Mansour and Fifi Boutros, both born and raised in Egypt, acknowledge God’s hand in their lives and say that trusting Jesus Christ as their Lord has been an exciting adventure.
The Boutroses, members of First Baptist, Enid, became estate planning clients of The Baptist Foundation of Oklahoma in 2011 after seeing an advertisement in the Messenger for will and trust services.
“We were interested in this since we have no children and would like to leave our estate to Christian organizations,” they said.
Mansour, who became a United States citizen in 1969 and worked for the United States Department of Defense as an engineer, accepted Christ when he was seven years old. As a young man, Mansour attended school and later worked with Muslims. As a Christian living in Egypt, he was forced to learn in school the Muslim religion and to memorize verses from the Quran.
“Living as a Christian in a country which declares officially that it is a Muslim country can make you feel like a foreigner in your own country,” he said.
Fifi immigrated to Canada in 1964. She had attended church all her life and thought she was a Christian until she experienced a spiritual crisis. She was given a book, “The Normal Christian Life” written by Chinese evangelist Watchman Nee.
She says in her written testimony, “For the first time in my life, I read that we cannot live the Christian life on our own, that we are helpless, hopeless sinners doomed to hell. But the Lord Jesus paid the penalty of our sins on the cross and wants to transform our hearts.”
Fifi asked God to give her a new heart and she says that life changed for her after that. She developed an intense hunger to study the Bible in depth and a burden to witness.
She met Mansour, who was in Toronto on a long weekend, through a friend. He asked to see her the next day and gave her an engagement ring. Fifi applied for immigration to the United States and the couple was married in 1972.
They grew in their faith together and answered a call to missions in 1987. Mansour retired from the Department of Defense and they served as missionaries in North Africa and the Middle East.
The couple says it’s important to them to contribute to ministries that promote and spread the Gospel in various countries of the world, as well as to those that help orphans and the poor.
“We strongly believe that God has entrusted us with whatever we have, to use and share as faithful stewards during our lives on earth. We also strongly desire that God’s gift to us would continue to be used for His glory even after our death,” they said.
The Foundation will reimburse a portion of your legal fees if you leave a 10 percent gift in your estate plan, at least half of which must be to a Baptist ministry and may include your Southern Baptist church. For more information about the Foundation’s estate planning services, please call 1.800.949.9988 or visit www.bfok.org.
Posted on
Mon, January 9, 2012
by Taprina Milburn