Arab Christians try new ways to sustain spirit

By Will Rasmussen

CAIRO (Reuters) - Organizers billed it as one of the largest events of its kind in the Arab world.

On a November weekend, over 10,000 Arab Christians, mostly from Egypt, boarded hundreds of buses headed to a desert camp outside Cairo for three days of non-traditional worship.

Under the hot sun, participants helped each other scramble over climbing walls, danced at a live performance of Christian rap, and shared religious testimony at a BMX-biking show.

"We wanted to come over here and give some hope to what can be a dark world for Christians," said Catherine Swaffar, a 24-year old Texan, as she helped Egyptian teenagers climb a 10-metre (30-foot) rock wall set up on the desert sand.

She was one of a team of volunteers from around the world, many from the evangelical Luis Palau Association of Portland, Oregon, who journeyed to Cairo to help stage the same events that have drawn hundreds of thousands to festivals in the United States.

As members of a religious minority in the mostly Muslim Arab world, many Arab Christian groups are turning to evangelical styles of worship, often borrowed from America, to energize communities they say are threatened by emigration.

"We've never seen anything like this here in Egypt," said Karim Tadros, 22, after watching a team of visiting American skateboarders mix stunts with stories about religious conversions. "I like the environment here and how people treat each other. That is what God is all about."

Human rights and church groups say violence and insecurity have helped drive Christians out of some Middle East countries, such as Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. Egyptian Christian groups complain of harassment or arrest by police.