The Skinny on Egypt’s Prayer Gathering

“I saw signs of the beginning of revival that I have never seen before!” an Egyptian evangelical leader told us yesterday.

On 11.11.11, Egypt had a historic prayer meeting that we attended. It was amazing and we were so privileged to be there. Egyptian leaders are telling us there has been a significant spiritual “shift” in their country and we are trying to make sense of it all.

Egypt prayer 11 11 11

Here’s the skinny:

– 71,000 attended the all-night prayer meeting in Cario.

– It was the largest Christian event in Egypt for over a thousand years

– It was held at the cave church on Cairo’s largest garbage city, Mokattam. This church is called St Simeon the Tanner Coptic Orthodox Church.

– The gospel was proclaimed during the Prayer event and some people responded to the challenge call to follow Jesus.

– Prayers for healing were made at midnight and some people were healed of physical problems.

– Since the event, one Egyptian Christian leader told us “The heavens are clean! It is easy to pray!” He calls it the beginning of revival.

– Up to a month ago, there was absolutely no promotion for this event. No flyers. In fact, the organizer was still undecided on whether to host it on Friday or Saturday.

– It was an Egyptian event. Buses took people to this event from all over Egypt. Our small group of foreigners were the only foreigners were saw, except for one Welsh girl who recognized me. [That was strange]

– In September 2009, a prayer meeting was held in Egypt where the leaders, including the main organizer of this event, heard God say that President Mubarak would receive “no grace” in 2011. They also heard God tell them that there would be bloodshed, persecution and the burning of churches. But if God’s people would come, and hear His voice, and repent, then He would hear their prayers.

– The passage on repentance that was referenced in the 2009 prayer meeting was the Bible passage read at the beginning of the prayer service. “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.2 Chronicles 7:14

– On 9th October, 2011, when many Coptic Christians were killed in Cairo, Christian leaders met for 3 days of prayer. During this time, they announced their intention of a prayer event for Egypt, which culminated in this event.

– Muslims joined Christians for prayer at this event and they were told by the Priest that they did not have to change their religion but they needed to know that there is one Saviour, Isa [Jesus Christ].

– Since the prayer meeting a few days ago, Cairo has experienced highly unusual rain, clouds, lightning and thunder during a month which normally gets only .15 cms of rain.

– In a decision by Pope Shenouda III the day before the meeting, evangelical leaders were banned from the stage. Dr Rev Sameh Maurice, Pastor of Cairo’s largest evangelical church called Kasr El Dobara, was scheduled to lead prayer on the main stage but instead stood and prayed among the participators without complaining. This was the church that sold us the tickets to attend the prayer meeting.

– Last Wednesday, Father Simon, who started the cave church [The Monastery of St Simeon the Tanner], had a vision of a bright light and a mountain that was lifted up and removed. He was told to prophesy and heard God say that “you will hear wonderful news this year!”

These are the facts I heard. Please comment below if you would like to add further clarity to these facts or want to add more information about the event last Friday and its impact. I took some video but don’t have a usb cable right now to download it. Shortly . . . enshallah.

Andrew

Andrew Jones launched his first internet space in 1997 and has been teaching on related issues for the past 20 years. He travels all the time but lives between Wellington, San Francisco and a hobbit home in Prague.

23 Comments

  • sasa says:

    Whoa, totally amazing! Just one qustion: It was the evangelical church that sold you tickets to prayer meeting? That would sound quite evangelical… 🙂

  • Joanna says:

    That was very encouraging, thanks for sharing it

  • Jason says:

    Very awesome. So cool to hear the word revival being mentioned in the Middle East.

  • Andrew says:

    Hi Sasa.
    actually, the selling of tickets sounds more pentecostal to me. :-]
    the meeting was going to be in the desert but not on Orthodox ground. so it came to the Orthodox church in Cairo where it happened. The evangelical church was a part of the meeting and the pastor was scheduled to lead prayer from the platform but was prevented, along with any other evangelical pastor, by the decision the day before.
    but he came anyway for the sake of unity.
    despite the bad decision from the top. it was a great meeting and the only time egyptians, or at least the egytians in the room with me right now in Cairo, have ever seen evangelicals. orthodox and catholic leaders in the same room.

