Last night we received the following message from some good friends of ours who are in Maadi in Cairo, Egypt – and it is a wonderful testimony to how God is working in that troubled place – and so with their persmission I am sharing it with you.

Dear Family and Friends,

We literally feel upheld on a cloud of prayer, thank you so much for praying for us over this last crazy week, we tangibly know the strength of the Lord that is coming through your prayers.

We  are fine. We are safe, we are secure, we have enough food and we have complete peace about being here, we haven’t even experienced a flutter of fear. God is doing very beautiful things all around us and we feel privileged to be part of this momentous time in this land that we love so much.

I’ll start with the hard things: Although we feel no fear the emotional tension is enormous. All around us people are panicking, terrified, weeping and leaving; so many expats have their parents, companies, embassies or churches ordering them out of here. We have had to say so many goodbyes or just discovered that people have left without saying goodbye at all.

Rumours start from nowhere and leave a maelstrom of virtual destruction; we have been angered by the sensationalist attitudes of the press. Everyone proclaims himself an expert, but actually no one really knows any more than the next man and the next man is constantly telling the next man what the man before him said so words just go round and round and everyone is glued to the tv and feeling rather surreal. The conspiracy theories are outrageous.

We are tired; really, really tired. I am up every night till three or four am guarding our street with the other residents. All normal family life has been suspended. It’s interesting, everyone has an emotional tipping point and they reach that tipping point at various times each day. My wife’s has been as varied as caps lock getting stuck on the computer to being put on hold by the American Embassy when one of her young female staff members had been arrested and we didn’t know what the police were doing to her (as it happened nothing at all, but as I say, rumours are terrible!).

What is happening in Tahrir Square and in Alexandria is not representative of what is happening across the rest of the county. There are so many theories about these centres of protest, the media likes to concentrate on the violence and the opinions of other world leaders and almost like a hunting pack is out for bloody news. But actually there is a literal miracle of solidarity and unity and brotherliness taking place. Of course it’s tense and the mood of a massive crowd can turn ugly at the flick of a switch but the Egyptians are waking up to possibilities undreamed of thus far.

Egyptians themselves are either growing in courage and amazement at what is happening or they are living in ever increasing fear. We encourage the first and comfort the second as best we can but those in the fear filled camp are really suffering.

So here are the amazing things: Across the whole of Cairo the men have come out of the buildings to protect the houses and families, for the first few nights this protection was needed: gunfire was all around, thousands of criminals were released from jails with weapons, some rogue police and state security personnel came to cause trouble and there was looting and violence from gangs.

But in reality this was all dealt with very quickly and now the men go out in theory to protect the houses but also because there is a momentum of community building. I have spoken to my friends all over the city, some in upper class neighbourhoods like Maadi and Heliopolis, others living in poorer communities like Shubra and Helwan and others in really poor communities like Arba wa nus, and Basatiin. Everyone says the same thing: the people are together, they are united. Old, young, rich, poor, building owners and doormen, diplomats and street sweepers, Muslim, Christian all together sitting round fires chatting, they have differing opinions and yet they are united.

Sudanese refugees and Egyptians are united together, There is much racism in Egypt towards the Sudanese people but all this has ended over the last week! Women are walking freely in the streets unharrassed. It is so safe.  Our driveway has become a hub for this community unity.  Mark and our neighbour, Toby have talked about God, played their guitars and sung songs of worship to our Muslim neighbours. I sat up all night last night with a world weary, well off, grumpy, gruff businessman who wept as we talked about God and talked about the spiritual awakening over Egypt, he said “I am coming alive, I am waking up”.

Our church has had to obey curfew regulations and most of the congregation have flown away, but each day we gather for prayer and worship. Our little school, of which my wife has suddenly become the interim Principal, is the only one open in Cairo as far as we know. Most of the families have flown away too but every day we meet with the whole school community including parents at the beginning of the day. The parents form a prayer circle around the children and we worship and pray watched by the residents in the nearby buildings. She has been utterly overwhelmed by the new responsibilities but every single day God shows her what to say and what to do, and whether it’s giving out dinosaur stickers and roaring praise to Jesus, or having everyone play cricket it all seems to be working.

“The Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians and in that day they will acknowledge the Lord”. It says so in Scripture and this is happening now; please read Isaiah 19 concentrating on the final third of the chapter. The Middle East is not something to be feared, it’s something to be loved and prayed for. One day blessing for the whole world is going to come from here. Right now we are having our socks blessed off just by being here.

We don’t know what the future will hold exactly: many predict persecution of Christians still to come and things will be difficult and unsettled in every way for sure. We are in the eye of the storm this week, but the storm will pass and then there will be peace and devastation for a while and only God knows exactly what else, but I know for certain that God loves this land and its people and is showing his hand in astonishing ways.  I know that there will be an altar to the Lord in the heart of Egypt and that His blessing is here.

So pray, please pray for this wonderful land of desert and promise, of history and future. A land that was a sanctuary to the Son of God, a land blessed by the Lord, a land that along with Israel and Assyria will be a blessing to all the earth.

With much love,

Dear friends, please continue to hold up Egypt in your prayers – for all the peoples and races and religions in that sprawling country, and ask our awesome God to reveal his ways and direction for this mighty land.