"Live" From The Middle Eastern Christian Festival

This is Hans Schile from the Finishing Well Podcast.

On Finishing Well, we help you make godly choices about Medicare, long-term care and your money. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and choosing the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network. Kingdom Pursuits, where you hear from ordinary people instilled with an extraordinary passion. Together we explore the stories of men and women who take what they love and let God turn their passion into Kingdom Pursuits. Now, live from the Truth Booth, your host, Robbie Dilmore.

Welcome to Kingdom Pursuits. I'm Gerry Mathis, sitting in for Robbie. Robbie is in Douglasville, Virginia with a car show, barbecue and all that good stuff this morning.

He was really disappointed, I can tell you that much, because today was the day he was looking forward to since, what has been a couple years, been postponed? Yes. Because he wanted to be here because I'm sitting under a tent at the Middle Eastern Christian Festival in Kernersville at the Friendly Arabic Church.

The address here is 1292 Wicker Road in Kernersville. Correct. And when I came in, the first thing I did is caught the smell of the food and stuff, and I'm looking around and there's all kinds of activities. Pastor Salim is with me this morning to start out, and I'm just going to ask him, really, kind of give me an overview of what was going on. And you know what, one thing that I'm going to also say about this is, because I've done this in the past and stuff, is I'm sitting there and I think about how, you know, all we hear, you know, in the United States is about the Middle East, you know, all the, how countries can't get along and everything. And there's all this conflict and war and stuff, but it's amazing how Jesus Christ can bring it all together.

Yes, sir. This is exactly why we're here. Why we started the Middle Eastern Christian Festival is to show the love of God in action, uniting all the people of the Middle East.

Actually, yes, people in the Middle East are warring, been warring each other, killing each other, violence, but this is a different face of the Middle East, where you see people from all different backgrounds. And whether nominal Christians or Muslims or even Jewish, at times we had been united together under the banner of Christ, Jesus, our Lord. And we are so happy to come back after two years of COVID, you know, setbacks. And we are so happy to come back and do this celebration and honor our God.

And I know you have already, I know Robbie has probably asked you this multiple times over the years and stuff. What's a little bit of your story? What brought you here? What got you into ministry?

Yes. Well, I came to the United States in 1978. I'm from Lebanon. I came from Lebanon from parents from Northern Galilee. But I was born in Lebanon and came at the age of 19 to study in the United States. But by 1984-85, after finishing my schooling, I couldn't go back to Lebanon.

Lebanon was still in the civil war and even my parents lost their homes and became refugees themselves. And I'm so happy and so blessed to have this country, to be in this country that opened the door for us to stay and establish homes. And since then, I've been here in the United States and Winston-Salem, North Carolina is my home. Now it's been my home for a long time.

I established roots here. Actually, in the United States, I accepted Jesus as my savior in 1987 here in the States, in this church. In this church?

Yes. We weren't here. We used to meet in Greensboro at Friendly Avenue Baptist Church. That's our mother church, you can say. And that's where the Arabic mission started and I started attending there and accepted Jesus as my savior and crowned him the Lord of my heart and my life since then, since 1987. And I grew spiritually in this church and here I am.

I became the senior pastor almost nine years ago. Well, as far as this congregation goes in this church, give me a little overview of what services you have and I think you'll have English service and also an Arabic service. We do. We do. Even though the majority are immigrants and that came from the Middle East, but we have American born citizens, our kids now adults, and we have grandchildren are American English speaking only. And we have some American members that come from the neighborhood and the area around us.

Our services, we do have services in English and services in Arabic. And our congregation consists of people from the US, from Egypt, Sudan, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Palestine, Iraq, Iran, and even Yemen right now. Those are countries that you just would not think they would be able to gather under one roof.

