10/12/2021 Washington D.C. (International Christian Concern) – “Before, I couldn’t visit people (in the village),” says the pastor of the church in Village K in Egypt. “They wouldn’t welcome me because they didn’t know us. Now I am visiting houses I never thought I’d be able to go to.”  ICC’s partnership with the local church to implement Hope House provided avenues for outreach to the community as the center sought to build up the education of historically persecuted Christians. As a result, the church has grown nearly ten times its original size since the inception of this particular Hope House.

In January 2020, the pastor shared with ICC’s field team his hopes and dreams for what Hope House could do in his village. This past summer, all of those dreams were realized. Just months before COVID-19 shut down the country, the pastor shared his dream of providing a summer school for the children, discipleship groups, summer trips, and a celebration to honor students who scored highly on their exams.

Public government schools have been closed in Egypt since the end of April and were not set to reopen until October, leaving children without schooling for five full months. Hope House filled this educational gap with a long-term summer school. During the summer, Hope House staff also took children on a field trip to a pool outside their village, a welcome treat for all of the children who have faced a difficult year and rarely get to leave their surrounding area. During the trip, children received a small gift for their completion of the discipleship program that year. One child in the sponsorship program, Tawadrous, said, “The best thing I liked about the trip was the swimming pool, the color game, and everything about the trip. The present is beautiful and I like it.”