News from A PASTOR in Egypt

Thank you for your emails and concern for the situation in Egypt at present,

we greatly appreciate and need your continued, persistent prayer for our

country!

We are all fine, the church building is fine, but many of our church members

have been very close to the conflict in the last two days in downtown Cairo.

Last night, as the conflict between the demonstrators and the Egyptian army

escalated and became extremely violent, we opened the church building to be

used as a clinic to treat the wounded. Tens of people came and received

treatment from various doctors, and many of our church members were there to

help as needed.

It is a confusing situation for us, to be honest. We are hoping for a

peaceful election process, and yet are keenly aware that the new political

parties are not ready for such a huge step and are unsure what the results

will be. There is a general sense of frustration in many people, as we

aren't seeing any of the promised changes taking place in the government or

in civilian affairs. There is still so much aggression and abuse from the

police towards the people demonstrating and now from the army as well. This

all reminds us that we still need to continue to pray fervently.

Because the elections are coming up very soon, some of the more radical

Islamic parties made a "power show" last Friday, trying to show the public

their influence and their intent to impose their opinions on the new

constitution. Simultaneously, thousands of nonreligious demonstrators showed

up, expressing their frustration with the army for trying so many civilians

in military courts, continuing to arrest citizens unlawfully, and many other

serious errors the army has made as they continue to hold the political

reins. Many youth feel that nothing has changed in Egypt, that we are still

being oppressed by the same old regime with the same aggressive spirit.

There were a number of casualties and hundreds wounded since violence

erupted on Saturday between the demonstrators and the police and on Sunday

with the army.

Simultaneous with the radical Islamic demonstration, we held an all-church

prayer meeting last Friday from 11am-4:30pm. As I wrote before, we also

participated in the region-wide prayer meeting that was on November 11th. We

think around 50,000 attended this prayer meeting, which was held in Abouna

Simeon's "Cave Church" in Garbage City. It was an amazing event, as tens of

thousands of Coptic and Evangelical Christians and Catholics came together

to pray, seek the Lord's face, and raise the Name of Jesus in the face of

all that is taking place in our country. The Spirit of God was clearly at

work and evident in the faces and prayers of the people attending as well as

in the Orthodox leaders who led from the front.

We feel the urgency to continue pressing on in intercession. Please continue

to pray with us!