One of our most fun homeschooling projects and the subject of much mirth, as we recall our days in Ukraine, was a chicken we mummified during our study of Ancient Egypt. The process of mummification is simple; you just keep the “body” in a mixture of salt and baking soda, changing the mixture frequently until the salt draws all the moisture out of the meat and what is left cannot rot. Our mummy chicken sat in the salt mixture at first for 24 hours, after which the salt had to be changed and the mummy was covered in fresh salt.
This process required us to take the organs out of the cavity of the bird and embalm them separately because we were committed to keeping it as authentic to the original process as possible. Benjamin was ten at the time, and struggled to pick up after himself at times so yes, we found ourselves saying odd things like:
“Benjamin, get your organs out of the bathroom!”
Our daughter, Adele, who was 7 at the time, thought the mummy must have peed when she saw that the salt was wet.
Here is a link in case any brave home-school moms would like to try this project. It will definitely make for some fun conversation around the dinner table, though I would definitely recommend that you store it somewhere far away from the dinner table! We did not have that option in our six-hundred square foot apartment.
We made a sarcophagus from an old game box, and placing our mummy in it, took it to the church building for burial. My husband, Andrew, would not let us build a pyramid over it. So, we dug a grave and buried it (an egregious affront to Egyptian royal culture, I’m sure!). The years have passed, Benjamin tried many times to go back and find his chicken to no avail. The church has even done a building project and has never uncovered our chicken. Currently it is located under a brand new church building (so kind of like a pyramid).
This region has been under heavy artillery since the middle of July. The church is monitoring the situation from a village outside the city for now. Many members of the church have already left Nikopol.
A lot of memories were made on that piece of property. If Nikopol becomes Russian territory, they will not care about our flower gardens and the pear tree we sat under teaching the children God’s word. The playground we built maybe destroyed.
Joseph was driven from his home and brought to a strange land. He might have felt abandoned too. We know Joseph was used by God, to save his family from famine, but it was through the cruelty of his brothers that the Israelite people wound up in slavery for 400 years. Do you think Joseph’s brothers might have made different choices that day if they could have looked into the future and seen what was going to happen to Israel? By the actions of evil men, God brought about good. The Israelites were delivered from famine. But then again, innocent people suffered because of the poor choices of Pharaoh. Did God stop bad things from happening to them? No, but he continued to stay with His people throughout the hardships they suffered.
We get overly attached to places and things. We think we need things to establish a church, like buildings and chairs, Pulpits and classrooms. A lot of controversy can be had over the color of pews, or whether we should even have pews, what color should the carpet be? Whole churches have split over these things that were never a part of the original structure of the church anyway. Peter said the building material is spiritual, our actions, our attitudes, our service to God.
I have watched many refugees in Ukraine walk away from everything they have. They leave behind their animals, gardens, their homes. Everything they have worked for their entire life. Imagine packing a small bag with just a few changes of clothing, and documents, only what you can carry with you, and walking away, knowing you will likely never go back. You might realize things you valued before are not so valuable as you thought.
Nikopol is suffering because of the actions of evil men, but God is still with Christians, and God can use their actions to build up other bodies of Christ, just maybe not the one in Nikopol.
In the meantime, I imagine a Russian soldier coming across a headless mummified chicken and wondering what kind of strange religion was practiced there. I hope it grosses him out.