The Bible Society of Egypt and its Entrepreneurial Mission
INSTALLMENT 7 OF THE HISTORY OF THE OUTREACH FOUNDATION IN EGYPT
by Jeff Ritchie
In Chapter 4 on the “catalytic trip” of 2002, I mentioned two Egyptian Church leaders whose presentations on the Church in Egypt set the tone for our trip. One of those two, Mr. Ramez Atallah, is the focus of this chapter. The Bible Society of which he is the Director is doing some of the most creative work of any Christian organization in Egypt or around the world. Mr. Atallah also knows how to interpret the situation in Egypt in ways that both encourage Western Christian friends and sober them to the realities facing Egyptian Christians.
The Bible Society of Egypt was founded over 130 years ago to print and distribute the Bible among the Christian communions in Egypt—Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant. Ramez Atallah has been its Director since 1990. Prior to becoming Director, Atallah was involved with the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES), the international organization with which Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF) is connected.
The Bible Society is not only a distribution center for Bibles. It has also been proactive in engaging both Christians and Muslims in creative ways that challenge them to read and study the Bible. I mentioned in one of those creative outreach ideas in Chapter 4 of this history: they installed billboards along major highways in Egypt inviting people to read the Bible. As Ramez has told many Christian groups visiting Egypt, “We may not be able to evangelize, but we can advertise!”
He also has shared that giving a Bible free of charge to a Muslim may be considered as evangelism (and therefore not legal), but there is nothing wrong with selling a Bible to anyone. The Bible Society has thus opened Bible bookstores in several cities that sell Bibles and Bible-related materials at subsidized prices. Some Muslims demur at going into a Christian bookstore, but the Bible Society does not let that deter their outreach. Through newspaper ads, they tell people, “Call this number and we’ll bring a Bible to you!”
The Bible Society’s concerns are both pastoral and evangelistic. For older believers who find the normal font in which Bibles are printed too small to read, they offer large-print Bibles. For people not familiar with the language of the traditional Arabic text of the Bible (akin to the “King James Version” of the English Bible), they produce audio New Testaments in a more colloquial Arabic. Christian taxi drivers are among those who have purchased these to share with their customers.
The Bible Society was founded by Protestant missionaries, and Ramez Atallah is a Presbyterian elder. Yet a major focus of the Society is service to the Orthodox Communion to which 90% of Egyptian Christians belong. Orthodox churches have many festivals throughout the church year, and the Bible Society sends staff to these festivals where they sell Bibles and materials which help people know how to read the Bible.
Another outreach of the Bible Society is their participation at the annual Cairo International Book Fair. Upwards of a million people attend the Book Fair, and the Bible Society is one of the many vendors participating. A very successful marketing tool it uses for this event is “Kingo,” a puppet figure from a video series produced by the American Bible Society. Kingo teaches Christian values through catchy songs that children love, and they are eager to see him “in person” at the fair as they purchase Bible storybooks.
Why has the Bible Society been so effective in its ministry in a 90% Muslim society? Ramez Atallah and others point out to Westerners that Egyptian society is very religious. Atallah, who used to live in the United States and Canada before returning to his native Egypt, says, “It is much easier to talk about God and religious matters with a Muslim than with a secular Westerner.” The culture of Egypt and the Arab World is such that people listen attentively and engage avidly in religious conversation in the public sphere.
This religious culture also allows for plenty of Islamic critique of Christianity, as Muslims are quite zealous to share their faith. One of the long-standing Muslim criticisms of Christianity is that the Bible manuscripts have been corrupted over the centuries. Therefore, the revelation in the Qu’ran dictated to Muhammed by Allah is more accurate than the Bible which has diverging manuscripts from various times and places. To address that claim, the Bible Society developed a creative, interactive exhibit called “Bible World” on one floor of their headquarters in Cairo. Geared for children of all ages the Bible World helps people see in hands-on ways that the text of the Bible has been accurately transmitted over the centuries.
Ever aware of the current events in Egypt, the Bible Society puts out special Bible materials that speak a word of hope and love to the wider society. For example, when the nationwide protests of the “Arab Spring” of 2011 led to the resignation of President Mubarak, the Bible Society came up with a campaign, “Rebuild Egypt.” Front-page newspaper ads, billboards, printed materials, and compact discs were produced to promote biblical values such as honesty, credibility, group effort, perseverance, and love as the building blocks needed for a new start for Egypt.
Seeing such creative, entrepreneurial energy and imagination in this mission organization, The Outreach Foundation became a champion of it from the beginning. We make a stop at the Bible Society on every visit to Egypt and encourage people on our trips to consider supporting the Bible Society. We list it often as one of our “alternative Christmas gift” offerings, and we seek out individual donors whom we know to be passionate about supporting the distribution of the Bible around the world.
One of the donors to the work of the Bible Society of Egypt during the past twenty years needs special mention, Mr. Milton Scott, a Presbyterian layperson from Georgia. Throughout his life, Mr. Scott had a passion for Bible distribution. In retirement, he lived very simply from his pension and gave away all excess funds for Bible distribution efforts of the Presbyterian Church, the American Bible Society, and other organizations.
I met Milton Scott only once, but I developed a relationship with his nephew, David Scott. David was also deeply committed to Christian mission at home and abroad, and after his uncle’s death in 2001, he took over the responsibility of distributing the remaining funds the elder Scott had set aside for Bible distribution. At our recommendation, the Milton Scott Fund began supporting the Bible Society of Egypt, and thousands of Egyptians have received Bibles, New Testaments, and other Scripture portions for more than a decade. Thank you, David Scott, for faithfully stewarding the legacy of your uncle and blessing the people of Egypt with the Word of God.
Our appreciation for the creative work of the Bible Society of Egypt inspired by its director led The Outreach Foundation to invite Ramez Atallah to be the closing speaker at a global mission conference we co-sponsored in 2005 with Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship. In his talk, Ramez gave a moving testimony about his wife, Rebecca. The daughter of American missionaries to Haiti, Rebecca was part of a ministry among children and youth with disabilities called “Center of Love.” This ministry in Mokkatam, a part of Cairo where the city’s garbage collectors live. Their living conditions are far from ideal, but most belong to thriving Orthodox churches, and the priest of one of them is a ministry colleague of Rebecca’s.
After hearing about this work, The Outreach Foundation began taking groups to visit the Center of Love on our trips to Egypt. While it is not an official part of The Outreach Foundation’s work in Egypt, the Center of Love receives much love and prayers from friends of The Outreach Foundation.
When we think about what God is doing in Egypt today, we give thanks for the many ways the Holy Spirit has used his servants, Ramez and Rebecca Atallah, to share God’s love in word and deed with the people of Egypt. Their creative witness and compassionate service continue to inspire us and countless others around the world.