Back on the Road: A Highlight on Egypt

Greetings!

Thank you for supporting Carey International Pastoral Training (CIPT) as we seek to train spiritual leaders for the global church.

I, Christina Arnold, was born a Trekkie. Sorry StarWars fans, but Cpt. Jean-Luc Picard was a constant staple in our household. Almost every weeknight my siblings and I would gather around our small living room TV to watch Picard and his crew conquer 'Space: The Final Frontier [...] to seek out new life and civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.'

Although he doesn't know it, Dr. Tim Beavis, CIPT's VP of International Operations, is our very own Capt. Picard. Dr. Tim is a very busy man whose whose mission is to support the pastors and church networks whom we serve, and to seek out new fields and networks, boldly going around the globe wherever the Lord leads him. Facing formidable foes such as COVID, Global Policy and Politics, he continues to lead a small but mighty crew to those in spiritual need.

While we’re not out of the COVID-woods yet there are some signs of life with the gradual reopening of travel to some of Carey’s global fields.

I sat down recently with Dr. Tim to talk about what’s on the horizon and his own upcoming travel plans.

This past year has certainly been a challenging time in many of our global fields, but even when we have not been able to conduct our normal training schedule we’ve still been connecting with many of our key leaders around the world to encourage and pray with them during this time. We’ve also been able to utilize tools like Zoom to conduct training in some of our regions. In fact, over the next 6-weeks or so, we have 5 different training courses taking place electronically across 4 of our global regions. We also have a number of other Zoom courses scheduled throughout the remainder of 2021, and we’re exploring how we might continue to use this tool to supplement our in-person training even after international travel resumes.

You mentioned in-person training, do you have any upcoming plans to travel to our training centers?

Many of our ministry fields are still in various states of lockdown. The Philippines for example, has just entered another round of stringent restrictions due to a spike in the number of COVID cases. As a result, while we are continuing to monitor the situation closely, we are anticipating that most of our training centers will not return to a regular in-person schedule until early 2022. Nevertheless, there are several regions that are now open to us, albeit with some precautionary measures in place. Right now, I am scheduled to travel to Turkey and Egypt in May and to Uganda in late June. I am thankful to have been able to receive my second dose of the COVID vaccine just last week and while I’ll still need to undergo testing and wear a mask in each port of call, we’re excited to be able to gradually resume in-person training. At this point the plan is that I’ll explore how to navigate the new challenges of travelling and training in this current environment before we ask any of our other lecturers to go.

You mentioned that you’ll be travelling to several fields that are new to Carey, we’ll look forward to hearing more about those after you get back but tell us about your upcoming trip to Egypt.

Carey has been operating in Egypt for several years now, but it has been one of our more challenging ministry fields. One of the training locations that we used was burned down (nobody was there at the time and nobody was injured), but as a result we had to relocate to a different area. We’ve also sadly had to cut ties with one of our previous networks because as a ministry we are committed to maintaining a high standard of integrity amongst our network partners. As a result of this our last in-person training in Egypt took place in May 2019. Since that time, we’ve been asking the Lord to raise up a new area network leader and to allow us to return to the work there. We believe that the Lord has answered our prayer in leading us to Pastor Philemon.

Our introduction to Pastor Philemon came through the recommendation of several well-respected leaders in Egypt who were known to Roula Karkafi our Middle East and North Africa coordinator. Pastor Philemon not only serves as a local church pastor, but he has also served as the Secretary and later the Vice President of the Egyptian Baptist Convention, an association of churches with congregations throughout the whole country. He is also well connected with a number of other regional church networks. After serving for 3 years as Vice President of the convention he asked for permission to focus his energy on finding a way to better equip the pastors and leaders in the larger evangelical church in Egypt in the areas of Biblical studies, theology and practical ministry. While at Carey we are thankful for what we believe is an answer to prayer in the Lord’s leading us to Pastor Philemon and the Baptist network, he shared with me that he believes that we are the answer to his prayer for the training of pastors there.

Tell us more about where the training center will be and how many pastors you expect it to serve.

Pastor Philemon is based in Beni Suef, Egypt which is about 3 hours south of Cairo. The church that he leads will serve as the base for our training center and the pastors and leaders who come for training will also stay on site. Initially we plan to launch the training center in May with around 30 pastors and leaders present. As of a few days ago, I believe we already have 28 registered. To begin with our focus will be on those who are within a couple of hours of Beni Suef. Some of these pastors are from the Baptist network while others are from different groups who are also hungry to learn and grow. We’ll be kicking off the center with 2 courses, Systematic Theology 1 and Spiritual Life and Ministry.

You mentioned that a previous training center in Egypt was burned down, and of course right now COVID is on everyone’s mind, so is Beni Suef safe?

Safety is always a priority for our team. While nowhere is ever 100% safe, we are always prayerfully evaluating the wisdom and the risks in all of our global fields. We’re also careful to listen to the local church leadership in any given region since they often have the best perspective on the climate of safety at any different time. While Egypt is a majority Islamic country and general safety precautions always need to be taken, Beni Suef itself is quite stable and Pastor Philemon is known and respected in the larger community. On the COVID front, Egypt has been working hard to stay open as it depends heavily on tourism. Therefore, they have been quite active in practicing mask wearing and advocating for a level of social distancing. We’ll make the final decision as to whether to take the trip shortly before my scheduled departure, but at this time we believe that we can maintain healthy distance and safely meet in accordance with local guidelines.

How can we pray for you as well as for the pastors who will be gathering?

Probably at the front of everyone’s mind right now are the issues of health and safety. Pray that both my translator and I, along with the pastors we connect with in Turkey and in Egypt will be remain healthy and safe. I’ll also be required to get 3 COVID tests at different points in my trip so pray that I would have wisdom to navigate the logistics of this (each one has to be done within a certain number of hours of arriving in different locations) and that the Lord would protect me from any “false positives” that might complicate my journey.

On a personal note, I’d also appreciate prayer for my wife (Lisa) and our children (they’ll all be staying home) as we all get back into the rhythm of my travel schedule. After a year at home, I’m sure that the adjustments will take a bit of getting used to again.

Finally, pray for pastor Philemon and the pastors in Egypt that their hearts will be soft and that the Lord will use me to encourage, equip and sharpen them. Our desire is to see this new training location be a place from which the church all throughout the land of Egypt is strengthened and equipped, for the glory of God.