Testimony
3 minute read
Our vision, for which we are praying, is that God would pour out His grace to see a church planted among the Arabs in our city that would last until Jesus returns.
Seven years ago, Colin* and Christine* and their three children moved to a new city in North Africa, having previously spent three years in the capital city of that country. When they relocated it was a new work and, to their knowledge, there were no foreign Christians there.
When I spoke recently with Bruce*, the Regional Leader, I discovered that just a few years earlier, some Pioneers’ leaders had been talking about new places where we could pioneer mission work, where there was no gospel witness and no workers. They cast a vision – bathed it in prayer – and this city was one of those new places.
Now Colin and Christine are the Team Leaders and they say, ‘The work in our city had been neglected to some degree over the years; it’s off the beaten path – a city of 350,000 people. Our vision, for which we are praying, is that God would pour out His grace to see a church planted among the Arabs in our city that would last until Jesus returns – with local leadership as well.’
The team now consists of ten adults with a similar number of children. They’re involved in different ministries – such as a language school, a translation business and even an export business – but they support one another with the same goal in mind. As Colin says, ‘The fact that we are living life together so closely, it’s hard to be off on different tangents because we’re all talking to each other about the same people that we’re all interacting with.’
There is also a small Arabic-speaking church made up of local believers and seekers, those who are not-yet believers. In the last couple of years they have come together as a church and been taught, by the team, what Christians believe and what Christians do together. Now the team is continuing to teach in the church, praying for new converts and for God to raise up qualified leaders who would then be able to take over the work from the team.
As Christine says, ‘Slowly, as more locals have started attending the meetings, it feels like their voice is more prominent, and our foreign influence has decreased, which is exactly what we want to see.’
There are six women in the Arabic-speaking church – not all believers yet. One of the believers is an Arabic teacher, with very high classical Arabic, which she can teach, read and study. Another lady is unable to read – she loves God’s Word; she hears it and memorises it. Doing a Bible study and discipleship for these women is therefore not easy. ‘To ask the lady who is unable to read, ‘what does verse 13 say about living as a believer?’, doesn’t work, as she doesn’t know which is verse 13. But she has such good insight; ask her to tell a Bible story and she can do that.’
The team has been using PALM materials – Preparing Arab-world Leaders for Ministry – and are now using the orality version, which is a discipleship programme designed specifically for those who are oral learners. ‘We’re trying to walk down that path of walking with a woman who’s very literate and one who’s illiterate and bringing them together so they can both study God’s Word.’
For now, two of the leaders in the English-speaking church have the capability to teach in Arabic. They see their role as itinerant preachers to some degree, providing this teaching and shepherding role in the Arabic-speaking church until such time as God has raised up a local leader for them.
Prayer pointAt the moment, as there is still no local leadership in the church, that leadership role is being fulfilled by the team. However pray with them for this first step of the vision to be fulfilled. Until the time local leadership is raised up, the team intend to build up the local believers, encourage them, train and lead them so they grow in number, in depth and in maturity.
*Names changed to protect identities.
