Travis Black is a close friend and brother in Christ who is currentlly ministering to expatriates in Egypt. Here is something that he wrote recently in reflection on the tragic loss of their pastor. May your heart be encouraged as mine was:
The day before it was an empty soccer field. Overnight, a tent was raised up, big enough to seat 4,000 people, and included hanging lights and functioning fans. It was quite the site. How such a structure could be put together so quickly and so marvelously is something I still don’t understand. But, much more amazing then the structure of the tent, was the people that were filling the seats within it.
There were several rows of dignitaries, representing embassies of nations from around the world. More impressive were the 3500 people seated behind them, also from many nations. You would be hard pressed to find more than seven seats in a row of the same color of skin, all coming to honor one man: Dave Petrescue.
Dave had made an impact in their lives. Thirteen years ago he had taken the pastorate of Maadi Community Church, when it was a small congregation of expatriates, numbering just over 100, and primarily Americans. Yet, he came with a vision, something that eventually began to be articulated using the biblical illustration of Sampson attacking the Philistines in Judges 15:3-5:
3 Samson said to them, “This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines; I will really harm them.” 4 So he went out and caught three hundred foxes and tied them tail to tail in pairs. He then fastened a torch to every pair of tails, 5 lit the torches and let the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up the shocks and standing grain, together with the vineyards and olive groves.
His dream was to have people come into Cairo, for whatever reason brought them here, and to have Maadi Community Church be “an oasis of refuge and renewal, equipping people and releasing resources to flood the nations with the transforming life of Christ.”
The picture was that God would use Maadi Community Church to light a passionate fire within those that would come into this place, and they would go to whatever country they would go next with their “tails on fire” for the gospel, a fire that would spread wherever they went.
Plus, his vision had enriched meaning being in a country that had been used in so many instances throughout the pages of scripture as a place of rest and renewal of God’s chosen people before God would send them back out to accomplish his purpose in powerful ways.
The 3500 people filling the seats of the tent testified to the success of God bringing much of Dave’s vision to fruition. Maadi Community Church now has more Sudanese refugee students in schools under its umbrella than the United Nations does. It now has a congregation of over 1500 people, representing over 50 nations. The church has started an aggressive church planting campaign among Egypt and other countries. (I could go on and on!)
But, what is most powerful to me, is watching so many people come in the church and beginning a relationship with Christ, or having their relationship with Christ energized in such a way that they leave with a passion for his kingdom to reign all throughout the world.
And though it was a day to honor Dave, it was a day that primarily honored God’s work in Dave. For the two months that I served the church under Dave’s leadership, seeing God through Him was exactly what he was about, which made it difficult to contemplate how the church would function without this visionary leader.
By a freak accident, our senior pastor fell from a nine story building, but his daughter put it most beautifully when she saw in a picture given to her by God, that he fell into the arms of Jesus, something he had waited his whole life for.
Yet, as I sat in this massive tent for his funeral, there was a feeling of comfort in hearing all of the testimonies and looking back at all of the faces that this man had touched through the power of God for the kingdom of God in what was once a small expatriate church. God had used Dave to raise up a church, in a very strategic location, that has the potential, the passion, the people, and the momentum to have a major impact in countries where such impact is well needed.
We are in desperate need of your prayers. There is great anticipation and confidence in seeing God drive this church to even greater effectiveness, in the midst of such a major loss. At the same time, being responsible for the youth, I am well aware that it is the youth of a church that have the greatest potential to provide the needed push for such effectiveness to continue and to occur at a greater scale. For where there is a church whose youth are actively extending the kingdom of God in powerful ways, there is a congregation that is energized to do the same.
Again, I look forward to sharing with you the answers to your prayers!!!
With great love,
Travis
p.s. More information can be found at www.maadichurch.net.
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