Sudanese Christian refugees in Egypt have a great taste for worship … and also for sandwiches provided by Barnabas Fund to ensure they don’t spend their Sundays with an empty stomach.
It can take the Christians between two to three hours to travel by bus to church and some of them, particularly the elderly, have not even had a cup of tea for breakfast.
Many of the poverty-stricken families rely on the sandwiches provided, especially if they have young children to feed.
“Our church meeting lasts three hours on a Sunday, and we are so glad to get sandwiches after church,” said Christina, 22, who escaped from Sudan along with her parents and seven brothers and sisters. Because of the civil war in her homeland she has only recently completed high school in Egypt.
Tens of thousands of sandwiches and wraps are provided by five churches in the Egyptian capital of Cairo through funds mainly provided by Barnabas.
So what’s on Sunday’s menu? Apart from the main course of worship and praise, how about a cheese or jam sandwich? Or falafel? You want beans in yours? No problem. Burgers? Of course we’ve got burgers on the menu.
During the terrible civil war in Sudan, when the mainly Christian South tried to resist sharia law being imposed by the Islamic government of the North, around five million South Sudanese fled their homeland. Some settled in Egypt, but live in great poverty. Hence Barnabas’ food project.
A local Barnabas contact said of the sandwich ministry, “So many of our church attendees are refugees who fled the hell of civil war in the Nuba Mountains, were tested by many atrocities, tragedies and famine, being deprived of quality food, so it’s a luxury for some to have it, and blessing at the same time”.
Memi, 19, really appreciates the food as “a sign of God’s kindness in the very bad circumstances we live in”.
