Since 2013, every year she made goals for herself. One of them was, “I want to do a short-term mission trip.” But every year, she had good excuses not to do it—a job change, a move, etc.

“But last year, I was like, ‘Yes, I really want to do it. This is the moment,” Lila remembered.

“At first, I didn’t know where I wanted to go or what kind of ministry I wanted to do. So I started looking at different organisations, mission trip locations and ministries. I prayed a lot. Finally, I felt like God laid it on my heart to work with refugees. It wasn’t like one day I woke up and knew that’s what I was supposed to do. It was a gradual realisation.”

Lila already knew of OM because as a child, she visited its ship Logos II in 1999. When she started researching mission organisations, people from her church recommended OM in Argentina. “A lot of organizations I looked at didn’t know what to do with a short-term volunteer, but OM does. And OM takes care of you from the beginning, from searching for a trip to coming back to your country. You feel like they are taking care of you in the whole process.”

So when Lila discovered an opportunity to serve refugees with OM for two months in Greece and North Africa, she knew this was it.

Going to two different countries for a month each appealed to Lila because she wanted to know more about the needs and stories of refugees from different parts of the world and different countries, and experience different types of relief work.

Starting in Greece

In Greece, Lila split her time between two camps. In the mornings, she organised clothes and donations at one camp. In the afternoons, she went to a second camp, where she spent time with a Syrian family living in a home made from a shipping container. There, she drank tea and talked with the family, building relationships while sharing stories, laughter, hopes and dreams. She even got to teach English to the two little girls in the family.

“I learned from them that most of the refugees didn’t want to leave their countries, but they needed to because of the war. They had no choice. They left their families, their homes, their friends, their possessions—everything—behind, because they want to have a safe life,” reflected Lila. “It is difficult for them. They don’t understand Greek; they have to ask for everything they need; and they can’t work until they have their documents and leave the camp. They literally lost everything because they want a safer place to live. I can’t fully understand that situation, because I’ve never had one like that. But...”

Lila paused. “But, I wonder...maybe it’s the only way they will hear about Jesus. If they’d stayed in Turkey or Syria, maybe they wouldn’t have heard of Jesus because those countries are closed to the gospel. But in Greece, they have a better chance.

“Maybe this is how they will meet Jesus.

“Maybe this is how God is using the refugee crisis to bring the least-reached Him.”

Lila couldn’t openly share the gospel in the camps, unless people asked her about her faith directly. But the good thing about a testimony of God’s love is that it doesn’t always need words. “Sometimes you don’t have to speak and share the whole Bible, but you can show you love someone by spending time with them. That family always waited for us and even sent us messages every day, asking if we were coming that day. They don’t have friends from outside the camp. We were their only guests from the outside. It might seem like a small thing, but a small thing can make a big change in someone!

“One day, we woke up and went to the first camp with a van full of donations, but the refugees had blocked the entrance in protest. I couldn’t understand,” Lila remembered. “Why were they doing this? I had so many questions, but I realized that maybe I didn’t fully understand the reality of what it means to live as a refugee. We decided to pray and then left for the other camp.

“At the next camp, they received us with hugs just like every other day. We gave English lessons, but after the class, the family asked us to sit with them outside their shipping container, where they’d made a special meal for us. We were never there for a meal before because we always came in the afternoon, but because the other camp was closed, we were there in time for lunch.

“The family gave us all that they had.

“I don’t know why the first camp was closed that day, but God gave us a gift in sharing that meal with them. It was like a hug.

“We taught them English, but they didn’t think they taught us anything. But when they shared the meal, they taught us how to eat the meal. It was so nice to be on the opposite side–learning from them and their culture.”

Outside of the camps, Lila could speak about her faith freely, and she began friendships with refugees living in Athens. She was able to share many meals with them, especially with 2 young moms. “It was their first and only times spending time with female adult friends, without their kids nearby. We got to pray for them and share our testimonies, since they were no longer in the camps,” Lila remembered. “They would often text us, asking if we could do it again.”

On to North Africa

Then after a month of ministry in Greece, Lila went to North Africa, where she spent her afternoons in a centre offering sports activities and lessons in English, Bible and art. While there, Lila found a lot of similarities between the refugees she’d met in Europe and the Sudanese refugees in North Africa. “They also left everything—their countries, homes, friends and family to flee unrest, in order to move to a new country and culture and learn a new language.

“But the biggest difference,” shared Lila, “is that I could share the gospel with freedom with the Sudanese refugees because they were in a centre that they chose to attend. We shared stories from the Bible and gave them something to think about each day.”

One day, Lila had a conversation she will never forget with a nun from the centre. This nun was from Guatemala, and she was the only person there who spoke Spanish. While Lila speaks English well, her first language is Spanish. So every day she spoke with this nun in Spanish. “She encouraged me, by telling me I have a special ability and sensitivity with kids, and she asked me why I was only doing a short-term trip.

“I’ve never thought about doing long-term missions,” reflected Lila. “I was prepared to support missionaries throughout my life and have my own work in Argentina. But it was really nice to hear someone I just met three weeks before see something different in me—and see God through me.”

Now that she is back in Argentina, Lila is working at her father’s business and waiting on God to direct her next step. “I usually always have a plan, but this time I don’t have a one. I don’t know if I will stay here or move to another country.

“On my trip, God taught me to be patient. He gave me new hope. I was really sad before I started that trip, because of a lot of life changes in a really short time. But God told me, ‘Be still. I am here with you. I will give you new dreams and new plans.’  I’ve never been as happy as I was in Greece and North Africa.

“We have been created to help others and to share the love of Jesus. When I am doing that, I feel complete.

“This trip gave me focus again. I stopped asking for things and started to give God thanks for the things I have and the things He will give me in the future–even though I don’t see it now.

“That’s what it means to have faith.”

As to whether or not she will return to Greece or North Africa, Lila doesn’t know right now. “But even now that I’m back in Argentina, I’m still able to exchange messages with the women I met in Athens, which is a big gift. Today I even heard from ‘my family’ in the camp. They asked when I would come back to Greece. I don’t know the answer to that... but I thank God we have internet so I can still stay in contact with them.”

Lila’s ministry—and impact—continues, even though the actual mission trip has ended.

The truth is, whether overseas or in her own country, all Christ followers, like Lila, are always on the mission field. After all, it’s just like she said, “We have been created to help others and share the love of Jesus.”

Kristen Torres-Toro loves to tell stories about what God is doing in the world. She currently serves as the Field Communications Facilitator for OM Argentina.

The training programme is producing “high quality church planters,” Christopher noted. “Now we’ve said, ‘Let’s make them officially OMers.’”

There are currently four OMers serving in Sudan, with dozens of partners participating in evangelism, church planting and peer-to-peer training. The network of believers in Sudan—which includes the small but growing OM team—has started church planting ministries in 10 governorates in Sudan until now, and hopes to have teams in all 18 governorates in Sudan.

“Our dream [by] 2020 is to cover the whole country,” Eliyah shared.

“Basically, what they’re doing is using media contacts, using contacts on the street, going 100 per cent for church planting, [using] the house church model, and at the same time, pulling in other believers, mobilising them and training them to do the same,” Christopher summarised. The believers host weekend trainings in Sudan for university students, teaching them how to answer Muslims’ most common questions about Jesus Christ and how to focus on discipleship and church planting in their context.

In addition to the six-month church planting training for Sudanese men, Eliyah also coordinates two-week programmes in North Africa for Sudanese women. In 2017, around 20 women completed the training—receiving intensive input and then returning to Sudan. “One of the biggest unreached people groups inside Sudan is ladies,” Eliyah stated. “It is not easy to reach out to them, but we are so happy we had the group of ladies come and have the training. We had a new group come in July.”

OM backs Eliyah’s training programmes in North Africa by providing financial support and encouragement. As Eliyah and other Sudanese leaders continue to train and recommend additional church planters, Christopher expects the OM team in Sudan will grow: “I could imagine by the end of this year that we could have 10 to 12 OMers there.”

When it came to financial support for the fresh batch of OMers in Sudan, Christopher wanted to go new ways, avoiding long-term financial dependency on Western donors. So he asked the new team members for a creative solution.

They suggested a variety of small business initiatives, each requiring roughly 5,000 USD in start-up costs, including purchasing a handful of tuk-tuks, simple motorbike taxis common in developing countries, and starting a coffee shop, complete with a large screen for airing popular sporting events. “They have very good ideas,” Christopher affirmed. The coffee shop, for example, “would give them an amazing nice platform to have people over and build relationships there”; tuk-tuks, of course, would allow the drivers to be “together with people on the street all day long.”

Samir*, an OMer who heads up the movement in Sudan, received the first OM-sponsored tuk-tuk in January 2018. This and other income-generating projects provide the OMers clear identities in their communities, as well as the financial support necessary for long-term sustainability.

So far, “there is fruit,” stated Eliyah, who keeps in regular contact with the team in Sudan through messaging applications. One man heard the gospel from team members and became a believer. Afterwards, the rest of his family also began following Jesus. Other Sudanese believers, upon finishing the six-month training programme in North Africa, returned to their country, shared the gospel and reported that “some people really accepted Jesus. They’re doing discipleship with them [now],” Eliyah affirmed.

Believers in Sudan form house churches of four to five people, Eliyah estimated, meeting together for prayer and fellowship. In North Africa, trainees have also been reaching out to the Sudanese population. In 2018, church planting trainees were discipling 15-16 new Sudanese Muslim background believers (MBBs) within two months of the programme starting.

Eliyah is strategic about the people who join the training. In March 2018, 14 men from an unreached area of Sudan came to participate. “It’s not an easy time, especially for the church in north Sudan,” Eliyah stated. “Pray for the guys to do ministry safely. Also pray for the new believers. I hope that... MBBs start believing and go and talk with their families. I hope to see that in different areas, especially among this [unreached] group.”

*Name changed for security

Nicole James is a world traveller and writer for OM International. She’s passionate about partnering with believers to communicate the ways God is working across the globe.

In autumn 2014, Meg took OM’s storytelling course, looking for ways she could incorporate storytelling into her teaching. “I’m not an evangelist, more somebody who shares my life with people and shares what God is doing, but even in that I felt I needed to be more direct,” Meg described.

As she watched her teammates incorporate intentional storytelling into their own witness to local people, Meg wondered whether she should do the same. “If you have a story that you’ve learnt well, you’ll have an opportunity to share it. It’s prepared, you have it there, it’s intentional,” she explained.

“I used to spend a lot of time doing preparation for my classes and focus too much upon the classes and being ready. And I wasn’t waiting enough on God and always asking Him specifically what [I should] do in this particular day, or asking Him for guidance or power for a particular situation,” Meg said.

In the past couple of years, Meg decided to spend more time “seeking God for a new season” through worship and spending time in God’s presence. “I think this is why new things like the storytelling can be meaningful, because I’m looking for new ways of meeting people. I’m very open for new things God will do in my life,” she emphasised.

Several months after completing the storytelling course, Meg decided to implement it into her two main classes: one a lunchtime group, the other a conversation group at a local company. “Over time, I discovered that if I chose a topic based on values, we could have a good conversation,” she said. For example, during one class on courage, Meg asked the students what they had been most courageous about in their lives. One of the students talked about helping her family through her father’s terminal illness. “She cried in the class while she was sharing this story,” Meg remembered. Another student also tearfully recounted her experience helping her mother through a long-term illness. “Everyone was very tender and open toward one another at that time,” Meg described.

When the discussion moved to compassion, Meg introduced the story of the good Samaritan. “It was very interesting because they all speak French and had heard it as an expression, but they didn’t know the origin of the phrase,” Meg noted. “I said, ‘This is from the Bible,’ and I told the story to them.”

Afterwards, Meg transitioned to the topic of mercy. She told a story about a wealthy king who discovered valuable objects missing from his palace. He decreed that when the thief was found, he or she would receive a punishment of 40 lashes. Eventually, the king’s guard found the thief—the king’s mother. Though the king had to follow through with the punishment, on the morning of the lashing, he stood behind his mother, taking the blows upon himself.

“This is a story about God’s relationship to us, God’s mercy to us,” Meg explained to her class. “As Christians, we believe that this mercy is shown through Jesus Christ dying for our sins on the cross.”

“This is a very good story to teach principles to our children,” one of the women said.

“Why don’t you retell the story now?” Meg invited.

The lady began to retell the story, but near the end, another woman walked into the room. Noticing how the newcomer was moved by the small portion of the story she heard, Meg asked the student to tell the story again with all the details.

Since Meg’s initial attempts at in-class storytelling were successful, she decided to use the lessons in other classes and create new values-based curricula with supplementary stories. She also said she’s ready to share stories with the women in both of her classes and at other times when they meet.

“If we don’t meet for class, we meet for friendship. The Lord has given me a really good relationship with these women,” she explained.

Pray that Meg’s relationships with the women in her current classes would continue, as well as one or two friendships from a discontinued class. “I want to be able to sow into their lives through stories, and more directly,” she said. “Maybe when I’m no longer their teacher, I can still do this effectively as their friend.”

*Name changed for security

Nicole James is an international writer for OM, passionate about publishing stories of God’s work among the nations and telling people about the wonderful things He is doing around the world.

“I met her a couple years after we moved here,” Sarah recalled. “She was initially so against the gospel.”

Wanting to see where the relationship would go spiritually, Sarah started sharing about Jesus early in their friendship. She also took Yasmin to some Christian meetings. Though Yasmin argued about what she’d heard from the believers, “something about her and I, we just clicked,” Sarah described.

Sarah and Yasmin experienced a new season of life together. “I went to the hospital when her kids were born. She came to the hospital when mine were born,” Sarah said.

The second six years of their friendship included less joyful times, as Yasmin suffered several deaths in her family. In North Africa, “when someone dies, you just go and sit with the family,” Sarah noted. “I was meeting with her and letting her talk through that.”

Through their 12 years of friendship, Sarah continually shared about the Lord—“There have been times where she’s seemed interested and times where she’s really backed off for long seasons,” she said.

A few months ago, however, Yasmin told Sarah she’d picked up something unusual at the local souk, a large market with rows of long tables covered in bargain clothing, electronics, shoes, linens, fresh produce and books. Picking through the piles of new merchandise each week was like a treasure hunt, and Yasmin had found gold. “It was a women’s Bible devotional book,” Sarah explained. “It had a story, some verses at the end and some space to journal.”

On her own, Yasmin had purchased the book and started going through it. “She was really impacted by the stories and impacted by the words of Jesus,” Sarah said. “We were sitting and talking. I was sharing the gospel with her, and she had been going through this devotional book, and it was like, all of a sudden, the lightbulb went off in her head and she understood what I was saying.”

From that point, Yasmin was very different, Sarah noted.

On a separate shopping excursion to the same souk, one of Sarah’s teammates found a brand-new copy of the book Jesus Calling, with space after each reading for writing and reflecting. She gave the book to Sarah, who already had two copies. “I immediately thought of Yasmin. She loves these journal-type books,” Sarah said. She put the book aside for Yasmin’s birthday and then gifted it to her friend.

One afternoon, after lunch, Sarah and Yasmin were walking back to the public transportation hub together.

“Have you been looking at the book I gave you?” Sarah asked.

“Yeah, I’ve been reading it,” Yasmin answered. “I want to give you the devotional book, and I want you to read what I’ve written.”

A few steps further, Yasmin paused and looked at Sarah. “You know I think that Jesus saved us. You know this, right?”

“You believe that, Yasmin?”

“Yes, I do.”

Since that conversation, Sarah and her husband discussed over and over what needed to happen for Muslims to cross over to salvation in Jesus Christ—what the fundamental thing was they needed to believe and what they needed to unbelieve. “It kind of made me wrestle in my mind, is there a line?” Sarah said. “Is my friend a believer?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “She still calls herself a Muslim. She still thinks the Qu’ran is OK. But she’s saying, ‘I think that Jesus has saved us.’ ...There’s something different about her.”

“Instantaneous conversions rarely happen with Muslims,” Sarah continued. “There’s just that question in my heart: Has she crossed over this line?”

At a recent get-together over coffee, Yasmin told Sarah, “Christians are really different, and the way that you’re different is the way you live your life. You live what you believe.”

“It’s not about following a religion, but it’s about having a relationship with God,” Sarah responded.

“What you’re saying is not normal. Nobody thinks this way—nobody thinks you can have a relationship with God,” Yasmin returned.

“The reason these people you are talking about are different,” Sarah emphasised, “is because they actually have a relationship with God, which causes them to live their life in a different way.”

Yasmin’s comments drove Sarah to her knees. “I don’t know if she’s crossed over, but she’s right there,” she said. “I’m really wanting God to give her dreams of Jesus. At the same time, I’m not sure that will be the thing that will reach her. She’s really intellectual. I’m not sure that will be the thing that’s going to answer the questions she has.”

Prayer pulls back the veil

“But the people's minds were hardened, and to this day whenever the old covenant is being read, the same veil covers their minds so they cannot understand the truth. And this veil can be removed only by believing in Christ.” – 2 Corinthians 3:14 (NLT)

“That time that I felt like I saw the lightbulb going off, ...it was like for a moment, the veil was pulled back and she could see something that made sense to her. Pray that that would happen on a regular basis,” Sarah asked.

Talking to her teammates, she realised “with some of our friends, it’s so clear that there is a veil covering their eyes. We are sharing truth with them, but it doesn’t penetrate.”

People praying “back home” make a difference, Sarah stressed. “We need people praying for the spiritual veil to be pulled away from their eyes. God works when people pray. But if there hasn’t been the prayer for this, then they don’t really hear the message—it doesn’t really penetrate their hearts.”

Pray for Yasmin and for North Africans to understand the truth of the gospel. Pray that God will open their eyes in order that they put their faith in Jesus Christ. Pray for more workers to join the OM teams in North Africa to build friendships and share the love of Jesus.

*Name changed for security

Nicole James is a world traveller and writer for OM International. She’s passionate about partnering with believers to communicate the ways God is working across the globe.

Today there are over 1.6 billion* Muslims in the world. It is likely that you live in or near a city where Muslims reside. No matter where you live, Muslims are now your neighbours. Sadly, over 80 per cent* of Muslims today do not personally know a Christian. We are told in Leviticus 19:18 to love our neighbour as ourself. In Luke 10:27 Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (NIV).

You might ask: How do I love a Muslim? Don’t they speak a different language, believe in Islam and think Jesus is a prophet who did not die on the cross? Doesn’t the media portray Muslims as dangerous and untrustworthy?

Jesus does not call us, as Christians, to love people who are just like us. He says to love your neighbours and your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you. So, what does it mean for us to love our Muslim neighbours? 

My wife and I learnt much from living in a Muslim neighbourhood in North Africa for many years. We discovered that Muslims are friendly, social, hospitable and religious. They love children, food and music, they honour their elders and they are devoted to their families.

We raised our three children in an apartment building, where they played on the street with our Muslim neighbours. We discovered that if we were intentional and open in our relationship with our neighbours, God gave us countless opportunities to share the love of Jesus.

How can you love your Muslim neighbours?

Firstly, smile and greet. Learn the common Muslim greeting (As-Salaam-Alaikum). If they speak another language at home, learn greetings and phrases in their native language. Feel free to introduce yourself as a Christian or a follower of Jesus Christ. Religion is a vital part of their life, as much as your Christian faith is to you.

Secondly, take an interest. Ask questions. Learn their names and practice the correct pronunciation. Ask about the meaning of their names. Find out about their culture, their family and their religion. In doing these things, you communicate that you value them as people.

Thirdly, learn. Allow your neighbours to teach you something. Learn some of their language or how to prepare a traditional dish from their culture. Learn about where they shop, what sports they play or what apps they like. Be willing to be a receiver and learner. It will give you the opportunity to share with them later.

Fourthly, make yourself available. This is a challenge with our busy schedules. When you start to get to know a Muslim in your community, try not to look at your phone, wondering what’s next on your schedule. In North Africa, my local friends would often say, “You Westerners all have nice watches but no time. We don’t wear watches, but we have lots of time!”

Finally, practice hospitality. Paul tells us to do this in Romans 12:13. My wife often tells me that she learnt hospitality from our Muslim friends. She learnt how to make tagine and couscous sitting in the kitchen for hours helping her friends prepare food. There is nothing like sharing a meal with a Muslim family in their home or inviting them into your home. If you are worried about what to serve, look up dishes online from their culture, serve hallal meat or go vegetarian. When you share a meal together with a Muslim in a home, so many walls come down and you will have freedom to relate.

Loving our Muslim neighbours is an opportunity and privilege. God has brought them to our doorstep. Now, you not only have a Muslim who lives in your city, you have a neighbour, made in the image of God, whom you know by name, and whom you can reach out to with the love of Jesus.

*Statistics provided by the Joshua Project and Pew Research Center.

Technically, Michelle was a guest. Her friend, Warda*, taught the class and, in what Michelle interpreted as the latest attempt to convert her to Islam, had invited her to attend. Instead, Michelle used the following four hours—while the students practiced the pronunciation and intonation required for reciting the Muslim holy book—to pray.

That morning, Michelle had met Warda at 05:30 to catch the first minivan out of their city. It filled up faster than usual, so the two women wandered around for nearly an hour until the mosque opened for classes. Warda had asked Michelle if she wanted to “dress up” like her, wearing a long black robe and the traditional hijab. “No,” Michelle replied. “I think I’m conservative enough. I’m not showing anything about my body, and the most important thing for God is my heart.”

Later, when Warda whispered to each incoming student that Michelle was a “believer, a follower of Jesus,” Michelle was glad she stood out.

The women in class that day were enrolled in a certificate programme that, upon completion, would grant them a degree in Islam. Many people in the country are nominally religious, but this group was especially devout. By the end of the course, they would not only have hand-written the entire Qur’an but would also be able to recite the entire book from memory. When the students practiced in class, Warda could correct them without glancing at the text; as the teacher, she already had the words ingrained in her heart.

“I know that I made the difference of being there,” Michelle stated. “I could pray for all these ladies.”

A different kind of friendship

In fact, Michelle had already used plenty of words to share her faith with Warda, especially as she grew more confident with the rather unconventional friendship.

Their friendship had begun one day as Michelle was waiting for the results of some medical tests at a public hospital. She was having trouble communicating to the desk clerk when a lady standing behind her in line—Warda—offered to help. “Thank you so much!” Michelle said.

