Ali and I travelled to Cairo, Egypt, for a short 3-day visit in May. Staying in a hotel near the famous Tahrir Square—the focal point for demonstrations that led to the Egyptian revolution in 2011 and the resignation of President Mubarak—reminded us of the huge changes taking place in the Arab-Muslim countries.
We went primarily to visit a well-known, experienced leader who recently expressed to Ali his interest in DDK. We also wanted to see Berti, our lead translator and friend, to encourage him and talk about some translation issues.
Just a few days before our trip, Berti, who is also a member of our competency cohort and is growing in his understanding of the DDK paradigm and training approach, arranged for us to meet with leaders from three other movements.
Now, we have never viewed Egypt as an audience for DDK. As Ali observed, there are already 20 million Christians in the country, though their churches cannot legally witness to Muslims, and most church activities serve nominal Christians.
But Berti insisted we meet these leaders, saying that they need DDK and are really interested in knowing more. We agreed to visit them, but expected little.
We first spent several hours with a man who founded a ministry comprising a whole movement of churches, with television and social ministries. The next day we met his son, a dynamic young leader.
Resonating with DDK as we explained it, the son wants to move ahead with it and fully train a set of key leaders to carry it into the whole movement.
The next day we met with two other ministries whose young leaders are eager to break out of traditions and return to New Testament ways.
Again, we were surprised by their interest and their desire to engage with DDK.
Finally, we met with the leader we had originally planned to see. We spent a whole morning with him and one of his key young leaders. Now he’s busy studying materials we left with him to help him understand DDK.
Where will this all lead? Time will tell. We were impressed by this new generation of Egyptian church/ministry leaders. The Lord must be preparing to do some major things in the next decades in Egypt and beyond.
If Egyptian leaders like these—with ministries already active across North Africa—begin implementing DDK, this will lend additional support to our growing network of DDK users in the region. And vice versa!
Please pray for insight into how our networks in other countries of North Africa can help the Egyptian church.