They're killing each other at this time. Throughout history and at this time too. But unite us like we started saying this earlier. Jesus Christ is the one that brings his peace to our lives. And when we have peace with God, then we are able to have peace with each other. And part of being here and coming here, and I hope that people who listen to this, if you can get in your vehicle and drive out here and join us, it's an opportunity to be able to see Christ work in a lot of different cultures and everything. And then also as a US born and stuff, you're able to see that and stuff. And it's just sort of get a glimpse of that because I think sometimes in the US, the only news we hear about the Middle East is negative. And it's frightening to a lot of people.

And here you're able to see the face of it. We are promoting peace. Peace of God that we received from him through Jesus Christ. And here it's a glimpse of heaven. When people from all nations, all tongues gather together, worshipping God, and we're doing it right here on earth. And we are able to do that.

If we are under the banner of Christ, we are able to do that. And here I invite people to come. Come join us today. We're here till like 6 p.m. today. Tomorrow as I say. Tomorrow also Sunday from 10 o'clock. You can worship with us. The worship will be, the songs will be in Arabic and English, but the message will be in English honoring the people that cannot speak Arabic that are with us.

So and then the festival will continue until sundown or 6 p.m. tomorrow. Whenever, let me ask, go a little deeper on that. As far as what is, and I'm not sure what the numbers are as far as nationalities that are in this triad area and stuff. But really making that connection and getting people, you know, with different backgrounds to feel welcome to coming to this church and also to be.

Yes. We are a church. We can say we are an international church.

It's true. Our name, it says friendly Arabic church. But actually we are an international church. We welcome all nationalities. We have a service in English. We minister in English also that all people universal to all people that are here in the States. And we are international even though Arabic language may unite some of us together here. But actually we are international. We welcome all people, all kind of people to come experience the love of God there.

And as I said, you know, it just seems to me that, you know, probably, and you may correct me, I may be wrong on this. It's just because of a lot of the people, new immigrants coming in or new transplants in this area who may have been more recently left from their home country. I mean the Muslim and other religions and stuff, it seems like, you know, you're really having to break down a lot of walls. That's true.

That's true. Immigrants come in the past 35, almost 40 years now since this church was started in 1985. We've been ministering, welcoming immigrants that come help them establish a home and get them to find their ways. We taught how to drive. We took them to schools, to doctors.

We helped them really establish homes. We'll be back in just a moment again. Pastor, man, it's a great opportunity to be in Queensborough area. Come out and join us. Come hungry. Come ready to have a lot of fun. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com Welcome back. We're live in Cartersville, the Middle Eastern Christian Festival on Wicker Road 1292 Wicker Road at the Branley Arabic Church. I'll tell you what, I'm going to let my guest introduce herself and talk about a story just for the past few minutes. Hearing her story and what this church means to her and how God has been able to work through the church and the people of this church and how important prayer is. You know, it's all you.

Well, my name is Rema Bullos. Thank you guys for having me on today. I do appreciate it. Right now we are currently at Branley Arabic Church in Cartersville at the Middle Eastern Christian Festival. And just, I've been part of this church for several years, most of my life, over 12 years.

And just this church, the way they are a family to me, they've been here through all the struggles of my life. When I was eight years old, I was diagnosed with a very rare and aggressive type of child leukemia. I was put into the hospital right away for harsh chemotherapy treatments.

About two years later, after my harsh chemotherapy treatments, I was diagnosed with the severe case of meningitis, which caused me to have a stroke on my whole right side. And I was in seizures, comas. You know, at one point, six doctors came into my parents' room, in my room, and they told my parents that, you know, Rema has 24 hours to start making arrangements for her funeral. And my parents told them, you know what, we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and that He can do miracles just like He did in Bible times.

And so this church family right here, I have videos of them just crowding the waiting room, singing praises, praying for me. And always, always, always sending meals, prayers, messages, words of encouragement, until the next day I opened my eyes. And just from there, doctors thought, you know, since she survived the meningitis, you know, the stroke will leave you with many disabilities.

She'll never be able to walk or talk or move her right side. But with the prayers of this church and people all over the world, in Jesus' name, I am, you know, walking, talking, doing everything that they thought I would never be able to do. Well, yeah, absolutely. I mean, I said, you woke up, so I know you're doing it.

