Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo - March 2024

Dr. Samuel Rozfy visited with numerous partners during his most recent trip to the United States, January 26-February 6. He began his visit with a stop in Hendersonville, Tennessee, visiting the Community Church of Hendersonville. Community Church is a new ministry partner, currently funding a MAT scholarship. Don and Ann Crittenden joined him as he attended the ECO National Gathering in Greenville, South Carolina. His host for the event was the Eastminister Church in Marrietta, Georgia.

Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo — July 2023 Update

The Evangelical Theological Seminary (ETSC) held its 152nd graduation exercises at the Heliopolis Evangelical Church. Seventy graduates received diplomas, including 12 MDiv ordination track students, 1 Master of Theology student, and 33 Master of Theology students. The MDiv students will be taking ordination examinations with the intention of serving as pastors in churches across Egypt. The other students will move into various positions of service.

Important Announcement from the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo (ETSC)

Rev. Dr. Youssef Samir, ETSC Board Chairman, announced the unanimous election of Rev. Dr. Samuel Rozfy as the new president of the Evangelical Theological Seminary of Cairo.

New Church Development in Egypt - July 2022 Update

After decades of difficulties and hesitation to build churches or renovate the old ones, the Egyptian church is now able to build in a massive way. Many building projects are taking place in different parts of the country. A great example is a church in a village in Upper Egypt called Kalandol. This church is very old and has a building that has been there for almost 100 years without any kind of renovation or reconstruction. Peter Gamal, a new graduate from the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo, was sent to pastor this church. Miraculously, he managed to get a license to rebuild the church — and the entire congregation is involved in the project!

New Church Development in Egypt - February 2022 Update

Yellow Mountain became “Green with growth”

“Yellow Mountain” is a rather picturesque-sounding name for a sprawling slum area in greater Cairo to which many people migrated from other parts of the country to find more opportunities. Most of those people are from poor backgrounds and had lived in small villages. About 10 years ago, one of the seminary students from ETSC (Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo), Jimmy Wageeh, went to the area to meet some of those families. He started by visiting them in their homes, forming a Bible study group, and then serving kids. After the number of families increased, they rented a place to have ministry and worship. The church grew in both number and quality of services.

Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo - February 2022 Update

My name is Mofreh Abdelmasieh (pictured on the left). I’m from a village called Dashloot. I grew up in an evangelical family. My father is an elder in our village church, which was founded by American missionaries in 1886. My father loves the church, and I was raised hearing about the important role of the church in people’s lives. When I was young, my father talked to me about becoming a pastor, but I rejected that idea until I went to university. I started serving with a ministry helping students develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ then leading them on the journey of discipleship. I continued for three years until I graduated and began my military service. While serving in the military, I heard God call me to pastoral ministry, so I made the decision to attend ETSC.

Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo - July 2021 Update

Although the world is suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo (ETSC) celebrated the graduation of its 149th class. The graduation was supposed to happen last summer, but because of COVID, the celebration took place in April at the Presbyterian Church in Heliopolis. The number of graduates this year was historical – 75!!! Fourteen graduates received an M.Div. and will be pastors in the Presbyterian Church of Egypt (most of them had already started their ministry in village churches, church planting, and other fields of ministry). The graduates included laypeople who came to ETSC to be better equipped for ministry – they are key leaders in local churches, Christian non-profits, and other Protestant denominations. Many of them are working in the marketplace but are demonstrating God's love in their circles. Some of the graduates are focused on leadership and church management. Through these capacities, they will serve their churches and organizations through strategic planning, biblical leadership, and management to achieve more goals for God's Kingdom.

New Church Development in Egypt - March 2021 Update

A Pastor with a Mission Heart

Pastor Manassa Nesem Sadek graduated from the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo (ETSC) in 2008. As a student, Manassa’s heart was captured by the mission classes that he took. Then ETSC arranged for him and another student to do a mission internship, twice, in Sudan. Traveling throughout Sudan and South Sudan, preaching, teaching, and encouraging the churches there, was deeply impactful to him.

Upon graduation, Manassa received a call to be the pastor of the village church of Al Tayeba, located in Minia Province, about 150 miles south of Cairo, and quickly led his congregation to be missional. He discipled many young people in mission, evangelism, and church planting, and within a short time, the congregation had planted three new churches in other villages in the nearby desert.

Manassa’s congregation began offering literacy classes and health care to the needy in the community. Manassa and his congregation are helping the village of Tayeba and other small villages greatly during the pandemic by providing medication, oxygen tanks, masks, sanitizers, and food supplies for the poor.

New Church Development in Egypt - January 2021 Update

With 20 million people, Cairo is the largest city in the Middle East and is home to 20% of the population of Egypt. It is growing at a rate of over 2% a year which doesn’t sound like much until you “do the math” - that means that Cairo adds over 400,000 people each year. Or think of it this way: each year, Cairo adds the equivalent of a Tulsa or a New Orleans. Every year. These new residents come from other (often rural) parts of Egypt, hoping to find better jobs and better schools for their children. They end up living in “suburbs/extensions” of Cairo which are makeshift and ramshackle communities often with poor roads, dense apartment complexes, and few available services.

In the last 20 years, the Church of Egypt recognized the importance of planting churches in these new communities. Planting a church is not a luxury or an extra place for people to only practice spiritual activities like worship and Bible study. The new church is a place of enlightenment, services, and refuge for many people.

An established congregation in Ain Shams, located in the northern part of Cairo, adopted a vision of planting new churches in some of these new communities. It is one of the churches that recognized the call to go out and spread the message of salvation and hope. Pastor Eid Salah and elders from the church are eager for evangelism and church planting.

Partner Updates