Dear friends in Christ,

An Egyptian proverb says that if you drink from the Nile, you will return again for more. We have heard this proverb several times recently, as it is a perfect expression of what has happened in our lives. Two years ago we spent a challenging and rewarding summer working in a Cairo church as PC(USA) mission volunteers. God used the experiences of those few months and the relationships that grew out of them to form a yearning in our hearts to return to Egypt. Now we are back to drink from the Nile again, this time more deeply.

Our invitation is to serve on the faculty of the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Abbasiyyah, a crowded urban area near the heart of Cairo. Having just graduated from seminary ourselves (we both received our master of divinity degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary this past May), this task is an extremely challenging one for us. In our first two months of teaching, however, we have witnessed more and more of how deep and how wide the grace of God is, overcoming our inadequacy to make our time here a time of mutual encouragement. We have also learned some valuable lessons in humility as we struggle to master our material and communicate it in a way that is relevant and effective. We feel blessed to be here in this place, participating in God's work in and through the Egyptian church, and witnessing God's work in our own lives as we yearn for growth toward "the full stature of Christ."

The seminary itself was founded about 125 years ago, begun as a training school for the fledgling evangelical denomination founded by Presbyterian missionaries, which is now the largest Protestant denomination in Egypt. Over the years it has been training pastors for ministry throughout the Arab world, serving as the primary preparation for Egyptian pastors of the evangelical church but drawing leaders from several other countries as well. Our classes are a mix of Egyptian, Sudanese, Syrian, and Palestinian students, both male and female. Two other Reformed seminaries in the Middle East, located in Lebanon and the Sudan, help with the load of training Presbyterian pastors in the larger area. Sadly, the Presbyterian church in Iraq is unable to send its pastors for training in any of these schools due to political sanctions barring their entry.

Our classes are small, usually including 10 to 30 students—a learning environment we have found to be ideal. The seminary has about 100 registered students, 30 of whom live on campus in a new dormitory building. We too are living on campus, with two Egyptian faculty members and their families and several visiting faculty on short-term assignments. In just a number of weeks we have been welcomed and embraced by this warm community and have been deeply blessed by friendships with staff, colleagues, and students alike. Our neighbors in the faculty building have helped us tremendously in our adjustment to the practical challenges of daily life in Cairo, from finding vegetables in the market to catching the right bus to church to hanging our laundry out to dry on their balconies. We are gratified by their companionship and inspired by their example of untiring effort to serve the church. Faculty members here carry a load of 10 teaching hours per week in addition to many administrative responsibilities. Currently Elisabeth teaches nine hours a week, with her work to be divided between the biblical studies department and the practical theology department. Darren is teaching a class in the theology department, but is also attending language school full-time to learn Arabic. Our schedule is extremely busy but thoroughly rewarding. As we hear students' stories over lunch in the cafeteria, we are amazed again and again at the difficulties these pastors face ministering in Egypt, but also at the faithfulness of God in causing the church to thrive here over the centuries. We are excited to be able to make a small contribution to the education of church leaders here, and pray constantly that our work will be helpful and useful to the Christians of Egypt. Currently it is the paucity of Arabic-language resources for pastors that has struck us as a need we may be able to help with. We are working on an Arabic-language grammar for biblical Hebrew, and beginning work on a collection of primary readings in theology. Our computer is being put to work, and we are grateful for plenty of office space in our spacious campus apartment.

Another reason we are grateful for extra space in our house here is the impending arrival of a new member of our family. We are expecting a baby in June (perfect timing for an academic couple), and are thrilled to bring this new life into the world in the midst of the loving church community of Cairo.

Thank you for your continued prayers on our behalf. Your support and encouragement gives us strength and good cheer day by day. We appreciate any news or interaction you send our way.

We praise God for our partnership together in the gospel. May the Lord bless you in your service and ministry.

Peace in Christ,

Elisabeth and Darren Kennedy