Egypt #2: Anointed to Bring Good News to the Poor
by Pam Bowman
We left Cairo early, heading East to the Evangelical (Presbyterian) Church in Ismailia (on the Suez Canal) for the 10:30 service. Our friend Dr. Tharwat Wahba, head of the Mission Department at Cairo Seminary and leader of the Pastoral and Outreach Ministries Council (POMC) of the Synod of the Nile, joined us as a guest preacher. It was a special day for him as he would be with two pastors he has trained in mission. Traffic was congested—Sunday is the first day of the workweek here, and we were 15 minutes later for worship! Two simultaneous translators sat behind our group to unobtrusively help us follow Tharwat’s sermon based on Luke 4, Jesus’ sermon in which he made his own mission clear: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.”
Afterward, we had coffee and tea in the pastor’s office and heard the story of the Protestant churches and fellowships (i.e. church plants) in this area. Brother Ayoub described how he met a young man in 2003 who was a Christian, but since there were no churches in this area, he had become a Muslim. Ayoub said this broke his heart. He started a prayer group and tried to discern his calling and in time was led to receive lay pastor training. That opened Ayoub’s eyes to a way of doing a fruitful ministry of church-planting in a place where Christians make up less than 2% of the population.
Ayoub’s ministry is distinguished by service to all the people in the area—Muslim or Coptic Orthodox as well as Protestant—offering literacy programs, medical services, donations of clothing and school supplies, etc. As a result, the church is accepted in this predominantly Muslim area because they have demonstrated that Christians care about everyone. A seminar between Christians and Muslims has been helpful as well and has led to Muslims joining in service activities in the community. Ayoub planted three baby churches, or “fellowships,” before going back to seminary to get his MDiv and become an ordained pastor. He has a year remaining, but on weekends he is in the Ismailia area with his wife working with the lay leaders he has trained to carry on the ministry in his current focus area, leading the process of building an actual church building. With this new fellowship established, Ayoub and his wife will move to another area near Ismailia where he has already begun the process all over again, going door to door to visit and get to know people and their desires and hopes for their community. And so, by God’s grace, his ministry will continue new church by new church.
While Brother Ayoub works to plant new churches, Rev. Ayman Samy and the established and historical church in Ismailia that he pastors is supporting Ayoub and finding others with a dream of “Here I am; send me” - both to replicate Ayoub’s work and also to continually expand their own ministry and outreach in the city. Ismailia Church has staged three evangelical campaigns with famous guest preachers, healing services that enhance their local medical ministry, programs for youth and children, and home follow-up visits. The last campaign attracted as many as 600-700 people and resulted in 30 new believers. Pastor Ayman’s dreams are big: to disciple and train new lay leaders for outreach both inside and outside the church and to serve the broad community with development projects that vary from providing opportunities for youth sports to a medical clinic to providing a coffee shop as a safe place for youth to gather.
Following our time at the church, we gathered with the pastors and their wives at a fish restaurant overlooking a lake of the Suez Canal. It was a glorious, sunny day, and the shrimp, calamari, and at least three kinds of fish were worthy of 5 stars. Even better was the fellowship around the table. We had much to ponder on the long ride home.