We were talking earlier just the importance of prayer and stuff, and I think sometimes, you know, that's what through the pandemic and stuff, we kind of lost some of that and the importance of the fellowship and stuff. And you talked about your parents. Go ahead and tell me a little story. Your parents been here for how long and background with them? So my parents have been here for over 30 years. They lived most of their lives here. They came to America from Lebanon as teenagers. And so I was born here. My family was born here. But, yeah, we've just kept really close with, you know, our culture and the good stuff from the Middle East and the good stuff from the U.S. And we've kind of mixed them together to make our own little kind of culture.

So I really appreciated that from my parents. And I definitely appreciate the unity of this church because even though we're all from different nations who are in war and fighting in the Middle East, where unity is not even a concept to be thought of back there. But here we come together as brothers and sisters and we fellowship in the name of Christ, which is something that I have never really seen in the Middle East. And over here, it's just indescribable how, you know, the Lord is the source of unity.

Yeah. And when we sit there and you think about those cultures and stuff and what this church is doing, I mean, you know, as you mentioned, allowing God to work through the members of this church, how important that is. And that's why I say, you know, if anybody is in the listening area of this show this morning, I just hope they'll get in a car, they'll come out and visit because, you know what, when you walk on the property, you sense that unity. You sense, you know what, I feel our Lord and Savior here, I feel Jesus Christ's presence. And it may be the presence over here where you get your face painted, where Michael will keep wanting to go over and get painted up or building kites or in the corner over there, some awesome food, which is kind of hard on us up here.

We're catching the smell and stuff and the clothing of different groups and stuff. Of course. It's just a great opportunity to share in that culture for a snapshot. And then if you're, you know, this is a church also that from talking to Pastor earlier, you know what, it's a church with its arms open.

Exactly. Everyone is welcome here. We do this as a means of outreach to our community. So all are welcome.

If you have a minute or two to spare, an hour, just come out, come see the love of Christ, listen to some worship, eat some awesome food and learn about our culture. Yeah, I don't know if you saw it earlier. I was looking, you had the line dancing, is that right? Yeah. Over here at the line, I kept thinking.

We call it Depke. And I was looking and I thought I saw Stu over there, but then it wasn't him. He was just walking through, but you know. Of course. Awesome evening. I mean, awesome day. Tomorrow will be another great day. And it's only the beginning. So there's still the rest of the day. If anyone has a chance to come out, we would love to meet you, to see you and welcome you guys with open arms.

And what are you doing here today? So I am part of kind of welcoming people. You know, I signed up. Oh, you don't look like you would be really good at that. Well, thank you for that.

I've been at the Lebanese tent a little bit. I'm in charge of table cleaning. So if you, you know, see the tables clean, give me a thumbs up and I'll be encouraged.

All right. And again, what are the hours and steps? So we're going on now until? So now until sunset. So usually around six. And then tomorrow it'll start, the Sunday service is at 10 a.m. and then stay till sunset as well. From sunup to sundown. And I think the pastor said it would be English, but songs would be in both.

Correct. We will do some English songs and some Arabic songs and the sermon will be in English and Arabic. So if we're going to go for the food, what's the number one best choice? That's a really, really hard question because I love food. We all love food here. And so you can get some chicken, you can get some kefta, you know, classic Arabic meat mixed with some vegetables and cilantro. And it's just wonderful. You can get some falafel and baklava.

That's what we call it in Arabic. So it's just some really good stuff. Come out, have a great time. There's food, music, all that jazz. There's a lot of activities for kids, too. So bring the kids. I know I'm looking over my shoulder behind me.

What are you looking at? Well, we've got a playground. We've got some bouncy houses, face painting, balloons, kite flying, face painting.

I already said that. But it's just going to be a great time for the whole family. Even if you're just a single person, come learn. Look at our culture tents. Dance, dance with us. Praise with us. Praise Jesus.

