Egypt (MNN) — Seven church planters with Uncharted Ministries have been in prison for months. No formal criminal charges have been issued, but Erik Ouimette with Uncharted Ministries says the men are imprisoned because they shared the gospel with Muslims.
Egypt’s government generally does not recognize conversions from Islam to another religion. If you are born a Muslim, to the state you will always be a Muslim. The constitution grants the right to freedom of belief and the right for followers of Islam, Christianity and Judaism to practice their faith. However, opposition from family and communities toward Christians is marked and sometimes violent. (More on Egypt here.)
“My team is constantly helping me say, ‘The goal of this is not to have these guys free. The goal of this is for these fellows to be faithful where they are, and if that means to be faithful in prison, then that’s where they’re called to be faithful,’” Ouimette says.
“I am constantly checking myself and having to back away a bit from my Western sense of justice, and instead realizing that all throughout Scripture, the Lord has placed people in prison. Paul was in prison when he wrote parts of the New Testament. I can imagine, as we all can, that in an Egyptian prison the gospel is very, very needed.”
Some of the men in now in prison accepted Christ in refugee camps in Egypt. (Representative stock photo courtesy of Donald Tong/Pexels)
A beautiful part of this story is that some of these men aren’t even Egyptian. They accepted Christ in refugee camps in Egypt.
“I can only imagine how the Lord as He [was] putting all this into action [was] thinking, ‘Oh, I’m gonna do something really neat here by taking a refugee, showing him the truth in Egypt, and then allowing him to be a spreader of the gospel,” Ouimette says, “Whether it’s in prison or whether it’s free, that’s what these fellows are doing.”
It’s impossible to tell how long these seven men might be in prison. But in the meantime, believers in Egypt are stepping forward to help their wives and children left behind. If God leads you, would you give toward their families’ support?
And, of course, pray for them.
“One of the ways that we can pray for someone on the other side of the earth that we’ve never met is to be specific. These seven families will have dinner tonight, and their husband [or] father won’t be with them,” Ouimette says, inviting us to imagine what our own families would be like if someone was missing tonight.
“Pray for these wives who are having to step up and do extra work and extra attention to the family, but they’re doing it alone. Pray for these kids.”
A gift to Uncharted Ministries designated “Egypt” will help support the families. Connect with the team at unchartedministries.com.
Header photo of Kairo Wan, Ash Shamashargi, Egypt is a representative stock photo courtesy of Sophia Valkova via Unsplash.
