The Beginning of The Outreach Foundation’s Mission in Egypt
INSTALLMENT 2 OF THE HISTORY OF THE OUTREACH FOUNDATION IN EGYPT
by Jeff Ritchie
The 1991 Trip to Egypt and the Birth of a Vision
In 1991, the National Organization of Presbyterian Men in the PC(USA) visited the Church in Egypt. Among the US participants was a Trustee of The Outreach Foundation, Dr. Richard LeTourneau.
Upon his return, Elder LeTourneau urged the Board of Trustees of The Outreach Foundation to consider supporting the teaching of mission and evangelism at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo. He reminded the Board that The Outreach Foundation had made possible a renewed emphasis on teaching evangelism and mission at the four seminaries historically connected to the Presbyterian Church, U.S. Why not do this with one of our global partners?
Dr. Bill Bryant, former Trustee of The Outreach Foundation and its Executive Director from 1994-2002, recalls that there was interest among the Board members in this idea. I was on staff at the PCUSA’s Worldwide Ministries at the time and was its liaison to The Outreach Foundation. Hearing about The Outreach Foundation’s interest in stimulating the teaching of evangelism and mission in Egypt, but also aware of the constraints on doing mission in an Islamic context, I asked my colleague, Dr. Victor Makari, the PC(USA) staff for the Middle East, to share this offer from The Outreach Foundation with the Egyptian Church. Dr. Victor Makari spoke with the Board of the Cairo Seminary and reported back that they were interested.
The 1999 Visit to Egypt: The Beginning of the Egypt-Outreach Partnership
Although there was interest from the Outreach Board of Trustees, it did not have the personnel to follow up with the Cairo Seminary until I joined the staff in 1998. Hoping to resurrect the vision of Mr. LeTourneau, I made my first trip to Egypt in early 1999. One of our U.S. partners, the First Presbyterian Church of Colorado Springs, had several mission partnerships in Egypt. The senior pastor of First Presbyterian, Dr. John Stevens, was also a member of our Board of Trustees, and he invited me to join him, his wife, and one of their sons on a trip to see their partners and explore a possible Outreach Foundation initiative with the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo.
We saw several ministries being carried out by partners of First Presbyterian Colorado Springs. Some of these partners were para-church mission organizations with Presbyterian leadership. As The Outreach Foundation’s potential initiative was to be with an institution of the Synod of the Nile, we met the General Secretary of the Synod, the Rev. Dr. Abd-el Masih Istafanous, and he took us to the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo. There we met the Rev. Dr. Ekram Lamie, President of the Cairo Seminary, Dr. Stephen Davis, a new PCUSA co-worker assigned to teach at the Seminary, and a new professor who was almost finished with his Ph.D., the Rev. Atef Gendy. On behalf of The Outreach Foundation, I shared the hope of our former Trustee to support the training of a person to teach mission and evangelism at the Cairo Seminary and asked if the seminary was still interested in this. President Ekram Lamie assured us that they were. The presence of the Synod’s Executive Secretary underscored the commitment from the Egyptian side.
Having begun our mission relationship, the next step was to begin fund-raising for the future mission professor at Cairo Seminary. When our first major gift was received in early 2000, I wrote Dr. Lamie to inform him of the gift. There was no response from the seminary, and I wrote a second note a few months later asking if the seminary was still interested in this joint project. What we did not know during this time was that Dr. Ekram Lamie was no longer President and that the new head of the seminary, Dr. Atef Gendy, would not assume the duties of President until the summer of 2000.
When Dr. Atef[1] did begin his work, he found the second note from me and wrote immediately to assure us that the seminary was still committed to this plan. What he did not say at the time was how dismal the situation at the seminary was when he became President:
There was contention with the Synod (the official leadership of the Church in Egypt).
There were only 67 students enrolled in the seminary.
The seminary was almost bankrupt.
Bridges had been burned with overseas financial partners and others.
In an interview in 2019, Dr. Atef shared very personally, “We were touched that TOF would invest in a ‘failure.’” Dr. Atef spoke of the trust that developed very quickly between the Cairo Seminary and Outreach, “We like the way The Outreach Foundation has worked with us. You have been true partners in building God’s kingdom.”
Another person present at this 2019 conversation about the early involvement of Outreach in Egypt was Dr. Darren Kennedy. Darren, along with his wife, Dr. Elisabeth Kennedy, was appointed as a mission co-worker in 1999 to serve on the faculty of the Seminary and knew of the dire straits the seminary was in when we first visited Egypt. Darren added this comment about the significance of the Outreach Foundation’s initiative in Egypt as the new millennium began, “The Outreach Foundation came in with a vision that dared to dream about big things. You were an answer to our prayers at a critical time in our history.”
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[1] In Egyptian culture, a person is addressed by title and first name. So instead of referring to Dr. Atef Gendy as “Dr. Gendy” in this volume, we will use the Egyptian appellation, “Dr. Atef.”