eChurch Blog

I’ve never blogged about this here before, although, I have mentioned it on other blogs. I think I’ve avoided this as it represents a truly terrifying episode in my life; but what with the recent troubles in Egypt, it’s been playing on my mind.

Some years ago I was on the Sinai Peninsular with my family and I befriended a young Christian Copt chap (can’t remember his name) who worked in one of the shops attached to the hotel. On reflection, I should have taken more notice of the fact that when I went to the shop and we talked of matters of faith, he would put up the ‘closed’ sign and pull down the blinds.

One day, as we had became good friends, we arranged to meet that evening in a bar, after his shift in the shop. It was on the same afternoon that I happened to wander in to the shop next door. To my surprise the shop worker started talking of his Muslim faith; to which I listened patiently, and then I started talking of my own faith. It was whilst I was talking of Jesus that he became somewhat animated; I say animated, absolutely spitting furious might be a better description. He was particularly angry with what he termed as Christian aggression against Muslims and their support of Israel.

I quickly made my excuses and left.

Later in the evening I went to the bar to await my Copt friend who never showed. Instead – and rather chillingly – I saw the Muslim shop worker enter the bar with a small group, and he simply stood at the front door and pointed towards me before they took their seats. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up and I instinctively knew something was very wrong.

I quickly left the bar and hurried off back to my hotel room.

Shortly after arriving in my room I noticed noises outside my hotel room door; it didn’t take long to work out that somebody was attempting to gain entrance. I stood behind the door in my pants, holding a bedside lamp as my only weapon and ready to fight for my life. The whispered Arabic voices behind the door became ever more agitated as the card swipe they were using kept failing and they repeatedly shook the door.

Eventually, the sounds died down as to my relief they left.

I hadn’t locked my hotel door from the inside that night. They should have been able to simply turn the handle and walk in; but by the grace of God the door was indeed bolted on the inside.

I spent the next couple of days feeling extremely vulnerable as there’s no dialling 999 to get help. In fact, there’s nobody to turn to.

It transpired that my Copt friend had been advised by the Muslim shop guy next door, to get on the bus and go home rather than meet me in the bar. The guy in the shop next door had obviously been listening in on our conversations.

A while after I left Egypt, Islamic extremists blew the hotel next door to smithereens.

It goes without saying that I am somewhat more cautious in speaking of my faith in Islamic lands.

Imagine what it’s like for our Egyptian Christian Copt brothers and sisters to be constantly living under this sort of intimidation and fear. There’s no flying off to their safe and secure county at the end of the week.

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Tags: Christian Life

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 13th, 2011 at 7:35 pm and is filed under Webmaster's Ramblings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.