Sustaining the Vision over Time: A Look at Two of the Churches Supported by The Outreach Foundation
INSTALLMENT 17 OF THE HISTORY OF THE OUTREACH FOUNDATION IN EGYPT
by Jeff Ritchie
The previous chapter recounted the work of new church development and church revitalization by the Pastoral and Outreach Ministries Council of the Synod of the Nile over the past twenty years. The results have been an amazing 25% increase in the number of churches in the Synod and the revitalization of churches in the rural areas of the country. The question this chapter will attempt to answer is, what is the long-term future for these new and revitalized churches? Two churches that are case studies of what the Church in Egypt hopes for all its congregations are the Evangelical Church in the city of 10th of Ramadan, and the Evangelical Church in the city of 15th of May. They have been chosen because they were among the first projects of The Outreach Foundation in Egypt.
10th of Ramadan: On the first Outreach Foundation trip to Egypt in 1998-1999, we learned about the new opportunity for the Church in Egypt presented by the government’s decision to build satellite cities around Greater Cairo. By the year 2000, Cairo had 16,000,000 residents, but by day over 19,000,000 people would throng to the city for work. To accommodate the population overflow, upwards of forty cities were built or were planning to be built, from 1977 to the present.
10th of Ramadan was one of the first of the new cities to be built. An engineer named Munib was one of the early residents of the city and, in fact, was one of the people employed by the government to establish it. Munib and his wife Samiya were Christians. They met a few other Christians, and the families began a Bible study in their homes. Over time the government allotted plots of land for a new Coptic Orthodox Church and for a new Evangelical (Presbyterian) Church. Neither fellowship, however, received a permit to build a sanctuary for years.
Around the time that The Outreach Foundation began its work in Egypt, the government became more lenient in giving licenses, and the new fellowship in the city of 10th of Ramadan was one of those who received a permit. Mr. Munib knew the Rev. Helmy Hennein, a pastor who had served congregations in Sudan and Kuwait and who now had returned to Egypt. He asked the his friend to assist them in getting a church organized, and the Synod of the Nile assigned the Rev. Helmy to be the interim pastor of the new church.
Meanwhile, the Secretary of the Synod of the Nile, the Rev. Dr. Abd el Masih Istafanous, urged The Outreach Foundation to take on support for this project. “We should not miss this opportunity,” said Dr. Abd el Masih, who went on to explain that building permits usually put a time limit on roofing the structure. The penalty for not completing the exterior structure of the church on time might be revoking the building permit and even demolishing the church.
With that sense of urgency in mind, The Outreach Foundation made the church in 10th of Ramadan City one of its two priority projects for Egypt in 2000. We commissioned a promotional video in 2001 that highlighted our two priority projects: the church in 10th of Ramadan City and the need of the Cairo Seminary for a professor of mission and evangelism. From 2002 on, we visited the church in 10th of Ramadan almost every year.
Early support for the new church came from congregations who had been on the 2002 trip. The building started going up, and the church grew as well. By 2004 the congregation had grown to several hundred people and had a worship space on the ground floor of the new structure. It was well on its way to being roofed, but the main sanctuary, which would accommodate over 1000 persons, was a long way from completion.
Pastor Helmy passed on the leadership of the church to another pastor, who was succeeded in 2007 by the current pastor, the Rev. Isaac William. Pastor Isaac came from the Evangelical Church in Tayyaba, mentioned in Chapters 6 and 8 for its extensive outreach in Middle Egypt. Pastor Isaac brought that mission-oriented outlook with him and strengthened an already strong church. A pre-school was started for children, and Sunday School and youth work thrived.
Relationships with US friends continued to deepen as well. Partners continued to visit 10th of Ramadan when they came to Egypt, sometimes with Outreach Foundation teams, sometimes on their own. Pastor Isaac was also invited to visit the partners in their churches on several occasions.
Around the time of Egypt’s Arab Spring, the Rev. Isaac received an opportunity to go to Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia for training in peace-building. One way to promote a culture of peace-building, he thought, would be to start a church-run school. The Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Egypt already had a network of church-related schools which served Muslims as well as Christians, and so Pastor Isaac had a model of what a church-run school could accomplish. The Synod at that time was unable to make a new school in 10th of Ramadan City a priority, so Isaac began to dream of the school as an expression of their congregation’s mission in the city. As of this writing that dream is still awaiting its fulfilment. As they say in Arabic, “Inshallah” (if God wills), it will happen.
