Outreach Stories

INSTALLMENT 18 OF THE HISTORY OF THE OUTREACH FOUNDATION IN EGYPT

by Jeff Ritchie

The history of The Outreach Foundation in Egypt is primarily a story about the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Egypt and how it has developed a vision for mission and evangelism from a “mustard seed” at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo in 1999 to the present explosion of new churches, churches undergoing revitalization, and mission beyond Egypt. There are many other aspects of this story that can be told. The final chapter of this history, however, will focus on how our mission in Egypt reflects some of the foundational mission convictions of The Outreach Foundation and how we have acted on those convictions in one part of the world over time.

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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.

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INSTALLMENT 16 OF THE HISTORY OF THE OUTREACH FOUNDATION IN EGYPT

by Jeff Ritchie

The Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Egypt has always had congregations that were passionate about starting new churches. Presbyteries were also initiators of church plants. However, at the Synod level of the EPCE, there was neither the staff nor budget to sponsor new church development at the time The Outreach Foundation began its work in Egypt.

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by Jeff Ritchie

Up to now, this history has focused on the Church in Egypt and how The Outreach Foundation has engaged it. But the politics of Egypt have always affected the Christian community there, never more so than during the years 2011-2013. This chapter is the story of the “Arab Spring” as Egyptians experienced it.

Politics and The Outreach Foundation in Egypt: When The Outreach Foundation began working in Egypt, its President, Mr. Hosni Mubarak, had been in office for a long time and was quite authoritarian in his rule. Corruption, ruthless suppression of any opposition and the lack of improvement in the lives of the citizenry led to increasing discontent with his regime. When Outreach groups visited Egypt, the subject of who would become president after Mubarak and what kind of country would it be was frequently a topic of conversation. Alongside the above-mentioned issues, we heard concerns that the next President could be Islamist in orientation, and that the situation of Christians could worsen as a result.

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INSTALLMENT 14 OF THE HISTORY OF THE OUTREACH FOUNDATION IN EGYPT

by Jeff Ritchie

The Outreach Foundation has been an active participant in several of the PCUSA Mission Networks during the late 1990s and early 2000s. As our commitment to mission in Egypt began to increase, we realized that there was no Egypt Mission Network in the PCUSA as such. To be sure, US Presbyterians, with more than 150 years of mission in Egypt, were still connected with the Church in Egypt through a handful of PCUSA missionaries along with a few advocacy groups focused on specific ministries or mission organizations (see Appendix for a list of some of these). There was no specific group, however, which had a focus on building the capacity of the Egyptian Church for its evangelistic outreach. The Outreach Foundation and Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship thus decided to create one and hoped it eventually would be part of an inclusive, country-wide network in which all those with mission connections in Egypt could share what each other was doing, learn best practices in mission, and pray for God’s work in Egypt.

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INSTALLMENT 13 OF THE HISTORY OF THE OUTREACH FOUNDATION IN EGYPT

by Jeff Ritchie

As 2009 began, The Outreach Foundation was fully invested in the Church in Egypt. The Mission Department at the Cairo Seminary, led by Dr. Tharwat Wahba and Dr. Sherif Salah, was training a new generation of pastors and lay leaders with a missional vision. The Center for Middle Eastern Christianity at the seminary was bringing awareness of the long history of Christianity in the Middle East to Christians and Muslims in Egypt. Beyond the seminary, new churches were being started by presbyteries and local churches in the cities and rural areas. The Outreach Foundation continued to raise funds for these projects and was constantly looking for new US partners to connect with the energy and passion of our friends in Egypt.

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INSTALLMENT 12 OF THE HISTORY OF THE OUTREACH FOUNDATION IN EGYPT

by Jeff Ritchie

Prologue - The 2005 Global Mission Conference: A key event for The Outreach Foundation in 2005 has already been alluded to in this history, namely, the global mission conference that we co-sponsored with Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship. Entitled “From Everywhere to Everyone: The New Global Mission,” this conference emphasized that the center of gravity for Christianity around the world had shifted from Europe and North America to the “Global South,” that is, to Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Plenary and workshop speakers from Egypt, Ghana, China, Nepal shared what God was doing in their lands and inspired conference attendees to be part of this “new global mission.”

