Vicar treks across desert in preparation for Christmas

In the Bible it was the three kings who rode their camels across the desert bearing gifts for the baby Jesus.

Two thousand years later, a Buckinghamshire vicar has made her own journey across the Sinai desert – which meant a five-day trek on foot with Bedouin tribesmen as guides.

The Revd Rosie Harper, who is Vicar of Great Missenden with Ballinger and Little Hampden, and Nadine Rose who the Pastoral Assistant at the same church, traveled to Egypt with Christian Aid as part of a fund raising and fact-finding mission. The group raised over £50,000 of which Rosie and Nadine contributed in excess of £8,000.

During the trip, Mrs Harper and the rest of her party visited some of the projects that Christian Aid supports. These were based in two rural villages where there was extreme poverty. Christian Aid works in partnership here with the Coptic Church.

They make small loans to help people start small businesses – such as buying a sewing machine, or a couple of goats, and they install basic sanitation and provide education. With a series of small interventions the whole village is transformed. They become proud of what they have achieved and very motivated. In due course, Christian Aid is able to pull out and move on to help other communities.

Now Mrs Harper hopes to raise awareness of the plight of the 24 per cent of Egyptians below the poverty line and of the problems facing the Christian minority in Egypt, and particularly women. Having been there and seen it for themselves Rosie and Nadine know that Christian Aid week next year will have a much sharper focus.

“Thanks to our Bedouin guides we were able to see things that most visitors to Egypt never experience,” she says.

“We worshipped at a Coptic church and we spent time with Bishop Maximus of Lower Egypt and had some very interesting discussions about how Egypt is changing. He is deeply committed to inter-faith dialogue and is also an outspoken opponent of Female Genital Mutilation.

“Sadly it seems that Christians are having an increasingly difficult time at the moment, and women in particular.”

For further information, please contact the Revd Rosie Harper on 01494 728988. Pictures are available.