  • Krystal says:

    Wow, wonderful. That is the first time I have heard the phrase the heavens are cleaned. I like that. The power of prayer. I can’t wait to hear what happens next.

  • I first heard about the cave church from Doug Carter,(Maxwells EQUIP team leader) this weekend. Told he went among the poor at the garbage dump and ministered. Prayed for a place to gather and discovered a cave near the dump. Then discovered a larger cave and that was filled with people…and now some resources to help the growing church. Is this the “cave church” you are talking about?

  • actually…it wasn’t Doug that went to the dump, it was a man he referred to as a “pastor” answering a call to go to the outcasts. This sounds like a different guy than “Father Simon.”

  • This is great news. I have been waiting to hear something like this since I lived there 15years ago and witnessed the growing confidence of the local church there. I am so encouraged.

  • Andrew says:

    Sounds exactly like Father Simon. take a look. http://cavechurch.com/

  • Hlh says:

    David Platt’s secret church 2 weeks called the thousands viewing to spend time in prayer specifically for the country of Egypt. The Lord heard the cries all over the earth. Praise Him for revival and for reaponding to all yhe prayers lifted up on Egypts behalf

  • Freddy says:

    I am Egyptian, and I was involved at the event. There was no tickets for the event. it was free. There was a fee for transportation though. The Evangelical church has a teams of ushers, so they shared by organizing the transportation and ushering the event. Everybody from the Evangelical church, and other ministry entities interested to share for the sake of unity.

  • Julia says:

    2Cr7:14! Hallelujah, a new generation’s rising with tears and a cry to the Kingdom of God be stablished. I believe we’ll see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living! Revival!

  • Alicja says:

    Chwała Jezusowi Chrystusowi na wieki , On jest Królem królów Panem panów.

  • jorge says:

    We were praying for the gatherin. from Panama in Central America. God continue to bless El Cairo
    Jorge

  • Deborah Slater says:

    I was so glad to hear this event took place. Have had a concern for the persecution of the coptic Christians. Our intercessory prayer group will continue praying for Egypt.

  • brambonius says:

    Interesting to see the word revival used for non-evangelicals. Looks like something good going on over there!
    I usually follow the things going on in Egypt on the blog of Jos strengholt (a Dutch Anglican priest in Cairo) but he doesn’t report anything about this meeting. Maybe you’d find this article interesting, about a meeting with the coptic pope on which he was present last year: http://strengholt.blogspot.com/2010/08/ontmoeting-met-koptische-paus.html (in dutch, so run through google translate to read it in ‘funny english’)

  • richard smith says:

    Thanks for this news, which I saw on the 24-7 Prayer website. It will fuel our prayer here in at the Colchester Boiler Room Community, in Colchester, UK.

  • Andrew says:

    Freddy
    I am not Egyptian but I was there and we went to the Evangelical church to buy our tickets (about $1 each – not much] which were exchanged for our white wristbands at the event. This was a means of counting the people also.
    Maybe your group got in for free? or did you volunteeer?

  • ╲╱╲╱◯╲╱╲╱ “GӨD ΉAƧ DΣSIЯΣD ƬӨ SAVΣ A GΣПΣЯAƬIӨП” ☄ ₀´—–┬├┤A╱╲╱K Y◯└┘ all for sharing—-we °◦°◦°CELEBRATE°◦°◦°this ∏∏o∏∏e∏┼ like ∏∉√∈☈ ʙ∊fore of awesome゜゚U・П・I・Ƭ・I・Ƭ・Y゜゚………. ・*.。:*˚..•✩..A 。₦ 。G 。モ 。 Ł 。s゚・*.。:*are watching over B♥E♥A♥U♥T♥I♥F♥U♥L Egypt

  • egyptions Christian – Coptic Orthodox before the muslims came to egypt and killed them or force them to become muslim and made them speack arabic

  • Slaven says:

    Blessings!! Can you pls give me the name of this beautiful worship song that is starting at 6:25…..thnx and God bless
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUSiBMxNh10

  • Kirby says:

    I’m curious whey they excluded Evangelical leaders?

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