Lebanon and Syria: Alpha

Please pray for God to touch the hearts of people in Lebanon and Syria who are asking questions about Jesus. Nabil and Sarah Shehadi, write that they are in contact with a pastor in Beirut who has recently run 10 Alpha courses and now wants to introduce The Marriage Course to five churches in Lebanon and two churches in Syria.

Nabil and Sarah are preparing to lead a weekend of training for this pastor and others at the end of January. Pray for a productive weekend of training that leads to many more people encountering Jesus through these courses.

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Syria: reconciliation following clashes

Pray for representatives from Israel and Syria as they resume dialogue on security matters following recent deadly clashes between the countries. Pray for God to change people’s hearts so that both sides earnestly seek reconciliation and peace.

The post Syria: reconciliation following clashes appeared first on Church Mission Society (CMS).

Kiran, Rida and Farah all grew up in devout Muslim families in the Middle East. Choosing to follow Jesus made them outsiders in their communities. But today these three women find themselves on the cutting edge of mission – helping hundreds of others follow Jesus. 

Meeting Jesus

Kiran, Rida and Farah all came to Lebanon as refugees from Syria with their families in recent years. As refugees, they were already pushed to the edges: outsiders living in a foreign culture, away from almost everyone they knew and loved. Little did they know, they would soon be pushed to the edges even more.

Kiran used to live in Beirut, not far from a church which has had links with CMS for several years. Kiran would often pass the church on her way to the market, and remembers seeing a Bible verse on the door: Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. “I felt like that message was meant just for me,” she says. One day, Kiran went in. As she stepped inside, a woman started apologising to her, saying the church wasn’t giving away food or other supplies that day. Kiran explained that she wanted to know what was happening in this building. Why had she seen so many people coming out with smiles on their faces? This was the beginning of Kiran’s faith journey, and not long after, she started following Jesus and became part of the church.

Farah and Rida also visited churches near where they lived and were both touched by Matthew 5:44: Love your enemies, bless those who curse you. “That really stayed with me – there’s nothing like that in the Quran,” says Farah. Rida read the entire Bible and ultimately found “no violence or hostility” in it, in stark contrast to the violence of ISIS she had witnessed in Syria. It wasn’t long before Farah and Rida gave their lives to the Lord, too.

Pushed even further to the edges

For Kiran, Rida and Farah, making the choice to follow Jesus was costly. All three women faced intense opposition to their faith.

“When I was first exploring faith, I felt that the devil was telling me that it would be better for me to keep living in darkness,” remembers Kiran. And things got worse: the day she was baptised, Kiran’s father-in-law kicked her out of the house and her entire extended family cut all contact with her.  

Farah’s husband used to offer her money and more freedom if she stayed away from church and he would punish the children for singing Sunday school songs and asking questions about Jesus.

Rida’s uncles ridiculed her and one of them declared that killing her would be permissible because she had left Islam. In his eyes, she had dishonoured the family.

But in the face of hostility, divorce, rejection from family and friends and even death threats, these women are still standing strong today.

Learning to lead

Kiran, Rida and Farah’s pastors introduced them to a CMS partner called TN, a movement of Christians helping disciples grow in Christlike character and develop their leadership skills. TN offers ministry training specially tailored to Muslim-background believers (MBBs), including in-person training in groups as well as regular one-to-one support. This helps people like Kiran, Rida and Farah to grow in their relationship with Jesus and develop spiritual practices to sustain them in their faith as well as equipping them to share their faith and disciple others.

Rida serves in southern Lebanon, a region which is 90–95 per cent Shia Muslim. She had been sharing Jesus and discipling people there for two or three years when she did some training with TN. Through the training, she was encouraged to consider how to make her ministry even more effective. Rida was supported as as she came to focus on discipling young people.  

Farah found the training with TN gave her practical tools to share the gospel and make disciples. “The training strengthened me, encouraged me in my calling and made me a better servant of the Lord,” she says. Farah is now looking after two small groups and is discipling followers of Jesus from both Muslim and Christian backgrounds.

Kiran was already sharing Jesus and making disciples in six areas in southern Lebanon. Following the TN training, Kiran is now ministering in 12 areas, looking after 16 discipleship groups and over 200 families.

TN’s training has helped Kiran, Rida and Farah and many other women build a solid foundation of faith and provides the ongoing support they need when things get tough. And they know they are connected to a whole network of Christians that stretches across the Middle East and North Africa.

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Video transcript

Hello. And welcome to Hope from the Edges. I’m Andy Roberts, mission director for CMS.

