Feature
4 minute 40 second read
Twenty-five years ago Darren, a single man from South Africa, joined a church-planting team in the Middle East. Seven years later, now married to a South African whom he had met in the region, he took over the responsibility of Arab World Media. For the past seven years he has served as the Regional Leader for the Middle East.
Well, the region is made up of fifteen countries. We start with Egypt and Sudan, then there is the historic Levant in the Eastern Mediterranean and going south you come to the Arabian Peninsula. Additionally, there is the Arab refugee team in Turkey – working with mainly Syrian refugees. The Team Leader also serves as church-planting consultant/mentor in the region. And Arab World Media, PALM and Media 2 Movements also come under my remit too. It’s a wide and diverse region.
It is divided up into eight areas, with ten Area Leaders – in two areas a husband and wife share the responsibility of Area Leadership. We’re about 370 people on the field plus 30 ministry partners – those who work closely with us but are not Pioneers members. This figure does not include children.
In the Arabian Peninsula there is no historic church, but in the rest of the region – for ease, we’ll call it the Middle East – you have a historic church. Culturally people are pretty similar, but the presence of the historic church in the Middle East makes it different. For example, in Egypt there is the Coptic Orthodox Church, which has been very formative over the last two millennia. They trace their roots back to when Mark took the gospel to Egypt. Go to Lebanon and Syria and you’ll find a Christian presence; even in Iraq there is the very historic Armenian Church. But when it comes to the Arabian Peninsula there is no historic church – zero! There are expat churches, mostly for people who come to work in the region, including one where about twenty congregations use one building with services in at least ten languages and consisting of people from more than 80 nations!
Culturally the presence of Islam is the big thing shared by all the countries in the region. Islam is a very distinctive cultural form. It’s more than a religion, it’s a kind of lifestyle, a way of life. It permeates the language, the culture, the way that people go about their day-to-day lives and that is shared across the whole region.
In the Middle East, where there is sometimes a strong Christian presence, although they share the same language, the Christians would almost be considered a separate culture. For example, an Egyptian Christian understands, language-wise, Muslims from an Arabic-speaking background, but sometimes they also don’t. Because there has been so much persecution of Christians, they tend to put a layer around themselves to insulate themselves from the rest of the population. Although they are very close, they are far apart as well.
Lebanon is another example where there are a number of different Christian traditions, such as the Maronites, various Orthodox groups and Protestants, and they all live separately. It’s not an official thing but it is how things have landed up. There are big Christian communities, and they all live in their own areas. Interestingly, according to the constitution, the President is always a Maronite Christian. In the same way, there are different Muslim communities living in their own areas. They co-exist without necessarily integrating.
Mission workers are scholars of cultures, and as we come into a place and seek to learn the culture, we discover the differences between them.
So when someone becomes a Christian from a Muslim background that adds a whole load of complications. Not only do they have to overcome spiritual barriers they also have to overcome social barriers.
It becomes slightly less of an issue when you have refugees, because then you can have Christians and Muslims together – they’re all refugees, right? It breaks down that ghetto idea/mentality. Yes, there are still social barriers people have to overcome as well.
We are in a season of harvest across the Middle East, particularly among refugees, whether Yemeni, Syrian or Sudanese. That’s where the major growth is at the moment – whether it’s refugees in Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt or Jordan – the ministries among refugees are flourishing.
As refugees they are crying out almost in desperation. It’s a hard reality but it’s true. Those who struggle the most are most open to spiritual change. They are in need, they need a listening ear, someone to pray with them, a family member is in hospital – that’s the kind of places our workers are called to, to offer help, a conversation, to pray. To offer love. We see this in the life of Jesus as well. He went to the marginalised, those without voices. I think there’s a gospel message for us there.
For someone who comes to faith in the Arabian Peninsula the biggest challenge is the social control that the community and family have over the person. When to step out of that comfort zone and join another group of believers – followers of Jesus – is very difficult.
So, we pray a lot about trust – that the Lord will build trust among a small group of believers before we introduce them to one another; that they will love one another well. They are stepping out from what is known into the unknown. They are forming in a sense the word koinonia – that idea of fellowship, the way that God looks at us, the uniqueness of identity and value within Him. It’s very difficult for them to come to faith…
Yes, that’s right. It’s not programmatic, it is lifestyle. So, when they share the gospel and someone comes to faith they are now saying, ‘I’m going to share the rest of my life with you’. You invite that person into your family because this is what they have lost. You can’t just say, ‘I’ll disciple you on a Monday’, because there is no such thing as discipleship on a Monday. In the church in the West, we always think that church is on Sunday, home group is on Tuesday and so on. In the Arab world it’s completely different. Maybe there can be fellowship together but it’s actually life-on-life and it’s 24/7. And that is tiring for people. So please do pray for both workers and new believers.
*Name changed to protect identities.
This conversation will be continued in the November 2023 issue of Link.
