Egypt

About 15 years afterward several Armenian SDA families from Turkey settled in Cairo and Alexandria and spread the SDA doctrines there. About the same time, J. Leuzinger, from Italy, went to Port Said to do ship missionary work.

In 1899 Louis F. Passebois, and his wife and Ida Schlegel, trained nurses, were sent from Europe. They opened a health home and restaurant in Cairo. Their work resulted in several converts, and in 1901 L. R. Conradi of the European Division organized the first Seventh-day Adventist church in Egypt.

In 1902 the Oriental Union Mission, with headquarters in Cairo, was formed and placed under the direction of W. H. Wakeham, a Canadian-born missionary from the United States.

Sometime before 1906 the publishing work was begun with the printing of a small book in Arabic on the prophecies of Daniel.

Between 1906 and 1908 the first national SDA minister in Egypt, Awaida Abd es-Shahid, was ordained. But apostasy among the Armenian members developed about that time and depleted the membership so that it was necessary to build up the work again.

The work in Egypt was put under the Egyptian-Syrian Mission of the newly formed Levant Union Mission. George Keough, of Ireland, came in 1908 to take charge of the work, and set out to master the Arabic language.

Progress was slow. In 1912 there were only 18 members, with two ordained ministers, one Bible instructor, four colporteurs (at Cairo), and two nurses. But in the same year a group of upper Egyptian Christians, led by former Presbyterian Yacoub Beshai Yacoub, from the village of Beni Adi, near Assiut, learned about Keough, a White man who kept the Sabbath.

They had been keeping the seventh-day Sabbath for about six years. When they invited him to visit, Keough found a ready-made community of Sabbath observers. He soon baptized 24 people, of whom 17 were men, and, in 1913, organized them into the first indigenous Seventh-day Adventist church in the country.

Shortly before World War I the country was divided into two missions: Lower Egypt, with headquarters in Cairo, led by W. K. Ising; and Upper Egypt, with headquarters in Beni Adi, with George Keough in charge.

There were about 40 SDAs in Egypt, coming from the Greek, Armenian, and Coptic communities. During the war Ising, a German national, was interned, but Keough continued the work, organizing churches in Tataliah and Deirut. When the Levant Union was dissolved in 1923, and the Egypto-Syrian Mission of the European Division was organized, with Keough in charge, there were 70 members in Egypt.

In 1923 plans were laid for the development of work among the Arabs and for opening a publishing work at Matariah, near Cairo. C. H. Rieckman was called to head the bookwork. An edition of 7,500 copies of The Sure Word of Prophecy was printed in Arabic, as well as smaller books.

Five colporteurs worked in the field. The main SDA work was carried on at that time in Cairo, Beni Adi, Tataliah, and Deirut. There were members also in Masra, Sohag, and Luxor.

In 1927 the Arabic Union Training School was opened in Matariah, with V. E. Toppenberg as director and Ibrahim Khalil as a teacher, but continued only a few years. (See Nile Union Academy.)

Egypt was included in the territory of the Arabic Union Mission, which was organized in November 1927 as part of the European Division (from 1928, of the Central European Division). In the 1930s work was resumed in Alexandria by M. C. Grin. Twelve persons were baptized.

When the events leading up to World War II separated the work in Egypt from the Central European Division headquarters, American missionaries were sent in by the General Conference, and E. L. Branson became director of the Egyptian Mission. The northern Sudan was included in the Egyptian Mission, an arrangement that continued until 1950.

At the time of the organization of the Middle East Division in 1950, the Egypt Mission became part of the Nile Union Mission (to which was assigned the territory of Egypt, Libya, northern Sudan, that part of Arabia bordering on the Red Sea, and Aden). In 1955 the Egypt Mission was divided: the Lower (Northern) Egypt Mission came under the direction of Hilal Dose and the Upper Egypt Mission was directed by C. V. Brauer.

The area was further divided in January 1957, when Hilal Dose was placed in charge of the Central Egypt Section, Hilmy Berbawy as president of the Upper Egypt Section, and W. R. Lesher in charge of the Delta Section. These divisions proved unwieldy, and by December 1958 the work was reunited in one Egypt Section. This was administered by the officers of the Nile Union.

At the Nile Union biennial council of 1960 it was decided to Egyptianize the church organization. A new constitution was adopted that provided for a national church, called the Coptic Adventist Denomination in Egypt. Hilal Dose became the first national president.

In 1962 the Nile Union was discontinued, leaving the Middle East Division to deal directly with the Egyptian church.

In the reorganization of 1970 the administration of Egypt was placed under the Egypt Field, a part of the Middle East Union, which was, in turn, part of the Afro-Mideast Division.

In 1941 there were two schools, one at Beni Adi and another at Tataliah. In a decade and a half the educational work grew to 12 schools. In 1946 the Egypt Training School (later the Nile Union Academy, now called in English the Adventist Theological Institute of Egypt and the Nile Union Academy, and in Arabic a name translated literally the “Coptic

Adventist Theological Seminary”) was established at Fayoum (Seila) and in 1954 moved to Gabal el-Asfar. When in the mid-1950s government curriculum requirements caused the church to close most of its schools, this school, along with the Heliopolis Adventist School, remained open. The Heliopolis elementary school was moved to property at nearby Zeitoun. In 1993 only the Nile Union Academy was still in operation.

Welfare work of various types has been developed in recent years. In 1947 an orphanage, named the Matariah Mercy Home, was established in Matariah, with Erna Kruger as matron.

During 1963 the orphanage was rebuilt and its capacity doubled. Welfare centers have been established by the major churches. Special government awards were given in 1963 to the Seventh-day Adventist Welfare Societies in Fayoum and Assiut for outstanding service.

A limited medical work has been done in recent years. During the 1940s Erna Kruger did some medical missionary work in Cairo; Dr. Maher Bishai operated a small clinic in Heliopolis in 1953; and a small clinic was operated at Maghagha for a few months in 1956 by Dr. Youssiff Bishai.

About the end of 1959 an evangelistic center was opened in Cairo. Beginning in 1971 steps were taken to establish a health food factory in Cairo. Land was purchased and construction began in 1974. The Adventist Health Education Foundation (Egypt Food Factory) was operating in 1993.

Work in Egypt has been carried on through the conducting of junior camps, Vacation Bible Schools, evangelistic meetings, and temperance programs.