Papers in hand, Michelle started to leave the hospital, then, on a whim, turned back to the conservatively clothed woman. “Would you like to have coffee with me?” she asked.

“Yes, but I need to ask my husband’s permission,” the woman replied.

A week later, Michelle hadn’t heard from Warda and thought nothing would come from the encounter. Suddenly, she got a text message: Warda’s husband had said yes.

The two women met at a coffee shop, and, right away, things got weird. Instead of the usual small talk, Warda pushed for specific details. “Why are you here? What are you doing? Where does your money come from? Have you ever had trouble with the police? What kind of visa do you have?”

“I went back home, and I was really worried,” Michelle said. “I thought she was going straight to the police station to tell them about me.”

Instead, Warda invited her to her house. Full of fear and anxiety, Michelle prayed and went. Again, Warda posed several probing questions, even repeating some from the coffee shop. Then she brought out her Qur’an.

“You’re studying Arabic. I want you to read something,” she announced.

“My Arabic isn’t good enough. You read it to me,” Michelle suggested.

Warda read the Surah announcing Allah as one God and establishing Muhammed as Islam’s favoured prophet. “What do you understand?” she asked Michelle.

“I understand the Qur’an is saying…,” Michelle began, repeating what Warda had read.

“Why do you not convert?” Warda wondered.

“I believe in the Bible, and the Bible says Jesus is the truth.”

Warda continued to ask Michelle questions about her faith. At first, Michelle worried that she would be turned in for evangelising, but then she realised that Warda’s questions were actually an opportunity. “I could share with her through the answers to her questions.”

When Warda invited Michelle over again, Michelle prayed that God would give her wisdom. “I don’t have to be the one who is full of fear. I know Who wants me to be here, Who is protecting me and Who has the truth. If God wants me to be [in North Africa], it’s not the police who will take me away,” she decided.

The women started talking, and Warda asked again, “Why do you not convert to Islam?”

“I could not turn my back on the One who gave His life to save me,” Michelle replied. “He died on the cross. He rose again to save me. He’s my life.” She continued telling Warda her testimony and everything that God had done in her life, including how she had found peace and rest for her soul—“things she could not say a word against,” Michelle recalled.

Another time, the women discussed the differences between the Bible and the Qur’an, and Warda invited Michelle to the University of Islam where she worked. “I went there, observed all these ladies, who are super conservative, memorising the Qur’an, studying the Qur’an, reciting from their hearts the Qur’an,” Michelle described. “I didn’t share with them anything, but I really believe it’s going to be a new chapter in my friendship with Warda. It’s something else we can talk about. We can go a little deeper about the Qur’an and go deeper about the Bible.”

Warda desires to please God, Michelle noted, but she seeks answers in the Qur’an. Her position as a teacher at the Islamic school allows her to influence many people. “If your teacher from Islam becomes a believer, it’s something really big. Pray that she will find the truth,” Michelle asked.

*Name changed for security

Nicole James is a world traveller and writer for OM International. She’s passionate about partnering with believers to communicate the ways God is working across the globe.

Building relationships in North Africa requires understanding the potential friends’ culture, one of the most important aspects of which is the honour/shame dichotomy.

Problems and issues convert into the shame category. Praises and good grades fall into the honour category. Every aspect of a North African’s life lands in one or the other. Shame, however, only surfaces when it’s known. Dishonourable occurrences, as long as they’re secret, cannot be used to shame someone.

Still, when Arabs “come up with situations in their lives, which are problems or issues, and they, like normal humans feel the need to talk about it or tell someone, they look for someone they feel like they can trust, who’s not going to judge them,” Amanda explained. “A lot of times, for us foreigners, they can already see the way we live is different.” OM workers on the field often earn local friends’ trust because “they’ve already established we are a different kind of people and we live an honourable life,” Amanda noted.

Amanda, who has lived in her host country for over a decade and raised her children there, including two girls, understands what maintaining a good reputation means for ministry in the local context. Therefore, she cautions new team members to be exceedingly careful about their reputations. “The way they live portrays a certain reputation, and already people see they are different,” she explained.

The guidelines can be seen as restrictions, particularly for those whose home culture operates within a different worldview and allows for greater freedom, but they’re important in North Africa. Not only does an honourable lifestyle establish trust with Muslims, whom the team is trying to reach, it also helps local believers, who are new to faith.

‘They can trust us’

“All of my North African friends have come and told me the dirt [about their families],” Amanda shared. “It’s definitely true: They feel like they can trust us and tell us things.”

A close friend told Amanda that two of her brothers had committed suicide. Others shared negative stories about their husbands or financial problems they faced. These women “just need someone to hear them and care about them,” Amanda stated. “One of my biggest ministries over the years has been caring for the women, just loving them when they didn’t feel like anybody else really cared.”

“They know I’m not going to judge them by it. I’m not going to think they’re lesser people because of their problems,” she added.

In fact, Amanda’s life before Christ was not honourable. “I was a wild child going into university; I did just about everything that was wrong,” she said. After deciding to follow Jesus, however, Amanda lived purely for several years before she met her husband. Despite her earlier lifestyle, he “didn’t look at me as [dishonourable]. He looked at me as who God made me to be now,” she said.

It’s a testimony Amanda rarely shares in public, but on two separate occasions, she encouraged Arab friends with her personal transformation. One young woman told Amanda that she had been raped. “She was so broken,” Amanda described. “She felt so impure, unworthy to get married ...[and] have a family.”

Another woman, who was already married and a believer, told Amanda about similar struggles. Amanda said she wanted to share her story because those friends “didn’t think there could be anything else for them. But [I wanted them] to realise God purifies; He cleans; He changes.”

“That’s that God-sized void in all of us. We’re looking for someone to care for us,” she summarised. “We have to listen and care for and love people but always be pointing them to the Saviour, who ultimately loves them and gave His life for them.”

Pointing friends to God

Sometimes that transition to truth happens easily. Leia*, new to the OM team in North Africa, met a local woman on public transportation less than two months after arriving in the country. “From the beginning, our conversation was about God,” Leia recalled.

Initially, Leia had several encouraging conversations with her friend. “What I really like about her is that she already has a personal hunger and desire for God as a Muslim,” Leia said. “Sometimes she’s just praying in her bed before she goes to sleep, in her own words.”

A few months later, Leia’s friend started dating and stopped pursuing the friendship. Then, the guy broke up with her. Immediately, she reached out to Leia again. “I could really be there to encourage her, and I really tried to do that with God,” Leia noted. She prayed with her friend and sent her articles and videos from a well-known Christian speaker about having hope in God.

“She texted me back, ‘Yeah, it made me cry,’” Leia said. “I think that’s special about having contact with Muslims is you can point them to God, but I would like to speak more of Jesus.”

‘They need the love of Jesus’

Celia served with OM in North Africa for two years. At Christmas, Celia invited a North African girl over for a celebration. “I made Christmas decorations, and I gave her a Christmas present, Christmas dinner and everything,” Celia described. The friend visited Celia’s apartment several more times. Then, one day, she looked up at Celia with her eyes full of tears. “Before you came, I have not been in any other house that is not my family,” she told Celia.

“I was the first house she went to, somebody she could call [a] friend,” Celia explained. “It’s the most common thing to go visit your friends, but she didn’t have friends.”

“They’re just so lonely somehow; they just need to be loved,” she continued. “They need the love of Jesus that’s missing from their lives.”

Pray for workers in North Africa to lead honourable lives that would attract Arabs to them. Pray for deep trust relationships to be built that allow workers to share the love of Jesus with their friends.

*Name changed for security

Nicole James is a world traveller and writer for OM International. She’s passionate about partnering with believers to communicate the ways God is working across the globe.

Once, she invited the women from her Zumba class—an aerobic dance workout originating in Latin America—to her apartment for a Latino-themed dinner. They came and enjoyed the meal, but the gesture didn’t lead to ongoing appointments.

Occasionally, Diane met one or two ladies for coffee or a meal at a nearby restaurant. But Diane craved something else—a reason to regularly meet with a friend and get to know her North African acquaintances on a deeper level.

After class finished one evening, Anaya*, Dianne’s instructor at the gym, asked her to wait for a minute. “I’m going to walk with you.”

Upon discovering that Anaya also walked home every evening (in the same direction as Diane’s apartment), Diane intentionally began joining Anaya’s last class of the day. Then the two women walked home together. “We started to talk, to go out to coffee shops, but coffee shops are crowded… . You cannot be so deep somehow,” Diane recounted.

Then, one night as they were walking home, the two friends started chatting about movies. They discovered they both liked the Tolkien series,  The Lord of the Rings (LOTR).

“What if we watched the movies together?” Diane suggested. Anaya quickly agreed.

Before their first movie night arrived, Diane accompanied Anaya and a few other friends to a coffee shop. The other North African friends were busy with a baby when Diane and Anaya started talking about religion. “Have you ever read the Bible?” Diane asked.

“No. I was searching for that on the Internet, but I don’t know which one is the right one,” Anaya admitted.

“Oh, there is only one,” Diane responded, sharing a little about God’s Word.

The following weekend, Anaya arrived at Diane’s apartment to watch the first LOTR movie. After they watched the movie and chatted for a while, Diane gave Anaya a present: a wrapped Bible. “She was really happy and excited, and then she left. It was almost 3:00,” Diane remembered.

The next day, the two had planned to attend a wedding together. Diane arrived at Anaya’s house in the afternoon and saw the Bible sitting on her table. “Did you sleep well?” Diane asked.

“No, how could I sleep when you gave me something to read?” Anaya answered.

Diane realised Anaya had stayed up all night reading the New Testament. “Do you have any questions?”

“Yes,” Anaya said, taking the Bible and showing Diane the parts she had highlighted.

From that point on, each evening when the women walked home together from the gym, they talked about the Bible—what Anaya had read and what questions she had. They also continued their movie marathon on the weekends, finishing the LOTR saga, The Hobbit and several other series. Afterwards, they talked until the early hours of the morning. Midnight, 1:00, 2:00, 3:00.

While discussing dreams, Anaya told Diane one of her recurring dreams: She saw a bus full of people, but she was afraid of getting onto the bus. The other dream Anaya talked about was about God’s judgement at the end of time.

“I think these kind of dreams are God protecting you from getting inside this bus because the bus is taking these people to death,” Diane said. But, “when you dream about the end of days, the time is coming when God is going to take His people.”

Diane asked if she could pray for God to reveal Himself to Anaya in her dreams, and Anaya agreed.

“Sometimes I also feel a lot of anxiety and fear, but I pray to Jesus, and I feel peace,” Diane told her friend. “What do you think about Jesus?”

“I think He’s the way, and when He comes back, everyone will follow him,” Anaya said.

The two women continued to meet and discuss the things Anaya was reading. “She said she has talked to Jesus, but she still is struggling with the things that the Qur’an says and she grew up listening to,” Diane said. “For her, [Jesus] is just a prophet.”

Dianne challenged some of Anaya’s beliefs, including her misconception that the Bible had been changed. Anaya was quiet that day, “but somehow it was really good,” Diane said. “I didn’t push her too much after that because I know she’s going to search about these things.”

Unlike her other North African friends, “Anaya is open to listen to what I’m sharing with her," Diane said. "She really wants to know a little bit more.”

Pray that God would reveal himself to Anaya through her dreams. Pray that she will be brave in her journey of seeking truth. Pray for Diane and other workers to have opportunities to share more of God’s Word with Anaya and other North Africans.

*Name changed for security

Nicole James is a world traveller and writer for OM International. She’s passionate about partnering with believers to communicate the ways God is working across the globe.

Making your way around an unknown city (where the people speak a different language) may seem like a daunting experience. Take away the use of Google Maps and all of a sudden it becomes a real challenge. This was the situation that me and two of my teammates found ourselves in. 

Our mission was given to us in the form of a piece of paper with places to visit around the city and at each place we had to find out information and complete certain tasks. The idea was to connect with the locals and to get a taste of the day to day life in North Africa. 

Several conversations about directions and a half hour later, we finally reached the Metro. Not the best start if the challenge was based on time! BUT the whole point was to chat to people and already my perspective of the locals was changing. 

Due to our poor Arabic map reading skills and our probable lack of common sense we got lost a lot. A lot. When we asked for directions on the street, I expected a point in the right direction or at most a short explanation of where to go. Instead, they would take the time to walk with us there and chat along the way. People literally went the extra mile to help. Some even gave us their phone number in case we needed it later on in the day or wanted to meet up with them in the city. It turns out a pretty good way to tell people about Jesus is getting lost for the lost. 

Their eagerness to help wasn’t my only highlight of the day. We each left in the morning with a Bible in Arabic to 'forget' on a park bench or a public place and pray that somebody would pick it up and read the Bible for the first time. We sat down outside a mosque to pray for Muslims and I felt God tell me that this was the place I should leave my Bible! We saw a man pick it up and start to read with a smile on his face. God was also at the centre of the rest of the day. Certain challenges involved praying for the community, visiting churches and visiting biblical sites. Also we tried to show love by handing out sweets to kids alongside starting conversations with people. 

I would definitely say my view of this community and the Muslims in it have changed because of this experience. Some of my faith in humanity has been restored by this! If everyone could be as helpful around the world, we would live in a better place. 

Blessed with a growing family and a growing church, especially young single ladies, long-term church planters Grace and Julio focused on recruiting additional team members. “We do better when we are in a team. It encourages us and holds us accountable to spending time with God, making sure He is our strength and focus,” Grace emphasised. Too, she said the couple recognised the difference between their stage of life and that of those coming to faith.

The local young women “want to get married. They struggle with being single. It’s hard to be 25 and still living with your mom and dad,” Grace explained. As a married mother, however, she didn’t have the capacity to meet these women’s relational needs.

Growing the church in their North African city meant “we were spending less time with Muslims and more time with believers,” Grace explained. The new team members they recruited—first one single woman and then another—had time for both.

High on Grace’s priority list as a mom was finding a suitable Arabic tutor for her kids. “I wanted the tutor to be a believer because they spent a lot of time with our kids,” she noted. After the first tutor, a believer, moved on, Grace had difficulty finding a replacement. Finally, someone suggested Maya*, the church leader’s wife.

“To my surprise, Maya would tutor the kids, and then she would hang around. She just liked being with us. It was really sweet. She would talk about her life… She would talk about her and [her husband] and their struggles… She needed a friend,” Grace recalled.

“Over time, Maya became one of my closest friends,” Grace said. At the same time, Julio met regularly with Maya’s husband and another local leader—“a real mentoring time, helping them through issues that come up in the church,” Grace recounted.

Walking through pain

The second half of Grace’s and Julio’s tenure in North Africa brought waves of trial, beginning with the expulsion of their church planting partners from the host country. Arab Spring uprisings tore through the region in 2011, and the church experienced multiple losses.

First, Maya and her husband lost their seven-month-old baby. “That brought us as a church into a new season. That was one of the most painful things that ever happened in ministry,” Grace shared. “We would just continue to talk to them and share truth and truth and truth.”

The husband stood firm in his faith while hurting, but “we were asking everybody to pray for Maya,” said Grace.

“You guys are telling us Jesus heals and He loves us,” Maya would tell Grace. “He didn’t heal my son, it doesn’t feel like He loves me. He doesn’t see me.”

“I was really afraid she was just going to walk away because she didn’t feel any truth in [the faith],” Grace said.

In the end, Maya didn’t walk away, Grace recounted. “She stayed in the church, and in the midst of all this, we had people coming and people going. It felt like there was a core group of people, but a lot of people would come in for a while and then move on. Our responsibility in that was to love and be consistent,” Grace recalled.

“One of the biggest things about church planting is you have got to be consistent,” she stressed. “You’ve got to consistently meet, whether there’s one person or whether there are 10.”

In addition to weekly meetings, Julio and Grace started a mid-week prayer meeting, attended by two to 10 people. “It was a season where the church needed a lot of prayer, and the country needed a lot of prayer. Once every few months, we did an all-night prayer. It was a new thing for locals to come and pray all night…but I think they loved it,” Grace noted. “I think they were feeling like they were doing something.”

Two years after Maya’s baby passed away, another believer in the church died of cancer, leaving his widow and children. Two years later, another believer, Najah*, also died of cancer, leaving her husband and children.

“When she found out she had cancer in the bone, in her legs, that was devastating for them as a family” and for the church, Julio remembered. At that time, the doctor had given Najah two weeks to live.

Her husband asked the church to pray, and members, including Julio and Grace, began meeting in their home every day to ask God for healing. “The Lord extended her time for six months,” he said. “People come crying and wanting to talk to her, but she had a big smile, constantly encouraging them and talking to them about Jesus. Because of her testimony, we had the chance to pray for almost everyone in her entire extended family. Because the Lord extended this time, she had the great opportunity to be a witness for Christ.”

On the last day of Najah’s life, Julio and Grace joined the family gathered around her bedside. We read Scriptures with them, Psalm 23, and we encouraged her, and we asked her, ‘Can we pray with you now?’ She said, ‘Yes,’” Julio recounted.

The extended family, who were Muslim, wanted to turn on Qur’anic chanting in the home and asked Najah to recite the Shahada, the basic prayer of Islam. Five times she said no. “A few hours later, she passed away. Especially for me, it was a very hard time,” Julio shared.

“I’ve told people before when they’ve asked me about church planting, I didn’t know that it would be so painful,” Grace admitted. Najah’s death “was a struggle for different believers—everybody had prayed for her to be healed.”

Grace, too, questioned the Lord’s plan. “‘If you had completed the healing in her,’ I asked God, ‘wouldn’t thousands of North Africans have come to know [You] through that?’ I felt like God said to me, ‘They’re not ready…the people, the country, it’s not ready.’”

Najah “was a great testimony for everyone there, and…out of pain, the Lord has been doing His work,” Julio confirmed. “We’ve started to see different groups start in different parts of the country. These leaders are starting to communicate. Their goal is to pray for their country and pray for the church to grow.”

“There’s a sense of God preparing people for something to come,” Grace explained. “If thousands of people came to know the Lord [right now], there would be no net to catch them. Even the church here and that is growing, they’re not ready. God’s working, He’s preparing, He’s building a net 'to catch' the thousands that will come.”

In 2015, Julio took on the OM field leadership role for the North African country where he and his wife serve. Since then, he and Grace have stepped further away from leadership of the church to focus on growing the OM team and increasing church planting efforts to new, least reached areas in the country.

“Our heart from the beginning was that we wanted this group to be very local and locally led. Now we’re to a point of being not involved other than in an encouraging role,” Grace shared.

Pray for the church to be consistent and “committed to the process of God working things out in their lives,” Grace asked. “It’s easy to back out of the process. It’s hard when He’s working things out in our lives. We’ve got to let Him do his process in us. That’s part of being committed, not just in the good times, but in the hard times, too.”

*Name changed for security

Nicole James is an international writer for OM, passionate about publishing stories of God’s work among the nations and telling people about the wonderful things He is doing around the world.

“When we arrived, there was not really a church,” Julio remembered. “Years before, people had been exposed to the gospel by different groups, but the people didn’t have very deep roots, so they left [the faith].”

In the early stages of their time in North Africa, Julio and Grace used a map of the city to plan weekly prayer walks. They also hosted prayer nights and connected with Rashid*, a worker from another North African country.

Rashid and Julio “really hit it off,” Grace described, and the trio started a small discipleship group, which consisted of a local woman believer, occasionally some of her seeking friends, another woman and one male believer.

“We didn’t know what we were doing; we just stared getting these people together,” Grace admitted. After a year, the group dissipated. The first woman moved to another city, the man disappeared, another girl continued studying and the final girl—whom the leadership team had considered a seeker—travelled to the US on a government-funded grant.

“We prayed that when she went to the US, she would have a host family who were believers, and that’s what happened,” Grace said. “They took her to church…I feel like God was continuing what He did in her heart and life [in North Africa].”

During the next season, Julio and Grace continued to settle into their host country, focusing on the local dialect of Arabic, making friends and having a family. “When you’re a family with small kids, you have value where you are, but you are busy,” Grace stated. Still, she said Arab friends observed her family’s lifestyle, “how we interacted together and how we were trying to bring up the kids.”

“Just being part of our life was ministering to them,” she said.

Then, over a period of time, Julio and Rashid met four young men who all gave their life to the Lord, one at a time. “They were really dissatisfied with Islam. They were seeking for meaning in life and had special concern about eternal life,” Julio described. “We focused on teaching them about the commands of Christ. We started teaching them about repentance, prayer, giving, baptism, the Lord’s supper and church. When we started doing more discipleship with them, these guys were baptised.”

After several years of discipleship, the young men wanted to get married. But they wanted to marry believers. “We prayed with them for a year, and each of them married a believing wife,” Julio recounted. That was a turning point.

Planting a church

“When the guys started getting married, we decided we would have our first church meeting where there were women and men together,” Grace said.

Slowly the group developed. Another local man, who had not become a believer through anyone in the small church, joined the group to study and grow. Several single women became believers and joined. Meanwhile, Rashid also married.

“We felt that these families, these young guys, needed teaching,” Julio explained. So he and Rashid developed a three-month intensive Bible training and invited other North African believers to teach. Five of the new believers met four times a week to grow in their knowledge and faith. “This was very good for these young men and women,” Julio concluded.

Later, he and Rashid started a second intensive Bible study, this time asking participants from the first group to teach.

Dividing and reproducing

Eventually, some believers in the church group moved to a neighbouring city. Then a second small group began meeting there. Both groups appointed a leader, and Rashid and Julio began meeting with them every two weeks. “That was a time where we could pray together, and if someone had an issue, we could talk about it,” Julio said.

In the original host city, the workers identified three subgroups in the church: those able to come most often, mostly young couples and young professionals; a group of people who were married to non-believing spouses, which limited their contact to other believers; and a separate family, who came to Christ together as a unit. Together, the known believers totalled about 30 people.

“It was really just us working with this group of believers,” Grace explained. “Rashid, as a native Arabic speaker, tended to lead. Julio never felt like he wanted to be the leader of a church group…For us, we just felt so blessed to work alongside him.”

To meet the growing need to disciple the women, Rashid’s wife and Grace started a ladies meeting. “We met for hours and hours. The ladies loved it. They were so hungry to grow and to learn. That part was amazing,” Grace remembered.

