thinking: lord you ordered this up.  You have a plan.
Before the storm hit, we were having some real money problems.  We needed to pay for our daughter’s school and we needed gas in our LP tank for winter.  With cutbacks at my husbands work, and me not getting in hours at my work, we had no idea where that money would come from.  We were broke.   But God is so very good.  He sent that storm to us.  He wrecked our cars.  My van is dented and gets lots of attention but I can drive it just fine.  The insurance paid for our needs.  God supplied the means to meet those needs.  Our old farmhouse needed some work and he has supplied those needs as well.  He knows what we need even better than we do. Phil 4:19 But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.  I would not have answered our prayer the way that he did, not in a million years.  God is the master at creativity.  He sent a storm to build our character and help us see what is important in life.  God comes through.  He is never earily and he is never late.  He is alwayis right on time.  What a great God we serve.