Saying Farewell to a Global Partner

A Tenth Global partner is heading to the Middle East. They took time to share about their ministry and experiences in Vancouver and what they anticipate as they look ahead. Certain details have been omitted at the request of the partner. 

In Vancouver

Even before graduation, I felt that God was leading us to stay for some time longer. We were to help the Church in reaching out to refugees who come mostly from the Middle East. Here are some strategies that God showed us in the last few years: 

Prayer initiatives

The goal of this initiative is to mobilize the church to pray for the closest mosque to the church. We also encouraged the churches to pray for our cousins during Ramadan. Their prayer does not only change our cousins but also changes us.

Initiatives of love

We have done many initiatives to show the love of Jesus to our cousins, like Christmas baskets, Christmas dinners, Eid visitations after Ramadan, and pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving. All these initiatives show the love of God to our cousins, and also open new conversations. 

Al Massira

1. Doing the Al Massira course with seeking cousins who want to know the truth about Jesus, and also for those who followed Jesus and are looking for discipleship.  
2. Throughout Vancouver, Toronto, and virtually, teaching others how to host such conversations with our cousins.  

Bible studies

Opening the Bible with cousins is not an easy task, because most believe that this book is corrupted. However, God is working in the lives of many of them and this leads them eventually to open the book. 

God has shown us the importance of having a holistic approach to loving cousins. I want to share a story about one family: the wife is a teacher of religion, and she attended a Christmas dinner at the home of one of our team. I remember this lady who wore a hijab, and I can see how she was resistant to what she was hearing this night about Jesus. Later on, she started to have visions and dreams of Jesus. She asked to see a cousin who follows Jesus. I introduced her to someone who came to know Jesus. She shared her dreams with him, and he shared his dreams and visions. Eventually, she became a follower of Jesus but her husband did not. Their kids consider themselves as half Christians and half cousins. I asked the husband if he was interested to do Al Massira and he agreed to it. This opportunity was discipleship for his wife and sharing the truth with him and his family. He decided to follow Jesus after Al Massira, and his kids now consider themselves as followers of Christ. They moved to another city but we are still meeting with this family by zoom for discipleship. Earlier this year, he asked me to do Al Massira virtually with few cousins who are followers of Jesus to disciple them. We met by Zoom from 8 different nations to study Al Massira from Creation to Christ, and it was great to discuss the word of God with these followers of Jesus.

Future plans

Our vision is to mobilize the Middle Eastern Church to be a missional Church and reach neighbours. Middle Eastern countries were mission fields for a long time. I think the time has come to become a mission force.   

Two areas we feel God is leading us to focus on to accomplish this vision:

1. Integrate faith and work: Many followers do not see their work as a calling from God which is not true. During my studies, I did my master's about how we as Christians should integrate our faith in the workplace. I believe this will be revolutionary for many Christians in the Middle East who can be ambassadors for the kingdom every day in their workplace. We need to live as salt and light in where we work. It is great to have our faith go beyond the church. Billy Graham said, “I believe that one of the next great moves of God is going to be through the believers in the workplace.” Many foreigners go to the Middle East to find a business, learn the language, and look for opportunities afterward. What if local Christians in the marketplace catch this vision? What if local Christians understand that we are his heart, his hand, and voice in the marketplace?
2. Refugees: As I look to the past, I found that God had led me to work with refugees in the Middle East and North America since 2007. I found that refugees are usually more open to the word of God more than any other cousins. I would love to mobilize the church more to reach these millions who are hungry for the word of God in this region.  

We invite you to pray for our partner, those they have interacted with, and those still to be met.