Absolutely. You know, sitting beside you there is Mr. Truth broadcasting himself through Epperson. It was just sitting here and I'm thinking, you know, in this little bitty snapshot of what I think heaven is going to be like. I mean, you know, it is where all of our, you know, all these cultures and stuff all come together into one banner. And that's the banner of Jesus Christ.

And you know what? It's just great to be able to come. Again, I'm going to say, you know, if you're in this area, drive out here. Because you're able to see people who you may be the only thing you know about what you're seeing on the news. Or these cultures and these countries and all the war and the hate and the Muslims and all of this stuff.

That's not our walk and stuff. And all of a sudden you say, you know what? These people are just like me for one reason. We've got the same bond of Jesus Christ. It's just a great opportunity. And having Stu here this morning.

You know what this is? This is a family reunion. Definitely. But most family reunions are for like the Epperson family reunion, the Mathis family reunion, the name. Well, maybe I'm a cousin. I did marry into them. I'm an in-law or an outlaw or whatever.

But here's the deal. Friends listening to this, this is the most inclusive family reunion going on right now. People are calling. People are wheeling up here. I'm seeing all kinds of people I know. But I just texted a couple, left a couple messages. Hey, I'm going to go see your family.

They're like, what are you doing, Stu? Hey, I'm going to go see your family. These are people you're going to be spending eternity together with. Brothers and sisters from Iran, Iraq, Palestine. I mean, there's just so many nations here, aren't there? What are some of the nations?

They all have a nice tent in this place. Yeah, so we have Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Sudan, Jordan, all these places just in the Middle East. And see, people didn't even know they had family there. Exactly. They don't have to go get their passport and their 18 COVID test and go over to those countries. They can just drive to Kernersville, middle of the triad, kind of in the middle of the state.

I know we have Charlotte listeners, Raleigh listeners, Richmond listeners, maybe that's a stretch. They can pray for us and they can go hug a family member there. But listen, Stu, if they make plans, I know today is short notice. Yeah. Tomorrow, make plans tomorrow after church.

That's right. Come out. Yeah, I just talked to a kid and I hope he's listening right now. His name is Seth and he is right now, I believe, leaving this instant, Liberty University, to drive to the big Liberty Wake Forest football game. Landon, Landon's on his way here and he's listening to the new 93.7 up there.

So Landon, God bless you. And listen to this, he's on his way to the game and I know he is because we're blessing him with tickets. It's one of those random Christian radio deals just to bless someone. You know, a kid, he loves the Lord, he's going to go to the game and watch a great game between Liberty and Wake Forest. But the beautiful thing is, I think he'll bring his family here probably tomorrow after church for lunch.

That's awesome. To meet all his family from all over the world and to have fellowship. And that's why we're so grateful for this church and what you all are doing right in the middle of the triad for people to come together and just fellowship in Jesus. That's what it's about, the truth, right, Jerry? Absolutely. And right here as I'm sitting, I'm looking across the pavement over here and dead in the middle of all the activities is the prayer station. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. So we believe in the power of prayer.

Like I mentioned earlier, prayer has been a dominant theme in my life. And so, yeah, come on out. We'll enjoy you guys. We'll be here.

We've got all kinds of true swags. We've got books, gifts, giveaways. Meet some incredible people keen to pursue us. We'll be here until noon broadcasting live and then all day long.

Come out and hang out and all day tomorrow, too. And come meet your family and you will be thoroughly blessed at the Arabic Christian Festival. Middle Eastern Christian Festival. Middle Eastern Christian Festival right here in Kernsville, North Carolina. At Friendly Arabic Church. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits. We're live right here at the Middle Eastern Christian Festival in the beautiful town of Kernsville at the Arabic, Friendly Arabic Church on 1292 Wicker Road in Kernsville. And Jolie is with us sitting here right in front of me smiling from ear to ear.