In the next few minutes, we’ll bring you inspiring news from three edges in our world, stories you are making possible through your gifts and prayers.

Our first stop is in the Middle East, where a courageous woman has chosen to follow Jesus despite huge risks.

Then we go to the DR Congo to hear how hundreds of baptisms have taken place in areas of violent conflict.

Finally, we spend some time in a community shed in Cumbria where a group of people have begun meeting regularly for cuppas, conversation and carpentry. And for some, faith has been built too.

We begin in the Middle East with the story of Mariam, whose name has been changed for security reasons. But I need to tell you that some parts of Mariam’s story might be upsetting to some viewers.

Mariam grew up in Syria, in a strictly observant Muslim household. Mariam’s Mother removed her from school at age 15 because she disapproved of the fact that her daughter had Christian friends.

Hoping to escape the confines of her home life, Mariam agreed to get married, but her husband was abusive and Mariam had even less freedom than before.

When the civil war in Syria began, Mariam, her husband and their children became refugees in Lebanon. A neighbour noticed the family circumstances and told Mariam about a place she could go to for help. That place turned out to be a church.

In addition to providing practical help with food and other basic necessities, the church members also prayed for Mariam and gave her a Bible.

But her husband forbade her from reading the Bible, saying it was full of lies. Yet Mariam found the Bible irresistible.

As she read it in secret, she felt God speaking to her. And one day she prayed and decided to follow Jesus.

When Mariam’s husband found out about her new faith, he became violent and told her she needed to choose between Jesus and her family.

He took the children with him back to Syria. And this broke Mariam’s heart. Still, Mariam refused to give up on her faith. She prayed and asked Jesus to help her carry this burden.

Mariam started serving with her church, and she connected with a CMS partner who trained her and equipped her to follow her calling into mission.

Today, Mariam helps disciple children and young people, and she leads a thriving ministry among dozens of Kurdish women who meet together in house churches.

Not long ago, Mariam was also miraculously reunited with her daughter.

You can read more about this amazing turn of events on the CMS website. Mariam’s story is a moving reminder that Jesus never gives up. Neither should we.

Now, let’s go to the DR Congo, where CMS mission partner Martin Gordon, bishop of Goma, has reported on remarkable things happening in two key areas: Masisi and Walikale.

We’ll begin in Masisi, which has been on the frontline of the conflict between the Congolese government and the Rwandan backed M23 rebels for the last three years.

Despite the intense suffering this conflict has wrought, Bishop Martin reports that months ago, 93 new followers of Jesus were baptised and 60 more were baptised on Christmas Day.

This took place in Musangati, where the church has got so full services need to take place outside.

The other area is Walikale, which is located so far deep into the Congo forest that it can take three days to get there. The archdeaconry hadn’t had a visit from a bishop in 30 years until Bishop Martin decided to go last summer.

The remoteness of Walikale means that it’s still considered pioneering territory for the gospel.

The main purpose of Bishop Martin’s visit was for a week of teaching on growing healthy churches, and to share Jesus.

At the end of the week, over 500 people had given their lives to Christ, more than 100 had been baptised and 200 confirmed.

At the closing service, Bishop Martin and colleagues commissioned 98 evangelists and nine church leaders.

Since that summer visit, God has been powerfully at work. Many people are turning to Jesus, including village chiefs and former witchdoctors.

Last, but certainly not least, we know Christmas seems like ages ago but we wanted to show you some of the fantastic handmade items crafted by people who are part of the Community Shed in Carlisle.

CMS mission partner Garry Ion serves at the Community Shed and tells us that about 30 men and women are now regularly joining in for carpentry workshops as well as conversation and pastoral care.

Many of the people who come to the shed have struggled with addiction or mental health issues.

The shed is a safe space to meet new friends, ask questions about faith, and study the Bible together for those who want to.

Over time, Garry says he’s seen people trust in Jesus and grow in faith, thanks to this community.

Over the winter, there is also Community Space in the evenings. This a warm space adjoining the shed, where people come for a more in-depth chat, cuppa and access to indoor games including table tennis, pool and darts.

Let’s give thanks for Garry and others from Carlisle Diocese who have developed this space where people who might not feel comfortable in traditional church, are finding friendship and faith.

Thank you for joining me for these stories from the edges and for your prayerful support, which makes them possible.

Please share this video with your church, small group, or anyone you think could use some fuel for their faith.

So until next time,

We are so grateful for your gifts and prayers as together we go:

With Jesus
With each other
to the edges

ENDS

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Following Jesus comes at a cost for many believers from a Muslim background. Mariam (name changed), who met Jesus after fleeing war in Syria, shares what it cost her, and why she has no regrets.