Still, starting a new ministry was also “stretching,” she admitted. “We had already our [young] kids, and then we were having these ladies’ meetings.”

Then Rashid and his wife got kicked out of the country. “That was a really hard time for us. There were no other foreigners working with this group. It left just us. Honestly, it was really overwhelming. I just thought, we can’t do this. I didn’t feel like my Arabic was good enough, I [thought I couldn’t] take care of the ladies on my own,” Grace shared.

Julio, too, balked at leading the growing church. After a lot of prayer, he asked the local believer, who had joined the initial group from outside, to lead the church plant. “He said, ‘Well if the others are OK with this, then I can do this,’” Grace recalled. He also said, “I’m not doing this on my own, you’ve [Julio] got to do this with me.”

Stretching and growing

From that point, Julio and Grace catapulted into an even busier season of working with the church—Julio acting as the not-so-behind-the-scenes coach of the local leader and Grace continuing with the ladies’ meetings.

Grace, especially, struggled with the responsibility. “I didn’t feel like I had the Arabic for it…I [didn’t] feel holy enough. Who am I to teach them about things I still struggle with?” she recalled thinking.

During prayer, she felt as if God said, “If you create the space, I will come.”

That answer, she said, continued to shape her ministry. “I just try to use what I’ve got to make space for Him [God] to move. In a way, it keeps me humble because whenever something happens, I know it wasn’t because of me.”

*Name changed for security

Nicole James is an international writer for OM, passionate about publishing stories of God’s work among the nations and telling people about the wonderful things He is doing around the world.

Other OM workers in his host country served as a team in one city, befriending Muslim Arabs and discipling a handful of local believers. The university that accepted Emir’s application, however, was a few hours away—allowing him to pioneer ministry amongst students and seekers in another unreached area.

His first month there, Emir remembered feeling prompted by the Holy Spirit to take a Bible with him when he left his apartment and to visit a specific place in the city. “I’m not usually doing that,” he admitted. But that day, he obeyed.

Ahmed*, a man from a neighbouring country, was the first person Emir met. The two men—both foreigners—started chatting about their reasons for being there. Ahmed had brought his brother for medical treatment; Emir had just started a post-graduate programme.

Emir asked Ahmed what he knew about Jesus.

“He’s a prophet,” Ahmed said.

“Why do you think Jesus came?”

“Jesus came because the Jews were corrupted, so He came to fix them. Then the Christians were corrupted, so [the prophet] Muhammad came,” Ahmed offered.

Emir responded by explaining the bloodline of Jesus presented in the Bible, beginning with Adam, and the real reason Jesus Christ came to earth.

Four months later, Ahmed connected with Emir. “I’m back in town for one day. Can we meet?”

Although Ahmed was avoiding religious talk, Emir sensed he wanted to discuss the Bible. Emir opened the Bible app on his phone to Hebrews 11 and handed the phone to Ahmed.

As Ahmed read the text, he remarked, “Jesus is the son of God. He is the same like God.”

“It’s not only what I say; it’s what God’s Word says,” Emir emphasised, showing Ahmed several other Scriptures that confirmed Jesus as God.

“If Jesus is God, do you want to pray to him?” Emir finally asked.

“Yes,” Ahmed said, and immediately began praying. “Lord, I don’t know what is true. I have been in this [religion] all my life. It’s hard for me to take any steps. Just show me Your way. Whoever you are, I will follow you.”

Bibles for fellow students

After the initial meetings with Ahmed, Emir kept in contact with him, reading and discussing the Bible as well as connecting him to the OM network in Ahmed’s home country.

Ahmed’s openness encouraged him, but Emir found little opportunity to share spiritual truth at university during the first year of his programme. Once the second year started, however, opportunities began opening. Within two months of classes resuming, Emir had given four Bibles to fellow students.

He talked to a student in another degree programme as well as a professor—both atheists—about how God created people to be in relationship with Him. And he noticed increased interest from others in his classes. Perhaps the students and faculty had taken the first year to observe Emir, likely the only believer many had ever encountered, he theorised. “Now I have become like a [Christian] reference for the school,” Emir noted. “I feel like God put me at this school, and God has used me in this school.”

Brave seekers

In addition to working on his degree, Emir began partnering with a local ministry, doing follow up with people who had expressed interest online in receiving a Bible. Mehdi*, the first contact Emir met, had already decided he was done with Islam, “so he was searching,” Emir described.

They started meeting to study the Bible, beginning in Genesis and continuing through God’s plan of salvation. “The good thing about him is he is not afraid,” Emir said. “He just wants to meet anywhere, any time, and speak about it. He shares with people he meets in local coffee shops. He doesn’t just share with his family. ...He hasn’t made a decision yet, but he’s so brave.”

Karim*, a second contact from the local ministry, connected with Emir because of similar job experiences. He, too, had already decided he no longer wanted to follow Islam. “He’s going through a divorce, and he’s just feeling his life is collapsing,” Emir shared.

After meeting with Emir and reading a few chapters of the Bible together, Karim took the book home. A week later, “he texted and said he’s really interested in Jesus,” Emir said. “I’m really keen to see him.”

Pray for the students and seekers in North Africa to commit to following Jesus. Pray for more workers to join the OM teams in North Africa to pioneer new ministries among the least-reached people groups.

*Name changed for security

Nicole James is a world traveller and writer for OM International. She’s passionate about partnering with believers to communicate the ways God is working across the globe.

In 1998, Shady joined a short-term outreach with OM to the Near East (NE) field (Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Syria). Afterwards, he joined another short-term team in his home country in North Africa. Two years later, Isaac also participated in an OM short-term trip in the NE before beginning to reach out in his home country. Today, both Isaac and Shady serve in OM leadership for their country.

Training in country

“The main vision for me is to help youth in North Africa to study the Bible, to study apologetics and to learn about how to answer Muslims’ questions,” Shady explained.

Shady trains young people and then sends them out, often with Isaac. “We need a lot of Christians to share the gospel,” Shady said. “We can’t share with millions [alone]. We need to encourage a lot of people to do it, too.”

Many of the young people who participate in OM’s training and outreaches have some church background. But they rarely mentioned Jesus to Muslims. “Now they have the vision and share the gospel every day with their friends at university and their jobs,” Shady said. 

In September, a group of North Africans distributed 9,500 Bibles in five days. “We want to get the Bible into the hands of more Muslims,” he stated.

Sharing abroad

Five years ago, Isaac visited another country in North Africa on a short-term outreach. He met one man named Farid* and told him about the salvation and life found through Jesus. Then, Isaac gave Farid a Gospel and asked him to read it.

“If I don’t understand a verse, what can I do?” Farid wondered.

“Ask God,” Isaac answered.

A few days later, police detained Isaac. When he was released, he met Farid on a nearby beach.

Farid told Isaac he had read the Gospel and asked God for understanding. “I want to accept Jesus and be baptized now in the sea,” Farid said.

Isaac agreed. Farid became his brother in Christ.

After Isaac returned to his country, he lost contact with Farid. Three years later, he visited Farid’s country again. Sitting down in a church, he told another friend about Farid. That friend knew Farid and told Isaac that Farid had led his entire family to Christ.

“I like this story,” Isaac explained. “God is alive. God is present. God changes people.”

Last summer, Isaac and his wife traveled to a Mediterranean country where they hoped to meet Arab Muslims on vacation. The couple had wanted to take a larger group, but issues procuring visas meant they went alone— “a honeymoon and ministry,” Isaac quipped.

During that trip, Isaac’s wife talked to 70 women from North Africa and the Near East. She shared the gospel with all of them and gave them Bibles. Isaac and his wife returned to North Africa after the trip, but Isaac said they should have stayed longer. “We need to disciple them,” he explained.

On another outreach abroad, Isaac shared John 14:16 with a man he met on the street. After hearing the verse, the man stopped Isaac and said, “I prayed today, ‘Lord, let me meet someone who can tell me what is the way to You.’”

Immediately, the man prayed with Isaac to accept Jesus as his Savior.

Praise God for the opportunities Shady and Isaac have to share Jesus in North Africa and overseas. Pray that more North Africans would be trained and equipped to reach out to Muslims with the hope of Christ.

*Name changed for security

Nicole James is an international writer for OM, passionate about publishing stories of God’s work among the nations and telling people about the wonderful things He is doing around the world.

During the summer break, Elisabeth and Annette were invited to visit the family of one of the new girls at the centre for the first time. They spent time with the family over lunch, inclding the three children – aged 13, 9 and a baby girl. The middle child, Zorah*, most probably has a condition called hemiparesis, which is a weakness down the entire left or right side of the body.

Zorah’s handicap means that it is a significant challenge for her to walk. One side of her body is extremely weak and her eyesight is very poor. Yet, she has age appropriate intelligence. In North Africa where they live, shame is associated with disability. The community blames the parents for the child’s sickness or the husband may blame it on the mother and leave the family if he can’t bear the weight of caring for the child or carry the shame.

However, this mother says her daughter is extremely precious to her. She tries to encourage other mothers of children with disabilities to value them and to take them outside and not be ashamed of them.

Elisabeth and Annette brought some materials to help Zorah do some exercises through play. The plastic tube and marbles were fun to use and Zorah enjoyed using the tube as a steering wheel, as something to step over, and to drop the marbles through. She was working hard, using both hands, which is so good for her balance and co-ordination. At times, she was so intent on the activity that she held her breath for long periods and Annette had to remind her, ‘Breathe. Breathe.’

As she was getting hot Zorah took off her outer shirt and the therapists saw lots of little scars like burns all over her shoulders and arms. They were old but obvious scars and some of them were festering.

‘What happened?’ asked Annette.

The mother said she didn’t know how to explain it to her and that she wouldn’t understand. After a while she explained that she had taken her daughter to a special doctor when she was about 4-years old. He had ‘treated’ one side of her body with burning sticks in an attempt to cure her. The mother said it was to scare away Jinn or bad spirits that may have been causing the child’s ‘sickness.'

Elisabeth said that this was an eye-opener for her as she had never seen and heard of such a ‘cure.'

The mother obviously had great love for her daughter yet she was willing to subject her to pain in the hope of a cure. The visitors were shocked at the scars and how much pain the little girl must have been in when the burns had been administered. They wondered whether this is just a custom because of the family being from the countryside or whether it is something more widespread. More than anything else, it showed the family’s desperation in wanting their daughter to be well.

Please pray for Elisabeth and Annette, and other Christian therapists like them in North Africa, to be able to show the families of children with special needs that there is hope. Pray that they will have the opportunity to speak biblical truth into the lives of these families.

*Name changed

This account is documented by OM worker Mary May, who has lived in the North Africa region for many years and who enjoys reading and writing about what God is doing.

Being a new believer in Jesus in the North Africa region is difficult. For locals, “It’s expected to be a Muslim,” long-term worker Sam* stated. In fact, the pressure on local believers often comes more from culture than from religion, he added. Even if a believer’s family members are not religiously devout Muslims, adherence to Islam is still the cultural norm. And for a community-based culture, family acceptance means everything, Sam and his wife Nancy* explained.

The home fellowship Sam and Nancy have led for the past few years consists of North Africans on the fringe of society. For these individuals, familial support provides an even more critical connection.

New believers, however, frequently express zeal for their faith before they show maturity, Nancy said. “Often they will argue with their parents [about religion]. We realised that we need to teach them that our lives are more important to let shine,” Sam said. “Let your changed life speak louder than your words,” Nancy agreed.

Believers build character through trials

Over the last ten years, Sam and Nancy have watched some North African believers in their fellowship mature through trials. Those struggles “show their perseverance. It shows they have some character,” Nancy pointed out.

One believer had experienced constant friction from his family since he accepted Christ several years prior. Every time the family got together, they would persecute him. “Why don’t you come back to Islam,” they would ask. Because of his Christian faith, he felt unloved by his closest community.

At one point, this man needed surgery to remove his gallbladder. When he checked into the hospital, alone and broke, he felt overwhelmed by the surgery and its financial ramifications. Sam and Nancy visited him in hospital and prayed for him. They also gave him some money, “but it probably wasn’t enough” to cover the hospital bill, Sam said.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the believer, his family had taken a collection for his medical costs. They also visited him and brought him food. In the end, Sam said, the man had more money than he needed to pay for his surgery and expenses.

Family rejection, even in its slightest form, can be crippling to new believers, Sam noted. In the case of this believer’s surgery, the family came through, providing an answer to prayer. But even when this man felt most discouraged and wanted to give everything up, Sam asked him if he wanted to give Jesus up, too. “No, I don’t [want to] give Jesus up,” he responded.

Another believer also faced challenges with her family. Following the Arab Spring, her parents constantly played recordings of the Qur’an on television or the radio. “Because of that she would get spiritual attacks,” Nancy remembered. “We started to pray for her more for this area of protection.” Although the believer felt supported by their prayers, she still struggled with the unrelenting Islamic influence.

Eventually, Sam downloaded Christian worship songs in the local Arabic dialect onto the woman's phone. With headphones, she could listen to praise music at home, drowning out the Qur’anic verses. “Also, she has been faithful to come to church despite this persecution of her family,” Nancy said. “She loves the Lord despite her circumstances.”

For a third believer in the small fellowship, following Jesus meant losing his home, at least initially. “His father chased him out of the house after learning he became a believer,” Nancy recounted. “But we know that he persisted in his faith,” Sam said. “He worked hard; he brought in money to the family. Gradually he won the respect of his father.”

Later, the man’s father passed away suddenly from an infection. During the burial process, the man’s mother asked him to wash his father’s body, a task usually reserved for a Muslim. “It was such a big change from being persecuted to being [accepted],” Sam described.

As these and other North African believers they know encountered persecution from their families, Sam and Nancy encouraged them to endure, not only to reconcile earthly relationships but also to build eternal value. “We have a new hope in heaven and a new life there. Perseverance builds character,” Sam would tell them.

“We are beginning to see some fruit in their lives,” Nancy said. “They are still struggling, but they’re better. They are more stable and hungry for the Lord.”

Workers need perseverance too

Like the new believers, OM workers in North Africa also need immense perseverance. “I don’t think most people realise how difficult ministry is,” Sam said. “The most important characteristic of any new person is to persevere even when they don’t see any results.”

Having served in North Africa for 16 years, Sam and Nancy measure success as “being faithful to the call despite the challenges.” Often supporting churches and other individuals want to hear how many people have come to faith on the field, but as Sam reminded, in North Africa, “the results will come, and the results will go.”

Too, sometimes locals profess Christ “for various reasons: [hopes of] visas, getting out of the country, hanging out with foreigners. Sometimes that can be discouraging for workers; you don’t see results,” he said.

Sam noted, “The underlying bottom line is there are not a lot of results. [We are] persevering, not knowing if this will stay… God has to sustain whatever results there are.”

Pray for the North African believers to be established in righteousness and truth. Pray that they will grow in their faith and follow Jesus. Pray that God will encourage and sustain the workers on the field. Pray for perseverance.

*Name changed

Nicole James is an international writer for OM, passionate about publishing stories of God’s work among the nations and telling people about the wonderful things He is doing around the world.

In North Africa, the community of Christian workers in the city where I live began a prayer walking initiative at the start of the year. The idea is to pray while walking down every street.

Why prayer walk?  

1. To bring the presence of Jesus with us wherever we walk in the city – many parts of this city have no Christians living there or even visiting there.

2. To pray for the neighbourhoods we are walking through and the people who live there.

3. To talk with people, share, or pray with them when we have the opportunity.

4. To work together across mission agencies in our shared goal of reaching our city. This has been a great way to build unity and partnership.

Doors and gates

Recently, the OM team in this North African city partnered with a group of eight enthusiastic short-term visitors to go out prayer walking for an afternoon. There were about 13 in total, so we broke into four groups to cover as much of our piece of map as we could.

My young daughter Bethany* and I were in one group together and as we walked, a song kept coming to our minds. We had just been at a prayer weekend where the kids had a programme that focused on Psalm 34:8 and their theme song was “O Taste and See” from Bethel Kids. The song was fresh in our minds and we kept singing it as we started down a new street, changing the words to “COME taste and see that the Lord is good.”

About 30 minutes into our prayer walk, Bethany said that God had given her a picture as we were praying. In her picture she saw a long corridor (a bit like the long streets where we were prayer walking) with lots of doors coming onto the corridor. The doors were closed and represented religion. Next, she saw that the doors started to open and people started to come out from behind the doors, because they no longer felt that their religion was the right one. Dissatisfied with Islam, they came into the corridor looking for something else. When they looked down the corridor, they saw a golden door with an angel on either side and they started to walk towards it.

We started praying that people would come out from behind their doors and gates because of their dissatisfaction, and we asked that they would see the 'gold door', that they would walk towards it, seeking for the Truth, and that they would meet Jesus.

The neighbourhood that was our focus area for that month was quite a wealthy one with large homes behind tall walls and big gates. There was little opportunity to meet anyone on the streets to talk with or pray for. But we started praying that someone would come out. We didn’t meet anyone on our walk, but one of the other prayer teams did!

When we debriefed the prayer walk, one of the other teams had had an encouraging encounter. As they were walking down a street, they saw a family get out of a car to go into their home. The wife was heavily pregnant, and the man was being helped into a wheel chair. They all felt they wanted to pray for this man, but were unsure how to start the conversation. The man in the wheel chair greeted them, and started talking in perfect English.

They chatted for a short time before the conversation turned to spiritual things. They offered to pray for him and when he agreed, all three of the team prayed for him one after the other.

Hannah* felt God led her to pray that this man might grow in his knowledge of God. As soon as the prayer was over, he looked at Hannah and said, “You prayed that I would grow in my knowledge of God. That is what I want.” He went on to say that he believed that God, as the Creator of all things, knows how He wants to be worshipped by his creation. He said that he wanted to know more about God so that he could discover how God wants to be worshipped.

It seems like God is at work in the life of this Muslim man. He immediately asked for their contact details so that they could talk more. Hannah took a local friend with her to visit with this family a few weeks later. Hannah's friend talked with the man for some time, while Hannah got to talk more with his wife. They seemed very open to continue to learn more.

Pray that God will open the eyes of this man’s heart to see Jesus for who He really is. Pray that he would journey towards Jesus together with his wife and other family members. Pray for more opportunities for Hannah and her friend to visit with them again or for God to speak to him in other ways.

Bethany and I were encouraged that what we had prayed for, had been answered right away. It helped show us again that we are stronger when we work in teams - that what one team prayed, God answered through another team. Praise God for His great love for our city and please pray that many would come to Christ in the cities of North Africa!

*Name changed

This account is written by OM worker Mary May, who has lived in the North Africa region for many years and who enjoys reading and writing about what God is doing.

On this occasion Maria thought, ‘Oh, no, I don’t feel like going. I didn’t plan for this today.’ On the other hand, she’d been thinking about Fatiha for a while and it was time they met up. So Maria went out to meet her friend.

Maria had to wait for a long time at the cafe, and when Fatiha eventually came she was with a friend. They had been waiting for some repairs or alterations to be done at the tailor's. Then they asked about work – teaching Arabic, for one of them and for the other, some house cleaning. It seemed Fatiha had suggested to the other woman that Maria might be able to find her some work.

Then suddenly the conversation opened up about Saturday – the day in-between. Maria was able to explain why she had celebrated Good Friday the day before, why the day of Jesus’ death, which his followers call Good Friday, was, in fact, good news. She also told them about Easter Sunday, Jesus’ resurrection and what that meant for her.

The ladies listened attentively and were interested when they heard that many had seen Jesus after the resurrection and that many had witnessed Jesus’ ascension into heaven. They listened, without any of the usual objections.

By the time Maria got up from the table and said her goodbyes, she was happy she had made the effort to meet friends on the day in between and share about the meaning of Easter.

Open door in the classroom 

Maria had another opportunity to share about the meaning of Easter when she had her English class the following week. When preparing the conversation topic for that week, Maria couldn’t seem to think of anything spiritual in the form of a story, parable or proverb to share with her class relating to the topic.

However, her students asked directly about Easter and about how Maria had celebrated it and what it meant. So Maria had another wonderful opportunity to share about Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Please pray for Maria as she seeks to share truths about Jesus with her friends and students in North Africa; that she would know God’s wisdom and courage and take up God-given opportunities to show God’s love and proclaim His truth. Please pray for her students and friends, that they would be open to hear about the truth of the gospel and that many would come to Christ.

*Name changed

This account is written by OM worker Mary May, who has lived in the North Africa region for many years and who enjoys reading and writing about what God is doing.

“Whenever we have visitors, they know what we’re there for,” Mary explained. “We make the most of the opportunities their presence gives us.”  

When the couple’s friend Elise* visited them, she participated in the team meeting at their flat. “We had quite a loud worship time,” Mary remembered.  So, afterwards she visited the neighbours, people she and Alex had seen in the stairway but didn’t know well.

“I’m really sorry if we made too much noise. Here’s the leftover food!” she apologised.

“Oh, what were you doing? We heard the guitar. It was lovely. Were you having a party?” Salma*, the neighbour’s daughter, wondered.

“We were singing,” Mary replied. “It was like singing prayers. We’re praying for the country.”

“Like church?” she asked. “I’d quite like to come to church to see how you [Christians] pray.”

“It’s Easter soon,” Mary said. “Would you like to come?”

“You get chocolate eggs at Easter!” Salma noted.

Mary told her that candy was a tradition at Easter but not the reason Christians celebrated. “I gave the whole Easter message right there,” she shared.

Salma asked her mother if she could attend the Easter service and she agreed.

On Sunday, the church celebrated two baptisms. One of the men being baptised was a local. He gave his testimony in Arabic, which was translated into French. Then the congregation took communion. 

Traditionally the English speakers went out to lunch after the service, so they invited Salma to join. While the group was eating, Salma announced that she would like to attend church again. “There was such a joyful, peaceful atmosphere,” she described.

When Alex, Mary and Elise were back at the apartment, Mary encouraged Elise to give Salma a gift before she left: a New Testament, a tract or a DVD (More Than Dreams or Magdalena). Elise chose the New Testament and a DVD, wrapped them and delivered the present next door.

After Elise left, Salma attended church a second time with Alex and Mary. Again she enjoyed the service and expressed interest in returning. When the couple saw Salma’s father, he, too, said he would like to visit the church.

Back in her home country, Elise texted Salma to find out how she was doing.