And I know this is a big weekend for her and family and for this church. So we're going to ask you a couple of questions. Give me a little bit of background and then just talk from the heart. What does this mean to you? What's God doing through this church? Hey, my name is Joel Bullos and I'm originally from Lebanon.

I came to the States when I was 14. So this church has been a wonderful blessing to all of us where we were able to bring not just culture, but bring the faith that comes from so many different nationalities back in the Middle East where they are literally fighting. But yet we come all together in the name of Jesus with the love of Christ. We love on one another, we worship together, we grow together and we're able to reach out to our community everywhere around Kernsville and everywhere else and trying to bring awareness that Arabic people are Christian people as well. And we want to share the name of Jesus with everybody and defeating all the odds where internationally they're fighting and killing one another. But yet here we come, 13 different nationalities become loving on one another in the name of Jesus.

And we're so glad to have everybody out back here enjoying the music, good food, line dancing, traditional line dancing and just share a little bit about the culture and the love of Jesus with everyone. Yeah, and just a moment ago on the air with your daughter and got to hear her story and stuff and just the importance of prayer and Christian fellowship. Absolutely. I mean I just wish, I know we just got a snapshot of just a little bit, but talk a little bit about that. I mean going through something like that, how important it is to be surrounded by people of faith.

Absolutely, absolutely. You know, truly when Rima got sick with one of the rarest types of childhood leukemia and a few years after that through her treatment she came down with meningitis that caused her to have a stroke and she was in the ICU so sick and no one thought she'd make it. We had not just our church body, but literally everybody we knew in Winston-Salem, the triad area. People from overseas, missionaries in Africa that we never met used to send us messages and say we're praying in Jesus' name for Rima.

We had troops in Afghanistan sending us emails saying we heard about Rima's story. We just want to tell you we're praying in Jesus' name. I'll tell you that experience was so tough on us as parents watching her die with her little body, ten-year-old, but yet the Lord listened to everyone's prayers. The power, the Holy Spirit, we had so much grace, we had so much energy and strength. It used to make me wonder, I was a young mother of five little ones and I told my husband, I don't know where all of this energy is coming from. He said this is the power of prayer and just watching Rima healing and coming out of her coma and defeating all the odds.

Today she's a 20-year-old graduate and she's working on her PhD already. She does not blow my mind, but the Lord Jesus blows my mind every single day. It reminds me of his true grace and the blessings, the reason he died on the cross, to give us that salvation through his blood. I remember when she was going through the treatments, the nurses, doctors and families used to tell me there's always some type of happiness and joy in her face. And I used to tell them, you know, it's so hard knowing whether my child, actually not knowing whether she's going to make it or not, but my joy is if she does make it, I'm going to rejoice and praise the Lord for her presence. But yet if she doesn't make it, we know we're going to have eternal life together because of the blood of Jesus.

Powerful, powerful. The Lord is so good. When Rima was sitting there, I couldn't do anything but just feel, through her you could just feel the presence of the Lord.

I mean, God has done some pretty awesome things through her. And then the story and stuff, I mean, it's just, that's what this is all about. You know what, bringing people together that love Jesus Christ. And it's amazing, honestly, like my kids, like I said, they were younger, how the whole community came together, regardless where people are from. We had our American friends, our friends from church, families, we all came as one body of Christ.

Everybody prayed, everybody helped us in so many ways with the little ones, you know, providing meals, praying, which was so important. And just seeing the body of Christ coming together as one whole body, working together, begging him to keep Rima. And yet he did answer with a yes. And I know the Lord many times may not answer with a yes. Sometimes he may answer with a no because he sees this is what's best for us. And sometimes he answers with a wait.

But we're just so grateful that he answered with a yes for Rima. Well, I was going to, I'm just telling you, this is a little inside baseball that everyone out there is going to appreciate. And by the way, we're in Kernsville, North Carolina.