As a schoolgirl in Syria, I had many Christian friends. I wondered why they always seemed happy. I come from a strict Sunni Muslim family, and it always felt like there was anger, not happiness. My mum used to tell me that I need to pray, and to clean myself before prayers, because if I didn’t, I would go to hell. I wanted to know more about God and why God treats us this way.

My mum knew that I had Christian friends, so she removed me from school. At 15, I couldn’t leave my house, and my mum wouldn’t let my friends visit.

Escaping but still trapped

When I was 19, my family wanted me to get married. I accepted because I wanted to stop being confined at home. Yet, my relationship with my husband was built on force. I was told that no matter what happened, I must obey and listen to him – that’s what Islam said. I had no freedom. I asked God, “Where are you? Why do you allow these things to happen to me?”

When the war started in Syria, my husband left me alone. My children and I stayed with my parents until he phoned saying he was in Lebanon and wanted me to come.

In Lebanon we lived in a dirty, windowless place, with rats, and mould that made us ill. We had very little electricity, and it was cold. I was not allowed to leave the house. My husband used to beat me and do whatever he wanted because my parents were not there. Our neighbour noticed our circumstances and she convinced my husband to let me go to get some help from an organisation nearby.

The place I went to for help was amazing. I saw people praying and worshipping, and knew it was a church. I told them about our situation and they came to my house and prayed for us.

“I advise you not to read that”

When my husband found out about their visit, he washed the floor with salt water, believing this would cleanse these unrighteous people and spirit from the house. He saw the Bible they left and said, “I advise you not to read this because it is not true.”

I always listened to him because I feared him, so I covered up the Bible. I told the children not to touch it, but every time I looked, I found the Bible open. I would ask the kids, “Who touched it?” and they would say, “We did not.” It felt like the Bible opened by itself so I could see it.

“You are mine”

I decided to start reading the Bible. I got to Matthew 5, where it says that we are the salt of the earth. I kept repeating this verse, because it just got to me. Then I heard this voice in my head saying, “My daughter, you are mine.” This voice spoke to me three times, and it had a softness and peace. I will never forget it. It was the first time I felt somebody talking to me with love, care and kindness.

I went to the church and told them my story. They said, “Mariam, this is the Lord talking to you. The Lord is calling you to serve him. He calls you his own daughter.” I started secretly going there as much as I could. During one meeting, they prayed for me and told me, “You need to take Jesus as your saviour.” I said to them, “If Jesus is my freedom, then I am ready to take him.” I took that decision and I have never regretted it.

I used to be angry and unhappy. After believing in Jesus, God gave me comfort, rest and patience.

Losing my family

Once my husband saw the Bible open with my notes. He tore it, and beat me badly in front of our children, saying, “Instead of reading this wrong and false book, you should read the Qur’an.” I told him the Bible told me about a God who gives me love and mercy. He started beating me again. When my parents heard about it, they were very upset. My mum said that unless I went back to Islam, I wasn’t her daughter anymore.

My husband gave me a choice: Jesus or the family. I chose Jesus. I lost my mum, my dad and my children. I’m a new person with Jesus, but it was very difficult.

When we went to court, the judge gave me custody of the children and my husband could visit. One day he took the children and didn’t bring them back. Three days later, the kids phoned and told me they were back in Syria. My mum told me to go back and reconcile with my husband, even though he had married again.

“I got to Matthew 5, where it says that we are the salt of the earth. I kept repeating this verse, because it just got to me.”

I cried, “Jesus, I love you and I want to be with you. But why this is happening to me and these children you gave to me?” I tried every way possible to get my children back, but with no success. I asked Jesus to help me carry this burden because I could not do it myself.

Finding my calling

I love my children; they are my whole world. Yet when they were taken away, God used me. I started serving with the church, discipling local groups and working with children.

The church introduced me and some others to [CMS partner] TN, who told us that God has a plan and a calling for us. I had never thought about that, but since I was young, I always dreamed of being a teacher. As a child, my family told me that I could not do much because I’m a woman, but TN increased my passion to serve the Lord. Their training gets people to start being creative, to take initiative, to think about how they are going to change their life and how they’re going to reach others.

As well as working with children and young people, I lead a service for women from a Kurdish tribe, 80 women in 10 groups like house churches. I preach the gospel. I am a missionary.

This is what God has opened up for me.