“I’m well,” Salma wrote back. “Good to hear from you. I’m reading the Bible you gave me, and I’d like to go back to church.”

Pray that Salma and her family would respond to the Bible. She and her father seemed interested and willing, “but willingness to talk and coming to faith are not the same thing,” Mary shared. Pray that the seeds sown in their lives would bear fruit.

*Name changed

Nicole James is a journalist, ESL teacher, and adventurer. As a writer for OM Middle East North Africa, she’s passionate about publishing the stories of God’s works among the nations, telling people about the wonderful things He is doing in the world.

A one-sided conversation

I had a few people on my mind I wanted to see. My friend’s husband is elderly and has many challenges in his health. I had been praying for him, and although his wife and some other family members are believers, he, to my knowledge, is not a follower of Jesus.

For this reason, I went midweek, when no one else would be visiting. I honestly tried to share with him about Jesus, but as soon as I mentioned spiritual matters, he started telling stories about certain ‘prophets’ that only older men seem to know about, stories which have been passed down orally and are mostly fables. With his speed of speaking and unclear diction, I could hardly keep up with him.

When I mentioned Jesus the Messiah, he had a story to tell too – one I’d never heard before!!

I tried to drop in a few seeds of biblical truth, but it was difficult. Despite my good intentions, I barely got a word in edgeways. Still, his wife was happy. She hadn’t seen him so animated for days, as he’s been in bed recovering from a serious infection.

A chat in a taxi

I left my friend’s house and for part of the journey home, I got a local taxi. I was so keen to share at this point, that within a few seconds, the taxi driver and I got into an interesting conversation. I’m not sure about how it started, but we were soon talking about his family. His wife wore the full religious Muslim covering, hijab. He liked to spend time at home with his family, not in cafes socialising all the time with other men. There were a few of his comments that impressed me, especially his devotion to his family.

The taxi driver asked me if there were prophecies in the Ingil  (the Gospels). I said there is one predicting Jesus’ birth and that of John the Baptist. I also emphasised the fact that the prophets in the Old Testament talked about the circumstances of Jesus’ birth, life and death.

In John 14:16-20 it talks about the Holy Spirit – “ I will send you a comforter, a helper”.  Many Muslims believe this refers to Mohamed, as the word for comforter is similar in the Greek to the meaning of Mohamed /Ahmed. I had recently heard a young convert to Christianity say that it’s strange that Muslims can claim this verse in John when they reject all the important events preceding and following this verse – especially the fact of Jesus’ death and resurrection. I was able to share this with him, and he thoughtfully replied, "I see what you mean." 

What is heaven like?

Later, I went with a friend to have a coffee.  As we were catching up, she said, "Let’s call my husband to come and join us."  His office is in the vicinity of the cafe. When she rang him he said, "I’m at the door." He was feeling thirsty, and while passing, had decided to get a drink at that place.  So he quickly sat down with us.

I had already had some good conversations with my friend’s husband. He told me he had been looking at the Bible online and had asked me some questions about it.

As we sat drinking coffee, the subject he brought up was heaven. Hamid* asked me what the Bible says about heaven and whether there is a river there. (According to the Quran, there is a river in heaven.) I replied that there is a river there, according to the book of Revelation.

I told Hamid and his wife that God is the light of heaven. Our focus will be on God and we will have great joy being with Him. We will worship Him with a great throng of people.

Hamid asked, "I wonder why Christians have such a spiritual view of heaven, whereas in the Quran it’s so physical?" In Jenna, Muslims are promised women and wine - that doesn’t make a person drunk. He said, "It’s probably because God knows that Westerners are more attracted by spiritual things, but Arabs are more attracted by physical things."

I replied, if God gave two different religious groups contradictory pictures of heaven, just to attract them, that would be totally dishonest. Truth is truth and God cannot lie. But if so called ‘prophets’ were to give two very different pictures of heaven, that’s another matter! 

*Name changed

This account is written by OM worker Mary May, who has lived in the North Africa region for many years and who enjoys reading and writing about what God is doing.

After a while, Maria offered to teach English if Bahia was happy for her to do it through stories in the Bible.

Bahia is from a conservative Muslim family, and though she is married with children, her family members were not happy for her to come to Maria’s home on her own. Her niece, Jamila, who was of a similar age, came with her for a while. Jamila seemed quicker in understanding the truths in the books they studied, but was reluctant to continue with the classes.

Maria started the classes by inviting the women and Bahia’s children for some traditional food from her country. She did art with the children and tried to study with Bahia and Jamila. When it became obvious that they couldn’t focus on the study with the children there, Maria asked if the adults could come on their own.

Over several months they studied Jonah and a number of the prophets. Later, they followed some study material through the books of Judges and Ruth. Maria recalled one time when it was raining heavily and it would have been difficult for them to get the tram in such stormy weather, but they came. 

While they were reading about Gideon, Maria asked them why Gideon had changed from his earlier experience of trusting and obeying God. Gideon and the people were worshipping idols (earlier, he had destroyed household idols). Jamila said that Gideon had lost his love for God, that’s why he worshipped idols. 

Maria also did the El Messiah studies with Bahia which are designed to take Muslims through the prophet stories and into the New Testament to learn about Jesus. The El Messiah studies started well, but Bahia became very angry at times, especially at the truths being taught stating that Jesus is God and God is Father. She had showed the same resistance in parts of the previous studies, but now it intensified.

Bahia’s father is an Imam, a religious Muslim teacher, and she is now studying Islamic studies in the university. Jamila had backed out of the studies several weeks before and Bahia stopped coming. For several months she didn’t have much contact.

Maria went home to her home country for 6 months and when she came back she had a phone call from Bahia asking for her to pray for Bahia’s mother who was sick. Later, when her mother was better she thanked Maria for her prayers. She also mentioned that during her university courses, she was learning about some of the prophets and this had reminded her of the studies they had done together. She said she was reading Jonah again.

Maria took the opportunity to ask her friend if she wanted to study the Bible in English again. They had a few classes based on John’s gospel and Maria found their discussions were clearer now because they could use both English and Arabic, as Maria’s English and Arabic had improved. After 4 chapters, Bahia reacted to Jesus’ claims to be God in John and they stopped again; this time partly due to Bahia’s exams. 

Again, Maria felt very disappointed that although her friend was willing to study from the Bible, she didn’t seem open to accepting the truth about Jesus. She wondered if Bahia only wanted to learn English and have an excuse to get out of the house.

Recently, Bahia has come back and they are doing a study from 1 John. Again, Bahia is arguing about how the truths in John 1 contradict her beliefs. Maria commented, it was amazing, though, how she keeps coming back for more Bible studies.

This experience with Bahia is making Maria think and pray about how she can find a bridge to speak to her friends. She had felt a disconnection – a great desire for her friends to understand and accept the truth through reading the Bible and disappointment when they don’t seem to grasp the truth. 

Though she had felt very disappointed about the way some of her conversations were going, she has found that deepening her devotional time with God has helped her to feel reconnected with some of her friends and to have courage to carry on pursuing their friendships.

Pray for Maria that she will be patient and keep sharing from the Bible whenever God gives her the opportunity. Pray she will have wisdom in how she shares truth with her friends, especially Bahia, who has read so much of God’s Word. 

*Name changed

This account is written by OM worker Mary May, who has lived in the North Africa region for many years and who enjoys reading and writing about what God is doing.

A link in the chain

Even before Jared* and Lacy* left their home country in Asia, a pharmacist friend told them about a North African product popular in high end skin and hair care. “When you’re there, check it out,” he recommended.

During their first year in country, the couple focused on language rather than business opportunities, but they did find a sample of the product in a local market and sent it to their friend for Christmas.

As a pharmacist and business-minded person, he passed the present along to a client, who raved about the product. Then their friend asked Jared and Lacy to ship multiple boxes of the product to him.

Soon they found a reliable supplier and began exporting the all-natural, fair trade product regularly. One woman, who had suffered from a skin condition for years, noticed a distinct improvement after using the imported North African product. Harvesting the product also provides jobs for local women, Lacy noted.

“I see it as a picture of a chain. You have the women who have been doing all this work, our supplier who comes along and discovers this…We come along and we buy from him and we export it,” she described. “It’s like a reflection of the kingdom of God. We all have a different role to play. We all need each other.”

By partnering with another local company to sell the product, Jared and Lacy gained their residency permit through the business. “We don’t see a difference between ministry and work,” Jared explained. “We’re doing business with integrity, caring for local people and caring for local believers.”

The couple regularly shares business insight with their local friends, including the ways they have resisted the country’s rampant corruption. Spreadsheets and sales are “everyday talk that they understand,” Lacy said. “Because the product is a uniquely local product and we are exporting it, they feel that sense of pride and connection.”

Every business owner hopes to be profitable, but many businesses fail. “This business might close after a few years,” Lacy acknowledged. “During the time that it was open, if we have touched lives, if we have shown integrity, paid our bills, paid the staff that we hired and treated them well, we feel that honours God and makes a difference.”

A vehicle for truth

Long-term worker Amos* also heard about a promising natural product from someone outside the country. He started to explore the product with a local friend, Fadi*, who wanted to start a business and beat the unemployment facing many university graduates.

Amos’ business model sells for high profit abroad. In order to tap into the international market, Amos partnered with a pair of wealthy locals well-connected in the export business.

“There’s lots of risks involved in getting into business with locals,” he said. “At the moment there’s no money involved, but it has the potential to make a lot of money. I think the Lord is teaching me to hold it with very open hands.”

Still, Amos saw the venture as a reason to invest in his friend Fadi on a regular basis. “My prayer is really the same for Fadi and for these rich Muslim businessmen that we’re involved with. They’ve never had a Christian in their lives, and now I have a reason to be there.”

In the office and on the 40-minute drives to the area where the product is produced, Amos looks for opportunities to share. “There are not many workers in our community who have access to that kind of circle,” Amos explained. “What the Lord does with those interactions is up to Him. But my dream with this business is that it would be a vehicle for His truth.”

Nonetheless, the everyday motion of looking for openings often seems “ordinary and unsupernatural and difficult,” Amos shared. “Sometimes I think it’s futile to listen to these guys for hours and hours and hours, but if I get to say that one thing…and they spend even ten minutes thinking about what that might mean, I’m happy with that.”

With Fadi, Amos told him outright that he wasn’t interested in creating a successful business together, but discovering, when they died, that one of them was wrong about truth.

“It’s no problem,” Fadi regularly reassured him.

“It is a problem,” Amos countered. “Because when we die, one of us is right and one of us is wrong. It’s more important than building a business. What’s important is discovering the truth.”

Paralleling the gospel

From the beginning of her time in North Africa, OM field leader Marie* knew she needed a clear identity in order to thrive. After four years serving the field doing internal finances, she got a job at a local company, which provided a residency visa as well as a natural way to connect with people.

“I got involved with [the company] because my vision is similar: they’re empowering people, creating jobs for people and enabling them…I got paid by doing the position, and I enjoyed it,” Marie said.

After six years, the company closed, and Marie considered her options. Based on her training and experience, she decided to start her own business focused on training and consultancy. The company provides tourists a deeper picture of the country and gives them insight into language and culture.

“I still believe in the vision of empowering people,” she noted. “My approach has always been holistic. I wanted to be able to naturally connect with people, not just present the gospel in the spiritual sense but give people a tool to help them in their living. If someone comes to know the Lord and they don’t have a job, they’re going to struggle. We need to be able to help them both in the spiritual and in their skill set.”

Marie’s business is self-sustaining and employs locals. Some of her former staff started their own businesses after working for Marie. “They have transferrable skills because of their experience with us,” she said.

Involvement in business has seeped into Marie’s view of missions. “I really see a parallel of bringing the message to the people and marketing a service or a product to your audience: ‘Who are the people who are ready to pay?’ It’s the same with the gospel: ‘Who are the people who are looking for the truth?’” Marie explained.

In both situations, perseverance is key, she added. “There are many times I have wanted to walk away from [the business] because it’s challenging, but that’s the same with the gospel…I haven’t seen anybody come to know the Lord. A lot of friends have heard the gospel, but God keeps reminding me, ‘You’re in the right place. Just keep doing what you’re doing.’”

Building up believers

In this North African country, business is not only important for workers but also for believers. The high unemployment rate makes it difficult for people to find jobs, Lacy said. In addition, local believers might face discrimination and persecution for their faith. “If they can be encouraged and upskilled into ways that they could do their own small business, that would help them be more independent,” she stated.

At a business conference for like-minded workers in the host country, a speaker asked the audience what the greatest need for local believers was. Bible studies, discipleship, theology, the audience ventured.

“No,” the speaker said. “The greatest need is a house.”

“It is illegal to meet as a group in any [public] place to worship God as local believers,” he explained. “They can’t go to the community centre to rent a room. They can’t meet in their father’s homes…The only way they can meet is in a private setting, most likely in someone’s home.”

To get a private home, local believers need sufficient money to rent or buy. “To have money, you need a job.” He explained about this area with such a high unemployment rate, “That is why teaching people how to have jobs is so essential for church growth.”

*Name changed

Nicole James is a journalist, ESL teacher, and adventurer. As a writer for OM International, she’s passionate about publishing the stories of God’s works among the nations, telling people about the wonderful things He is doing in the world

Bringing more lights

In terms of workers, the city where long-termers Keith* and Mandy* live had always been a bit of a dark spot. For years, the worker population had never topped more than a handful of couples.

A few months after Keith and Mandy moved into town, they hosted a short-term team. After dinner one night, Keith dropped the young men off on the corniche, the paved walkway paralleling the sea and asked them to spend time praying over the city and listening to what God said.

Rupert*, a civil engineer and one of the short-term team members, later shared what God had revealed during his evening stroll. “As I walked down the corniche, I could not work out why they needed to have so many lights so close together,” he said. “As I was in my head, trying to work it out, God spoke clearly: ‘I’m going to bring more lights into this place, more than people would think is necessary. I’m going to illuminate this place.’”

That prophecy was fulfilled four months later, when Keith and Mandy learned more workers were moving to the city. The newcomers, sent by other organisations, quickly joined the inter-company community starting to emerge. “People [here] are not company specific, they’re collectively working together,” Mandy explained.

“We’re all bringing light that’s not been here before, and the enemy is against that,” Keith noted. “I don’t think the gospel’s every been proclaimed as much as it is right now.”

With the workers in place, Keith met with the couples that had been in the city the longest. “I think we need to start thinking strategically and building community in this place,” he said. “First, we want prayer and fasting on Sundays. Second, we want corporate prayer… We don’t want little empires; we want one strategic vision.”

The older workers endorsed Keith’s desires, so he sent an email organising the first corporate prayer in the city. “We got together, and one thing that struck us was we could not believe that 90 percent of people could make it. We sat and we prayed and we worshipped for six hours,” he recalled. During that prayer meeting, they took time to involve the kids – worshipping with them and blessing them – then they asked God to reveal His will for the city.

The pictures, and subsequent dreams, some of the workers received were startling: an arch of curses placed over the city and a counterfeit suit of spiritual armour deceiving locals.

From that first prayer time, more meetings evolved, including weekly gatherings for both the men and the women to intercede. Together, the worker community continued to pray into the city and reach out to local friends. “The truth is we’re convinced of the gospel going forward holistically. We are definitely speaking about the kingdom of God [to locals], we definitely want to get the Word into their hands, and we definitely want to love and serve them,” Keith stated.

However, Mandy cautioned, ongoing strategic prayer “must be the building blocks and the foundation. If you’re going to do the ministry [but] if you’re not wiling to do the strategic prayer, the rest is a waste of time.”

NORTH AFRICA

Praying together over a sleeping city

Ben* and Linda*, long-term workers who have lived in their North African city for seven years, ten in the country, said that the inter-organisational worker community there “is praying fervently for an unexpected harvest.”

“We have the sense that God is preparing, that we’re all in preparation for [Him to] move,” Linda shared.

Their ultimate vision – for the Gospel to multiply between locals – still shows little evidence of happening where they live. “I have no clue what God’s doing in this city,” Ben admitted. “But the evidence that He’s doing something is this worker community. We are an international, spiritually diverse group, but we each have a story.”

Several years ago, Ben and a colleague started a summer prayer group. Eventually, those people began meeting a second time during the week. Both meetings stuck, showing that God is moving, Ben and Linda explained.

“What does encourage me again and again and again is those scriptures that talk about us being the light of the world and being the fragrance of Christ, and when we are together as a worker community, I see that the Lord has brought us from the four corners of the world,” Ben stated. “None of us have any reason to be here, and yet each of us have a story of how God drew us to this city. We are all here together in this city. Something compels us to rise together two times a week, when [locals] are still sleeping, to pray.”

Once a week, the workers meet on top of a nearby hill, Ben described. Early in the morning as the city wakes up, they pray together. “Every single week, I have the sense in my heart that God watches the city, that God looks over the city with the heart to draw people to His truth. The fact that we are there, saying, ‘Have mercy on these people,’ is the evidence that God is longing to answer the prayer that He plants in our hearts… It’s a profoundly supernatural thing that draws us together to pray.”

“We pray pretty big prayers,” he continued. Together the workers ask God for “tens of thousands that would be declaring faith in Jesus—that there would be these overwhelming celebrations when light has come, when truth has come, when freedom has come.”

Seeing a shift

When long-term workers Caleb* and Natalie* arrived in North Africa 14 years ago, spiritual discussions with locals often led to arguments. “People were resisting,” Natalie described. Lately, however, she’s heard more stories of workers having conversations with locals who want to know more. “That’s quite a key shift for me,” she said. It’s also an answer to prayer.

“We prayed for years that God would open people’s hearts and minds,” she explained. Seeing it happen now “creates a sense of urgency that this season might not last forever.”

Between inter-organisational country-wide prayer weekends where workers interceded for particular themes; a cross-company city mapping scheme for prayer walking through neighbourhoods; and weekly prayer gatherings, “there’s been so much focused prayer in the last four years,” Natalie stated. “That’s part of preparing the ground for what’s to come. The more people have prayed, the more faith has risen that God is doing something in this country and will bring the harvest in.”

Still, she said “it’s worth praying into what preparation needs to happen before the day that the church is large. Now it feels like there’s been that season of preparing the ground in terms of praying for the harvest, praying for the openness, praying for the fruit.” The next step, she suggested, was praying for the church – when it grows – to receive favor in the eyes of the government.

“People’s interest in prayer worldwide seems to be growing,” Natalie commented. “There’s been a growing sense of wanting people to see the connections between prayer and evangelism…God’s preparing workers in terms of coming together and being more thoughtful in terms of how they go about reaching their cities.”

“Things are speeding up so fast, and God’s doing so much in this part of the world, that we don’t want to waste time. We don’t want to duplicate what’s already being done [in terms of prayer], we just want to pray more and encourage others to pray more. We want to be keeping up with what God’s doing.”

*Name changed

Nicole James is a journalist, ESL teacher, and adventurer. As a writer for OM Middle East North Africa, she’s passionate about publishing the stories of God’s works among the nations, telling people about the wonderful things He is doing in the world.

When they’re whole, the patterns are pristine, but sometimes pieces break.

For long-term worker Sally*, moving to North Africa felt a bit like breaking tiles. She recalled rubbing against rough edges of cultural differences—both the North African nuances discovered in daily life and the international mind-sets encountered in team dynamics. Her seamless communication abilities faltered under the pressure of a trio of new languages: the local dialect, standard Arabic and French. Busyness chipped away slowly, and loneliness spread thin lines across her weakening façade.

Two years into her stay, she wondered whether it was time to leave. As she thought about the hard things on the field, she realised “maybe struggling points are not the main key, the main reason to leave this country or not. Struggling points show me some lesson.”

Space to create

Sally decided to delve deeper into what God was teaching her and how he was using her in North Africa. One thing God revealed was her creative attitude. Whenever there’s an obstacle, “I try to find some creative way…how to overcome [it],” she mentioned. “God gave me…patience through prayer.”

Sally’s creativity touched many aspects of her life. While in language school her first year in-country, she’d found herself with extra free time. So she taught herself how to sew a fabric bag. Her team encouraged her to teach local women.

Taking their advice, she partnered with a centre run by other Christian workers. Almost 70 women attended her first class. From there, Sally decided to streamline the process. She printed pictures of other handmade bags and asked the women to make one at home. The task was a test, she said. If they completed the bag by themselves, they could join Sally’s class again.

For the second project, Sally dressed a stuffed toy bear in a jalaba, traditional regional clothing—the toy pattern adapted from something she found online, the dress outline carefully traced from an authentic baby-sized outfit lent to her by a friend. In total, Sally’s class sewed more than 30 bears, which they sold at a holiday bazaar.

Although the sewing projects were successful, Sally had to tailor her teaching methods to the women in her class, who spanned several social classes. Patterns needed to be traced, rather than replicated according to scale, as some women were illiterate and couldn’t read numbers.

After finishing the bears, Sally saw a friend’s artwork, which included broken tiles. “Wow, this is very useful!” she thought. One day, she and a friend walked around the neighbourhood, collecting ceramic scraps off the street. She went home, washed and dried the broken bits of tile, and introduced the new project to her class: artfully arranged tiles surrounding a mirror.

With this project, more than the first two, the women at the centre had freedom to express themselves, making the broken pieces beautiful. The idea went over so well, in fact, that Sally started another similar project soon after—tile art photo frames.

Instead of combing the streets for broken tile, this time she visited local shop owners, who gave her tiles for free. She focused on incorporating more vibrantly coloured pieces into the second round of tile art, the rainbow hues representing hope. “It’s the new model,” she explained.

Sally’s class not only taught the women new skills, it also allowed them to raise money to support the centre, which provides free care for handicapped children in the community. The women, whether mothers or neighbours, are warm-hearted and compassionate, Sally described. “They are healthy, so they want to help the handicapped people.”

Providing a creative space for others helped Sally express her own personality as well. “I have a talent to share good things with others. So when I get some experience, automatically or naturally, I’d like to share it with others. Like with the Gospel also, I’d like to share. I’d like to be a great blessing to others.”

Space to share

Although most of the class’ proceeds fund the centre, Sally once offered to help the women sell a side project—key chains made from local fabric—for profit. After Sally had sold the key chains, she visited Aisha*, one of the crafters, at home to deliver her earnings. Aisha then invited Sally in for a meal.

