Egypt Today – Horrifying News…
This summer we hear a lot of terrifying news from Egypt. Hundreds of people died in fights between the protesters and the military forces, and many thousands suffered because of political unrest and turmoil. The economy of country is being badly affected as many tourists change their destinations at the last moment.

The pastor of First Baptist Church in Cairo Mounir Malaty informs that two Baptist churches were among the attacked ones. The Baptist Church in El Minya has been attacked and there are some damages. However, even much more suffered the Baptist Church in Beni Mazar where some angry fundamentalists destroyed the Christian emblems that had been outside the church. Later they came back and broke in, burned the sanctuary, demolished Sunday school classes and church office. After that the looters entered and robbed the building. Thank God that Pastor Amir with his wife and two children who had lived there managed to escape…

Pastor Mounir writes: ‘Anger, Killing, Blood… are the words you hear in Egypt now. Innocent people are being killed and big numbers of the protestors themselves are also dying. A police station was attacked and all staff got killed while 36 prisoners tried to escape and guards shot them. Two micro-buses full of soldiers on their way home to spend their monthly vacation were killed by the terrorists in Sinai. More sad stories are told every day. A curfew is imposed and people are supposed to stay in homes. Fear is the dominating factor everywhere...’

The EBF General Secretary, Tony Peck has called on all EBF member Unions and Churches in the region to pray for peace in Egypt at this crucial time. He said: ‘We have all been horrified by the scale of the violence and the death toll as the military have sought to clear supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood from the streets. At the same time we have information from Cairo that more than 40 churches have been attacked and burned, as anger is vented on Christians who are seen as supporting the military crackdown. However, Christian leaders are calling for a speedy and peaceful end to the violence, and want to join themselves with those who wish to see their country as a place where people of different faiths and persuasions can live alongside one another in peace.’

Baptist Witness in Egypt
The multiethnic and socially diverse population of Egypt numbers over 80 million. At least 90% of the Egyptians are Muslims and only 10% are Christians, Coptic and Orthodox being the largest groups. The Evangelical believers are the “minority of minority” in Egypt because they comprise only 10% of the Christian margin.

The beginning of Baptist movement in Egypt is usually associated with Saddik Gerges. He was the first Egyptian Baptist to study theology in the United States, and returned home in the early 1930’s to start the Baptist ministry in his homeland. Through his efforts many churches were planted. There are 19 congregations with a total of 2250 members in the Egyptian Baptist Convention which is one of several Baptist groups in Egypt and their President is Nabil Karam.

The EBF has been supporting some indigenous mission workers in Egypt and one of them wrote in his current reports:

2012
We serve about 50 families and the Lord is opening new doors all the time. This means that we are ministering to about 300 persons. The Lord has lately sent a physician to us and he has been very helpful. The ministry hosted a medical clinic in September which was blessed by the Lord and opened doors for us to pray with many people. This event gave us also very good credit in the neighborhood and we are looking forward to repeating it.

I meet regularly with about 200 persons and give them Bibles, tracts and cassette tapes. Some people have made decisions to follow Jesus and we are still praying for the others. Because of security reasons we had to stop some of our corporate worship gatherings but we continue visiting people in homes. We plan to have a special youth camp in summer and a Vacation Bible School for children.

2013
We thank God for what he is doing with us as we have seen His mighty hand in many things. We continue to hold the house meetings and the Lord has provided us with a new apartment that is almost ready to use where we plan to start a daycare center for the children from our neighborhood.

Because of the current situation in our country we have not organized any special events. However, we continue to follow up the people we serve who have been introduced to the Lord in previous events. The Lord has added four new families and we pray with them, teach them the Bible, and send them encouraging messages on their mobile phones.

We meet with most families once a week and with some others every other week. We work in three groups: I lead one, my wife leads another and one other lady leads the third one. We also have many volunteers that help in the children women ministries and I lead the Bible study time. About twenty believers want to be baptized.

Prayer requests
Here are several prayer requests which have been suggested to us:

Pray that Christian leaders in Egypt will have both courage and wisdom as they witness for Christ in this critical for their nation hour.

Pray also for God’s protection to all Christians where conflicts and attacks have occurred, and remember all victims of violence.

Pray for the end of bloodshed and peace in Egypt.

In Christ,

Daniel Trusiewicz
EBF Mission Coordinator

To help planting reproducing churches! To help growing healthy churches! For the glory of God!