“This is your daughter”

In summer 2023, nine years after losing my children, I was shocked to receive a message: “Mum, this is your daughter. Please talk to me.” I couldn’t believe it. I asked her how she had found me. She had been looking for me for three years on social media and found somebody who knew me and gave her my number.

My daughter told me she loved and missed me, and begged me to come and get her. As she was now 18, my ex-husband wanted to get her married. I went to one of the pastors of the church and asked for help to bring her back to me.

She was able to escape and come to me. She told me, “Mum, I used to pray every day and say, ‘God, why did you take away my mum?’ I used to see you in my dream, coming out from a white wall wearing a white dress and telling me, ‘I’m going to bring you home.’”

“Don’t give up”

My passion is to work with women who have been through similar experiences. I tell them the story of how my daughter came back. And I tell them that through all the hardship, God is still at work, God will bless you and God will use you. For a long time, I was by myself. It was very hard, but the Lord was my backbone, which made me not give up and lose hope.

When I talk to these women, I tell them that they need to trust the Lord because he will take them through the pain. My message is that you need to allow Jesus to come in your life because he will give you joy. So don’t give up. I had always been sad, but the Lord gave me this smile and this happiness that I can share with others. I’m a new creation because of Jesus – and that is the message I want to tell everyone.

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Recently we travelled to the Bekaa valley to visit some Syrian refugee families. These refugees fled war in Syria and arrived in Lebanon with nothing much. But that was now four or even eight years ago – they have lived here for a significant time.

By a mission partner in the Middle East

Their homes have developed, they have electricity (when it works), fridges, heaters and satellite televisions. They do seasonal work in the fields and building sites, and receive UN support (some). The health and education situation is poor and unreliable, but looking at Syria it is the same there. Their homes here are made of wood and tarpaulins and the ground gets muddy in the winter, but this is not so different to where they came from, for many of them were poor Syrians before they were poor refugees in Lebanon.

Nowhere else to go

Inside the tents are organised: the kitchens have shelves and storage jars, the walls, especially in the front room where guests go, are covered in decorative materials and there are carpets on the floor. You soon forget it is made of tarpaulins. In fact, in the tents of the Bekaa the situation for most of the year is better than in the poor tenements of Beirut. Although they are labelled as refugees and the Lebanese want them to leave this place, in their own minds the Syrians are at home here in the Bekaa valley in their tented houses. There is nowhere else for them to go.

We visit with a Syrian friend who has cousins living in a couple of the camps. These camps are informal groups of tents (usually around 30 to 50) in a field, the UN has built latrines and cesspits, there is electricity and the access roads do get muddy but had just been covered in fresh chippings. I even noticed in one camp a tent had been converted into a garage!

Good-humoured welcome

The format of a visit is familiar – we arrive, are ushered into a tent, take off our shoes in the first room and walk into a carpeted room with curtain material lining the walls and ceilings. As guests we are given the most comfortable cushions and sit down first. The host then sits down and conversation starts – this is in Arabic so we are observers taking note of when our names are mentioned so we can smile and nod appropriately. In each tent, as we talk more people appear quietly until we have a tent full of perhaps 12 people plus children.

At the first tent we generally meet an important person who will approve or disapprove of our visit. The conversation is good humoured and having negotiated this we are free to visit other tents.

In the next tent someone makes very sweet tea, which we drink out of small glasses that seem to be universal across the country. At some point our friend kneels up and his manner changes a little. I realise he is now teaching from the Bible. It is Ramadan, the time of Muslim fasting, and he is sharing from Matthew 6 where Jesus talks about not making a show of your fasting, and how the attitude of the heart is more important than appearances.

Living water

This is a close community – most people are related, they live close together and their many children play together every day. I look across the sea of faces as my friend talks – they are all different. There is a young lady who has a very young baby distracting her – she tries to smile and engage with the talk, but it is difficult to listen carefully. Another face framed by a hijab is listening, but very intrigued by us two old English people. Over on the other side are some older ladies, the grandmothers perhaps, who are happy to be surrounded by family, their wrinkled faces and darker clothing lightened by sparkling eyes and easy smiles. One of them, her eyes full of pride, is our friend’s aunt and she is very proud of him as he shares from the Bible and talks about faith. Another young lady sitting at the front is listening raptly, as if she has been thirsty for days and finally has some water to drink. As Jesus would say, she was receiving “living water” as our friend shared.

In the doorway two young men appeared – they were not smiling and I feared they disapproved. They would stand at the door, listen and then go out again, and then come back. I never worked out whether they approved or not, but it was like they could not stay away – they were curious as well as suspicious.

