Report from BHW Egypt Partnership Facilitator Following Visit in March

Father A certainly is a good man with a passion for the poor and the gospel. We visited the kitchen where his team was preparing meals for the daily distribution. The team members were very engaged and positive about their jobs. It was obviously a real community and they loved being together in service. There was a lot of joy and laughter. 

Father A showed us around the hostel facility which was still being built when we were last there. It is impressive and providing a service to people who would be very badly inconvenienced if it were not available. He then took us to the church nearby where he is the senior priest. There are three other priests there - it is a large building with three chapels. It has been under serious renovation for the past 10 years and is about a year away from completion. 

He runs a Monday evening Bible study for about 1,000 people every week and they just began a series on the Gospel of Luke, this will last for a year. As he talked about this, he became very animated, he loves teaching the Bible. He has taught major Bible characters, Biblical geography and cities (this is a favourite topic in the Middle East especially references to Egypt), he has taught the miracles of Jesus, through Proverbs, and has just finished the Book of Revelation before beginning the series on the Gospel of Luke. His comment on this was, “a church that is studying the Bible is a strong church.” We came away with a sense of joy from being with him. 

Recent Events

The house has been completed and has 16 rooms and 37 beds. People come in from rural villages, mainly for medical treatment. It seems that many require cancer treatment, and they have to come several times. They are allowed to stay as long as they have need and there is no charge. There are some other materials and equipment available to help patients like wheelchairs, crutches and some other equipment that I didn't understand. Some of the rooms have bathrooms, some share bathrooms. Sometimes every bed is full, it is very rare for there to be less than 50% occupancy. Each person that comes to stay is given breakfast and lunch from the kitchen and there is food in the kitchen for them to make other meals. 

Personal Stories

After church one day, Father A was walking back to his home, and he found a woman on the street in a miserable condition. She had come from Aswan and her only son was in hospital receiving treatment. This woman had no one to care for her and she would go each night to sleep at the train station. He brought her to the centre for shelter and she stayed for some weeks. Her son passed away and she had no ability to bury him. So, he got a team together from Assiut and they took the boy’s body back to Aswan and buried him and supported the woman through this terrible time. 

Partnership's Influence within the Community

It is impossible to get out and visit the people who receive the meals they make to assess the impact of this ministry. It would be too dangerous or compromising for us to go and visit the beneficiaries. They make 360 meals per day, 15 people come in for food preparation and around midday 25 others arrive to deliver the food. He has 350 volunteers and people line up to help. Volunteers are on shift and mostly they work twice a month although some push their way in to do more.

Current Issues and Challenges

Costs have gone up significantly but at the same time the blessings of the Lord have increased. Father A's experience is that God opens the storehouses of heaven for them.

Prayer and Praise Points

The Lord is providing for their needs and often they cannot explain how this happens. On one occasion someone offered him some pigeons for food. This is a delicacy in Egypt. So, he bought the exact number of pigeons they needed but after preparation there were many left over. Nobody could work out what had happened, and they were able to make 70 extra meals.

Matthew 25 is their motto, “when you feed the poor,” Jesus said, “you’re feeding me.” When they go to deliver meals the people they meet are addressed as Jesus. “Good afternoon, Jesus, here is your meal!” He has a very unique perspective on ministry.

Comments

This is a good project, although it is aid and not development like so many of the Egypt partnerships. Among the Christian community in Egypt it is hard to get past relief. 

Each meal costs around EGP70 (US$1.45) and each day they spend about EGP20,000 (US$415). Father A says that they never ask for money, apart from at their prayer meeting once a month when they tell God about their issues.