At her house, Sally asked Aisha if she would help her read Arabic. She agreed, so the women sat down together and read a portion of the Gospel story. The other women in the family, also present, sat down to listen. “It’s not like the Qur’an,” they noted. “No,” Sally agreed, taking the chance to share the truth of God’s Word with the whole family.

Another woman at the centre asked Sally to help her with English. After some hesitation, Sally agreed, basing her curriculum on Bible stories—the prophets, Ruth, Judges and, eventually, Jesus. “We had a class with the Bible and read the Bible for two years,” Sally said. The woman’s father was an Islamic teacher, so she often brought up teachings from the mosque. “She knows a lot now,” Sally mentioned. “She understands very excellently, but she compares [the Bible] with the Qur’an, and she cannot believe.”

Through relationships forged in class, Sally hopes to continue to introduce the Gospel to women without pressure. “Creative work really touches people’s hearts,” she shared. “I have confidence that this centre and this creative work opens relationships.”

Pray for Sally to be filled with God’s power as she talks to her local friends. Pray for her to continually develop her language ability, so she can share truth more effectively. Pray for the women in her class to develop skills that can change their lives, and pray for them to encounter the One who can change hearts.

*Name changed

Nicole James is a journalist, ESL teacher and adventurer. As a writer for OM Middle East North Africa, she’s passionate about publishing the stories of God’s works among the nations, telling people about the wonderful things He is doing in the world.

“Since we arrived, people are asking us, what are you planning to do,” Daniel said. “If God wants us here, we are not worried about it. But actually, we are humans, and we were a little worried about it.”

After watching a few friends leave the country, having failed to find the necessary sponsors, Daniel and Loretta prayed about a job opportunity in another area of the country. Although the job’s location was less than ideal, the employer promised Daniel a work contract once they moved. Until then, he secured a 6-month visa for the couple.

In the end, the employment offer fell through, and Daniel and Loretta needed another way to stay. “We had no way to have any kind of visa,” Daniel remembered. Their home currency had also fallen against the dollar, lowering their support level.

“Then another miracle happened,” Daniel said. He remembered another contact who had wanted to hire him the previous year, when Daniel was too busy running a different ministry. Daniel sent the man a message, writing, “If you still need me, I will accept the job.”

“Ok,” the man replied. “When can you start?”

Daniel wrote back, asking for a particular salary and for a residency visa.

“Ok, we want you here,” his then future employer responded. Daniel started working for the company two days a week but quickly increased to three days after his supervisors realised they needed him more.

The job is a good fit from a professional and a spiritual standpoint, Daniel said. His current position lets him use lots of creativity and gives him opportunities to talk to locals in an otherwise closed environment. Seeing God provide the visa also encouraged him and Loretta: “This helped us to understand that God wants us here,” he shared.

At the same time God provided Daniel an opportunity to earn money and procure a visa, he also gave Loretta a new job. A local hair stylist recently lost an employee, so she asked Loretta to work with her. Although Loretta actually wasn’t interested in accepting the job, she began to pray about the offer.

As she prayed, she realized God was not only providing another source of income but also giving her a new ministry. “I’m putting you inside their houses,” she felt God say. Indeed, the treatment requires her to spend three hours with the women, and Loretta returns to each house every three months. “It’s not easy to get inside these houses,” Daniel noted. Loretta’s job, also three days a week, “is already a very amazing opportunity,” he described.

“Lots of things are changing. We have totally different ministries,” Daniel summarised. “But these things came to us, we were not looking for them. This was total 'magic' from God’s part.”

Pray for God to continue to provide visas for Christian workers in North Africa. Pray for workers to have sensitivity in noticing and using opportunities to share. Pray that God would protect workers’ emotional and spiritual health and provide wisdom and security.

*Name changed

Nicole James is a journalist, ESL teacher, and adventurer. As a writer for OM Middle East North Africa, she’s passionate about publishing the stories of God’s works among the nations, telling people about the wonderful things He is doing in the world.

During their 20+ years of service in North Africa, long-term workers Candace* and Michael* befriended one man living in a remote village. Intensely proud of his heritage, Omar* had set up an in-house museum and restaurant to honour his traditional items and cuisine.

The first time the couple visited Omar’s village, he showed them around his home. Above one door, Candace noticed an interesting symbol: two hands placed between three triangular points. Omar explained the room had been used for prayer. People entering the room were supposed to bow in reverence and put their hands above their heads. Intrigued, Candace asked about the three triangles. “It’s what you people call the Trinity,” Omar replied.

Throughout the tour, Candace and Michael noticed other symbols related to Christianity, such as heirloom bridal veils with tie-dyed red circles forming a cross.

On a subsequent visit near Easter, Omar told the couple about a celebration happening the following Sunday. “That’s when we have the festival where the children go around the village waving palm branches,” he said.

Candace asked why the village celebrated the festival, but Omar didn’t know. “It’s one of our traditions,” he stated.

Realising the significance of the Sunday before Easter, Candace told him the whole Palm Sunday story. “I’ve got [the story] in a book. Would you like to have one?” she asked. Omar said yes, so Candace fetched the wrapped Arabic-French Bible she happened to have in her car.

The last time Candace and Michael visited Omar, they ordered a meal from his restaurant – the family’s only source of income – and wandered around the village while waiting for their hosts to prepare the food. They walked up the hill to a nearby mosque and stood looking across the city. While admiring the view, they heard the call to prayer rumble from another mosque, but the one where they were standing remained silent.

Later, they asked Omar why the mosque near his house hadn’t sounded the midday prayer call. The Imam couldn’t be bothered to walk up the hill five times a day, Omar told them. The lack of public prayer calls concerned Omar less than another confrontation he had had with the same Imam, who used to relieve himself in front of Omar’s house on his way down the hill from the mosque.

Since then, the Imam hadn’t spoken to Omar, and Omar hadn’t attended the mosque. “Why should I go there?” he asked Candace and Michael. “The Imam doesn’t speak to me, and he urinates in front of the house.”

Furthermore, Omar complained that one time he had attended the mosque, the Imam criticised him for placing his left foot inside the mosque before his right foot. “God doesn’t care about these things, does He?” he wondered to the couple. “God cares about the heart, doesn’t he?”

Pray for Omar and his family as well as other locals living in remote villages. Pray that the truth behind their traditions would lead them to a knowledge of Jesus. Pray for believers to visit these villages and share truth with the people living there.

*Name changed

Nicole James is a journalist, ESL teacher, and adventurer. As a writer for OM Middle East North Africa, she’s passionate about publishing the stories of God’s works among the nations, telling people about the wonderful things He is doing in the world.

And from the team’s focus on prayer and relationships, to the vibrant colours reflected in the markets, to the easy contact with locals, to the fashionable way women dressed, to the country’s stunning natural beauty, Rae-Ann only had positive words about her two weeks on outreach after she returned. “That’s really like a gift of God, just to enjoy everything,” she described. “It was so special.”

Prior preparation

Before her trip to North Africa, Rae-Ann already had close contact with many Muslims in her community. Initially, she had befriended some refugees attending her home church in Europe, visiting their accommodations and inviting them to different events, including a prayer night for the persecuted church.

That evening, hearing some of the refugees’ stories and seeing the pain in their faces, changed Rae-Ann. “That was the moment my heart got touched,” she remembered. “They became my friends.”

During that same period, Rae-Ann was struggling to determine what to do with her life. She attended a well-known missions school, but, after finishing the course, returned home without further long-term direction. So she started working at a home for refugees—a volunteer job that required her to raise support. Several years later, the situation at the home changed, and Rae-Ann began to feel restless again. “I felt like I should move,” she noted. “I had the desire to go on a missions trip.”

A quick perusal of short-term trips in one OM magazine discouraged her—they all seemed so expensive, she thought. However, the long-term option for North Africa, building relationships and learning Arabic, caught her attention. She decided to apply for the Transform opportunity as a way of discerning whether North Africa was part of God’s long-term plan for her life.

Local contacts

In North Africa, Rae-Ann quickly realised how important Arabic was for making relationships. The outreach leader, a long-term worker there, chatted quickly and easily in the local dialect with new acquaintances. Rae-Ann and another, newer team member usually waited for translation.

One afternoon, while the leader was talking to someone in Arabic, Rae-Ann and the other girl decided to pray to meet their own, English-speaking contact. After a few minutes, they saw a large tree near a bus stop and walked over to the people waiting under the shade.

“Hello, do you speak English?” Rae-Ann asked a girl standing there.

“Oh, what’s the problem?” she replied in English.

“There’s no problem. We just wanted to chat with someone. We’re here for the first time in this city,” Rae-Ann and her team member explained.

The three continued talking for several minutes, the two foreign girls asking the local about her city and her life. When they invited her to join them for lunch, she agreed, shocking Rae-Ann. At home in Europe, “no one has time to do that!” she exclaimed. “For us, it was encouraging that we were praying for contacts and then we met her.”

Another day, the outreach group met a family outside their home. The girls started a conversation, and the family invited them inside for a two-hour visit, serving them tea and cookies and showing them the city view from their roof.

“They were very hospitable,” Rae-Ann described. “I really needed to think about the house of peace, the people of peace. Of course in Arabic, you say it like that: salaam aleykum,” peace be on you.

“If you are willing to be open, then you get in contact with people,” she noticed. “We were intending to make contact. Sometimes this didn’t really feel comfortable. We could have also just had a coffee somewhere.”

But, because of their intentionality, the short-term team had “beautiful encounters with people,” Rae-Ann recognized.

Through talking to locals and exploring the country, “I really felt a lot of peace,” she said. “The feeling that I had before, that this could be my place, that only got more and more confirmed.”

Team life

Just as Rae-Ann investigated the country, discerning whether she could live there long-term, she also considered the team dynamics. “I liked that it was relaxed, and there was not too much pressure. There was just a nice atmosphere in our team, it was very open, and we could share a lot,” she described.

In the beginning of the trip, Rae-Ann acknowledged the personal insecurity she had about travelling with two girls who were already friends. However, they all developed jokes together and, during a discussion later on, Rae-Ann discovered each one of the group members faced misconceptions in their minds.

“We had a very nice team moment to talk about how we were thinking about ourselves and seeing that it was something spiritual,” Rae-Ann said. “We prayed about that. I think that was really good to do.”

One of her last days in country, Rae-Ann also met with the OM team leaders. “We were able to speak from heart to heart. We really felt such a connection. They are people with the same passion,” she affirmed.

Next step

“Before I went [to North Africa], my plan was already if the trip works out and I’m still excited, then I want to go in January (via OM’s GO orientation conference for new recruits). When I came back, I was very excited, so there was no question,” Rae-Ann explained. Currently, she is in the interview process, applying to both her OM home office in Europe and to the team in North Africa.

Already, Rae-Ann is looking forward to next year and is keeping in contact with a local woman she met there over a smart phone app. “If I’m going to live there, I already have my first friends,” she stated.

She’s also considering the challenges of her eventual move—being on her own, getting taxis, trying to buy items from the market, learning a new language. “I know that if I go back there, I need to go out there on the street and try out things. That’s exciting but can be challenging and scary,” she admitted.

But her short-term experience in the country and the need for workers there convinced her to take the risk. “When people go on missions, it’s only a few percent that go to Muslim countries. I enjoyed it so much, and there’s so much openness,” Rae-Ann said. “I’m really at the point of surrendering, of leaving everything behind.”

The field Rae-Ann is applying to join hopes to recruit 20 long-term workers by 2020. Are you interested in serving God overseas? Check out opportunities to GO with OM.

*Name changed

Nicole James is a journalist, ESL teacher, and adventurer. As a writer for OM Middle East North Africa, she’s passionate about publishing the stories of God’s works among the nations, telling people about the wonderful things He is doing in the world.

“Salaam alekum,” Jennifer said, using the traditional, Islamic greeting. Everyone in the room stopped and listened. “Are there Muslims where you live?” the young man helping her and Ted asked.

“A few,” she answered, “but we’re a Christian land.”

Hearing Jennifer’s religious stance, the man told her that he had recently responded to an online advertisement promising free Bibles. After he received his Bible in the mail, however, a person repeatedly called him to follow up. “They’re trying to convert me, aren’t they? But I’m not going to get converted,” he concluded.

“Oh yeah, I saw that,” another employee in the room added. “I wrote in and got one, too.”

Recognising an opportunity to share, Ted and Jennifer suggested another website to the two employees. They gave them a URL to a page with worship songs and commentary in the local Arabic dialect. “We were excited about being able to sow some more seeds,” Jennifer said.

When Ted and Jennifer first arrived in North Africa, they worked for another organisation focusing on Bible translation. In the beginning, local believers did not want to use a Bible written in their own dialect, preferring the standard Arabic translation, Jennifer explained.

For many years, the couple laboured to make progress on the project, eventually passing it on to other champions “who struggled equally as hard,” Jennifer said. Right before she and Ted left North Africa, they heard about the translation’s fruit.

Friends shared that on consecutive days, two locals, both struggling to understand the standard Arabic Bible, were introduced to the local dialect translation, available on a smartphone app. For half an hour, both individuals had poured over the app, asking the other worker not to interrupt their reading.

“Now [the gospel] is reaching people, and that was the intention,” Jennifer shared. “It’s such an exciting way to be leaving on that note, to know what we worked so hard on is bearing fruit and being used. Maybe they’re not being saved yet, but they have the opportunity to hear it and understand and hopefully come to faith.”

Pray for North Africans to access God’s Word, in print and online. Pray for more intentional Christian workers to move to this region, to befriend locals, and to share their lives and the truth of the gospel. Pray for economic stability and spiritual revival.

*Name changed

Nicole James is a journalist, ESL teacher and adventurer. As a writer for OM Middle East North Africa, she’s passionate about publishing the stories of God’s works among the nations, telling people about the wonderful things He is doing in the world.

The Nubian people were one of the first African people groups reached in church history, but by the 14th century, the believing population was overtaken by Islamic expansion. Today, HSI knows of only one Nubian believer. 

Through a connection with another mission agency, HSI was invited to come and help a group of North African singers reach out to the Nubian people.

“This project was particularly challenging because the Nubian believer was the only one who could speak the language or translate the songs,” said Kelly*, who led the team of ethnomusicologists. “We helped the North African singers understand the Nubian music and culture so that they could effectively minister to that people group,” she continued. 

The ethnomusicologists invited a group of secular musicians to join them in the project and play the music they would write with the Nubian believer and North African singers. During the planning stages of the trip, the HSI leadership team was praying that two Sudanese Nubian musicians would be willing to work on the project with them. 

Audrey* remembers that during this time of prayer the team was unsure that even two secular musicians would volunteer. “We were blown away when they learned that they would be working with seven Sudanese Nubian musicians!” she exclaimed.  

Before this project, many of the North Africans had never interacted with the Nubian people. Working together was a fruitful time of bonding and relationship building for the two people groups.

“As outsiders, we were able to enter in and build a bridge between the two peoples,” Kelly said. “We used music as a tool to build relationships.”

By the end of the trip, the group of ethnomusicologists had worked together with the Nubian believer, secular Nubian musicians and the North African singers to create a first draft of a worship song in the Nubian language and traditional music style. The song they created was modeled after Psalm 23, which puts emphasis the Lord’s role as our protector, provider and comforter. 

Originally, the North African composer used what instruments and musical style he knew to create the song. After the critiquing process the group decided to replace those instruments with the traditional Nubian oud and frame drums, as well as make changes to the arrangement to place more ornamental emphasis on the instrumental arrangement and remove the flourishes from the vocal arrangement. 

The added emphasis on traditional instruments and music transformed the piece and ensured that if someone heard the song they would immediately recognise it as Nubian. 

“I think this project was a great encouragement to the Nubian believer,” Kelly said. “The possibility of seeing how God can work in your own people group is really exciting.”     

By the end of the week-long project, the North Africans and the Sudanese Nubians had developed strong relationships with each other that would last long after the HSI team left. They brainstormed how they could work together on future projects and even dreamt of putting together a Christmas production. 

Please pray for the rebirth of the Sudanese Nubian church and for the Sudanese Nubian believer to remain encouraged. Pray the North Africans and the Sudanese Nubians would continue to develop strong relationships with one another and successfully collaborate in the future. Pray they would be inspired to continue using their talents to create music that glorifies the Lord.

*Name changed

Lauren O'Shea is a journalist from the United States. She is a communications intern for OM Middle East North Africa and is dedicated to telling the world what God is doing through global missions and the arts.

Swiss participants Jonas and Janine signed up for OM's Transform summer outreaches to separate North African countries as a way of discovering a continent they’d always found intriguing and testing whether they could imagine living there long-term.

Jonas’ team visited refugee families, talked to and prayed with them and delivered food packs. Seeing more than six people in one small apartment, with only two thin mattresses to share, surprised and saddened Jonas. “We weren't able to do a lot for them but when we left, they had a smile on their face!” he remembered.

His team also visited patients in a Christian hospital, prayed for them and and gave them biscuits and soft drinks. In addition, the team led a Sunday school programme for refugee children at a local church.

Janine’s team focused on prayer, meeting OM workers across the country she visited and praying for North Africa, the Mediterranean region and other Transform outreach teams. They prayed in public – on prayer walks in two different cities – in private homes and for individuals who stopped to chat.

“God [taught] me to listen to His voice, about the importance of prayer and about a tiny part of what He has done, is doing and He wants to do on Earth,” Janine shared.

Cultural observations

For both Jonas and Janine, the different North African cities they visited apparently dwarfed Swiss urban centres.

“I'm not used to stay in as big cities as the ones I stayed in in North Africa,” Janine admitted. “The culture is very different and is influenced a lot by the Islam…People seem to be more open to talk about faith than in my country. It is normal to believe in God and pray, in contrast to where I live.”

“There are so many people,” Jonas commented on his own encounter with one North African capital. “But [all the] people we met and spoke to, on the street or somewhere else, they're really friendly, much more than in the West.”

However, with more people comes more poverty, Janine noted, and “a lot of dirt and dust on the streets,” Jonas described.

The soaring summertime heat affected both of the Swiss short-termers. One afternoon, standing by the Mediterranean Sea whilst wearing long trousers, Janine thought wistfully of swimming. “The way of clothing is also very different,” she mused.

“There is not the same freedom in behaviour between men and women as I am used to,” she added. “For example, men and women should not look in each others’ eyes and go somewhere without someone else…I cannot go running by myself as a woman.”

Of course, not everything was different. “For sure, North Africans have also cars and live in cement houses, and most of the food you’ll find in Switzerland, too. And they are made by the same God,” Janine exclaimed.

Spiritual opportunities

During the outreach, Jonas said God reminded him of Matthew 22:37-39 and the command to “love your neighbours as yourself, no matter where they come from, what colour skin they have, what language they speak,” he stated. “God first loved me and by His grace I'm saved. So there are plenty reasons to love all my ‘neighbours.’’’

The language factor aside, Jonas found it difficult to share the Gospel in words whilst on outreach. Instead, the team often went on prayer walks with the aim of ‘accidental’ literature distribution. “We walked around through the city, and [at] different places, for example drink a sip of water, take a picture, and after you accidental[ly] forget a little Bible,” he explained. “Then you have to pray to God that the right person will find the Bible.”

In contrast, Janine was “surprised how open some people are for the Gospel.”

She told one taxi driver about the Gospel and gave him, as well as others, a flyer with a website address on it. That Internet page, she said, contained testimonies from local Christians and further information about the Bible.

Her team also met a man, who, when asked if the foreigners could pray for him, instead wanted prayer for an older gentleman he knew. “We could pray for the injured leg of this man and share the Gospel with [these] two people. They have been very happy meeting us,” Janine recalled.

At the beginning of the outreach, Jonas’s leader shared the trip’s possible outcomes with his team: “You have two options. One, you'll love the people, the culture, the country, and someday you'll come back. And the other option, you don't like the life here so you won't come anymore.”

For Jonas, the first answer fit. “I definitely love this country and the life there!”

Nicole James is a journalist, ESL teacher, and adventurer. As a writer for OM Middle East North Africa, she’s passionate about publishing the stories of God’s works among the nations, telling people about the wonderful things He is doing in the world.

On the outreach day, Rachel set out with two other girls. They walked around the city, praying and looking for opportunities to meet people.

Nearly halfway through their time in Barcelona, Rachel noticed a group of veiled women by the port. She went up and started talking to several women in Arabic, discovering they were all from another country in North Africa. “They were really friendly, and I could understand enough of what they were saying,” Rachel recounted.

Even though she enjoyed talking to the women, she walked away with a little doubt. “It’s ok if I don’t meet people from my host country,” she consoled herself.

A little later, Rachel walked past three young people and heard them speaking Arabic. She glanced at the group, noticing that the girls, like many women in her host country, were wearing Western clothes.

“Where are you from?” Rachel asked them in her dialect of Arabic.

When they responded by naming her host country, she jumped up and screamed. Rachel told them the city where she lived, and the three surprised her by telling her they were also from the same area.

After Rachel shared that she taught English, the North Africans asked her about another American they knew – Rachel’s former boss. And when she told them about spending time at the city’s many cafes, they recommended a particular place – Rachel’s all-time favourite cafe.

The group told Rachel they were all studying in France, but they exchanged Facebook information and telephone numbers, arranging to meet next time they were in town.

“Today I prayed that I would meet North Africans from my host country, and I met you guys,” Rachel told them.

“I walked away, having really only shared that I had prayed I would meet them,” Rachel stated. But the encounter encouraged her. “I really felt like I connected with them. Maybe because they’re North African and we were in Spain, and I speak their dialect of Arabic, but I felt like it was more than that… In communicating with them, I felt a fluidity that I had really never experienced before, and that was really special.”

On the way back to the bus, Rachel overheard another pair of ladies speaking Arabic. Again she asked them, in Arabic, where they were from. Again, they told her they were from her host country. One was a doctor working in Spain, the other simply visiting her friend. Rachel and the girls with her chatted with the women for a few moments and exchanged contact information.

“When connections are made, friendships are formed, and that will bring about opportunity,” Rachel said. “I really felt God answered my prayer in such a specific way and in such a special way. It reminded me to pray specifically because God is working.”

*Name changed

Nicole James is a journalist, ESL teacher, and adventurer. As a writer for OM Middle East North Africa, she’s passionate about publishing the stories of God’s works among the nations, telling people about the wonderful things He is doing in the world.

