August 10, 2005

Dear Friends,

Something intriguing about living and serving in Egypt is that when I re-read well-known passages of Scripture new pictures come to mind.

Take Luke 5:1-11, where at the Sea of Galilee Jesus teaches the crowd from Peter’s boat, calls him into “deep water,” and then tells Peter he is to “fish for people.” Luke describes the people “pressing” upon Jesus to hear the word of God with the same word he uses in Acts to describe the power of a raging storm that cannot be stopped. Before coming to Egypt I might have thought it peculiar that Luke would use such a strong word to describe the people “urging” or “pressing upon” Jesus to hear him teach. I can say now that I’ve witnessed this deep hunger for God’s word. I’ve seen intense interest on people’s faces as I’ve preached in village churches. I see this hunger in Christians who memorize long passages of Scripture, sometimes whole books. Many months in advance, students from the seminary are curious to know what subjects from the Bible I’m preparing to teach. Hundreds of people sign up when the seminary offers a lay training course on how to interpret the Bible, and people become sad when such events fill up and they can’t attend. Egyptian Christians demand far more classes and training events than the professors at the seminary can fulfill. The Christians of Egypt are a model of what it means to “press upon Jesus to hear the word of God.” Let us pray that God will satisfy their hunger.

Christians here have passed through deep waters for centuries, and it’s not clear that things will get easier. Just today I was talking with some young Muslim men who all agreed that they hope Egypt will become more like Saudi Arabia, where the government’s laws follow a very strict version of Islam. I often hear that perhaps most people in Egypt feel this way, though such changes would be difficult for the many Christians here.

After Peter heeds Jesus’ request to go out and fish in the deep water, he encounters God’s abundance. His nets are breaking and his boat is sinking under the weight of God’s provision of fish. The Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo has also been encountering God’s abundance. We recently graduated our biggest class in the school’s 140 years of existence. The physical plant of the seminary is in the midst of being refurbished, including the addition of an unpretentious yet beautiful new library. The number of student applicants is growing each year. As I sat at our faculty retreat earlier this summer, I often found myself feeling blessed because there’s no team of people with whom I’d rather be a partner. Several Egyptian faculty members are in universities in America and Europe finishing their doctorates in preparation for service here. Indeed, God is blessing the seminary.

After Peter encounters God’s abundance, he leaves all that he has to follow Jesus. Jesus takes Peter from deep water, to a deep encounter of God’s abundance, to a deep surrender. I am continually inspired by the depth of commitment of the Christians I know here. One Egyptian couple we know are also U.S. citizens and were offered positions in America with salaries many times greater than what they earn here. They chose to remain in Egypt for the sake of the opportunity to minister because they believe it’s where they could meet the greatest need. I have a student here who while in his first two years as a veterinarian heeded God’s call to become a pastor, even though he realizes that as a pastor in Egypt he may earn less than 75 dollars a month. Earlier in his final exams for his doctorate he “passed through deep water” by having his grade lowered simply because he was a Christian. But instead of being embittered, he stands ready to serve Jesus Christ with enthusiasm. As our family passes through our own forms of deep water, such as learning a difficult language and sometimes feeling out of place in a culture we don’t understand, it helps to be inspired by our Egyptian brothers and sisters in Christ.

At the beginning of the story in Luke 5, the people hunger for Jesus to speak the word of God. By the end of the story, Jesus has begun to prepare Peter for a ministry of sharing the word with the people. My family and I thank God and thank you for this chance we have to prepare people to share God’s word with those who hunger for it in Egypt and the Arabic-speaking world. We have now been here six months, and we are grateful to have you on this journey with us through your prayers and acts of encouragement.

Yours in Christ,

Dusty, Sherri, Clayton, and Christopher Ellington

The 2005 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 159