Amira Elias likes digging deep and having her perspectives challenged. Her MTS degree at Wycliffe, delivered. “Wycliffe introduced me to the Canadian Christian landscape—there were so many denominations represented in my classes—it was eye-opening. I did a course on Eastern Orthodoxy taught by a Greek Orthodox priest. I would never have had that lens if I’d kept solely to my ministry or just kept working.”
Growing up in a Coptic Orthodox church in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Elias began “looking for more” when she turned 16. That “more” arrived out of the blue in the person of a missionary from Coptic Missions, an organization that served in several African countries. The missionary did Bible studies every day and talked about miracles as though they were everyday occurrences. When he called for youth to volunteer at the Mission, Elias signed up. Across Kenya, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Zambia, Elias bore witness to liturgies and prayers that were different from the church rituals back home. Her perspectives changed. “I uncovered something about God—that He wasn’t a once-a-week ‘thing,’” she remembers. Here, there was joy, singing and praising the Lord. “I knew I wanted that.”
Back in the UAE, she led worship at a youth group where she shared about breaking the barriers between God and those who wanted to worship Him in Spirit and in truth. Joined in later years by her husband, when the youth group shut down, they were asked to leave.
Leave they did. They studied apologetics at Biola University, and then in 2022, they came to Canada. “I saw a golden bridge and a graduation hood when I was praying about this move,” she remembers.
Today, Elias applies her Wycliffe training volunteering with Hungry 4 Christ, a ministry started by a member of that UAE youth group.She does outreach, helps host a bi-weekly meeting, makes sure advertising gets done, and helps plan and deliver a simple 30-minute worship service that’s “less Christianese, more songs that people know.” After an evangelistic message, there’s an altar call, prayers for needs. And baptisms!
