According to Elesha Coffman,
missionaries have been coming to Africa since biblical times. In the Bible, the
New Testament gives an example in Acts 8:26-39, the Ethiopian eunuch evangelized
and baptized by Philip. More specifically, in Egypt, there were evidences in
Matthew 2:13-18 that point to Christians visitors in early Egypt. Coffman
states “Jesus and his parents, who fled to Egypt to escape the murderous King
Herod). According to research, there are no known churches that were linked to
these events. According ancient traditions, a man named Mark was the first official
missionary to Africa. There are evidences that say Mark preached in Alexandria,
Egypt where he was also martyred. Coffman states that the ancient Egyptian tradition
about the first missionary is difficult to document. When Christianity was
introduced to Alexandria, it quickly grew strong and spread. The city of Alexandria
was one of the three most church centers in the ancient world, along with Rome
and Antioch. Christianity was mainly stationed in Northern Africa- Egypt,
Nubia, and Ethiopia. Churches in these
nation kept close relationships with eastern Christendom and made many
important contributions. It produced variations by early councils including:
Arianism, Monophysitism, Nestorianism, and Donatism. Elesha Coffman implies
that Christianity was the first and had the most impact in Egypt.
One of the first and most
influential missionary to Egypt was a Christian missionary named Lillian Hunt
Trasher. Lillian was born in 1887 in Florida but was raised in Georgia. In her
teens, she attended a bible college for a short time and then began working in
North Carolina at an orphanage. She was engaged to a minister named Tom Jordan.
In 1910, she heard a missionary from India speak. She decided to direct her
passion to the country of Africa. After calling off her engagement because of
different views, she decided to leave the country for Africa. While in Africa,
she shared the Christian faith to the Egyptians and began an orphanage in 1918.
By the time Lillian Trasher died in 1961, the African orphanage had grown to 1,200
children. Today, the Lillian Trasher Orphanage is conducted by the Assemblies
of God of Egypt. She reached many families, woman, and children with her
passion of the Christian faith and her orphanage institution.
 | |||
| Mark- First missionary to Egypt |
 |
| Lillian Hunt Trasher, 1901. |
 |
| Lillian and her orphanage children, 1960 |
References:
Coffman, Elesha. "What Does History Say about the First
Christians of Africa?" What Does History Say about the First Christians
of Africa? 1 Jan. 2008. Web. 22 Apr. 2015.
<http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/asktheexpert/sep14.html>.
https://www.google.com/search?q=mark+the+missionary+in+egypt&biw=1525&bih=707&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=o7k5Vcz_E7OwsASNuoHwDg&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&dpr=0.9#imgrc=TsFcmKH4XvvsWM%253A%3BQlPLuwuUdBP3bM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fimages.oca.org%252Ficons%252Flg%252Fapril%252F0425cMark.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Foca.org%252Fsaints%252Flives%252F2000%252F01%252F04%252F100019-apostle-mark-the-evangelist-of-the-seventy%3B600%3B833
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