Over the two weeks we were in Egypt we were attempting to pattern our daily devotions around the Muslim five-times-daily prayer routines. Most mornings we could hear the hum and call to prayer from the ‘thousand minarets’ of Cairo. Everyday you encounter men who have a prayer callous on their foreheads, a callous developed from bending one’s forehead to the ground, five times a day for one’s life time. It makes my routines seem feeble. As does the commitment of the desert fathers whose monasteries we visited; lifetimes devoted to prayer.
We visited the “Kasr el Dobara Evangelical Church” also known as the Church in the Square from the reputation it received in the 2011 Revolution, as a place of refuge, triage and prayer. The church has a 24-hour prayer ministry and has had for some time. Well before the Revolution the people there had been praying for God to reveal his way for them as a church. When the church in Alexandria was bombed killing dozens of people, they saw this as an answer of sorts. This was going to be the way of the future, through to something new for the people of Egypt.
The beheading of 20 Egyptian migrant workers by ISIS on the Mediterranean coast in Libya and the video they released is another testimony to the depth of prayer and commitment. These simple and in many cases illiterate workers went quietly to their deaths with prayers on their lips. Its impact on the Egyptian church was the exact opposite intended by ISIS. Take a few minutes to watch Blessed Be Egypt My People where three Egyptian church leaders speak of prayer. It is profound. It is a call to the church in North America to rise up in prayer.
N. our main host for the trip, had the great idea of collecting sand from every place we went. He had someone he knows blow some glass hourglasses in which we poured the sand. They are meant to be a reminder of this time and a call to prayer. May we be found faithful.
“You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom." Matthew 5:10