With this year’s Easter Sacrificial Offering, we have the opportunity to support God’s work in Egypt through an organization called Think and Do. Think and Do was founded in the mid 1990s, focusing its ministry on the rural poor in Upper Egypt (or southern Egypt). It has since expanded to serve poor areas of Cairo as well, and now employs over 300 people. Specifically, we will be supporting the Village Workers' ministry of Think and Do.
As Think and Do was ministering in Upper Egypt, they found that many of the villages there had no organized Protestant church; of the villages that did have an established church, 40% were without a pastor. The Village Workers ministry was therefore started in 2001, with two major goals in mind. First, lay workers are selected and trained to serve in churches without pastors under the supervision of a nearby regional pastor. Second, the Village Workers seek to start new home meetings and Bible studies in villages that do not have an organized church.
God has blessed these efforts. In 2012, over 350 lay individuals graduated from leadership training schools, and 7 of these enrolled in theological seminary to train as pastors. Last year, over 250 new home meetings were started, and nearly 100 new Bible studies were formed. The work has expanded, now offering day-long spiritual seminars to strengthen believers, holding evangelistic outreaches to reach the unconverted, and distributing Bibles and audio materials. The Village Workers have also been able to meet physical needs through medical outreaches, home visits, and distribution of food and supplies to the poor.
Perhaps the greatest impact has been through their children’s ministry. They’ve developed a children’s curriculum called "Bible Panorama" that teaches from Genesis to Revelation in a 2-3 year period. The trained children’s workers have taken this curriculum from Aswan to Alexandria, ministering to over 10,000 children last year.
This year, Think and Do seeks to train an additional 500 lay leaders so that they may continue to strengthen believers and churches, expand into new villages, and reach children and adults with the love and the gospel of Jesus Christ. Please pray for these Village Workers, and ask God to bless their service to the expansion of his kingdom. Please also consider supporting this work through your Easter Sacrificial Offering. If you’d like more information, you can read their annual report on our website.
And praise God that in his mercy he still saves Egyptians, despite their oppression of his people throughout history. Isaiah 19 says,
In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at its border. It will be a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt. When they cry to the Lord because of oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and deliver them. And the Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day and worship with sacrifice and offering, and they will make vows to the Lord and perform them. And the Lord will strike Egypt, striking and healing, and they will return to the Lord, and he will listen to their pleas for mercy and heal them.