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!

Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo - March 2022 Update

In February, I was pleased to lead a small team back to Egypt to be “mutually encouraged” by our partners there. A member of our team, Rachel Segars, was making her third trip with Outreach. In this excerpt from one of our trip blogs, she beautifully reflects on our visit to ETSC. Marilyn Borst, Associate Director for Partnership Development

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 - December 2021 Update

In an October ceremony overflowing with gratitude, after two decades of service, Dr. Atef Gendy passed the baton of leadership, to his friend and colleague, Dr. Hani Hanna. Numerous dignitaries including members of the Egyptian Senate and House of Representatives attended the event which was hosted by the Heliopolis Evangelical Presbyterian Church. After welcoming comments by ETSC Board President Dr. Youssef Samir, a video collage illustrated the seminary’s remarkable growth over the past twenty years. It noted Dr. Gendy’s gifted leadership, including his work in building partnerships across the world, strengthening the faculty, renovations of the campus, and recent accreditation by the European Council of Theological Education.

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.

Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo - February 2021 Update

The Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo (ETSC) trains over 300 students each year to serve the Church in Egypt and beyond. Students serve as pastors, church planters, elders, and teachers in churches across Egypt and the entire region. Ekram Atta graduated from ETSC in 2013, here is his story:

Ekram Atta: God’s Weak Jar

It is said that one of Martin Luther’s teachers would bow to his students before each class because he said he did not know which of his students would rise to prominence. Likewise, no one knows what God will do with the lives of the students who come to the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo.

They come with their aspirations for ministry and the gift matrix given them by God, but who is to say which of them will have the greatest impact on the kingdom of God? More than a decade ago Ekram Atta came to the seminary from a village in South Egypt, bearing a calling born from his own grief and experience of grace following the death of his mother. Seeking comfort for his pain, he discovered the grace that would allow him to strengthen others.

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.

Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo - November Update

Students Entrust Their Hope and Dreams to ETSC

I continue to be amazed and grateful at the growth of the ETSC student body, as 509 students have enrolled in nine different degree and certificate programs. This year will have a different feel about it, however, as we will not have the pleasure of face to face interaction with students. Once more classes continue to be taught through our online distance learning platform for the fall term. Candidly, I will miss seeing them walking across campus and meeting them in chapel, as well as teaching some of them in class. Nevertheless, I give thanks for their willingness to invest in themselves and their preparation for ministry. Perhaps no greater compliment can be paid to us as a seminary than that these young men and women are entrusting their training to our leadership.

We received applications from 257 young men and women, of whom we accepted 148 for the fall term. The online platform has enabled students to enroll from virtually every part of Egypt and most of the Middle Eastern countries,

Middle East, Partnership, ProjectsThe Outreach FoundationNovember 10, 2020Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo, Egypt

Egypt Update April 2020

With all the world struggling with the pandemic, it seems timely to share this “good news” update written by the Rev. Nancy Fox, a former trustee of The Outreach Foundation and a frequent pilgrim in Egypt, experiencing “God at work” there. With your help, Outreach continues to stand beside the Church in Egypt, especially now, and has wired emergency funds to both the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo and the Synod of the Nile (additional information about their special emergency appeal follows this update). As I write, we are hoping to make another mission-vision trip to Egypt in November, if the situation allows. Additional information about that may be found HERE.

---Marilyn Borst, Associate Director for Partnership Development

Dronka Church-A Resurrection in Process

For sixty years, the church in Dronka, Egypt, founded and built by American Presbyterian missionaries in 1890, had been without a pastor. There was not much left but a decrepit, cracked, and crumbling church building too close to a busy highway. The church was empty but the village was full of need: deep poverty, high rates of addiction and abuse, poor health and lack of quality care, and a shortage of good news coming from too few churches. Dronka needed a resurrection.

And then, a little like the way God took the prophet Ezekiel to the valley of the dead, dry bones and told him to preach the word of the Lord to them, the Synod of the Nile sent a young lay pastor to revive the church body with the life-giving breath of God’s Word and service to the community’s needs.

Evangelical Theological Seminary - January 2020 Update

A message from Dr. Atef Gendy, ETSC President

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. John 1:14

Although the Church in the East formally recognizes Christmas on January 7, I feel blessed to begin my celebration in December with my friends in the West and continue it through January 7. While the traditions surrounding Christmas vary throughout the world, there is a shared belief among us that the coming of Jesus was and is the most significant event in human history. He is indeed full of grace and truth. Whether our celebration resembles that of those lowly, bedraggled shepherds or that of the well-to-do mysterious wise men from the East, matters not. We come together around his manger-crib with hearts overwhelmed with joy and gratitude.

For those of us at ETSC, it is indeed a time for thanksgiving. Not only do we give thanks for the coming of Christ, but we also pause to offer our profound appreciation for God’s work in and among us this past year. Let me express our gratitude for the following blessings:

Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo - July 2019 Update

ETSC Celebrates 148th Graduation

Among the portfolio of tasks I am called upon to perform as president of the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo, none give me greater personal pleasure than presenting diplomas to our graduates. It was with great joy that I was privileged to hand diplomas and certificates to 29 graduates on May 31st at the 148th graduation ceremony held at Heliopolis Evangelical Church in Cairo. The graduation ceremony recognized 9 graduates who received Master of Divinity degrees and 14 who received Master of Arts in Theology (8 from Cairo and 6 from ETSC's online center in Minya). Taking advantage of our new online platform to complete their work, 2 graduates earned their degrees from abroad and 1 graduate earned a Master in Leadership and Management. 3 received certificates in Christian Ministry. ETSC is especially pleased to see the growth of the online studies program as it makes theological education accessible to students across Egypt, the Middle East, and Arabic speaking communities across the world.

Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo - May 2019 Update

The President’s Word

The middle of May finds ETSC stirring with excitement and anticipation as students and faculty scramble to finish the semester. One group of students is especially task oriented. Our prospective graduates are laser-focused on completing the last few days of their seminary experience. They will soon assume positions as pastors and teachers. They have accomplished the goal they set when they entered the seminary. It was a daunting challenge for them to leave homes and jobs and come to Cairo. Another group of our students faced an equally difficult challenge. Our MAT (Master of Arts in Theology) students remained in their jobs and their church positions while taking classes. They juggled multiple responsibilities while completing their course work. Now, they have run the race and finished the course. I congratulate them, even as I give thanks to God for making their achievements possible.

Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo

On June 1st we celebrated a wonderful time of graduation. The church was filled to overflowing with students as well as friends, families and our own seminary community, people who came to share our joy celebrating the graduation of 44 students. Eight of the students graduated with M. Div. degrees and will become pastors in congregations throughout Egypt; ten with Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership; twenty-five with Master of Arts in Theology and one student with Master of Theology. We praise God for the wonderful ways he is working through ETSC.

We are also grateful for the faithful support of our friends and partners inside and outside Egypt through which ETSC continues to provide affordable quality theological training to prepare pastors and lay leaders to serve the church and society in Egypt, the Middle East and Arabic communities abroad. Please join us in praying for our graduates as they face their daily challenges of ministry. Pray that each one of them will be able to fulfill God’s calling in serving the church and society.

Partner Updates

Dronka Church-A Resurrection in Process