Nearly 18 months after excavations for a neighboring mosque caused the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Dahasa, Upper Egypt to collapse, a new building was dedicated Oct. 16. Sixty members will now worship in the new structure.

Pastor Kjell Aune, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Egypt, dedicated the building in a two-and-one-half hour service that included the baptism of six new members and a celebration of the Lord’s Supper. Sameh Doss, the local pastor, assisted the new members in preparation for baptism, while others in the community expressed a willingness to be baptized at a later date.

Approximately 600 of the 4,000 villagers of Dahasa are Christians, and Adventists comprise 10 percent of the Christian community. The Seventh-day Adventist Church is the only Christian church in Dahasa and has a history that goes back some 50 years. It is an active and healthy church with a wide variety of age groups.

On Oct. 18 Pastor Aune, together with church regional education director Dr. Hanna Malaka, church regional executive secretary Saad Khilla and Pastor Samir Berbawy, visited with the newly elected Minister of Education for Egypt, Dr. Ahmad Gamal El Deen. The group talked to El Deen about the local and international educational work of the Adventist Church.

“For more than 100 years,” said Aune, “Adventists have been present in Egypt, and have been running schools in the country for about 70 years.” He talked about the great emphasis the church places on education. Mutual wishes for a good, open working relationship were expressed, and El Deen invited open communication with the local church leaders in case of special concerns.

“This ‘opening of the door’ to discussions about our concerns is a significant step forward for us as we seek to meet the educational needs of the children and youth in our school system in Egypt,” said Orville Woolford, education director for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Trans-European region.