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INSTALLMENT 11 OF THE HISTORY OF THE OUTREACH FOUNDATION IN EGYPT

by Jeff Ritchie

When the Outreach Foundation began its partnership with the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo to stimulate a new vision for mission and evangelism within the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Egypt, our goal was to support the Egyptian Church’s mission priorities. For the first few years of our relationship, we had the main focus was the Cairo Seminary with its long-term strategy of calling a professor of mission and evangelism and developing a Mission Department. We also were supporting new church developments in the areas around Cairo and in rural areas.

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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.

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INSTALLMENT 9 OF THE HISTORY OF THE OUTREACH FOUNDATION IN EGYPT

by Jeff Ritchie

A Dream Shared in 2003: During the May 2003 trip to Egypt, Dr. Atef Gendy and mission co-worker Darren Kennedy shared a long-term dream for the Cairo Seminary: a center within the seminary that would be devoted to the study of Christianity in the Middle East. They spoke of the many theological writings in Arabic dating to the Middle Ages which had not been studied in the modern era and made available to the global Church. Also, they pointed out that the Bible was written in a Middle Eastern milieu. Biblical scholars from within the Middle East who were well acquainted with the culture and mores of traditional village life would be able to interpret the Bible with helpful understanding and insights not available to those who live in more developed urban societies. Egypt was an especially good place to do this work because it had the largest number of Christians of any country in the Middle East.

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INSTALLMENT 8 OF THE HISTORY OF THE OUTREACH FOUNDATION IN EGYPT

by Jeff Ritchie

The Outreach Foundation had been taking groups to Egypt for 5 years. The first two trips concentrated on new church developments in the areas around Cairo and Alexandria.  The May 2003 trip took us briefly to Upper Egypt, but it was mostly for sightseeing. We realized that to know the Church in Egypt, we needed to see the Church in Middle Egypt, where the church was strong and had great vision for outreach, and to spend more time in Upper Egypt where the church was weakest and most in need of creative new mission energy.

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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.

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INSTALLMENT 6 OF THE HISTORY OF THE OUTREACH FOUNDATION IN EGYPT

by Jeff Ritchie

Gulf War Changes Our Plans

The 2002 trip to Egypt marked the beginning of many wonderful mission relationships in Egypt. Churches began to commit themselves to the mission initiatives at the Cairo Seminary and to new church developments, especially the church in 10th of Ramadan City. The Kasr el Doubara Church in Cairo also had attracted the interest of several of the trip participants.

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INSTALLMENT 5 OF THE HISTORY OF THE OUTREACH FOUNDATION IN EGYPT

by Jeff Ritchie

The joint Outreach Foundation-Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship trip to Egypt in 2002 was catalytic in bringing the Church in Egypt onto the awareness of US congregations. The trip resulted in significant, long-lasting partnerships between congregations in the US and the Cairo Seminary, new church developments, and other ministries in Egypt. This chapter will highlight the personal impact of the trip on some of the individual participants and their resulting impact on God’s mission in Egypt.

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INSTALLMENT 4 OF THE HISTORY OF THE OUTREACH FOUNDATION IN EGYPT

by Jeff Ritchie

A Joint Outreach Foundation-Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship Initiative

One of the significant aspects of the early involvement of The Outreach Foundation in Egypt was how much we worked in complementary ways with another Presbyterian mission organization, Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship (PFF). This mission was founded in 1981 by Presbyterians who wished to rekindle a passion for evangelism and mission among the least-evangelized people of the world. Much of its work was focused on people groups in the Muslim world.

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INSTALLMENT 3 OF THE HISTORY OF THE OUTREACH FOUNDATION IN EGYPT

by Jeff Ritchie

The trip to Egypt in early 1999 established the priority goal for the mission of The Outreach Foundation in Egypt: building the capacity for the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Egypt to engage in mission and evangelism. Out of that trip emerged our first two projects: the training of a professor to teach mission and evangelism at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo and support for a new church development in the 10th of Ramadan City, one of forty-four new cities being developed by the Egyptian government to alleviate the population crush of Cairo.

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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.

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INSTALLMENT 1 OF THE HISTORY OF THE OUTREACH FOUNDATION IN EGYPT

by Jeff Ritchie 

It has been a great joy to write some of the history of The Outreach Foundation between 1998-2018. The first volume of our history was about our missions in China. This present volume will cover our work in Egypt during the same period. But first, we must give some history of the Church in Egypt.

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