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Youth ministry study helps Egypt outreach

For Christians, Egypt is a difficult place to work. It's predominately Muslim. Radical elements exist there. Muslims who convert to Christian could be killed. Despite the difficulties, evangelism is moving forward, reports MNN.

Book of Hope International's Jeremy Vero-Haub was recently in Egypt to participate in a strategic planning session to help them understand the youth culture. "Egypt is one of the places in the world where technology is really changing a whole generation of people. Egyptian kids are involved in Facebook, texting and sending emails, and what they've done is to build this incredible community among themselves. It creates sort of a different way of thinking about the world that has really changed the way that young Egyptians feel."

Book of Hope's goal is to make sure every kid in the world hears the Gospel. They do that through the Book of Hope distribution -- a harmony of the Gospels, the Godman -- the 3D animated film on the life of Christ, and other outreach projects.

Vero-Haub says other things were uncovered in their research. "Egyptian kids, like most kids around the world, really prefer not to read. They prefer to use Facebook, send text messages, watch movies, and make movies."

He believes technology has the world in a unique place. "I think culturally we're all at a crossroads. This is a time and place where the opportunity to reach out with the Gospel is greater than ever before. On the other hand, we're not the only people in the world that are taking advantage of that, and so the signal-to-noise ratio is pretty bad. There's a lot of noise, and it's really hard to break through."

Vero-Haub believes the new technology will actually cause them to go full-circle. "I think probably we're going to have to find new ways to use this new technology, to sort of get back to the old ways -- of having sort of a soul -to-soul touch that someone generally has with someone when they're sharing the Gospel with them."

[05/26/2008]

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