“Before getting to know Muslim women, I thought, ‘What do I talk to them about? How do I relate to them?’ But it’s so easy to relate with them,” she encouraged the women listening. “Even in the most conservative parts of the Muslim world, you can be with a Muslim girl, and she’ll still want to talk about guys and if she likes guys or if she wants to get married one day or school or crushes.”

“Ask questions and show interest, and they’ll do the same to you,” she suggested. “And just ask the Holy Spirit to work through you.”

In love

“How do you feel loved? How do you receive love from other people?” Melissa asked the roomful of participants. “With my friends back in North Africa, I just love to make them smile and laugh—that’s a way to show love.”

In fact, she continued, all the “Love Languages” (physical touch, quality time, words of affirmation, gifts, acts of service) work as well with Muslim women as they do with other friends. “It’s true wherever you go: women love to feel loved,” she stated.

According to one long-term worker in Turkey who ministers to refugees, “visiting is very special, especially [during] Eid (holiday at the end of Ramadan)…Visiting in these three days means that you value their friendship.”

Another long-term worker in the Near East agreed: “Spend time with them, ask them questions and listen to their stories. Especially conservative Muslim women are often at home during the day, so visiting them is a way to show love.”

In faith

“When you go and you invest in relationships with Muslim women, whether it’s because you’re going on an outreach or because you have Muslim women in your hometown…having a friendship with these women opens doors to talk about your faith,” Melissa said.

“They love to talk about faith,” she exclaimed. Because Islam integrates faith into everyday culture and traditions, Melissa encouraged the women at Transform, as Christians, to also be open about their beliefs.

Too, she told participants to talk about Jesus: “Muslims know Jesus as a prophet, as a miracle worker, as a healer, as a good teacher. They know him as the only man being without sin, too. They don’t know him as their Saviour.”

Sharing doesn’t mean hour-long sermons, Melissa added. Once she told the Gospel to a friend in just under a minute. “That’s ok. You are able to plant tiny seeds wherever you are, and God is the One Who grows them.”

A different long-term worker in the Near East said she loves Muslim friends “primarily by praying for and with them. I can’t fix their problems, but I can share in their struggles and participate in their lives in that way. It’s never been turned down and always seems to be very much appreciated.”

In life

One of Melissa’s friends in North Africa mentioned that she loves Muslim friends “by loving their children. I look after them when they need me to. I am there for them.”

“In the way you live, be an example to believers and to Muslims,” Melissa challenged. Often, Muslim women form opinions about Christians based on mainstream media and other foreigners who visit their countries, she explained. “Be open about the way you live…your life is such a testimony.”

Melissa shared an idiom from North Africa: “They say you smell good if you’re a good person or if there’s something good about you.” That idea, she said, corresponds to Scripture, “For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ” — 2 Corinthians 2:15 (NIV).

At home

Women travelling from Transform to the Arab world could apply what they’d learnt at the conference immediately, but Suzanne* (Germany) and Amanda* (USA), two Transform participants headed to an outreach in Sicily, had another purpose in mind—two of their best friends back home.

Suzanne, halfway through her business degree at university, grew up with her Muslim friend, who lived down the street. “We’ve always been open about our faith,” Suzanne described.

A few years ago, Suzanne walked with her friend through a difficult family situation. Recently, she said, her friend has dived deeper into Islam. Earlier this year, Suzanne’s friend got married, but she is still waiting for her husband to obtain a visa to Germany.

Recognising the worth of this waiting period where her friend is “still free enough” to meet and spend time together, Suzanne admitted, “It’s easier to talk to someone you don’t know about your faith… I’m trying to find a way to approach the subject and learning how to speak to her about it, but be loving and caring at the same time.”

Attending seminars at Transform helped Suzanne “understand the mind of a Muslim,” and hearing “so many stories of God working encouraged me to be strong and courageous” in sharing with her friend, Suzanne affirmed.

Amanda, currently obtaining her masters degree in teaching, met her Muslim friend on a college athletics team. During the girls’ junior year, they decided to room together, strengthening the friendship formed through fitness.

Since they both loved travel as well, the two took multiple trips across the globe together—to Australia, Japan, the Arabian Peninsula (AP) and Israel. Throughout their talks and travels, Amanda said her friend “was really open about her religion. She would ask me questions about my faith.”

When Amanda spent time with her friend’s family in the Arabian Peninsula, they, too, posed several questions about Christianity. “I didn’t have all the answers, but it was the first time her younger sisters heard about Jesus,” Amanda explained.

At Amanda’s first Transform conference, she learnt about the five pillars of Islam. “That made me understand so much more” and provided specific questions to ask her friend, she remembered. This year at Transform, during Melissa’s session, she realised how important dreams are to Muslims. “My friend would share her dreams all the time,” she noted. “There’s so many things I learn here that I can’t learn in America.”

Pray for workers among Muslims, including Amanda and Suzanne, to have boldness and wisdom in loving and sharing with Muslim friends. 

*Name changed

Nicole James is a journalist, ESL teacher, and adventurer. As a writer for OM Middle East North Africa, she’s passionate about publishing the stories of God’s works among the nations, telling people about the wonderful things He is doing in the world.

Sitting in her living room, sipping on a cup of iced tea, Heidi pondered her experience as a childless woman in North Africa. “Sometimes you think, ‘Wow, in the Arab culture, children are so important!’ In a sense, being childless might be a hindrance or a barrier or something,” she suggested. “But to my surprise, being childless opened up other doors.”

Three encounters

The first time God used Heidi to speak into a local woman’s life was with her neighbour. “She is also married and childless and her name is Hanan,” Heidi described. “She expressed to me how she and her husband want children, but somehow it’s just never happened.”

“You know,” Heidi told her, “Your name, Hanan, sounds like Hannah from the Bible.” Heidi then shared Hannah’s story—how, as a barren woman, she fervently prayed to God, and, eventually, God gave her a son. Hearing the Bible story gave Hanan a lot of comfort, Heidi remembered.

The second time Heidi connected with a local lady about being childless happened during a trip to the neighbourhood market. “I was doing my shopping, and she was doing her shopping,” Heidi said. In the culture, asking about one’s family is a normal part of polite conversation, so Heidi responded quickly, “Yeah, we don’t have kids.”

“You know there’s this herb you can take,” the woman offered.

Although the lady suggested the natural remedy to change Heidi’s condition, “it didn’t make her pity me, and it didn’t make me ashamed. Rather it came from a place of love,” Heidi recalled. “Usually childlessness in the Arab culture is seen as a shameful thing, but I really felt loved by her.”

The third encounter occurred with a policeman while Heidi and her husband were applying for their residency. Naturally, the question came up again: “Do you have children?”

Heidi said no, waiting for the policeman’s reaction. “Usually, they say, inshallah,” if God wills, she noted.

This time, however, the man answered differently. “My sister is also childless, and that’s also God’s will,” he shared. “Sometimes women have children and sometimes they don’t.”

In all three cases, “these conversations were not the stereotypical reaction that you would normally get, knowing that this culture [values] so much raising children,” Heidi said.

“God uses every family situation, whether you’re single, whether you’re married, married with or without children, or married with grown up children,” she continued. “At any season, whatever stage you’re at, you can touch a segment of that society that no one else can… For me, as a childless woman, I was able to talk to Hanan. God uses wherever and whatever situation you’re in to touch lives.”

*Name changed

Nicole James is a journalist, ESL teacher, and adventurer. As a writer for OM Middle East North Africa, she’s passionate about publishing the stories of God’s works among the nations, telling people about the wonderful things He is doing in the world.

When Madeline heard her team leader, Kate*, talking to another mom about transitioning their middle school girls out of the Arabic school system, she knew she wanted to help. Although Madeline had been teaching English to locals for two and a half years in North Africa, she was praying about the possibility of teaching kids again. “You can be more creative when you’re teaching [subjects] besides English,” she noted.

In the decision process, Kate said Madeline’s willingness to teach the girls was the most important factor. Additionally, her existing relationship with all four girls and her experience in an international classroom equipped her for the job. “She had the experience before with people [who spoke] another language, and she had experience as a teacher so she could be sensitive to where they were at. They’ve had a really great year,” Kate described.

Experience

Madeline graduated in 2008 with her teaching degree and went straight to OM's Ship Ministry, where she served for two years teaching elementary school. “It was really fun teaching because it was neat to be part of the community,” she shared. “It was just a sweet relationship you had with your students. Not only are you their teacher, you’re all going through the same things together.”

As part of OM's Ship Ministry, Madeline joined a prayer group focused on the Arab world, which tuned her heart to Muslims, particularly the need in North Africa. After finishing her two-year commitment with the ship, Madeline returned home to fundraise for her move to North Africa. During that time, she also obtained a certificate for teaching English. “I thought it would be useful in finding a job later on,” she said.

Indeed, teaching English became vital to her ministry in North Africa, providing her identity within the local community as well as supplementing her financial support. She also gained broader experience teaching different age groups, including teenagers.

Relationships

Of course, when it came to teaching these four girls, the teacher-student relationships extended beyond the classroom walls, much as it had during Madeline’s time with OM's Ship Ministry. Two years prior to teaching the girls, Madeline and her roommate had led a drama club for younger girls in the worker community. The next year, they did a weekly Bible study with the same group.

“We did the book of Matthew and prayed together,” Madeline recalled. “That was a good way to get to know the girls (and their friends) before I started teaching them.” In fact, because the school curriculum includes Bible, she continued incorporating Bible study into their classroom routine.

“There are so many opportunities to speak truth into their lives,” she continued. “Because it’s a small class, it’s not like I have to worry about talking about God in the public schools. It’s pouring all this truth into them.”

The past year Madeline said she prioritized the girls and teaching—a shift from her previous four years which had focused on befriending locals. Having a classroom setting also meant her mornings started early; whereas her previous English teaching job had mainly happened at night. “My supporters know what I’m doing,” she shared. Her local friends, too, knew she was teaching foreigners in English. “Because I have the teaching background, it makes sense in their mind,” she said.

With teaching from 8:30am to 1:30pm, Madeline has also had afternoons free to continue language study and meet with her existing friends, maintaining relationships and discipling a close friend who is a new believer.

Both in regards to teaching and discipling, Madeline has learned to be faithful in friendship and leave the rest to God: “It’s God’s work, we’re just called to be with people and loving them.”

Overcoming challenges

Madeline enjoyed teaching the girls, but she still struggled with personal challenges, lack of interaction with other teachers and some classroom issues.

Even though she prioritized teaching, she still set a boundary on her lesson preparation hours. “As a teacher, you can always teach the lesson better,” she said. “If I did, I would spend all my time doing that. It’s frustrating when I’m in the middle of the lesson thinking this could be so much better if I had prepared more.”

Equally frustrating was the girls’ tendency to compare themselves to each other. “If one gets a 98% and one gets 100%, the girl who gets a 98% is really upset,” she explained. “Part of that is coming from the local system where they’re encouraged to compare themselves to each other.”

Madeline decorated the classroom with bookshelves, timelines and posters highlighting relevant subjects, but she sometimes struggled to find necessary teaching materials in local shops. Science proved particularly problematic, she shared: “We were supposed to do dissection this year with your frogs and your worms—all these things that you could just get a kit for back home.” In North Africa, however, faced with the impending lesson plan, she wondered about her options: “Am I supposed to go kill a frog?” She settled on dissecting a fish, amply available from the local fishermen. Midway through the school year, she still wavered about the second lesson. “I haven’t decided if I’m going to go to the butcher and ask for a cow heart,” she admitted.

Kate’s daughter, one of Madeline's students, described her as “sweet, caring and smart.” Compared to her North African teachers, Madeline was “a lot nicer” and “in tests, she always gives us extra credit,” the girl added.

“We’re sad she’s leaving,” Kate admitted, “but I think this year has been a wonderful transition for the girls. I think they can move well into something different.”

Are you interested in using your teaching skills overseas? Check out options for teaching with OM: http://www.om.org/en/job/s3542

*Name changed

Nicole James is a journalist, ESL teacher, and adventurer. As a writer for OM Middle East North Africa, she’s passionate about publishing the stories of God’s works among the nations, telling people about the wonderful things He is doing in the world.

For Esther and Deborah*, another Christian worker serving in this North African country, the above inconveniences have become commonplace as security continues to deteriorate.

“That they are still there is a miracle of God’s grace,” exclaimed Max*, the field leader. “We’re thankful that Deborah and Esther feel the peace to be there,” his wife, Sandy*, agreed.

In fact, in the midst of the country’s struggles, both women have found increasing opportunities to share at their workplaces. They also participate in social activities with Muslim friends. “They go to weddings. They go out for coffee,” Sandy described.

And as they interact with locals in country, the people are asking them questions. “Sometimes it’s the really basic questions, like, ‘How could Jesus be the Son of God?’ But they’re asking. This is a significant step,” Max explained. Once, Esther overheard a friend ask another local, “Did you know there are actually Christians from our country?”

Believers – both inside the country and abroad – have taken advantage of media outlets to share their faith. Few local believers trust other locals enough to meet for Christian fellowship, but Max and Sandy are glad that local followers of Jesus can meet for fellowship online. Even unbelievers access Christian literature online. A local described Christianity to Deborah at work: “What I love about Christianity is that Jesus is all about forgiveness. Islam isn't like that.”

Of course, Esther and Deborah closely monitor the security situation in the country. Extremism, the threat of kidnapping and the increase of other crimes are never far from their thoughts and the thoughts of their local friends. When asked why workers would enter such a difficult situation, Max replied, “We’re asking Muslims to put their lives on the line to come to Jesus. If we’re not ready to put our lives on the line…what in the world are we doing? If you don’t believe that the Gospel and what it offers is true, then this is insanity.”

Pray that God would protect workers in this North African country. Pray that they would have boldness, wisdom, and discernment as they engage friends and colleagues in faith discussions. Pray for local believers to find fellowship, online or abroad. Pray that God would call more people to engage this country with the Gospel of peace.

*Name changed

Nicole James is a journalist, ESL teacher, and adventurer. As a writer for OM Middle East North Africa, she’s passionate about publishing the stories of God’s works among the nations, telling people about the wonderful things He is doing in the world.

Tami* and Jonas*, long-term OM workers in North Africa, have noticed a recurring theme during their years in their host country: making beautiful things in a spiritually dark place. 

For the past four years, they’ve shared their desire for aesthetic and spiritual transformation by organising intercessory art weekends for Christian ministry workers and artists. “In the making of beautiful things together with other people, God often speaks about how that’s what He’s doing in this country. His job is redeeming and transforming people’s lives,” Tami explained.

As a self-described creative, “I’ve always valued creativity as an expression in worship and in prayer,” Tami said. “Art and prayer for me just naturally go together.”

However, this passion to translate creativity into worship does not exist universally within the body of Christ. “I’m not sure creativity is something that’s really been thought about or taught about within the church,” Jonas observed. “If you have someone who’s musical or they like to write poetry…how does that work into the life of the church?”

For some workers in North Africa, prayer art weekends have become one answer to this question—an annual event developed from “our own personal interest to explore art as prayer and inviting other people to join us,” Tami said.

Intercessory art

In 2012, Tami and Jonas organised a Mediterranean regional prayer gathering in Malta. Tami felt the meeting needed to include a place to make art. A small art table at that gathering, organised by another attendee involved in art ministry, evolved into a day of intercessory art before the next year’s regional meeting and eventually transformed into full weekends in North Africa, focused on creative prayer.

The three-day gatherings, open to the wider prayer network in the host country, always attract professional artists as well as non-artists. “I like that mix of different people called together,” Tami noted. While most people come knowing the weekend is art-focused, others attend to make music together, facilitating simultaneous art and worship.

During the weekend gatherings, Tami said attendees have huge amounts of freedom to express themselves—through individual art projects or music or journaling. Some type of corporate project provides structure for those less artistically inclined, and the group always takes time to share with each other. “It’s giving creative people a chance to be creative together in community and helping people see creativity as prayer,” Tami described.

The weekend is also about the process. “In the process of making something, there’s communication happening. I’m praying, God’s speaking, and we’re making something,” she continued. “It ends up being extremely meaningful when we all get together and share. Often in the process of making something, I find the Holy Spirit speaks in [attendees’] lives.”

The tangible products created during the prayer weekends also become lasting visual prayers, continuous calls to intercession. “When we pray with words, the prayer is gone. It’s spoken and gone upwards,” Tami said. Visual prayers are different: “Every time I look at something, it’s a visual reminder of the prayer. It keeps praying, so I keep praying every time I see it.”

Public prayer

At the last prayer art weekend, organisers decided to focus the time on prayer for their host country’s government. They also picked six strategic locations around the city to physically go and create art.

The event started with corporate worship, and then organisers asked attendees to spend time listening to God. “Where is He directing you in terms of the six locations? Where can you pray? What can you create?”

After talking with the others, small groups gathered necessary art supplies and headed to the various places around the city. On the first day, Tami accompanied several others to a garden near an important government building. They spent time prayer walking along the property’s wall; one woman played old hymns on her trumpet; another person started sketching; Tami was drawn to a picture of a tree. As she prayed for the country’s leaders, she thought of two Bible passages connected to righteousness and good advice, Psalm 1 and Jeremiah 17:5-10. She began making a tree, representing her prayer that the leaders would be people of righteousness and integrity, surrounded by good advice.

When the groups gathered back together later that afternoon, Tami said many artists’ work included a theme of trees and plant life. “That prompted a lot of prayer into this concept: where does life come from, the source of life, having roots that go into this living water?” she remembered. “That became the theme of the whole weekend.”

Over the course of these prayer weekends, Tami said she and Jonas have seen again and again how the process of making something with your hands releases people to experience something new in their relationships with God. “I think for both of us that brings a joy to see people connecting with God in a different way,” she said. “It’s fun, I think, to challenge what people perceive is prayer.”

*Name changed

Nicole James is a journalist, ESL teacher, and adventurer. As a writer for OM Middle East North Africa, she’s passionate about publishing the stories of God’s works among the nations, telling people about the wonderful things He is doing in the world.

While hiring household help could seem extravagant in western contexts, in North Africa, hiring a cleaning lady makes a lot of sense, Bethany said. Close proximity to desert dryness creates incessant dust, difficult to diffuse with a simple broom. Cleaning ladies have the right tools and free up time and energy for foreigners focusing on outreach ministry.

Hiring local ladies also shows compassion and love. “It’s a way of giving an income to someone who wouldn’t necessarily have an income,” Bethany explained. “The other reason is if you have someone in your house every week, you’re able to live your life out in front of them, and you’re able to share with them in a way you wouldn’t do with other people.”

Bethany’s cleaning ladies, like many lower class women in this North African country, are illiterate. In her experience, “they don’t respond well to theology, they didn’t study, they don’t know a lot about Islam.” Therefore, personal interactions carry more weight. “They respond a lot to what they see and to kindness.”

Powerful answer to prayer

When asked how Sana*, the mother who first cleaned Bethany’s flat, came to faith, Bethany said her journey to Christ was gradual. Bethany, along with other Christian women whose houses Sana cleaned, shared consistently when she came and prayed with her every time she showed up to work.

Another experience that Sana includes in her testimony occurred when one of her sons got married. The family planned a rooftop ceremony but worried that rain would interfere with the event. During the preparations, Sana called her sister, also a believer, and her oldest daughter, Aisha*, into a room.

“We have to pray,” she told them. Together, the three women prayed to Jesus that the rain would hold off until after the wedding. Soon after, the bride arrived, the women served the food and the ceremony took place. As soon as the last guest left, it started to rain.

“These kind of things are very powerful for North Africans,” Bethany said. “When something physical happens like that after they’ve prayed to God, it makes their faith grow enormously. There are a lot of situations where they’ve experienced God and say, ‘Oh yeah, He’s answering our prayer.’”

Journey to faith

Sana and her sister are now both believers. Bethany said she’s studied the Biblical prophets and New Testament with the women. They have also watched the Jesus film multiple times. In fact, Sana’s husband, a religious Muslim, has also seen the movie.

Aisha, who began cleaning for Bethany after the work became too much for Sana, has also spent time praying and sharing with Bethany over the last years.

“We pray every week, and she shares all her issues,” Bethany said. “I’m not sure where she is in her heart. There are some aspects of Islam that she seems into.”

Sometimes, when Aisha has an especially poignant problem, she asks Bethany to pray, admitting, “If I pray, I’ll cry.”

Recently, Aisha arrived to clean the apartment, and Bethany was struggling with some of her own circumstances. “I was very very upset about something,” she remembered. “When we sat down to pray, I started to pray, but I couldn’t pray. I just started crying.” Instead, Aisha “prayed the most beautiful, moving prayer, given my situation,” Bethany said. “Her heart’s warm to God, I’m sure.”

Lack of fellowship

Sana and her sister’s faith has impacted their family. When the sisters were baptized, other family members who had not made decisions for Christ came to the service. “The fact that they’re Christians is not hidden from the sympathetic side of the family.”

However, the women lack consistent fellowship and still fear negative reactions from their husbands and grown sons. “It’s very hard for them to feed themselves [spiritually],” Bethany said.

“I used to have a small ladies fellowship with some ladies from this family,” Bethany noted. But sickness in the family and personal limitations have prevented meetings outside her apartment for the last couple years. “They need fellowship and discipleship… Apart from praying with other Christians, they don’t get regular teaching.”

Pray that Bethany would find ways to encourage the women in this family and provide the needed fellowship and discipleship. Pray that these women would be bold in sharing with other families and not let limitations imposed by their illiteracy hinder them from telling others about Jesus.

*Name changed

Nicole James is a journalist, ESL teacher, and adventurer. As a writer for OM Middle East North Africa, she’s passionate about publishing the stories of God’s works among the nations, telling people about the wonderful things He is doing in the world.

Instant connection

James* and Ellen*, long-term workers, said they had an instant connection with university students in North Africa because of their experience working with international students in their home country.

International students, outside their home context, were often “a bit vulnerable, needing more care, and more love,” James described. He and Ellen reached out to these young people, offering them much-needed love and discipling those who became Christians.

While studying abroad, the international students had tremendous opportunity to grow in their faith. “When they go back to their country, they are instant missionaries themselves,” James said. Because James and Ellen were involved with mentoring, discipling, and sending out the students, they saw their work with them as preparation for missions.

