God's Work in Moassat

by Kimmy Stokesbary

Today a small group of us had the opportunity to visit a new church development project in Moassat, Egypt. While it was my second time visiting the church, this time, I was struck by the piles of garbage, the small fires burning garbage, the people working to sort the garbage, and the overwhelming smell of garbage. As we got closer to the church, Reverend Ekram, the pastor in Moassat, turned around and asked me how I felt. I didn’t have words to respond. And then we arrived, and as we piled out of the van, the garbage-filled streets were filled with the sound of music, beautiful music. You see, inside this church almost one hundred women and children were gathered for their weekly meeting, a time of worship and testimony. 

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Encouraged by the Faith of Brothers and Sisters in Egypt

Egypt has at times presented us with realities that don't fit with the boxes we normally put things in. Today brought one such occurrence. We were visiting the church in Adaima, about an hour and a half south of Luxor. Pastor Shenouda and some church members welcomed us as we arrived. It was especially joyful for them, since two of our group are from the West Hills Presbyterian Church in Omaha. That church has had a relationship with Al Adaima, and members have visited a couple of times before.

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The Clash of Ancient and Modern

Egypt is an incredible place, and we're all so grateful to be here. The people are extremely friendly and are delighted when they learn we're Americans. We've also been blessed with an agenda that our leader, Marilyn, put together that has shown and taught us so much. In Cairo we met pastors and saw churches that are euphemistically called "meeting places" – flats where people crowd in and joyfully worship Jesus. Despite their own poverty, they provide social programs like preschool, older adult services clinics and so much more. Sounds pretty biblical to me!

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Imagine!

Today was another day of visits to church projects in the Cairo area. We are accompanied on these visits by Elder Magdi Reddy who serves with the Outreach Council of the Presbytery. He gives us wonderful background. One of the things that we love about Magdi is that he describes every church as "unique."  

Cairo Presbytery currently has 50 active Presbyterian Churches. Their vision and goal is to plant 25 more projects/churches in three to five years. And they are doing it! Their vision and purpose is astounding. One of the words from our devotions last night that Kimmy led us in was "Imagine." Just imagine what God would do if Cairo Presbytery alone increased by 50%?  Imagine! Oh, that more of our churches had such imagination and faith about what God would do. 

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Two Oases in the Desert

Cairo is a big city with 18 million people living there and two million people coming into the city for work. We visited just two churches, but it was a long day, leaving the seminary at 9:00am and returning about 7:30pm, with quite a few hours of driving. 

Today being Sunday, we had the privilege of worshiping at the first church we went to, Moassat El Zakah. To get there, we drove an hour and a half, turned off the main paved road onto a divided dirt road full of trash in the middle.

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A Light in the Community

It's hard to believe that today has only been our third full day in Cairo, I feel like I have already learned and heard so much from the people here. As I reflect on the last three days I find myself in awe of the many ways God is working in the church in Egypt. 

On our first day we heard these numbers from the missions department at the seminary...there are roughly 3,000 churches in Egypt, 376 of those are Presbyterian. But there are 4,000 communities in Egypt that have Christians living in them, and only 900 of those have any church presence (Coptic, Catholic, Presbyterian). That leaves over 3,000 communities of Christians who have no church to which they can belong.

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You're on my Team!

In our group reflection after dinner Thursday, the question was asked, "How have you encouraged someone or been encouraged today?" While a clear response did not come to me at first, my day wasn't quite finished yet. About 10pm and not ready to fall asleep, I heard the sounds of young people laughing and shouting above the city noises which drew me down to the seminary courtyard near the entrance to the dormitory. To my surprise, about 30 young Egyptians were gathered around the makeshift volleyball court. This was a group of both current seminary students and recent graduates who were on campus for their annual celebration the prior evening. I decided to investigate...  

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Hope and Joy in Egypt

Greetings from Cairo. We left on Tuesday, and today is Thursday. What happened to Wednesday?! It does rather seem like that given we left on Tuesday afternoon and arrived in Cairo on Wednesday night. We're all here despite a Lufthansa strike that rerouted half our team. After a much needed night's sleep, we had a terrific day today at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo (ETSC). This school is a long time and important partner of The Outreach Foundation and recently  celebrated 125 years of service to God's kingdom. There are more than 320 students here studying for masters degrees in divinity and theology and a unique program in organizational leadership. They prepare and send pastors all over Egypt and beyond. 

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Preparing for Egypt

by Tom Widmer

In slightly more than 48 hours, the Outreach Egypt vision team will be departing for Egypt – at least most of them. Several will be following later in the week. We’ll arrive in Cairo Wednesday afternoon/evening after nearly 24 hours of travel! The beds will be most attractive when we arrive at the seminary (where we’ll be staying) later in the evening.

Our team is 12. Our leader is Marilyn, who has more trips to Egypt and the Middle East than she can count! Others on the trip include Bill from Chattanooga and with ECO, Peggy and Deena from West Hills Church in Omaha, Kimmy, Sara and Tim from Claremont Pres in Decatur, GA, Russ from First Pres Boulder, Hubie from Eastminster Pres in Marietta, Roger and John from Redeemer Church in Snellville, GA, and me, Tom, also with The Outreach Foundation and Third Church, Richmond, VA. Unfortunately, Janice from Boulder broke her hand and is unable to travel with us, as is Joni, also from Boulder. Please be praying for us by name and for healing of Janice’s hand.

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Beautiful Connections


There really is no final word on our Rwanda journey, inasmuch as it was about initiating and sustaining relationships with partners there, but we did have a final day together before heading home, or in the case of Ebralie and Ken (from Ventura Presbyterian Church), before heading to Uganda and Kenya for more partner visits.

Following breakfast we joined the staff from the Presbyterian Church of Rwanda's (EPR) head office for morning devotions. Vice-president Rev. Julie Kandema shared a message based upon the Gospel account of the cleansing of the ten lepers and invited us to each share a theme from the text that we might preach on. The same exercise was part of the examination given to students applying for entry to the seminary program at PIASS this year. Our discussion focused on the themes of faith and gratitude. During the devotions we shared joys and concerns, prayed together and sang in English and Kinyarwanda. Julie even succeededin getting our group of U.S. Presbyterians to raise their hands over their heads in praise to God! (Note to readers: Watch out for these folks when they get home!)
 

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Love for Young People

Day 8 began with breakfast, then off for a visit to Pastor Cyprian who, for the last 8 years, has been the  Director of The Street Children Ministry. This french name of the center translates into "Love for Young People." There are 40 residents at this center.

The center was started by the Presbytery in 1998, after the Genocide in 1994, many young people were left without parents. Some of the parents were involved in the Genocide and were imprisoned, others fled the country or died. The children were left with nowhere to go. They lived in the streets and went to the dumpsters to look for food.

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Sweet Hospitality and Mutual Encouragement

Here in Rwanda the pineapple gets sweeter and sweeter every morning, and the hospitality continues to overwhelm us. After another nourishing breakfast, we joined the Presbyterian Church of Rwanda staff for their daily devotional. Rob shared a powerful message, speaking of mutual encouragement in mission. In what served to be a good snapshot of the day, and even the entire trip, he challenged us: "to be in mission with God is to be in relationship with others." After singing some hymns and praying with our brothers and sisters, we departed Kigali.

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