Egypt (MNN) — Terrorism may increase in Egypt. That’s the message we’re receiving from Christians who are working in that North African country. Last week’s bombing in Cairo that left one American dead and three injured may be one indicator of that happening already.
IN Network Rody Rodeheaver says while all terrorism concerns him, this one is especially troubling. “This has been (a) relatively quiet country from the standpoint of overt terrorism. There is a lot of change going on — wanting to have open elections and those types of things will stir up the radical Islamic movement.”
Rodeheaver says this possibility is a concern to IN Network because Egypt is key for their work in the Middle East. “Our focus in Egypt has been to train lay pastors and provide materials for house churches and we send out 8,000 Bible correspondence courses every month throughout the whole region, not just in Egypt, but in Jordan, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, so it’s quite widespread.”
While democracy could stir up violence, Rodeheaver is hopeful. “I would hope that democracy does provide more freedom for our workers to share the Gospel, to be more overt with their faith, to relax some of the encounters that we’ve had with the secret police and things like that, who monitor what we do.”
Prayer and financial support is vital to seeing the work succeed. He says, “We have to be aware that this is a spiritual battle and that this is not democracy against theocracy, but this is in fact a battle against spiritual darkness. And, we need to pray that God would intervene.”
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