On the frontlines: Egypt

Earlier this year CSW’s Chairman, David Taylor, visited Egypt to see what life is like for Christians there. Here’s his reflection on what he saw and heard…

“I visited Cairo with CSW to meet with Christian leaders and through them find out what life is like for Middle Eastern Christians. The main thing I wanted to know, against a background of terrible suffering among Christian communities in the region, was whether these leaders had a sense of God at work through it all.

In answer to this prayer I heard, while we were there, one of the most powerful sermons I have ever heard.

In Acts 16 we read about Paul and Silas in prison. As a result of their prayer and praise, the jail doors flew open through a mighty earthquake. In the same way, God is changing the culture in Egypt through an earthquake like the one in Acts which shook the jail and collapsed it. It is God’s earthquake. Quakes are sudden and unpredictable. The foundations in Egypt are still shaking.

Traditional beliefs are being questioned like never before, particularly after the rule of former President Morsi and the recent actions of Daesh (Islamic State).

The doors are opening and the chains are falling off. The noble death of 21 Egyptian Copts executed by Daesh in Libya backfired like throwing Christians to the lions. Daesh thought they were eradicating Christianity, and that Egyptian Muslims would support them in this, but actually it had the opposite effect. God used these 21 very ordinary people to impact the world, just like the disciples in the New Testament.

The leaders we met believe some doors are still locked; so the quakes will continue – as long as the Church is praising and praying like Paul and Silas did in jail.

They feel God has saved Egypt amid the regional turmoil because it has the Church that can reach out to the broken countries around it. They often cite the prophecy all those centuries ago in Isaiah 19:25, ‘Blessed be Egypt my people’.

As they are finding God is at work and sovereign, so nothing is predictable.

God is indeed a God of surprises, and works in ways far beyond our understanding as the story of the Middle East shows.

So, amidst the terrible news coming out of the Middle East, let’s remember that God is most definitely at work.”