by Juan Sarmiento
Partner churches across the Latin American region are quickly responding to the crisis. Beyond adjusting to severe preventative measures, they are quickly finding ways to serve vulnerable populations such as the elderly and those with limited access to groceries, disinfectant products, and necessary supplies.
Read MoreCairo on March 19, 2020 Statement from the presidency of the evangelical community of Egypt ---
In the context of the exceptional circumstances of the country, and for the sake of the lives of all citizens, of any health risks that may threaten their lives, the lives of their families, and in line with the preventive decisions taken by the Egyptian State, in compliance with health and safety standards Recommended by who, Dr. Pastor André Zaki, head of the evangelical community of Egypt, decided that:
Read More#15thdayunderquarantine #StaystrongBethlehem #Coronavirus #Covid19 We bring you special greetings from the Holy Land and pray that you are all keeping safe in light of the Covid-19 pandemic that has hit the world in a way that none of us expected.
Bethlehem has not been spared this calamity, as you probably know. So far, over 40 cases have been reported in Palestine. When things happen globally, we tend to think that the problem is far from us. That illusion has been shattered. Several of the local cases are people we know personally, including one of our dear staff and a few of our graduates. That’s how close it is to us! We praise the Lord that they are all recuperating.
Read MoreDear Brethren in Christ,
Please do receive the best greetings from the Presbyterian Church in Rwanda (EPR)/Kigali). I would like to give you an update on the situation in the EPR and in Rwanda in general at this time when the world is facing the pandemic of Coronavirus.
As you know, the EPR is in partnership with many Churches and Christian organizations around the world and in many countries where this pandemic has paralyzed life at all levels. We lift you in our prayers.
Read MoreMy dear friends,
When we began our Lenten journey, walking with Jesus on the way to the cross, few of us expected that this holy season would involve tracking the progress of a novel coronavirus, now known as COVID-19. This odd pairing of Jesus’ word and deeds and a global pandemic invites us to reflect upon the question “What does this Jesus have to do with our kind of world?”
Read Moreby 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.
Read Moreby Juan Sarmiento
Lent is an opportunity to ponder anew what it means to follow Jesus in a world that is facing the realities of vulnerability and frailty. We are truly dust. The word "quarantine" comes from the Latin quadraginta, meaning "forty". It dates back to the thirteen century when the Venetians started the practice of keeping ships quaranta giorni (forty days) as an attempt to deal with the Bubonic Plague. Also known as the Black Death, the disease that wiped out an estimated 30 percent of the people then living in Europe's and a significant percentage of Asia's population in 11 years.
Read Moreby 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.”
Read MoreMy Lord have mercy on our city, Wuhan, and listen to our petitions!
Lord, you hear the plea of EVERY soul in this city! People of this city are so exhausted after weeks of home isolation, so concerned about being infected at the food market and so worried about the uncertain future. May your words be the comfort of this city, and your promises our hope, then all our beings will enjoy real peace and rest.
Read Moreby 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.
Read Moreby Juan Sarmiento
China is facing a public health challenge of very serious proportions. During the last few weeks, I have been in constant communication with influential pastors who are supporting the relief efforts in the Hubei province. My previous blog post may help give an idea of the impact that the crisis is having on churches there and how they are responding as quickly and generously as possible.
Below, is a significant portion of a letter that a dear pastor penned last week:
Read Moreby 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.
Read MoreThe Outreach Foundation has stayed in close communications with our friends in China to understand the ways in which the spread of the Coronavirus has affected them.
Below, I transcribe some of the text of a prayer request we received from one of our partners:
On January 26, 2020, for the first time since China’s open-door reform, no open Sunday worship services were held in the country. Due to the spread of the Coronavirus, all religious, entertainment, and recreational activities had to be stopped. Please pray for God’s mercy in stopping the spread of the virus. May the Lord give wisdom to the authorities, healthcare workers, and medical experts in China and Hong Kong so an effective cure can be found for patients.
Read Moreby 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.
Read Moreby 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.
Read Moreby 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.
Read Moreby Juan Sarmiento
Brazil is the largest and most populous country in Latin America.
Presbyterianism dates to 1859. It has grown to be a denominational family of more than 1.5 million people.
The Outreach Foundation has connected congregations and individuals in the US to come alongside initiatives of the Independent Presbyterian Church of Brazil (IPIB, by its initials in Portuguese). The main areas of partnership have been the development of lay leaders as well as to plant churches among poor and unchurched populations. The IPIB is a faith family with approximately 586 congregations.
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.
Read Moreby 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.
Read Moreby Berry Long
Most of the villages in rural Tete Province are remote and located a great distance from a hospital, health clinic, or doctor. Transportation is extremely limited on the rough and rocky roads. Walking, bicycles, and ox carts are the chief forms of transportation. Villagers in these rural communities find it very difficult to access basic health care.
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