Egypt (MNN) — Muslims and Christians in Egypt are not expected to interact and often are not allowed to. Cultural and religious divides are easy to see, even in simple introductions.

While Christianity is legal in Egypt, converting from Islam is not, and conversion to Islam is encouraged. Though Christians make up about ten percent of the population, because of corruption, they can face obstacles getting permission to operate.  

Erik Ouimette with Uncharted Ministries says that when meeting someone in Egypt, their name is often the first giveaway to their religion. Many Muslim boys receive names like Jihad, Mustafa, Islam, and Osama, while Christian boys have names like Joseph, Samuel, or Mena.

“Inspiring the Body of Christ to rise up and join the new great awakening among Jews and Muslims in the Middle East and in uncharted territories around the world.” Caption and photo courtesy Uncharted Ministries.

Some of these converts choose to change their names to biblical ones like Paul or Sarah, but many choose to keep their Muslim names.

Ouimette says, “It is a shocking thing at first, but then an increasingly encouraging thing to meet a Muslim-background-believer, strong believer, with a great faith who can recite scripture and dwells on the Word of God like it’s the word of life, and have that person stick out their hand and say, ‘Nice to meet you. So encouraging to meet you. My name is Jihad (which means holy struggle or holy war in Arabic), or my name is Osama, and I love Jesus, or my name is Islam, but I’m not Islamic.’”

Christian Egyptians also face difficult decisions regarding school for children. The free Egyptian public schools are muslim-believing and teaching, and many Christian parents do not want their children to be instructed in the way of Islam. 

Some choose to keep their children at home and have them farm instead. As a result, there are more illiterate Christians, especially in rural areas. Uncharted Ministries provides tools like audio Bibles to meet these needs. 

Ouimette says, “The vast majority of the work that the uncharted team is doing is in the realm of helping share the good news about Jesus Christ to Muslims so that they might then come to a right understanding of who Jesus was, who Jesus is, and how they are then to live. We see this happening hundreds of times a year, thousands of times a year, where Muslims say, I’m no longer a Muslim. ” I’m now a follower of Jesus.” 

Please pray for the on-the-ground gospel work happening in Egypt, and that many will come to know Jesus Christ and experience a saving relationship with Him.

Pray that families will prayerfully seek wisdom in how they school their children. 

Pray that the Uncharted team will receive favor with security and that gatherings of Christians and Muslims will be passed over. 

Header Image by  abdelazizmagdy40 from Pixabay.