This group is a mixture of people slowly and carefully learning about Jesus. Some have really embraced the faith of our friend, while others are just curious as they see their friends’ lives transformed.

Here in these houses made from tarpaulins, a forgotten people are finding out about a God who has not forgotten them. It is our privilege to see and be a small part of this.

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Tamar Dawood amplifies voices in the Arab world that are not often heard, helping people tell their stories of faith through short, powerful films.

As told to Naomi Rose Steinberg by Tamar Dawood

“I have so many stories I can share with you.”

This is one of the first things Tamar says to me as we connect over Zoom – she’s sitting in her office in Lebanon and I’m working from home in Oxford. I’m recovering from COVID-19 and feeling a bit low – I could really use some good news, so I ask Tamar to simply tell me some stories from her work among Muslim-background followers of Jesus.

ISIS intimidation

“Well let me tell you about a woman I got to know well, from Syria – one day she started to suspect that her husband had joined ISIS,” Tamar begins.

“She noticed his behaviour was changing; he quit his job, started going out in the middle of the night and one day he came back with blood on his clothes. She tried to ask him what was going on and he hit her, badly. With her young daughter watching and her son asleep in the next room. She felt she had to run away, but when she went to tell her mother, her mother took her passport and hid it.

“The woman was scared and she started to pray, in a different way than she had before: ‘If you are there, God, show me. I don’t know what to do.’ She ended up, amazingly, getting a new passport – you wouldn’t believe how difficult this is.

“She felt God had heard her, yet she still expected to be turned away at the border. When the Syrian border guard saw her and her children, he asked where her husband was. She replied that she did not know. He told her to wait and while she was waiting she prayed again. He came back and let her through. She described it to me as a miracle that she and her children were allowed to come into Lebanon.”

Journey to Jesus

Once in Lebanon, the Syrian woman soon met some people from a church and they told her about Jesus. She decided to follow him.

“Why did she do that?” I ask Tamar.

“It’s a good question. She’d been a strict Muslim, yet when she read the Qur’an she had questions. But as a woman, she was discouraged from asking questions. When she got here, someone gave her a New Testament and when she started reading about Jesus, she saw he was kind, gentle, always there to help and love the poor. When she asked questions about what she read, people were willing to answer. She was attracted to the love of Jesus. Interestingly it wasn’t a miracle that attracted her. I have many stories I can share where people believed because they saw a miracle [and indeed, Tamar shares some of these stories while we talk, and they leave me astounded] but for her, it was the love of Jesus and the kindness of some of his followers.”

I tell Tamar that in the West we seem to hear more and more about Muslim people turning to Jesus either because they witness a miracle or see him in a dream or vision. “But it seems like it must be very difficult for them to stay with faith in Christ?” I ask.

“Some do leave,” she says. “Though it’s not usually because of persecution that someone walks away from God, I don’t think. In most cases persecution makes people turn to Jesus more, love Jesus more.”

Family matters

“But you know,” she continues, “they need fellowship and they need people to journey with them, because life is hard. And I think that it should be Arab people who disciple Arab people. It’s so important to have Arab missionaries in Arab worlds. Because coming from Europe or America, you can’t really understand what it’s like living here. I’ve met well-meaning missionaries who come here and they tell people that Jesus loves them and will help and protect them. But they haven’t lived a fraction of what we experience: they have electricity, money, jobs. I am so thrilled to find churches who believe in supporting missionaries from their own origin.”

Tamar’s concern for struggling, marginalised people was kindled when she was very young. She shares that walking alongside people in their trials can leave her feeling drained or depressed. “I hear such hard stories every day and sometimes there is little we can do. I have to turn my eyes to Jesus and trust him.”

Her work involves amplifying voices in the Arab world that are not often heard, helping people tell their stories of faith through short, powerful films. The account she has shared with me of the Syrian woman is one she was particularly eager to film and share – but sadly the woman recently died from COVID-19. “Her children were orphaned, but amazingly, the woman’s mother is now here looking after them, and she has now turned to Jesus too, as have other family members because this one woman’s life was a witness and she prayed for them. And because church members visited her mother and helped her, too.”

In her film and media work with Lighthouse Arab World, Tamar, a CMS local partner, shares stories. She believes that stories of people who have faced great difficulties but still held onto Jesus can be a great encouragement for others. They certainly were for me that day we spoke on Zoom. Having travelled to the edges of faith with Tamar, I closed the conversation feeling more uplifted than I had in a while.

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The post “If you are there God, show me”: a Syrian woman’s story appeared first on Church Mission Society (CMS).