Egypt (MNN) — Today, Egypt hosts more than 1 million registered refugees from over 60 countries, according to December data from the UN Refugee Agency. Three out of every four people are from Egypt’s neighbor to the south, Sudan. Many others come from Syria.
But that data only counts those registered with the UN. The real number is undoubtedly much higher — and every one of these children, women, and men needs so much more than just food and shelter.
“They are coming just to find hope in our country, and they fear the future. So we have to give them hope and comfort,” says Marihan with Kasr El-Dobara Evangelical Church (KDEC) in Egypt. “That’s why we are expanding our ministry to reach out to them and give them hope and a future.”
School in Cairo, Egypt (Stock photo courtesy of Primrose Murahwi via Unsplash)
After two years of hard work, KDEC is ready to open a new education center for around 80 children in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt.
“It was a long journey of success and failing and frustration,” Marihan says of the process. “It wasn’t easy at all. Sometimes we were learning new things, because it’s our first time to establish an education center for refugees.”
But God opened the way, bringing both government permission as well as a local partnering church that can legally staff the center.
The center will meet a critical need. For Palestinian refugees in Sinai, for example, Marihan says, “they cannot go anywhere else in the country, and they cannot use the local school.”
Showing the love of Christ to families opens the way to share His message. Please join in praying for the ministry of this new center to dozens of refugee families. Ask God to keep the door open for this way to serve.
“Pray for protection — protection for the people who serve with us. And even pray for the local church there who will be responsible for the education center,” says Marihan. “Pray for the teachers. Pray for the people who will receive the message.”
Header photo courtesy of KDEC.