All right. At this amazing Middle Eastern Christian festival. Anyone out there needs to come out, come out for the kebabs. But you'll be blessed as you'll meet your brothers and sisters from Christ from all over the world. They may not look like you, they may not talk with your accent, but you're going to be spending eternity with these people. I'm Stu Everson. Jerry Mathis, so gracious of you to host the Christian Kargai and Kingdom Pursuits today. Doing a great job.

I mean, Robbie Dilmore, those are big shoes to fill, right? Yes, sir. But if you just missed, if you missed the earlier segment with this lady's dear, sweet saintly daughter about her healing and God working, please go listen to the podcast later.

But we're here live. We've got all kinds of stuff to give away. People are coming by. Someone just picked up a brand new KP, a hand in book. We're giving out books.

We're giving out wonderful DVDs, Truth Network swag. But this is what's cool. This is a little secret. This is the inside baseball people don't know. You see these things all over the place.

You see them on Facebook, Instagram, everywhere. Pray for the Middle East. Well, let me tell you who's behind that. Of course, we know the Holy Spirit's working. We know the power of prayer. But it's you and your family and the people at this friendly Arabic church that are putting those messages out. If you want to see the supernatural work of God, not just in the healing like that remarkable story of what God did in your daughter's life, but in souls that are saved, there are people behind me that were once persecuting Christians.

Absolutely. And now they're following Jesus. We talk about, well, that was just Acts Chapter 9. That was just, you know, the worst attacker, right, of the militant person against the church became the greatest missionary. Well, there are Apostle Pauls and Sauls and Dorcuses and Lydias all over these grounds, and it's so cool to meet them, and you're one of them. So we're just grateful for how your family has stood up for Christ in there, but there's still a battle to be won. I mean, there are Christians right now. We're in this beautiful... What a beautiful fall day, by the way.

Unbelievable. Look at all the green, and I can smell those kebabs. I mean, Jerry's sitting there trying to get someone to bring him some baklava or something. It's hard just sitting here. It's just coming over.

I can smell and see. Yeah, but tell the people listening, what is it like for the average, the normal Christian life for our brothers and sisters in Lebanon, in Jordan, in places where there's this intense, where it's illegal to own a Bible? That copy of the Bible is getting dust in my family.

I got... I'm from the Middle East, and the way we look at this country, we feel like this is blessed land, where really we look at, simply looking at nature and appreciating the Lord for His creation, to be able to come freely, enjoy this nature, enjoy every moment, clean air, and just be able to share our faith, be able to live our faith. Even in Lebanon, even though it's supposed to be a Christian country, we cannot just go out and speak the Bible, speak God's name.

This is just something to stay private in your own home. So me going everywhere I go, being in a supermarket, and talk about Jesus, talk about my Lord, talk about my daughter's story, and how my Lord Jesus healed her through it. This is something amazing I cannot do anywhere in the Middle East. We're going to come back to you in just a moment.

Have a break again. Hey, we're just right here in Cartersville, Wicker Road, a friendly Arabic Christian church and Middle East festival. Come join us. Come hungry, enjoy yourself, and see your brothers and sisters, brother.

That's unbelievable. You won't want to miss this. Come on out, folks. We're here. It's a blast. Beautiful September day on the Truth Network.

You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits. Again, we're live at the Middle Eastern Christian Festival, friendly Arabic church here in Cartersville at 1292 Wicker Road.

Mariana? Yes. Okay. Got with us sitting here.

Hear a little bit of your story and stuff. And you're from, not here, Egypt? Egypt. Egypt, wow. I'm actually from Upper Egypt, from Asia. It's almost in the middle of Egypt.

So I got the chance to visit the old capital of Egypt, which is in the southern part, and the newest capital, which is Cairo in the upper part. All right. And how long have you been in the United States? I've been here for six years. I live with my husband and two kids. And attend this church?

Yes. Since I came here six years ago, I didn't have a father or mother and brothers. I left all of them in Egypt, but I found all the members of friendly Arabic church to be my parents and my brothers and sisters.

