"Prayer is the soul in paraphrase." - Tim Keller

FROM THE DESK OF: the Director of Communications

It's a relatively slow week here in the office which means we can take a breath and focus on more longterm, ongoing projects. One of which, is compiling a list of resources for our workers. This has proven to be more complicated than we anticipated because our workers come from vastly different backgrounds (some have a cross cultural mission mindset with little sports management experience while others have strong athletic credentials and little culturally appropriate evangelism training) and are heading to very different locations. So searching for resources that could help both ends of the spectrum is difficult. We have tapped into a lot of books geared toward the bivocational/tentmaking/business-as-mission crowd. These have been helpful. The fact that this category of ministry tools is limited, serves to underscore how cutting edge this type of thinking is. The resources simply haven't had time to catch up. Ironically, this way of doing mission isn't really cutting edge, Jesus was a carpenter, Paul was a tentmaker, the apostles were largely blue collar fisherman. The early Church was massively affective in large part because everyone was a bivocational missionary, there was no special clergy class. Everyone got to play. May it be so again.

For the Win[dow],

Bubby Bryan, DOC

VERSE OF THE WEEK: Philippians 1:6

"And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ."

COUNTRY OF THE WEEK: EGYPT

Egypt is an Afro-Asiatic transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia, via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. Most of Egypt's territory of 1,010,000 square kilometres (390,000 sq mi) lies within the Nile Valley of North Africa, but it is also considered a Mediterranean country as it is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north. It is also bordered by theGaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba to the east, the Red Sea to the east and south, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west.

With over 87 million inhabitants, Egypt is the largest country in North Africa and the Arab World, the third-largest in Africa, and the fifteenth-most populous in the world. The great majority of its people live near the banks of the NileRiver, an area of about 40,000 square kilometres (15,000 sq mi), where the only arable land is found. The large regions of the Sahara Desert, which constitute most of Egypt's territory, are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypt's residents live in urban areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities in the Nile Delta.

Egypt has one of the longest histories of any modern country, arising in the tenth millennium BCE as one of the world's first nation states.[12] Considered a cradle of civilization, Ancient Egypt experienced some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, organised religion and central government in history. Iconic monuments such as the Giza Necropolis and its Great Sphinx, as well the ruins of Memphis, Thebes, Karnak, and the Valley of the Kings, reflect this legacy and remain a significant focus of archaeological study and popular interest worldwide. Egypt's rich cultural heritage is an integral part of its national identity, having endured and at times assimilated various foreign influences, including Greek, Persian, Roman, Arab, Ottoman, and European.

Modern Egypt is considered to be a regional and middle power, with significant cultural, political, and military influence in North Africa, the Middle East and the Muslim world.[13] Its economy is one of the largest and most diversified in the Middle East, with sectors such as tourism, agriculture, industry and services at almost equal production levels. In 2011, long term President Hosni Mubarak stepped down amid mass protests. Later elections saw the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood, which was ousted by the army a year later amid mass protests. (Wikipedia)

 

http://joshuaproject.net/clusters/163

https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/world-watch-list/egypt/

http://prayercast.com/egypt.html

PRAYER REQUESTS:

  • Pray for a strong and trustworthy government that will act in the interest of all its people.
  • Pray for Coptic Christians to receive the encouragement and boldness they need to stand firm before their oppressors.
  • Pray for Muslim-background believers to share Christ's love with their families and neighbors.
  • Pray for the Uttermost Reps on the field.
  • Pray for the US office.