In North Africa, the couple has had a variety of connections to university students. First they volunteered with a conversation club, avoiding Christian terminology but choosing topics like forgiveness, friendship, and festivals—opening the door for cultural exchanges that also provided freedom to talk about holidays like Christmas and Easter “because there was an exchange and they asked!” James explained.

Five love languages

Another talking point with students came through a workshop Ellen conducted on the five love languages, based on Gary Chapman’s 1995 book. At the end of the workshop, Ellen asked attendees how the information had impacted their life. “What are you going to do differently?” she wanted to know.

“I’m going to practice all five love languages on my friends,” one student said. “This is a topic we would never talk about…It’s great to discover that love can be expressed in these different ways.”

Another student, looking for a thesis topic, decided to focus on the love languages. “We need to think about this in [our] culture,” she said. “How to express love to one another.”

People of integrity

For James and Ellen, modeling and teaching Christ-like love—whether through their lifestyle or formal seminars—allows them to impact Muslim students around them.

One young man they knew told them a story about an experience in one of his university classes. At some point, the professor and the other students were speaking negatively about Christianity.

The student stood up. “Why are you talking negatively about Christianity,” he asked. “I’m a Muslim, but I know Christians. Do you know Christians? I have spent a lot of time with Christians from many countries… Yes, there are some people who say they are Christians, but they are not nice. But those who really walk in their faith are really good people. They have integrity. Please don’t say that all Christians are bad, because they are not, and I have met them.”

This is the importance of being Christ’s witness through lifestyle and words, James said. “For that person’s life and the testimony he has brought to others—in a completely Muslim context—it’s priceless.”

Pray that more Muslims in North Africa would encounter true Jesus followers, in their home countries and abroad, and be impacted by their love. Pray that they see God’s love reflected through Christians and desire to experience that love personally.

*Name changed

Nicole James is a journalist, ESL teacher, and adventurer. As a writer for OM Middle East North Africa, she’s passionate about publishing the stories of God’s works among the nations, telling people about the wonderful things He is doing in the world.

Some time later, she met other Christian foreigners in a library. They started a conversation, and one of the men told Riza that his wife, Tina*, newly arrived in the country, was looking for locals who spoke English. This time, the number exchange worked, and Riza met up with Tina.

From the beginning, the two women connected. They shared stories about their lives, and, eventually, started reading Bible stories together. “This is great,” Riza told her. “I like this. But I grew up Muslim, and you grew up Christian. Maybe if I had grown up in a Christian country, I would be able to believe this.”

Then Lindsey entered the scene. As Riza became more comfortable with the foreign women, she shared personal information about her family, especially her dad, who was struggling with drinking. “It was causing a big burden. It was tough between her mom and dad. It was affecting the family,” Lindsey remembered.

“He’s just so trapped by this,” Riza admitted. “He needs a miracle from God to break this.”

“God speaks to people through dreams,” Tina told her. “He does that in [the Bible], and I believe He can do that today. Why don’t we pray that God sends your dad a dream?”

Riza agreed, and the three women began interceding for her father to have a supernatural dream.

Some time later, Riza talked to Tina and Lindsey again. “You know, we’ve been praying for my dad to have a dream, but I actually had a dream.”

In her dream, Riza had been in a dark pit, crowded with people. Trees and tangled branches covered the sky, blocking the light. Turning to those around her, Riza asked them how to get out, but nobody knew. Suddenly, the branches parted, and someone in white clothing reached down, pulling her out of the pit. Then, they walked off together.

Riza realized the person who had helped her in the dream was Jesus, Lindsey explained. “After this dream and really talking about it, all the stories she had read up to that point made sense, so she became a believer…It was the first time I had ever seen someone give their life to Christ in this context in the region.”

From that point on, Lindsey and Tina continued to walk with Riza, helping her learn what it meant to follow Jesus. They also got to know Riza’s family. Two years later, Riza reported that her father had quit drinking, and her mom had read the Bible with another Christian worker.

“Her family knows what she reads and that there is a change [in her life], but…we haven’t seen anybody in her family come to know Jesus yet,” Lindsey said. “But it’s encouraging to see the changes.”

Pray that Riza will continue to grow in her faith and that her family members will also come to know Jesus as their personal Lord and Saviour.

*Name changed

Nicole James is a journalist, ESL teacher, and adventurer. As a writer for OM Middle East North Africa, she’s passionate about publishing the stories of God’s works among the nations, telling people about the wonderful things He is doing in the world.

Settling onto a plastic exercise ball facing a large mirror, Jaimie, a long-term worker, balanced Josef in front of her and began massaging his thin arms and legs, holding his lower body steady against herself but encouraging him to keep his head upright. “Mezine? Are you comfortable?” she asked him in Arabic.

The first goal for all the children is head control, the ability to look around. But Jaimie simply wanted Josef to begin using his neck and back to lift his head. “He has a lot of tension,” she said. “We’re working on getting him to relax his hands and feet.”

The 20 to 30-minute individual therapy sessions afforded each child scarcely suffice, but with 40 children already receiving free therapy at the centre and a 2-year waiting list, every minute counts.

Although each child’s therapy session takes only half an hour, many mothers stay at the centre for at least two hours twice a week. “We want the mothers to work with their children, especially when we don’t have time to finish working with the kids,” Jaimie said.

Home away from home

The mothers also crave community. “For them, it’s about being together,” Jaimie stated. “The mothers get therapy for their kids, but they’re also talking and hanging out with people that share the same problems.”

In fact, the three female therapists regularly take turns preparing coffee and biscuits to hand out to the mothers and children around 11 o’clock. After the therapy sessions are finished, Jaimie and Natalie*, another long-termer who works at the centre, talk to the mothers, children, and older people with disabilities gathered in the packed corridor.

That day, as she walked from the therapy room to the kitchen, Jaimie greeted each individual who approached her, affectionately squeezing the hands of a few women who lingered by her side. Their bright eyes and smiles mirrored hers.

Outside of the centre’s tiled walls, its worn plush cushions and its thick red floor mats, the families lack support for their children’s condition in this country. “The idea that handicapped people can do something doesn’t exist here,” Natalie said.

“For them, this is home,” she added. “Giving therapy isn’t [the point of] the centre; it’s giving them a home. Because we accept the kids, it helps the parents accept their children.”

According to Jaimie, the centre’s main focus is building relationships with the mothers and especially with the kids. “Sometimes I am so focused on getting the job done, but the biggest benefit for them is experiencing love, joy and affection,” she explained.

The aroma of Christ

Often, Jaimie and Natalie get to know the families at the centre and follow up with visits in their homes, where they have opportunities to pray with people and share, when asked. 

“I believe we are called to basically share God’s character and love,” Jaimie said. “I believe God in us is touching the children and speaking to the mothers.”

Living in a predominately Muslim country, one of the mothers told Natalie, “You work out of a good heart, and we work to earn points.”

“People know we are believers,” Natalie explained. “I just hope there’s this aroma flowing from us. Not what we say, but what we are doing.”

Around 11:30am, the mothers headed towards the doorway, loading their kids into oversized strollers or pulling them away from the toys strewn around the centre’s rooms. But to Jaimie and Natalie’s eyes, the women weren’t simply parading disabled children out the door. They were leaving with Nadia*, constantly droopy because of her medications; sisters Leila* and Aziza*, energetically exercising their shrivelled hands; and Brahim*, who’d almost progressed to no longer needing therapy, according to Natalie.

“The longer they are here, I just see their personalities,” Natalie said. “Here is Brahim. This is how he is. And he’s my friend.”

Pray for the local women and their children who receive therapy at the centre to experience the light and love of Jesus. Pray that they will ask questions and come to know the God of the Bible who cares intimately about their needs. Pray for the OM workers to have strength, endurance and joy as they spend time with the locals.

*Name changed

Nicole James is a journalist, ESL teacher, and adventurer. As a writer for OM Middle East North Africa, she’s passionate about publishing the stories of God’s works among the nations, telling people about the wonderful things He is doing in the world.

After having focused on work in North Africa for 27 years, Youssef* and Hie Tee* didn’t want to start another building project. However, while the OM field leader of one North African country and his wife were attending a missions conference in Canada, they felt God tell them to say yes to a new missions training centre.

For the past several years, the couple have been primarily focusing on a ministry aimed to mobilise North Africans for missions within the country and beyond. In June 2013, they established a formal committee. But they didn’t have anywhere to meet or train. In the last years, many North Africans “have been mobilised, but there is no infrastructure to train and send them out,” Youssef said.

Although the government officially recognises the 120,000 believers in the country, Christians there still face many forms of persecution. Hotels and conference centres, for instance, refuse to rent to Christian groups. “They let you sleep there, but no church activities,” Youssef explained.

In previous years, when Youssef and Hie Tee wanted to hold training conferences in a particular region, the hub of that country’s revival, they had to host participants with local families. They also had to buy mattresses, pots and pans to sleep and feed the people—up to 50 at a time. Beyond the initial hassle of purchasing those essentials, re-assembling and storing the items also proved problematic.

While in Canada, Hie Tee said a Christian brother had told them about a 10-bedroom house for sale located in the same region. Because locals thought the house was haunted by evil spirits, the building was inexpensive.

Hie Tee’s initial response was no, but as she waited for Youssef after one of the conference meetings, she picked up a flyer lying on a table. It detailed church history in North Africa, pointing out how the early church had once been strong and vibrant, but, following the 7th-century Arab invasion, it had largely ceased to exist. The title, too, caught her eye: “Let not history repeat itself.” For Hie Tie, the headline confirmed God’s desire for them to establish a training centre for mission-minded North Africans.

That evening, she and Youssef sent an email to their prayer partners, explaining their God-given desire to embark on a new building venture. Within 24 hours, they had received significant positive feedback, including a $10,000 USD project pledge from a supporting church.

“From then on, I just knew the hand of the Lord was on the project,” Hie Tee remembered. “Then, after all this incredible beginning, opposition of all kinds [began].”

The owners of the 10-bedroom house had since changed their minds about selling, but Youssef and Hie Tee found another property, over 2,200 square metres, to purchase. Moving ahead, they outlined a building plan for the region’s first missions training centre. However, North African infrastructure rarely moves according to the timeline of Western donors.

In North Africa, “everything’s insh’allah,” Hie Tee explained. Directly translated, the phrase means, “If God wills”. For months, the legal paperwork for the property was tied up at a government office.

God’s intervention

A few months ago, Youssef and Hie Tee visited the home of a local Christian who worked at the town hall. During their time of sharing, they realised the man’s wife was not a believer. They shared the good news of Jesus’ love for her, and, resulting from the Holy Spirit’s touch, the woman prayed to accept Jesus as her Saviour before the couple left.

Youssef and Hie Tee did not know, however, that this new sister also worked in the town hall and was in charge of all legal documents for the area in which the missions training centre property was located. After trusting Jesus, she worked to speed up the release of the necessary documents, and in June 2015, the legal papers finally emerged.

“The amazing thing was really to see God’s hand on this project, to be able to see how the paperwork was sped up. This is what the biggest miracle was,” Youssef recalled. “When God’s hand is on the project, He will bring it to pass.”

Already, Youssef and Hie Tee have overseen yearly camps and trainings for North African believers, but their current ministry buildings are located in the west of the country, making it impossible for the majority of believers, who live in the east, to attend. The new centre, strategically built where the believers live, will make training more widely accessible.

“Since we [started talking] about missions, the churches are more active. They are doing frequently missions to neighbouring villages, towns and cities. People are on fire now,” Hie Tee said. Of course, numerous obstacles—including building paperwork and visa delays—have prevented significant numbers of North Africans from being sent out.

“As Christians, we have to learn to persevere because obstacles will always come,” she reiterated. “We need a lot of perseverance. We need a lot of prayer. We need a lot of fixing our eyes on the Lord. We need a lot of faith. We need a lot of forgiveness. We need a lot of love.”

Pray for God to provide the necessary finances to finish the missions training centre in this North African country. Youssef and Hie Tee aim to start using the new building by May 2016. Pray for protection during travel, as well as against spiritual opposition.

*Last name not included for security reasons

Nicole James is a freelance journalist, ESL teacher, and adventurer. A writer for OM MENA, she’s passionate about publishing the stories of God’s works among the nations, telling people about the wonderful things He is doing in the world.

I was up early one Sunday morning heading to our international church where I lead worship. Carrying my guitar, I stopped at a café along the way for a cup of my favorite strong coffee to start my day. Seeing my guitar, the waiter asked me what I was doing and where I was going. "I am going to church,” I replied. 

His interest was evident. He wanted to know about church and what we do there. He asked what we use the guitar for and commented that there is no singing in the mosque. 

"Oh, I really want to come with you, but I have to work,” he said.  

So much has changed in North Africa in the last couple of years. I used to have many of the same kinds of discussions with people always arguing with me or trying to convert me to Islam. Now, people just want to know more. They are curious. They have questions. They are more likely to listen and accept what I have to say. They disagree with me less. They are open to know more. 

We believe that God has been answering our prayers; that He would soften people's hearts and cause them to be more open to hear and receive the good news. We have prayed for years that the seed would fall on good soil, not on hard and rocky ground to be blown away by the wind or eaten by the birds. We feel that our prayers are being answered.

It’s a new season in North Africa. There are many opportunities but few workers. Is God calling you to North Africa? Come join us. For more information, contact your local OM office.

One day, while getting into a taxi to visit a friend across town, Tara gave the driver instructions on where to go. Suddenly, a girl standing next to Tara said, in perfect English, “I’m going to the same place.” They started talking and realised their houses were located five minutes’ walking distance from each other.

“I’ve been praying for friends in my neighbourhood,” Tara told Sarah*, the local girl. So the two exchanged numbers and made plans to meet the next week. When Tara showed up, she met not only Sarah but also her twin sister, Nadia*, and her aunt, who was around the same age.

“We just hit it off,” Tara described. “We were just talking. I shared a little bit about how God had brought me to this region. It was just a very natural, easy friendship with all of the girls.”

As Tara was leaving the family’s house, Sarah unexpectedly opened up, sharing personal information about struggles usually kept hidden in her honour-shame society, seemingly testing Tara’s response.

“I’m not here to judge,” Tara told her. “I still think you’re an answer to prayer. I’m still interested in being friends.”

Tara continued to meet up with the girls and learnt that the twins, as creatives and artists, especially connected to the Psalms. Once while they were spending time together, Sarah picked a Psalm, created a melody on her guitar, and then put one of the verses to music.

“I’m not a singer,” Tara admitted, “but it was neat. She really connected with God in that way.”

Around the same time, the twins discovered a video series depicting Jesus’ life, which sparked a series of conversations about who He was. They began reading and discussing some of the parables together. Sarah, however, remained reserved.

“You could never tell what was going on with her,” Tara said. “I didn’t know if she was hearing anything I said, if it was making an impact.”

Time passed, and the women continued to meet. Tara also invited another worker to join the group, hoping her testimony would have fresh impact. Like before, the girls enjoyed reading the Psalms, praying for each other and asking God to encourage each other.

Tara went to her home country for a few months’ furlough. While she was gone, Sarah’s family found out about the challenges she’d been facing, compounding her struggles. Tara returned to the mess—Sarah suffering through a hard season, Nadia affected by her sister’s grief. One time Sarah visited Tara’s house, but “she couldn’t even tell me what was happening. She just cried,” Tara recalled.

Over time, the family issues slowly subsided. Sarah and Nadia told Tara they wanted to watch the Jesus film together. After they watched the movie, Sarah “had this crazy encounter with God,” Tara said. “Basically she came to my house the next day and was totally different. Her countenance just changed.”

“I can’t stop smiling. I can’t stop laughing,” Sarah told Tara.

Sarah didn’t fully understand everything then, Tara explained, but it was the solid beginning of her faith journey. “Her transformation was so obvious. It was just a freedom.” Nadia noticed, too, showing increased interest, asking more questions and, eventually, also becoming a believer.

“They’re pretty amazing, both of these girls. I know God has big things for them,” Tara stated. She knows, too, that the transformation she witnessed was a miraculous movement of God. “Not everybody, especially in [my country], has stories like this. It’s cool to see how God has done everything…I’ve just been along for the ride.”

Pray for the twins’ transformation to catalyse faith in their family and community.

*Name changed

Nicole James is a freelance journalist, ESL teacher and adventurer. A communications intern for OM MENA, she’s passionate about publishing the stories of God’s works among the nations, telling people about the wonderful things He is doing in the world.

Lydia*, a teacher in North Africa serving with OM, decided to surprise her class by baking them brownies as a special dessert on her birthday. Her class of 17 young teenagers, usually a rowdy group, had finally seemed to accept Lydia’s authority in the classroom.

Before lessons began that morning, “I’d been talking about how they were a difficult class to teach, but I’d gotten them under control,” she remembered. Excited to share her special birthday treat, Lydia began teaching.

The students, however, were acting awful—unfocused, inattentive and loud. Near the end of the two-and-a-half-hour lesson, while the class worked on a writing assignment, Lydia sat down to catch her breath.

“God, what do I do?” she pleaded silently. “They don’t even deserve these brownies. If I give them to the students, isn’t that like rewarding bad behaviour?”

Teach them about grace, she felt the Lord prompt.

Immediately she remembered a time six years ago, right before she had begun her first teaching job, when she was praying about opportunities to share with students.

“God gave me this idea: ‘Maybe you’ll have this day where the kids have been really bad, and you can teach them about grace.’ I remember thinking, ‘That’s so cool.’” In the space of two seconds, Lydia realised that day had arrived.

Standing up, Lydia wrote “grace” on the board. “Do you know what this word means?” she asked her students. “It’s getting a gift you don’t deserve.”

Continuing to talk, she reminded the class of their behaviour that day. “You guys were really bad today. You didn’t earn brownies. You don’t deserve brownies. But I’m giving them to you anyway.”

As Lydia started cutting the brownies, she felt God encourage her to give the treats joyfully and not grudgingly, with the same excitement she’d felt before class had begun. Smiling, she handed each student a brownie.

When the class ended, one student came up to Lydia. “You’re a really cool lady,” he said. And a month later, as Lydia was grading the class’ workbooks, she discovered one of the students had also written down a reminder from her birthday lesson: “Grace means getting a gift you don’t deserve.”

That student had been listening, Lydia realised. Hopefully, so had the others. For her students, all Muslims, grace was not only another vocabulary word, but also an entirely new concept.

“It’s so different to this culture. In Islam, you have to earn everything. If God’s going to give you a gift, it’s because you earned it,” she said. “In the future, maybe someone will share more with them about grace, and they’ll know what that means.”

The lesson about God’s grace was not only directed towards the students, but also towards Lydia.

“I think God was dealing with the pride in my heart, too,” she said. She remembered the words of Proverbs 16:18: “Pride goes before destruction…” (NIV); and of Proverbs 3:34: God “shows favor to the humble” (NIV).

When Lydia approached God humbly, asking Him how to handle her class, “He was right there to tell me what to do. I had to lean on Him,” she said. “It’s such a balance. He’s gifted us. He’s given us talents to use… Are we becoming puffed up, or are we giving thanks?”

Pray that Lydia will continue to have opportunities to share spiritual truths with her students. Pray that she will remain receptive to the ways God uses everyday lessons to speak.

*Name changed

Nicole James is a freelance journalist, ESL teacher and adventurer. A communications intern for OM Middle East/North Africa, she’s passionate about publishing the stories of God’s works among the nations, telling people about the wonderful things He is doing in the world.

“I really like meeting in our living room. It creates community when you’re sharing together over meals or just sitting in someone’s sala. It brings the Gospel in your personal life straight into your living room. This is where you live every day. You can’t escape it penetrating your life,” she explained.

“Probably the place I might sin the most is in my home, yelling at my kids or my husband, stuffing my face…all of that happens in my home. For them, it’s the same. You put the Gospel right there, and you can’t run from it.”

Living the Gospel in real life doesn’t only happen during weekly house church meetings; it also means constant involvement in the lives of the local believers. For example, “last week one of our friends fell and broke her arm. We went to the emergency room with them. It didn’t involve us at all, but they’re just part of the group,” Kelly said.  

Stepping in

Over a decade ago, when Kelly and her husband, Matt*, first arrived in their city, only a handful of believers existed, disconnected and scattered. For the first few years, Matt and Kelly, along with another couple, focused on prayer and evangelism, talking with people and making friendships. Some developed. Others disappeared.

“During those years, we really did spread the Gospel far and wide. I know for myself, they were productive years in that,” Kelly remembered.

At the same time the couple arrived, Salim*, another worker from a different North African country, had also moved to their city. Together, he and Matt began a Bible study with local men who had become believers. That was the start of the current house church.

Matt also mentored Salim, watching as he married and matured in his faith. Several years later, however, he and his wife had to leave the country.

“That was probably one of the hardest things for us,” Kelly said. Not only did they grieve the loss of their close friends and ministry partners, Matt and Kelly also suddenly assumed sole responsibility for the church group, “which was really overwhelming. But it was good for us and good for the group,” Kelly said.

Building up

Soon after Salim left, Matt and Kelly decided to appoint a local leader, starting a tumultuous season of ministry. In the following years, three people in their church group died, including the baby of close friends. Other local believers were questioned by the police. Arab Spring revolutions seared across the country, close enough that Matt and Kelly could hear gunshots while barricaded with their family inside their house.

Living through the political unrest nonetheless bonded the family to their host country and its people. According to Kelly, “You live through something like that, and it feels like it’s your own.”

With their growing family, the couple’s daily routines began changing, mornings centring around their children’s schooling needs and afternoons harbouring a combination of visits and tutoring sessions. Once a week, they meet for prayer with local believers—all in Arabic. They continued spending time with these believers during the week.

“We’ve just seen them as part of our discipleship, just walking through life with them,” Kelly said.

Stepping out

Now, with foundations of a local church in place, Matt and Kelly are preparing to transition out of the church group within the next two years, allowing the local fellowship to grow independently.

“We’re going to step out of this, and we want them to walk on as a group,” Kelly explained. “We don’t want to step out and someone else step in. We want to step out and them to go forward.”

“Many things we don’t do anymore,” Matt said. Local believers often share at weekly meetings and organize periodic conferences by themselves.

