Persecution, Salvations and New Songs

In this article one of our Mission Part­ners shares about the struggles of those Chris­ti­ans in her com­munity as they seek to reach their neigh­bours with the Gospel. In amongst the pain and dif­fi­culties that you will read about, you can still feel the strength and resi­li­ence of the local believ­ers. Even in dif­fi­cult times, Christ is revealed. 

Some of our Mission Part­ners are ‘secure’, meaning they serve in places poten­tially hostile to Chris­tian­ity. For their safety and the safety of those they serve, we give any people men­tioned fake names and do not identify their location. 

Amira, who is the one who brought Ranya and Ibtisam to faith, has had to move house as her neigh­bours con­tin­ued to harass her and her chil­dren for being believ­ers. This puts them in fin­an­cial dif­fi­culties as the rent of their new house is more expens­ive. Work is scarce for refugees.

Amira’s son Abrahim was also tar­geted at school, as he had pre­vi­ously told other chil­dren in his class about Jesus. The school wouldn’t let him con­tinue to the next grade because of his absences, despite getting top marks, and he was going to have to repeat the year. Well, his absences were because he was away for two weeks while he and his family were once again avoid­ing per­se­cu­tion! We decided to sponsor him to go to a nearby private school for next year.

Amira’s second child, a girl called Mona, started school this year at her brother’s pre­vi­ous school. Unfor­tu­nately, the teacher bullied Mona for being asso­ci­ated with Amira and Abrahim, hitting and isol­at­ing her, so Mona no longer wanted to go to school and we ended up having to move her too.

Full of Faith

Ranya and Ibtisam have also suffered because they have been sharing their faith with some local women. But since then they have only grown stronger!

Ranya has a new believer that she is discipling in the city where she moved, and they are also sharing with another woman in the city between here and where they live now. Praise God.

Sadly, another lady who Amira has been dis­cip­ling for nine months, Um Omar, has decided not to follow Jesus. Amira is upset with her decision. This is one of the hardest aspects of work here, and I shared with Amira about my own exper­i­ences of sadness and dis­ap­point­ment and how to process this. We ask that you keep Um Omar in your prayers.

Dreams

We have been vis­it­ing with another lady, Mohiba, for seven years. Mohiba is very stu­di­ous and has had many debates with us when we share about Jesus. Recently, she shared a dream with us.

“Jesus’ dis­ciples Peter, John and Matthew were teach­ing, and I was sitting and listen­ing to them. Then they got up and walked out, and I fol­lowed them.”

We asked her what she thought it meant. “I have to follow their teach­ings,” She said.

Mohiba knows that she has to read the Bible and follow Jesus, but she is afraid. She is also very focused on her last year of school as well as her new husband. She is 20 years old and is two years behind because of the war.

Another lady we know had a dream where she was stuck down a deep well.

“Suddenly a man dressed in white appeared,” she said. “He had a glowing face and he reached in and told me that he would pull me out. I told him I was too heavy but he said that he could do it. Then He took my hand and pulled me out.”

She knew it was Jesus and knew that she couldn’t save herself from her sin and that only He was able to. She real­ised that her burdens were not too much for him, but that he could carry them and her. It was so cool to hear!

New Songs

My team­mate is gifted in music, so she often brings her guitar or ukelele on our visits to these women. I told her about Naama who is inter­ested in writing her own worship songs and they worked together to write a beau­ti­ful song. Here are the trans­lated lyrics:

“The crowned King Your reign is forever
The king of the heavens
Your light is on earth
You are close to our hearts
With us everywhere
Almighty and great
Your mercy fills the earth
Saviour and merciful
With us everywhere”

It brings me joy to sing this song and we hope for more to be written!

Ten­sions

The region is going through some tense times and this country is geo­graph­ic­ally in the middle of it all. Twice now we have had mis­siles fly over­head and watched them being shot down.

While we are as safe as they are not being aimed at us, we feel the heightened stress of the region and the uncer­tainty of what’s ahead. Flights are being can­celled, and some air­lines no longer fly here. Life goes on and we pray for peace.

Prayer and Praise 

Pray

• For God to con­tinue to reach Um Omar
• For Mohiba to read and follow the words of Jesus and the Apostles
• For peace in this region

Praise God

• For Ranya’s and Ibtisam’s growth and sharing
• For Ibrahim and Mona’s new school
• For dreams of Jesus
• For Indi­gen­ous worship