Dear Friends,

It is a mild, sunny day in Cairo. Winter is just around the corner, and the academic year is well underway. Students and teachers have settled into the routine of classes, exams, and community life. The new administration is busy with meetings and projects to initiate the next stage in the seminary’s growth. Our apartment is now fully furnished and filled with our books and pictures, plus some brand-new additions like a playpen and a scattering of baby toys. After a full year here, Cairo feels like home.

The summer was filled with a number of memorable events. Our son Calvin was born in May and has managed to almost triple his birth weight already. Our visit to the United States in August included introductions to all his grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Elisabeth’s ordination in Kansas City was a special service and a wonderful opportunity to gather together as friends and family. Back in Egypt now, Calvin is passed from lap to lap here on campus, at church, and around the neighborhood. The community around us has blessed us with deep encouragement and constant hospitality, and we are continually grateful for the laughter and love that surround our little boy as he develops and grows.

The seminary has been blessed with a large incoming class this year. Seventeen students registered to begin coursework toward theological degrees that will prepare them for the pastorate or for lay leadership in the church. It has been exciting for us to have them in class. Elisabeth teaches both introductory Hebrew and Greek, and enjoys the opportunity this gives her to teach first-year students. It is a special task to help shepherd and encourage them through an often challenging first year of study. Darren continues to teach systematic theology to more advanced students, with Elisabeth translating, which gives us a nice forum for working together. It is exhilarating to listen to class discussion as students strive to understand and apply the theology of Augustine, Calvin, or Barth in their contemporary Egyptian context.

We both continue to participate actively in student life, from preaching in chapel to leading student life committees, to hosting students in our home. While we still spend extensive time at the computer preparing lectures or translating resource materials, it is life and work with the students that is at the core of our ministry. We thank the Lord for their eager minds, their deep devotion to Christ, and their vision for ministry, which fuels their persistent efforts to study amidst very challenging circumstances. We were recently reminded again of the obstacles many students surmount in order to pursue theological education. A chance comment in class started a discussion which revealed that most students who do not live on campus (about two-thirds of the student body) commute at least an hour each way to come to class. Each academic year begins with the difficulty of trying to procure Greek and Hebrew Bibles for incoming students, who cannot afford to buy them but need them for their studies. Our own small collection of books is under constant request from students who are eager for newer resources than are available in the seminary’s rather outdated library. Yet our students feel they are privileged, not poor. The academic year began with a seminary retreat that was filled with excitement for the new year. Students and faculty shared their dreams for the seminary and their goals for building and growing. As we prayed together, we felt both the burden of responsibility and the joy of opportunity that are ours as servants of Christ in the Middle East. It is a challenging context, but God is at work in powerful ways here.

Most students returned from summers spent pastoring small churches in the Egyptian countryside. Their experiences reflected similar emotions to those we have shared—a feeling of inadequacy to the task, a sense of the immense challenges to ministry, but a deep gladness that comes from seeing God’s work go forward despite obstacles. Many students worked hard to unify congregations divided by the strife of clan loyalties, a common source of conflict in village churches. One student, Medhat, pastored a tiny church which mourned several sudden and tragic deaths of its younger members this summer. He spent time preaching about the life of David and reflecting on the Psalms of lament with his congregation, and shared that he felt God was able to minister comfort through him to the families mourning their loved ones. Remon, a student gifted in work with children, initiated a Sunday school program in a church that had failed in reaching out to its younger generation. As the summer ended, he prayed for someone who would take on the responsibility of leading this program after he left. God raised up someone from another village in the area. This young man, who has only one leg, rides for an hour and a half on the back of a pickup each week to lead the youth program.

We as a community have experienced God’s grace at work to transform difficult circumstances again and again. As we go on with our duties in the shadow of conflict in the larger Middle East, we pray for grace and peace to break through this impasse as well. On a smaller scale, we pray also for miracles to transform the financial situation of the seminary. Many of you have asked in the past how you might give directly to the ministry here. If you would like to make a gift to the seminary, the PC(USA) has set up a special account—ECO #862376. Please send checks to the Central Receiving Office, 100 Witherspoon St. Louisville, KY 40202-1396. Put the ECO number on the subject line.

Blessings and peace to you all in the name of Emmanuel.

Elisabeth, Darren, and Calvin Kennedy

The 2000 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 135