The Cape Town and the Bellville Churches from South Africa and the Windhoek Church from Namibia went for a joint short-term mission to Cairo, Egypt. Although there were many brothers and sisters who wanted to participate in the short-term mission to Egypt, only a small number of members could go. The team members who were allowed to go participated in preaching with even more enthusiasm, determination, and eagerness.
In Egypt where most people are Muslims, we still met quite many Christians. It is pretty safe there, and because the stores open until late, we could preach until at night.
At first, not many people listened to the word we were preaching in our poor Arabic. However, after praying with one accord to God to allow the Egyptians to feel the heart of Heavenly Mother who only wishes for the salvation of Her children, transcending the barrier of language and ideology, more and more people began to stop and give their time.
The souls who had been waiting for the water of life opened their minds and gave ear even when we showed only one or two verses of the Bible. One person showed great interest in salvation God promised in Isaiah 25. He wasn’t so happy with the attitude of Christians who only insisted on the tradition of their denominations regardless of the Bible. We told him about God who brought the truth according to the prophecy of Isaiah, and also let him know the church website so that he could see for himself what truths God restored.
A few days later, one brother received three messages from him at around 3 a.m.
Hello. I finished browsing the website you gave me. I had thoughts in many ways over the past week. My answer is . . . I believe all those words.
He now desires to be born again as God’s child.
We met heavenly family members in unexpected ways. Here is one episode. Once, we entered a prohibited area and got in trouble with the official from that place. Then a young woman felt sorry for us who were being told off in the Arabic language which we didn’t even understand, and she mediated for us. She apologized in Arabic for us, and she even took us to our lodgings. As we thought that wasn’t a coincidence, we spoke to her. She said she had been to South Africa before, and she was very happy to find we were from there. She was also living one block away from our lodgings, so we could continue studying with her.
Another amazing case is when we preached the truth in the subway. One day, we saw a woman reading the Bible. We were quite surprised because it was an English Bible. This kind of thing is very rare in Egypt, where Arabic is used and Islam is dominant. We couldn’t just pass her by, so one of our sisters approached her and asked, “Do you understand the words that you’re reading now?”
“How can I understand unless someone explains it to me?”
Their conversation was just like that between Philip and the eunuch of Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians. Just as Philip was directed by the Holy Spirit at that time, the sister became a Philip of this age and immediately delivered good news to her about the Spirit and the Bride.
People of God wanted to hear the word of God under all circumstances. An obstetrician listened to the word attentively, but he was about to leave because of his busy schedule. But for some reason, he hesitated a little and said, “I think I still have a little more time. Can you keep going?” and then he sat down again.
The Bible seminar held in Cairo was great news for the souls who were thirsty for the water of life. There is a college student whom we met through a brother in Ethiopia, and as it turned out he was a pretty famous student in his college. With his help, we were able to have an opportunity to open a Bible seminar in the college common office area. Although it was a small Bible seminar, our expectation to establish Zion in Egypt became greater, encouraged by the positive response of the participants in the seminar.
When the Egyptians do someone a favor and hear other people say, “Thank you,” they often say, “You’re welcome. It’s my duty.” How the Egyptians regard serving others as their duty was impressive. An Arabic word that we heard often while studying Arabic during the short-term mission is Khalas meaning last or finish. It is used when a conversation ends. In Modern Standard Arabic, it is also used for the word salvation. We interpreted this word in a special way as the spirit of salvation which is essential for the completion of the gospel work in Egypt!
Now that the short-term mission to Cairo is over, one brother is still in Cairo, looking after the souls faithfully and waiting for a missionary to come. Soon we will go back to meet the Egyptians who have a beautiful character and the Khalas spirit that God planted in them.