In the beginning, “there was a group of believers, but they still needed to establish leadership. We still needed to see them grow. Now, there is more like there is something,” Matt said.

Still, room for growth remains. “You have to work hard to remove the lie…that because [they] have a Muslim background there are certain things that can never change,” he said. “The Gospel is for everybody. The power of the Gospel is for you.”

“Now, it seems like maybe there are a handful of believers who are mature in the church. They can be responsible for the church,” he continued. “Not too long, and we’ll be able to just step out. God has called us to be here. That is what has kept us here through these years. We want to finish our part.”

Pray for the North African church to grow in maturity. Pray for local leaders to assume complete responsibility for the fellowship going forward. Pray for Matt and Kelly as their family transitions over the next few years.

*Name changed

Nicole James is a freelance journalist, ESL teacher, and adventurer. A communications intern for OM MENA, she’s passionate about publishing the stories of God’s works among the nations, telling people about the wonderful things He is doing in the world.

Sitting at a round table, sipping my second cup of coffee of that day, and staring through a plastic sheet doubling as a window pane, I turned away from the Mediterranean’s lazy blue waves to listen to my friend Kelsi* translate Avida’s* story.

“I used to be different, but God changed my heart,” Avida repeated for the fifth time. A new believer, her excitement bubbled into the conversation as she shared the ways God had transformed her life. How He had provided her new love, grace, and forgiveness and showered her with unexpected material blessings.

Leading up to her wedding, Avida had written down items she wanted for the celebration and her new home. Realising her finances were too limited, she prayed over the list and reluctantly crossed off the items she decided were extraneous: a pre-ceremony henna party, kitchen appliances, and a new bedspread.

Then God surprised her. First, a relative living overseas offered to pay for the henna party. Another one outfitted her kitchen. Only the bedspread was left.

One day, Avida’s doorbell rang, and her next-door neighbour, a lady who had cut off communication with Avida following her conversion to Christianity, was standing there holding a large blanket.

“What do you think about this bedspread for your wedding?” the neighbour asked.

“It’s beautiful,” Avida admitted. “But how much is it?”

“It’s yours. It’s a gift.”

Ending the story, Avida dabbed away the tears brimming in her eyes, visible evidence of her gratitude for God’s love. “He is so amazing,” she said.

Finished with our coffee, we paid and left the shop, strolling along the avenue paralleling the sea, pausing to snap pictures, and we duck into a souvenir shop where an olive-wood elephant in the window caught my eye. As I examined the various cracks and imperfections in a pair of miniature elephants, Avida and Kelsi chatted with the shopkeeper.

The country’s tourism has drastically decreased following Arab Spring’s advent in December 2010. Bemoaning the lack of business, the shopkeeper waved her arm around, emphasising the amount of merchandise in the room. We were the only people there.

I finally decided on an elephant—a gift for my mom’s collection—and pulled cash out of my wallet to pay. The shop keeper had no change. Instead, she offered me a small wooden camel to make up the difference.

Leaving the shop, Kelsi told the woman in Arabic, “God be with you.”

“Are you a Muslim?” she quickly questioned.

“No, she’s a Christian.” Avida beat Kelsi to the response.

“You have to be bold in sharing with people, Kelsi,” Avida continued as we headed back toward the center of town. “You’re a foreigner, so people will listen to you. You have a great opportunity.”

***

Throughout my week in North Africa, I hopped from café to café with Kelsi and her roommate Robin*, sampling different drinks from the menu, watching the two girls interact with their friends, and listening to their stories.

At a coffee shop near their flat, I met Niswan*, a friend Kelsi had begged God to save before she became a believer.

“I remember praying one night and pleading and saying, ‘God, you have to save her,’” Kelsi said. “But then I didn’t have the faith in that moment to believe [He was] going to do it. When it happened, I was almost in shock. But that really excites me. It gives me hope and faith for other friends who’ve come so close but haven’t accepted.”

Another day, at a café inside the ancient city’s crumbling walls I met Robin’s group, young activists and atheists searching for life’s meaning. While we were there, one of Robin’s friends shared about a recent break-up, devastated by the betrayal. Robin reached over to hug her and ask if she’d prayed about the situation.

When Robin first arrived in the city, her team leaders told her they wanted her to make new friends and just share with them. Although Robin was terrified of the assignment at first, countless hours spent at cafes eased her angst.

“I really struggled with knowing that maybe God has gifted me with being able to share with people but not knowing when is the right time…but it’s encouraged me to remember that it is the work of the Holy Spirit, the work of God,” she said. “I am meant to be here, even if I’m not sharing every week or giving out a Bible.”

And even if they’re not sharing every week, it’s clear that Kelsi and Robin are consistently and intentionally investing in the lives of their friends, scheduling café meetings, and praying for the Spirit to work in their lives.

“God’s just shown me that He loves my friends more than I love them,” Kelsi explained. “My whole ministry, it’s not mine, it’s His. I’m constantly giving it back to Him in that sense, remembering when I’m really sad and heartbroken for someone, He’s even more so than me. He knows their needs. It’s not like He’s forgotten them.”

At the last café I visited, that eccentric hang out in the middle of the medina, my café crème was terrible. I took two sips before deciding the flavour combination of spoiled milk and expired espresso powder wasn’t worth drinking. Robin assured me it was a fluke. Usually the drinks there are really good. I didn’t care, though, really.

After all, it was never about the coffee.

*Name changed

Nicole James is a freelance journalist, ESL teacher and adventurer. A communications intern for OM MENA, she’s passionate about publishing the stories of God’s works among the nations, telling people about the wonderful things He is doing in the world.

Long before Dennis* and Kylie* arrived in North Africa, they knew God was calling them to missions. “God has written missions on your hearts,” an acquaintance told them.

When they first arrived in their new city, the couple was certain of their call. On the field, they followed the standard routine for new workers in the Arab World: learning the language, building trust and relationships, and, finally, being invited into a small local fellowship.

The church

Initially, the church was bigger than it is today, and Dennis and Kylie shared the workload with other leaders. Then, those workers went home; the person who invited Dennis and Kylie into the fellowship had family problems and left the ministry, and the church shrunk to less than half its original size.

But the church still survived, Kylie explained: “God brought us through… When we look back, we can see God’s goodness and faithfulness. Things worked out. But while going through [the trials], it was very painful, very painful.”

After the other leaders had left the fledging fellowship, Dennis and Kylie found themselves faced with responsibility for shepherding their tiny flock. Rather than a growing church, Kylie described the group as “more like an ICU (intensive care unit).”

Currently, a handful of people, mostly singles, attend the church. 

“They came to know the Lord because there’s a need in their life. Some are illiterate, some are jobless, some have health issues,” Kylie explained.

Rejected by others, these attendees desperately need someone to help them.

“If all the groups reject them, how will they overcome their weakness?” Kylie asked. “We try to encourage them, to preach the message, and to help them.”

Surrounded by an atmosphere of fear, jealousy, and distrust, in addition to the social problems dogging them, these few believers need to take their eyes off themselves and place their gaze on Jesus, “the whole idea of ‘it’s no longer me, but Christ in me,’” Dennis shared.

But the breakthrough of this mind-set takes time. Like patients in intensive care, the local believers need urgent attention and constant care.

“Just to get the church to be healthy would be a really great thing,” Kylie exclaimed.

The challenge

Recently, Kylie and Dennis have been encouraged by their fellowship.

“We find that there’s more of a hunger and a zeal. We’re a bit more encouraged this year. We’re seeing a bit more fruit,” Kylie said.

Like one lady who unexpectedly phoned them for prayer. It had been years since the couple had heard from Samia*. She’d initially become a believer by watching Christian TV programmes. After joining Dennis and Kylie’s fellowship group, Samia had decided to worship elsewhere. Later, however, she left the other group, too, and refused to fellowship with anyone.

When the couple answered the phone that day, Samia told them her father had become very sick. “Please pray for my father. He has cancer,” she stated.

After praying immediately over the phone, Dennis and Kylie asked if they could visit, but Samia refused. “Just pray,” she said.

A couple weeks later, Samia called again to tell them her father had passed away. Dennis and Kylie asked a second time if they could visit. “No,” she said. “But I will come to church this Sunday.”

Although Dennis and Kylie were sceptical, Samia did indeed show up the following Sunday.

“We had a wonderful time of praise and worship. She was really praying, really hungry,” Kylie remembered. “We were surprised because she [had not] fellowshipped for years. She’s on fire for the Lord. She’s encouraging others. This is a good testimony.”

“It’s small, but for us, this is a big thing,” Dennis explained. “We see more negative stories than positive stories.”

That makes it hard for the couple to trust progress within the fellowship.

“When something good happens, you almost think, how long is that going to last?” Dennis explained. “There are times when we’re really discouraged, we just hit a wall, and we don’t see any fruit. It’s one step forward, 100 steps back,” Kylie added.

Once, they appointed a local man to leadership, letting him share from the pulpit.

“During his sermon, he would stop and he would openly expose people’s weaknesses, people’s sins,” Dennis said. It was an attempt to make himself look better by pushing others down, Kylie said. It was also a mark of immaturity. The couple had to take back the leadership. “Of course he was offended, and he left,” Kylie said.

God has answered numerous prayers for people in the fellowship and for their families. One attendee’s sister, not a believer, asked for prayer when she found out her baby was breach. The church prayed for her, and the baby turned.

“It was not only a normal delivery but a quick one. She said it was easy,” Kylie shared.

Another time, a seeker who visited the fellowship from time to time told the church that his brother, who was in a wheelchair, had not returned from his usual time spent out in the neighbourhood.

“The seeker and his family panicked. He told his believer friends, ‘My brother is lost. Can you pray?’” Dennis remembered. “After three days, the brother appeared in front of his house, just like that… I think it was a season where we were sharing how God wants to bless our families through prayers.”

Still, the church struggles to celebrate others’ answered prayers, Dennis explained. When one person receives a blessing, the others ask, “Why not me?'”

The cost

Sometimes the couple asks themselves why God called them to North Africa. In their home country, they felt like they were more involved in ministry and seeing more fruit. In their host country, they are constantly tired and working hard for small results.

“Where’s the progress?” Dennis wondered. “Usually, we get strength from results. When there’s not a lot of results, we say, ‘God, this is for you.’”

“We have to always focus on the Lord. We pray every day together. That has really kept us going…to keep on persisting in what God wants us to do,” Kylie said. “In the eyes of the world, [our work] might look insignificant, but in God’s eyes, everybody is special. That’s why He says He goes out to look for that one sheep that is lost because that one sheep is precious.

“We just sense God’s love for them. God must really love them to send us all the way from our country to minister to them. Also God loves us because he changes us. What keeps us going is to be faithful, to be faithful with whatever God gives us.”

Pray for Dennis and Kylie to have wisdom, grace, strength and perseverance to keep going in difficult times. Pray for their health and protection. Pray for their church to grow in the love and knowledge of God. Pray for local church leadership to develop and mature.

*Name changed

Nicole James is a freelance journalist, ESL teacher and adventurer. A communications intern for OM MENA, she’s passionate about publishing the stories of God’s works among the nations, telling people about the wonderful things He is doing in the world.

After nearly two years of living and working in North Africa, OM volunteer Anette kept busy juggling time with friends and work responsibilities. One afternoon as Anette joined a group of OM colleagues to pray for their friends, Aziza came to mind. 

It had been awhile since the two women had seen each other.

"I was wondering if I should give up the friendship," Anette explained.

Anette first met Aziza at a sports class the previous year. Aziza was full of energy and personality. Like many in their early 20s, Aziza was interested in Western culture, music and practicing her English.

When both women realised they lived in the same neighbourhood, they began to go to sports class together. Aziza was also friends with another OM volunteer, Caren*. Together the three women began to spend time discussing life and eventually faith. They even began reading the Bible. However, their times together became fewer and less frequent.

"She was interested in everything and nothing," said Anette. It was difficult to see how interested she was in deeper conversations about life and faith.

Two days after praying for Aziza, Anette received a SMS message from her: "I haven't seen you for a long time. I would like to meet you."

Aziza shared that she was feeling discouraged and a little depressed; she was excited to spend time together. Believing this sudden contact from Aziza was an answer to prayer, Anette asked God for wisdom.

"God, what do you want me to tell her?" Anette prayed on the way to meet Aziza. Psalm 23 was her answer.

The afternoon passed quickly as the women shared about their lives, and all too soon they were on their way back home. Frustrated that there had been no clear opportunity to share the verses, Anette boldly asked to read something before leaving. They sat together on a nearby bench, and Anette read Psalm 23. Anette explained that God walks beside us in the good times and in the challenging times.

"It's normal that we go through challenges, but God wants to comfort us," she said.

"This is exactly my situation," said Aziza. "I'm standing in the challenges."

Anette offered to pray for Aziza and the challenges she was facing.

"Now, I feel good," Aziza said.

"Why?"  Anette asked.

"Maybe it was the cake, being outside, good conversation, or maybe because you prayed for me," Aziza said.

Hugs and goodbyes were exchanged as the women parted ways. On the way home Anette's phone beeped, indicating a new SMS message. It was from Aziza: "Thank you! May God bless you!"

Sometimes in ministry in North Africa it's the small acts of obedience that make the biggest difference. Pray for workers like Anette to faithfully share God's love in the small, everyday moments.

*Name changed

Contrary to many local 20-somethings in this Muslim country, Natalie’s friends at the café do not profess belief in the majority religion.

“They are that band of misfit toys,” she said, referencing the 1964 Christmas movie. Whereas, Rudolf meets a polka-dotted elephant and a jack-in-the-box named Charlie, Natalie has built relationships with atheists and homosexuals. Of the group, only one girl wears a headscarf, but at the café, she flirts openly with her boyfriend—a relationship her parents don’t know about.

“They’re probably the most bold of my friends because they outright say they don’t believe in Islam,” she said. “They also are not afraid to share that with people… A lot of my other friends who don’t believe in Islam still say they do or still make the appearance.”

Accepting of each other, this group nonetheless falls far from cultural norms, separated from others in the community by their lifestyle choices.

Natalie understands what it means to be different. Growing up, she remembers not fitting in with her peers. Now, in North Africa, she also stands out.

“I feel like I’m one of the misfit toys, too. I’m a foreigner.”

When she first arrived in the country, unlike most expats, Natalie didn’t work a formal job. Her new friends probably thought she was lazy, “kind of a strange girl who likes to travel and doesn’t work,” she explained. But out of all her friends, she felt like the band of misfits didn’t judge her for that.

Welcomed by the group, Natalie spent most of her first year at the café, listening, practicing Arabic, and talking about her belief in God.

“Right away they knew I was a believer,” she said. “I shared with them the first time I met them because they asked me… It opened up their trust for me, and it opened up my trust for them. I can be real with these people because they’re real with me.”

Spending so much time with the group has not only helped Natalie make friendships, it has also built confidence in her ability to share.

“I’ve had good conversations with that group about what I believe,” Natalie said. As she has talked about Jesus with them over and over, she has realised it wasn’t as scary as she’d imagined.

“They’re open to listening, maybe more so than any other of my Muslim friends, but…most of them have been really hurt by religion,” she said. “You can see that, by the questions they ask, they’re searching,” she added.

The uncertainty is widespread in this country, explained Tami*, Natalie’s team leader: “The young people here just have huge question marks stamped on their foreheads. They’re trying to figure all these things out. Will they be religious? Or will they be consumed by materialism?”

On a recent visit to the café, Natalie greeted her friends, giving them hugs and traditional cheek kisses, before kicking off her shoes and settling onto a wide wooden bench in the corner. Relaxed, she easily navigated the conversation’s mix of English and Arabic.

Sipping her cup of tea, Natalie listened to one of her friends explain what made their friendship work: “You can’t be in a bad mood when Natalie’s around. She just makes you laugh.”

“This is so different than what I thought I would be doing,” Natalie said. “I sit at coffee shops all day with my friends, and I go to the beach every week in the summer.”

But as she spends those hours together with her misfit friends—in cafés and by the sea—she takes every opportunity to tell them about Jesus.

“I see Jesus’ love for them, just as much as His love for the Muslim people. It’s not more or less; it’s a longing for all of them,” she said. “He loves them, and He wants them, and I just want them to know that, to get to know Him.”

Pray that Natalie’s friends will discover Jesus’ love. Pray that the Lord will use Natalie in her friends’ lives, and that they would accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour.

*Name changed

Nicole James is a freelance journalist, ESL teacher and adventurer. As a communications intern for OM MENA, she’s passionate about publishing the stories of God’s works among the nations, telling people about the wonderful things He is doing in the world.

Returning to her host country last autumn, following a brief furlough at home, Annie and her husband faced new questions: “How do I use my time wisely and well? How do we live financially, since before we relied on my income from the school?”

One day, Annie received a phone call from an unknown number. “Annie, would you come and tutor my daughter every day for an hour in English?” a woman’s voice asked in Arabic.

Curious about the caller and eager for income, Annie agreed to meet the lady on a particular street corner. The lady pulled up in an expensive black car, filled with three other women, all beautiful, uncovered, and wearing fashionable clothing. None spoke English.

After Annie asked a few introductory questions, she realised the women were from a neighbouring Muslim country—a country that numerous Christian workers are currently trying to enter, many waiting for an invitation, a job and political stability. Annie, on the other hand, just answered her phone.

The family’s young daughter, whom Annie started tutoring, was behind her grade level in English. Three times a week, Annie visited her at home, reviewing the alphabet, memorising sight words, and practicing school readers.

“I didn’t know what to expect. Would it last?” Annie remembered asking the Lord. “It was faith-stretching to go from full-on all day, every day to nothing.”

But she knew God was faithful and would provide: “We really trusted God over these months to open doors, and literally, He did…I don’t know where she got my phone number.”

It’s difficult for Annie to decipher the Arabic dialect the family speaks, and her role prevents her from openly sharing the Gospel with them.

“In this tutoring situation, it’s a professional job, and I have to be aware of my professional stance,” she explained. “If the mother of the little girl lets me in and doesn’t speak, that’s fine because I’m here to tutor…Sometimes she’s chatty, and sometimes she’s preoccupied.”

In the beginning, the little girl struggled even with the alphabet. Seeing her daughter’s improvements after working with Annie, the mother congratulated her: “It’s because of you!”

“No, no, it’s because of God,” Annie responded.

“I’m the only Christian they’ve ever met. I think these people anticipate that because I’m born in the West, I’m automatically a Christian.”

Pray that Annie would find ways to tell the family about the Lord. Pray that she would “bring the sweet presence of Jesus into their home.”

*Name changed

Nicole James is a freelance journalist, ESL teacher and adventurer. As a communications intern for OM MENA, she’s passionate about publishing the stories of God’s works among the nations, telling people about the wonderful things He is doing in the world.

“I’m out of practice,” Janine agreed, laughing as she wrapped the next customer’s order.

Locked doors

Over 20 years ago, Janine and her husband, Bob*, first ventured into Mahmoud’s small shop in search of locks for their new apartment in the North African city. An hour and a half later, they walked back across the street, having finished their first lesson in the local Arabic dialect.

Although Janine wasn’t keen on developing a friendship with the young shopkeeper who had offered to help her with Arabic lessons, she soon needed to venture back to Mahmoud’s store. “I had to eat humble pie and go to the shop and ask him for help,” she remembered.

But one visit blended into another, and before long, Janine was in Mahmoud’s shop every other day, practicing Arabic between customers, wrapping small hardware pieces when the lines were long, and building a lasting friendship.

Locked hearts

Early in their friendship, about two years after Janine and Bob had moved to the country, Mahmoud told Janine he knew why she was in North Africa.

“You’re here to persuade me that your way is right,” he stated. “It’s true. And I’m here to persuade you that my way is right. But I respect you too much to argue about religion, so I’m not going to discuss it.”

Even though religion was off limits, Mahmoud continued to welcome Janine and Bob into his shop, and as he married and had two children, into his family.

“We were just auntie and uncle to everybody, adopted into the family,” Janine said.

Later, when Mahmoud’s daughters began learning English, Janine developed a habit of spending Sunday afternoons at the family’s home, tutoring the girls and visiting with the parents.

Before Janine and Bob left for their first one-year furlough, they gifted a Bible to Mahmoud. The next year, when the couple returned to the field, they saw the Bible on a shelf in Mahmoud’s living room.

“I don’t think they even have a copy of the Qur’an in their house,” Janine said. “It’s not at all normal for local families to have literature in their houses.”

Mahmoud and his wife have read the Bible, though. One Christmas, while the family was visiting Janine and Bob, helping them set up holiday decorations, one of the daughters asked how David related to Christmas.

“David was part of the genealogy,” Janine answered. “There were 14 generations…Oh, I’ll just go and get this Book we’ve got.” Returning with a New Testament, she opened the pages to show Mahmoud and his wife.

“Yes, we’ve seen this before. It’s in the Book you’ve given us,” the couple responded.

Give them ears to hear

Another time while Janine was visiting, she suddenly realised that Mahmoud was watching the Jesus film on TV. Although the programme was not in the local Arabic, Mahmoud was translating the message into their dialect. At the end of the film when a long altar call began playing, Mahmoud suddenly said, “Oh, we’ve seen all that. I’ll go now.”

Janine asked Mahmoud what he thought about the film, mentioning that the story was in the Book she’d given him.

“Oh, I think my cousin took it,” he responded. In fact, the cousin has proved to be the most spiritually open member of the family. Throughout two decades of friendship, he has asked some very leading questions, Janine said. “But his wife is very hard, not open at all.”

Although Janine and Bob continue to spend time with Mahmoud’s family, they recognise deep spiritual bondage. And since the Arab Spring, Mahmoud has become increasingly religious, visiting the mosque more frequently than in earlier years, according to Janine.

The family is from a people group “known to be very closed, very traditional, very conservative. If they came to the Lord, they would be really ostracised,” Janine explained. “It will take a miracle really for them to just acknowledge who Jesus is and just to come to the Lord.”

Pray that Mahmoud’s family, especially the cousin who is searching, will have dreams and visions of Jesus. Pray for God to unlock their hearts and draw them to Himself. Pray that Janine and Bob would have many opportunities to share truth with this family.

*Name changed

Nicole James is a freelance journalist, ESL teacher and adventurer. As a communications intern for OM MENA, she’s passionate about publishing the stories of God’s works among the nations, telling people about the wonderful things He is doing in the world.