Please Pray for Egypt: Many Challenges, Much Progress

Please pray for Egypt — yes, the Christians there and all Egyptians face many, many challenges, and yet they have made so much progress in just the last few years.

I have just returned to Jerusalem from eight historic days in Egypt. It was a joy and honor to lead a Delegation of sixteen American Evangelical leaders in that beautiful, Biblical country that has gone through two revolutions and nearly a civil war in the last decade. We learned so much and were deeply blessed by our time. We are still trying to process it all, but if we could sum up in one word what we saw happening there it would be: “progress.”

• We met with more than three dozen Coptic Orthodox and Coptic Protestant Christian leaders, including a 90 minute meeting with Pope Tawadros II — all of them were honest about the challenges they face, yet to a person they expressed how encouraged they are by the progress they are seeing in terms of religious freedom, honor and recognition by the government, the unprecedented freedom they now have to build and renovate churches, and more. (My colleague Johnnie Moore and I write about this more in our columns posted below.)
• We attended the openings of the new mosque and massive new cathedral, the largest in the Mideast, both located in the new administrative capital, about 30 miles east of Cairo.
• I was asked to briefly address the Protestant Christmas service at the “Kasr El Doubara Evangelical Church” in Cairo. The full service, including my brief remarks, were broadcast live on Egyptian TV to the entire country.
• Our Delegation also met with Members of the Egyptian Parliament, Muslim clerics, NGO leaders and other members of civil and religious society — it was so interesting to be able to have deep and detailed conversations about both the problems and the progress Egypt is making from their unique perspectives.
• Last Thursday, I was invited to attend a major policy address delivered by my friend, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on the campus of American University in Cairo, and then go with him and his team to visit the new mosque and cathedral.
• By God’s grace, I was also able to arrange for Secretary Pompeo to do an exclusive interview with CBN News correspondent Chris Mitchell. (I highly recommend you watch the excellent CBN coverage — see below)

What follows are 10 articles, columns, and interviews that my colleagues and I have written and/or produced, each describing what we saw and heard during our time in Egypt from our individual angles.

I hope that you’ll take the time to read and watch them; share them with your family, friends, churches, seminaries and other spheres of influence; and use the information to pray in a more educated and effective way for Egypt’s national leaders, Muslims and Christians.

1. Egypt’s leader deserves US support — Pompeo’s visit was a welcome move — op-ed by Joel C. Rosenberg and Johnnie Moore (published by Fox News)
2. Opinion: Egypt’s El-Sisi Is A Friend To Christians — op-ed by Joel C. Rosenberg and Johnnie Moore (published by The Daily Caller)
3. Egypt’s El Sisi Builds Middle East’s Largest Church, A “Game Changer” In The Region (CBN News story, both print and video)
4. “Jerusalem Dateline” devotes nearly entire 28 minute program to coverage of historic events in Egypt, including the visit of an Evangelical Delegation (CBN News story, both print and video)
5. Exclusive: Pompeo vows US to stand with persecuted believers: “Christians Central To Middle East” (CBN News story, both print and video)
6. FRC’s Tony Perkins joins Egypt’s President, Coptic believers for opening of cathedral near Cairo (FRC press release)
7. A Cairo Christmas — op-ed by Tony Perkins (published by The Patriot Post)
8. Egypt is rebuilding its churches, making slow but significant steps toward reform — op-ed by Dr. Darrell Bock, professor at Dallas Theological Seminary(published by the Dallas Morning News)
9. Wise Men Still Bring Gifts: Our Extraordinary Christmas In Egypt — column by Rick Segal, Vice President of Bethlehem College & Seminary (published on the Desiring God website)
10. Coexistence: Mark’s reflections from Cairo — by Mark Rodgers, founder of The Clapham Group (published on The Clapham Group website)

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