Organisers 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.
Catherine Swaffar, a 24-year old Texan was one of a team of volunteers from around the world, 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 energise 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.
At the desert festival, volunteers milled through the crowds, offering to talk about their faith, as music from Van Halen and the Chemical Brothers played over loudspeakers. It was a way to reach Egyptians who might be bored or disillusioned with more traditional styles of worship practised by the Coptic Orthodox Church which is dominant in the country, organisers said.
"We want to reach people who've never been to a church, and if you invited them to a church they wouldn't be interested," said organiser Ramez Sami Barnaba. "Here they will participate in activities and have fun and hear the word of God at the same time."
Egypt's roughly 7 million Christians account for up to 10 percent of the population and belong mostly to the Coptic Orthodox church. They have long complained that Egyptian law discriminates against Christians in matters of personal status and in the repair and building of churches. Some say they also face discrimination at work or in their professions.
A US government report said in September Egypt had seen a marked decline in religious freedom and that while Egypt's constitution provided for freedom of belief, the government in practice restricted those rights. Pastor Sameh Maurice Tawfik, 54, whose sermons each night at the festival drew nearly 1,000 people and were broadcast around the Arab world on a Christian satellite channel. Emigration by Christians is challenging churches to come up with new ways to attract members, festival organisers said.
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