Egypt is a land shrouded in mystery and history, referenced throughout the Bible, where Christianity once flourished, but which now stands as a completely Muslim country. The work of bringing the gospel of life to this territory is both exciting and profoundly challenging. Mark Nicholson recently returned from an audacious exploratory trip to Egypt, focusing on the unfolding truth of the gospel among God’s people in this unique cultural context. This mission was particularly significant because Egypt and Azerbaijan mark the first two majority Muslim countries in which PassionLife has ever worked.

The core mission of PassionLife is guided by data, leading the organization to find the world’s deepest, darkest strongholds of abortion. Once identified, the goal is to make an entrance into the church, enabling church leaders and the Bible to be the agents of sparking change in those nations. The abortion crisis is fundamentally a world missions challenge, considering the United States accounts for only 3% of the abortions that occur globally each year.

Mark’s recent travel schedule was unusually intense, encompassing major mission trips to India, China, Egypt, and Azerbaijan in just a few months. Upon returning home, he immediately transitioned back to farm life, handling the processing of two pigs, a cow, and approximately 80 turkeys for his small farm business just before Thanksgiving.

In Egypt, Mark was accompanied by his wife, a beneficial partnership as they are now empty nesters. This was especially crucial in a Muslim-majority country, where there tends to be a strong separation between men and women. Women seeking counsel on personal issues, which is often the realm of PassionLife’s subject matter, feel much more at ease with Mark’s wife than with him, making her a great help in making contacts.

Although located on the continent of Africa, landing in Egypt reveals a culture that feels squarely in the Middle East. The environment is characterized by dry air, bright sunshine, dust, and the hustle and bustle of a desert city, where Arabic is spoken. The culture’s strong Islamic influence is immediately apparent in the attire of the women, a tremendous majority of whom wear either the traditional head covering known as the hijab or the full covered burka. These burkas completely hide the wearer, often leaving only a slit for the eyes, and sometimes even requiring gloves to cover the skin of the hands and ankles. This modest approach to clothing, avoiding provocative displays, is noted as having an inherent advantage.

Mark conducted his teaching at the Evangelical Theological Seminary of the Nile, a Protestant Reformed seminary predominantly affiliated with the Presbyterian denomination. Notably, the Christian women attending the classes dressed much like other Western women, without head coverings, as they felt no cultural need to cover their heads.

In this environment predominated by Islamic thought, law, and worldview, the application of biblical truth presented unique challenges, though the Bible itself remains unchanged. Mark emphasized the classic missions challenge that arises when Christian concepts must be contextualized in a culture with different shades of meaning.

A primary stronghold encountered was a theological challenge regarding the value of human life. PassionLife’s teaching affirms that human life is equally valuable across the board—whether short or tall, muscular or scrawny, and crucially, men and women are equally valuable to God. However, Mark immediately observed pushback on the idea that men and women were of equal value. Due to the Muslim-dominated culture’s tendency to prioritize the man as the preferred gender, some attendees conflated the distinctive societal roles (such as the man carrying the family name or contributing the gene that determines sex) with inherent human value. This cultural context fosters a repression of women in many Muslim societies, sometimes forbidding them from driving cars or holding certain jobs. Mark stressed that while Christianity often enters cultures where oppression exists, it contains a self-correcting principle, eventually elevating the oppressed and leading to the abolition of evils like slavery, unlike the observed cultural oppression of women in Islam.

The cultural context created horrifying scenarios when the discussion turned to abortion. In this culture, having a baby out of wedlock is completely unacceptable and causes unimaginable shame for the family. This shame is a key driver for abortion. Mark was told a chilling story illustrating this extreme cultural pressure: a father, in order to save the family the shame, committed a horrific act of violence against his own pregnant daughter, tying a rope around her ankle and dragging her alive through the streets until she died. This was seen by the father as preferable to having the shame of the baby brought into the world.

Confronted with such profound obstacles, Christians asked if abortion would be preferable to a father killing the pregnant woman, leading to both deaths. Mark’s response was resolute: the Lord forbids the intentional killing of people period, without exceptions. PassionLife’s approach remains focused on preaching the gospel and unfolding the truth of the Word of God, not on changing politics or challenging laws. The truth that the intentional taking of a human life is always wrong (murder) had to be strongly emphasized to counter the compassion argument—the idea that it might be more merciful to kill the girl than to endure shame or neglect.

In these situations, the application of theology is truly put to the test. Mark observed that the intense cultural threats meant that it is often the woman herself who needs to be rescued from the difficult circumstances, not just the unborn baby.

The teaching was well-received by the church leaders, who requested follow-up. PassionLife is now looking forward to returning to Egypt and asks for prayers as they work to find the right application points and communication strategies to navigate these challenging Muslim cultures.

This article is adapted from the episode transcript.