Mission among the Egyptian Diaspora
INSTALLMENT 10 OF THE HISTORY OF THE OUTREACH FOUNDATION IN EGYPT
by Jeff Ritchie
Discovering the Egyptian Diaspora: In Chapter 8, I mentioned meeting a family in a village in Egypt whose daughter lived in Nashville, Tennessee. Upon my return, I was able to meet the daughter and her husband, Amal and Ishak Abdelnoor. Through them, I was introduced to the Egyptian Diaspora in Nashville which numbered over 10,000. Most of these were relatively recent immigrants, and 90% percent were Christian with 90% of the Christians belonging to the Coptic Orthodox Church.
There were, however, two or three Arab-speaking Protestant congregations in Nashville, and Ishak and Amal were lay leaders in one of those congregations. Most of the members of their fellowship were from the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Egypt, but the church was unaffiliated with any denomination. The thriving fellowship had no full-time pastor but was building their own place of worship. I began visiting the church and enjoyed getting to know the members, especially Amal and Ishak whose hospitality our family enjoyed on several occasions.
This fellowship of Egyptian Christians gave me an idea for extending the ministry of The Outreach Foundation among Egyptians and Arab-speaking people in the United States. The Outreach Foundation already had a missionary working in the US among Brazilians and other Portuguese-speaking immigrants since 2002, the Rev. José Carlos Pezini (his story will be told in a subsequent volume of the History of The Outreach Foundation). Was it time now to complement our ministry in Egypt with a ministry among Arab-Americans?
The Presbyterian Church (USA) had staff at the national level who encouraged church development among immigrants from the Middle East. Our hope was that a missionary from The Outreach Foundation would work in partnership with the national staff and the existing Middle East Caucus of the PC(USA) to extend Christian hospitality to this group of immigrants as Pezini was doing among the Brazilian Diaspora.
With permission from the Rev. Dr. Rob Weingartner, Executive Director of The Outreach Foundation, I began to look for a person who could be our missionary to Arabic-speaking immigrants to the US. I consulted with denominational leaders and with Arab fellowships in the PC(USA). I also spoke with some of our partners in Egypt, as they were in also touch with many Egyptian Americans.
Joseph Faragalla, Missionary to the USA: After some diligent research, we found a strong candidate, Mr. Joseph Faragalla. Born to a Presbyterian family in Egypt, his family of origin and his church experience gave Joseph a passion for mission and led him to join Youth With A Mission (YWAM) as its Director for the Middle East and North Africa. After a decade with YWAM, Joseph served as pastor of Arabic-speaking congregations in the Middle East, Canada, and the United States.
At the time we met Joseph, he was serving as the Interim Pastor of an Arab-American congregation in Jersey City, New Jersey. Joseph himself was not an ordained pastor in the PC(USA), but the Presbytery of the Palisades commissioned him as a Lay Pastor for this ministry. The Arab Evangelical Church of Jersey City was one of the oldest Arab-American congregations in the PC(USA), but it had had some conflict and had called Joseph to help it restore the peace and unity of the church as it got ready for its next pastor.
We found Joseph Faragalla to have a great zeal for the kind of mission we envisioned among the Arabic-speaking people of the US, and we saw his pastoral heart for the church in Jersey City. Equally at home in English and Arabic and personable in conversation, he struck us as just the person to encourage the Arab fellowships who were scattered throughout the United States and to discover or develop new ones. We called him to be our Coordinator for Arabic-Speaking Ministries in the US, and he began his work in January 2005.
Joseph worked tirelessly with local congregations that were hosting Arab fellowships. He met with start-up fellowships of Arab Presbyterians and sought to connect them with PC(USA) congregations and presbyteries. He did all this work collegially with PC(USA) staff at the national and presbytery levels.
Beyond this grass-roots church work, Joseph was invited to speak in conferences sponsored by Arab Christians in the US. He took part in the Middle East Caucus of the PC(USA) and co-led a workshop on developing immigrant ministries for The Outreach Foundation’s Global Mission Conference in 2005.
Unfortunately, the ministry of The Outreach Foundation among Arabic-speaking peoples in the US did not bear the fruit for which he—and we--had hoped. Over the three years of Faragalla’s ministry with The Outreach Foundation, we learned that Arab-American Protestant churches were strongly committed to Christ and to the Christian ethos of the Church in their home country, but they were divided on how to relate to the “American churches.” Some fellowships were already related to PC(USA) congregations, but the non-affiliated fellowships Joseph met were not sure they wanted to connect with any American denomination, including the church in Nashville.
Another reality of the Arab Protestant immigrant churches that proved a challenge to Joseph Faragalla was the conflict in many of the churches which he visited. These conflicts absorbed so much of the energy of the immigrant churches that they were unable to consider the welcome he was offering them in an increasingly diverse Presbyterian family in their new country.
Joseph Faragalla had cross-cultural ministry gifts, and the Palisades Presbytery in New Jersey, in which he previously served, found a place for him to use them as part of their staff. In 2007 he began working part-time with the Presbytery as well as with The Outreach Foundation, and from 2008 he left us for full-time work with Palisades.
Diaspora as Gifts for God’s Mission: Part of our learning from the ministry of Joseph Faragalla among Middle Eastern Christians in the US was that while our intention to see the USA as a mission field was laudable, the core mission of The Outreach Foundation was to connect US Christians with ministries outside the USA. We thus began to see our Middle Eastern Christian friends (and other Diaspora peoples in the US) as gifts to The Outreach Foundation, as people who could help us do our global work more effectively.
One of the Egyptian Americans who has become a special gift and ministry partner in recent years is the Rev. Fakhri Yacoub, pastor of the Christian Arabic Church in Richmond, Virginia. Fakhri and his wife, Taragy, started this church in 1990, and they have developed it under the umbrella of Third Presbyterian Church of Richmond, a church with a historic connection to The Outreach Foundation. A native of Egypt, the Rev. Fakhri has enthusiastically advocated for The Outreach Foundation’s work in Egypt, particularly our work in support of new church developments in Egypt. Fakhri has served on our Board of Trustees and is a vital part of the family of The Outreach Foundation.
Fakhri and other Egyptian Americans like him have been great gifts to The Outreach Foundation. Through their extensive relationships in their country of origin, they have opened doors for ministry for us. They have been ambassadors and advocates for God’s work in Egypt among their own circles of influence in the US. In short, the Egyptian Diaspora has extended the ministry of The Outreach Foundation in Egypt. Thanks be to God.