In a devout region where most all aspects of life are segregated by religion, Middle Eastern children play a unique part. Running in the streets or playing together on the soccer field, little children are often the only integrated group in their country. Though an Egyptian Muslim adult would probably never socialize with a Christian adult, Muslim and Christian children will. It is thus a special and strategic calling to reach out to Middle Eastern children with God’s love and educate them on how to love others the same.

Description

The church in the Middle East stands on the front lines of the cultural and spiritual conflict with Islam. Most Western Christians are unaware of any Christian presence in Syria, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon and Jordan. Often they are shocked to find that the presence is significant and in Egypt, even formidable. Often ignored by the West, the church in the Middle East, remains faithful. In 2003, EGM developed our first Middle East ministry in Egypt. Since that time we have been contacted by church leaders in Sudan, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon regarding the possibility of starting an EGM ministry in their country. We are eager to respond to the call of the church for training and development for their children’s workers. Our desire is to support that with cultural and economically relevant Bible teaching materials in Arabic. The New Ministries – Middle East will allow us to conduct research in one of those countries for the purpose of determining the feasibility of launching new ministry. This will be the next step in extending the EGM work into each country in the Arab world.

Goals

The New Ministries – Middle East project will allow EGM to:

1. Conduct research and develop an EGM profile of a targeted country including population statistics, church growth, key church data, key leaders, significant spiritual centers, population and church demographics, children’s ministry materials evaluation, children’s ministry needs assessment.
2. Organize two children’s workers to develop a network of contacts and expose children’s workers in local churches to the EGM philosophy of ministry.
3. Organize eight meetings with church leaders (pastors, Sunday School teachers, denominational leaders, children’s workers, etc..) to assess the needs of their churches in terms of children’s ministry.
4. Establish a database of contacts including pastors, teachers, other children’s workers, potential Board members and potential staff members.
5. Prepare recommendation for the EGM Board of Directors with a specific plan for establishing another EGM ministry in the Middle East.

Select a country from the Middle East below to learn about our ministry there