Happy Blessed Feet of the Gospel

ABOUT OUR GUEST PREACHER: THARWAT WHABA

Have you ever met someone for the first time and instantly you’re drawn to the person, feeling as if he has been your friend for years? That is the way you feel when you meet Dr. Tharwat Wahba.  

Dr. Tharwat, as he’s commonly known, is head of the Mission Department at the Evangelical Theological Seminary of Cairo (ETSC) and serves as Chair of the Pastoral and Outreach Ministries Council of the Evangelical (Presbyterian) Church of Egypt. He has a deep love and passion for evangelism, the church, and Jesus Christ. His warm and inviting personality makes everyone feel special. And, he is the epitome of the reason for The Outreach Foundation’s existence and mission.

One of Outreach’s primary purposes is to help build the capacity of the global church. In collaboration with our overseas partners, we accomplish this in part by training and equipping leaders.  

Dr. Tharwat was a graduate student at ETSC when the Outreach staff first met him in 2002. We were impressed with his understanding of and vision for the church in Egypt. As a result, and through support from several US congregations, Outreach provided for Dr. Tharwat’s PhD studies in England, with the plan of Dr. Tharwat returning to Cairo and the seminary. He completed his studies, returned to ETSC, and began teaching there. His view of the church and God’s power to accomplish anything led to his growing vision of a church that was reaching out. In a country where Christians are 10% of the population, Tharwat saw the church as something more than a beleaguered minority, moving from a “survival” mentality to a “missionary” mentality.

Later appointed as head of the church’s Pastoral and Outreach Ministries Council, Dr. Tharwat led the Synod in an unprecedented focus of new church development and church revitalization. New churches were started while rural churches were revitalized with the appointment of recent seminary graduates to those locations.  

But he did not stop at his own borders. Dr. Tharwat, confident in the Lord’s call to the church in Egypt, began casting yet another vision: mobilizing the Presbyterian Church of Egypt for mission and evangelism internationally. Since then and through its own resources, the Synod of the Nile has worked to strengthen the church in Iraq, Gaza and South Sudan.  

The Outreach Foundation is honored to be in partnership with the Egypt church and Dr. Tharwat. We are most thankful to God for equipping leaders like Tharwat, and in turn using them to develop new emerging leaders to strengthen his global church.

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Find our weekly worship guide here.

Isaiah 52:7–10

How beautiful on the mountains
    are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace,
    who bring good tidings,
    who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion,
    “Your God reigns!”
8 Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices;
    together they shout for joy.
When the Lord returns to Zion,
    they will see it with their own eyes.
9 Burst into songs of joy together,
    you ruins of Jerusalem,
for the Lord has comforted his people,
    he has redeemed Jerusalem.
10 The Lord will lay bare his holy arm
    in the sight of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth will see
    the salvation of our God.

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