How did you find out about this church? I mean, coming into this country, this new area, not knowing anybody? I actually was knowing one person. And we met him and he left for getting married in Egypt. And one old lady called Nadia, she's from Syria. She came, she heard that there's a new family. They have a baby and a wife.

I don't know how to drive. And she come and visited me and invited me for the church. At the beginning, I was attending with her. She used to pick up me and my son every Sunday, and then my husband found his way to come with us.

All right. And you said that being only six years in, was it strange or did you find it kind of exciting because different cultures? Yes, different cultures, but we all speak the Bible language. We all show the love of Christ in our talks. I remember that moment when I was pregnant with my second born. I was actually missing my family, my mother. And I can't forget when I was in the hospital, every hour I have a visitor. And they all are the pastor and all the members of the church. They all came to me.

They just helped me with different ways while I had my baby. I say, oh, if I was between my family, I couldn't find all that help. And I was very thankful that I see the love of the church of Christ and the members of our church. It's all about family. We are family. We're body in Christ. We say brother, we say sister.

Hey, bro, can you get a cigarette or something? We toss that around, but you're my sister in Jesus. I just met you today.

I'm just an eternity together with you. If you have a need, and so you came, you're looking for Christian family, you're looking for fellowship, you're having a baby, all this stuff, and here these people took you in like you were their family because you are. Yes.

In fact, the dynamic of that is this. There are people you are closer to in Christ that you have more intimacy with than your own flesh and blood family. Yes. Because that's the real bond that lasts forever. Exactly.

And I think it's just neat to see, and that's a refreshing thing if these dear sisters and brothers from Christ come from the Middle East, and they teach us that, and we go over there, and they bring us into their home in the hospitality. We're about to go get some amazing food from some people. This is all hand prepared. Yes. Those little spinach things, those little rolls right there. Yes. Oh my, I just can't.

I mean, they're just unbelievable, you know, and all the sauces and the dressings and the ritz, the falafelos, and all the kebabs and just everything. But Egypt. Yes. A Christian in Egypt faces things different. You could speak firsthand of this.

Okay. Than maybe a Christian in comfortable Western culture. What's it like to be a believer in Egypt, the land of the pyramids? I mean, the land of the Bibles. People here know a lot more about the land that Jesus walked in and lived in than, you know, Jesus was in Egypt for that early time in his life.

Yes. So Egypt was mentioned in the Bibles about 700 times. It's actually one of the oldest places that was discovered in the old world. And from Genesis to Revolutions, you will see Egypt and how God cared for people in Egypt.

In the past, it was the land of wealth and richness. And we have a verse in Isaiah 15 or 14, 25. It's implicit, be my people in Egypt. That's our, I can say, promise from God to us. Even we are people there suffering. They don't live the life that they deserve.

They don't live the freedom that we see here in the U.S. But through all of that, that church in Egypt is growing strongly more and more. We have the three, I can say, beliefs of Christianity. We have the Coptic Orthodox, which is like most of Egypt was born at. We have the Evangelical Church and we have the Catholic Church. Even though we face lots of persecutions, we come all together with it. We make nights for prayers for our only God that we believe, the God of the Bible, the God of love. And we pray for God to save our country, to save our people, to help us reach who are not Christian to show them who is the God of the Bible, who is the God of love, not the God of hate that we face every single day.

So, to be a Christian in Egypt means, sorry, you are a second grade person, you're not first grade. You don't get all the rights that they get. You just fight to be, to live the person, to get the freedom that they have. What a testimony. Thank you for that testimony. What a powerful, Jerry. It's powerful. And I tell you what, if you have the opportunity here in this area, today, tomorrow, make your way down here to be able to see the great brothers and sisters.

Truthnetwork.com, we've got it there. We're so thankful. Middle Eastern Christian Festival, live from Kernsville today and tomorrow. Come out, wash the food, meet your brother and sister, meet your sister in Christ from Egypt. Yes, welcome to us. We can show the love of Christ to you. We have Egyptian tents, Syrian tents, Iraq tents. We all are brothers here. We all in Thanksgiving.