Mission Crossroads is a three-time-a-year magazine focused on worldwide work of the PC(USA). It offers news and feature stories about mission personnel, international partners and grassroots Presbyterians involved in God's mission in the world.
Issue link: https://missioncrossroads.epubxp.com/i/491857
Mission Crossroads 7 and universities in the Middle East have made signifcant contributions in education, religion, art, literature, science, medicine, and diplomacy. Most early missionaries went to the Middle East for the long haul, dedicating an entire career or lifetime to their calling. Extended daily contact with the Arab people gave mission educators a deep understanding of their history, culture, customs, politics, religions, attitudes, and aspirations. Presbyterian missionaries and Arab Americans educated in mission schools were among the frst to raise concerns about the bloodshed likely to result from eforts to create a homeland for displaced Jewish people after World War II. Among those advocating a solution that would avoid the partitioning of Palestine, and maintain strong Arab relations with the United States, was longtime Presbyterian missionary John S. Badeau, president of the American University in Cairo, who went on to serve as US ambassador to Egypt in the early 1960s. Te creation of the previously "state" of Israel was only one of a series of upheavals afecting mission work in the Middle East in the mid-20th century. Others included the end of French and British occupation of Lebanon and Syria and several ensuing wars, a military-led revolution in Egypt, and growing Arab nationalism. Many mission-operated village schools in Egypt were closed because of new government regulations. Financial difculties and other issues led US mission boards to transfer universities they had founded and operated, including their valuable property, to the administration of independent, autonomous, and self-perpetuating boards. Without church representation on their boards, most of those universities became secular institutions, although some have retained the values that inspired their original vision. Te outcome was diferent for elementary and secondary schools. Instead of being nationalized, as were so many other foreign-controlled institutions, these schools remained private under church oversight, with leadership transferred from the American church to its overseas partners. Other new schools were added by the national churches. Today, the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon operates several schools in those two countries, and the Synod of the Nile manages 25 schools in Egypt. With student bodies representative of their nations' entire populations, these schools provide distinctive quality education under competent national Christian leaders. Tey are modeling best practices in teaching, learning, and leadership and producing graduates equipped to pursue the goals of enlightenment and freedom. Victor E. Makari is a graduate of Assiut College and the Evangelical Teological Seminary in Cairo, Egypt, both founded by Presbyterian missionaries. He is a mission co-worker and also served as coordinator of the Middle East ofce of the Presbyterian Church (USA.)'s Presbyterian Mission Agency from 1990 until 2010. Students and teachers at the mission school in Aleppo Syria, ca. 1960