In the last conversation which I had with Isaac in preparation for this history of the Church in Egypt, he told me excitedly that the Synod has land in 10th of Ramadan City for a new congregation, and their church will be the key church to launch it. The vision for mission and evangelism which inspired the lay couple to start the Evangelical Church in 10th of Ramadan City more than 30 years ago continues as the church embraces the denomination’s vision of planting churches everywhere in Egypt. Thanks be to God for the ministry of the Evangelical Church in 10th of Ramadan.
Evangelical Church in 15th of May City: The Outreach Foundation was introduced to the new church in the city of 10th of Ramadan in 2000. We learned about a new church in another satellite city named “15th of May” on our 2002 trip described in Chapter 4 above. The Evangelical Church in 15th of May City, started in 1989 with seven families. They applied for a building permit in 1991 and, after ten years, received permission to start construction of a sanctuary.
When the Outreach Foundation and Frontier Fellowship team visited the church in May, 2002, the church was meeting for worship in a church in a nearby city while prayer meetings and other activities were done in homes. The land was in the process of being excavated for the foundation, but the church had little of its own money to put into the building. It seemed a huge challenge for the congregation, and they were looking for outside help.
When the mega-church Kasr El Dobara Church in Cairo took up an offering for the church’s construction, the people in 15th of May were encouraged and so was The Outreach Foundation. We joined the new fellowship and churches in Cairo to make 15th of May another of our priority projects in Egypt.
The current pastor of the Evangelical Church in 15th of May, the Rev. Anwar Abdelmasih, arrived in 2003, the year after our first visit. With support of the local congregation, churches in Cairo, and The Outreach Foundation, the church was able to build a worship space by 2004 that could accommodate a little more than a hundred people. However, the same challenge that was being faced by the church in 10th of Ramadan was pressing upon the church in 15th of May. They needed to get the exterior walls of the final structure up and the sanctuary roofed as soon as possible. For that they needed new partners.
God provided such a partner for 15th of May through what Pastor Anwar called “their miracle.” Here is the story. The Arcadia Presbyterian Church in southern California, one of the supporting churches of The Outreach Foundation, developed an interest in the Church in Egypt because it housed an Arabic-speaking Presbyterian congregation for a while. About the time that 15th of May needed an extra boost to roof its sanctuary (2008), the Arcadia Church embarked on a capital campaign. Through their interest in Egypt and trust in the Outreach Foundation, Arcadia agreed to tithe the proceeds for missions in Egypt. About $30,000 of the tithe supported the Cairo Seminary in its expansion described in Chapter 13, and another $30,000 became the “miracle gift” for the completion of the final floor and roof of the Evangelical Church in 15th of May.
Even with that gift, the church was still a little short of the final amount needed. The Lord provided that amount through another providential relationship. The Rev. Jack Peebles, a Trustee of The Outreach Foundation, developed a passion for Egypt through an Outreach Foundation trip in 2005. When he became pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Yakima a few years later, Jack recruited a number of his parishioners and the Executive Presbyter of the Central Washington Presbytery for our 2009 trip. During that trip we visited the church in 15th of May, and the team members from Washington pledged to do what they could do to help the church finish the roof. Over the next year enough funds came in from the church and the presbytery to complete the job. The Lord was clearly at work.
A few years later, another church became interested in Egypt and developed a quite different relationship with the church in 15th of May. Grace Church in Nashville, Indiana was a small church of about 25 persons. The church decided they would not have a full-time pastor. They would rather use the bulk of their offerings for mission purposes. They called The Outreach Foundation and asked us to help them find a global partner they could support and with whom they could have a personal relationship.
We introduced them to the Evangelical Church in 15th of May, for we knew it would take the personal relationship side of the partnership seriously.
The church began sending its offerings to Egypt, and the lead person at Grace Church for the mission partnership, Mr. Ken Harker, wrote letters back and forth to Pastor Anwar. Mr. Harker traveled to Egypt with an Outreach team in 2013, and the Rev. Anwar visited the Grace Church in Indiana a few years later. The weekly offerings from the small church came at the time that the Egyptian congregation was repurposing one of its rooms for use as a “nursery,” or pre-school, which greatly enhanced the church’s ministry.
In an email from 2019, the Rev. Anwar wrote me to express how much they appreciated the churches we had introduced to the Evangelical Church in 15th of May City, both Arcadia and Grace. This was gratifying, but he included something else that was inspiring. That was a video of the extensive outreach of the church. Over the past twenty years they have served poor people in their city, Sudanese refugees living in nearby Helwan, and they have taken short-term medical mission trips to the villages of Upper Egypt.
The Evangelical Church in 15th of May, like the one in 10th of Ramadan, is essentially a church of outreach. Pastor Anwar has shepherded his flock well. They may be working on their building for years to come, but they have their priorities straight, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”