My name is Dave Miers. I love Jesus, and I’m passionate about using new mediums to communicate the timeless message of Christ crucified and risen. I currently serve the persecuted church through my work with Open Doors Australia.
Last Wednesday, I was commissioned by Bishop Glenn Davies as the Pastor of a new church – Christ our Refuge – part of the Diocese of the Southern Cross. We are looking to launch with more of a bang later in the year, but this was a significant moment for our fledgling community.
Since we moved to Brisbane 7 years ago, the population of the Brisbane local government area has increased by 300,000 people! Church growth and church planting have certainly not kept up with this growth. We are convinced that more churches need to be planted to reach these people with the gospel of Jesus.
I will continue working full-time with Open Doors as we build the team for Christ our Refuge.
Find out more about our weekly gatherings, joining our team, prayer updates, and financial partnership here: http://christrefuge.co
We departed from Cairo on Thursday morning to explore more of Egypt and connect with more persecuted believers. Our first stop was East Samalut in the Minya Governate – a popular stopover for Christians on the Holy Family Pilgrimage. While we can’t be sure about the specific locations that Mary, Joseph, and Jesus visited while in exile, it is interesting to imagine Jesus spending time in Egypt as an infant. Many Christians live in and around the Monastery of the Virgin Mary – they were very kind to us and had a tangible devotion to the Lord. They were so kind that one mother entrusted her newborn daughter to my care for a few minutes – a precious memory.
East Samalut – Photos: Mike Gore
After a delicious lunch that included some of the most incredible dips we’ve had so far (Dave certainly enjoyed the dips, singlehandedly cleaning out all the dip plates), we met in a secret upper room with some local Christians involved in discipleship ministry throughout the governate.
After we visited El-Botroseya, our Wednesday continued next door at a massive church: St Mark’s Coptic Cathedral. We learnt about the history of St Mark’s and the gospel’s spread in first-century Egypt through the church’s namesake: Mark the Evangelist and author of Mark’s Gospel in the bible.
St Mark’s Cathedral, Cairo
Now the Italians claim that Mark the evangelist is buried at St Mark’s Basilica in Venice. At the same time, the Egyptians claim that his head is in Alexandria and that parts of his body are here at this church in Cairo. We didn’t get a chance to do any DNA tests to prove Mark’s identity while visiting his shrine, but either way, Mark is a big deal for his pioneering gospel work in response to Jesus’ great commission.
After learning about St Mark, we made our way through a maze of stairs, up a lift, and into a backroom of the cathedral for a confronting and solemn experience visiting the Martyrs Hall.
This was the moment I had been waiting for since learning about our travel itinerary.
It’s strange to think that a morning in the desert learning about the Desert Fathers (including one of my church history heroes, Athanasius, who spent formative time away in monastic communities), visiting the 4th-century Monastery of Saint Macarius the Great, having a modern-day Monk sing a beautiful trinitarian hymn to us acapella, seeing what are claimed to be the relics of Elisha and John the Baptist from the Bible, observing Mohammed Salah billboards up and down the desert highways, and enjoying the centring peace and calming quiet of the desert… was NOT the highlight of our Wednesday.
It’s only our second full day, and I’m reasonably sure all seven members of our Open Doors team are falling in love with Bishoi. What a man of contagious joy and with a super-power for telling remarkable stories. One of the things that Bishoi has encouraged us to do is to experience Egypt. The invitation was that we would not just see the beauty of an ancient building still standing, but we would see the hands of the skilled men and women who built it so that we would understand their circumstances and know their stories.
The day’s highlight was the opportunity to experience two stories from 2015 and 2016. These were two stories that moved me when I first heard about them and stories I have shared previously in conversations and sermons.
The contrast from the contemplative morning in the desert to the afternoon back in the hustle and bustle of downtown Cairo couldn’t be starker.
We arrived through heavy security at El-Botroseya Church with the scorching mid-afternoon heat on our backs and the constant honking of horns around the perimeter of the church compound.
I didn’t realise just how close we were about to get to these familiar stories.
In a matter of seconds, we were retracing the steps of a suicide bomber.
