Three nights ago I was in the home of an Iraqi family that lives in a slum neighborhood in Amman. The family has no furniture, no beds and lives on four hundred dollars a month they get from the UN. Because they have been given refugee protection status, they qualify for a small compensation for living away from their war torn homeland. Unfortunately, in this country they are discriminated against and have little chance of finding work. Four hundred dollars doesn't go far where they now live when you have ten kids and one on the way. Our friends that work in this country have been helping as much as they can. They're hope is to get permission to come to America.
Hassan, the father, is particularly upset today because he just came from the UN office where he learned that because of a computer glitch they won't be receiving compensation this month. "I want to take my ten kids and pregnant wife to their office and ask them how they think I will take care of them this month!" He says to us in Arabic in a kind of fit of agitation.
On the way to Hassan's house, our friends explain to us that this entire family has now declared they want to convert to Christianity. They have seen such horrible abuse and violence in Iraq that their perspective on the Islamic religion completely changed. One day a couple of years ago Hassan snapped and questioned everything he had always believed. So he announced to the family he was no longer Muslim.
His suffering began in 1994 when his father was killed by Saddam Hussein.
At that time they lived in Basra after the first war. When the US forces pulled out of this area Saddam's thugs moved in and started randomly killing men in the community as a way of regaining control and spreading terror.
Hassan walks over to the only picture hanging on the wall- a picture of his beloved father and takes it down and holds it out to us. When we are finished looking it at it he holds to the picture to his chest as if to demonstrate the depth of his loss.
After his three best friends and one brother were killed in the same manner after the second Iraq war, Hassan was done with Islam and the hate and violence it brought to his life. He had seen enough Muslims killing Muslims to convince him that this was not a religion he wanted anything to do with.
"After you've lived in this land very long you learn that most everyone's a Muslim and most Muslims carry a degree of hatred and anger in their hearts..." one of my friends who has been in a North African country for close to fifty years told me a few days ago. "They say they are all one but when you barely scratch the surface you find out that's not true" he continued. "If a Sunni Muslim finds out someone is a Shia they will say 'he's not a real Muslim!'
"Most violence around here is Muslim on Muslim." He says to me.
Our friends in Amman come to the Iraqi families house weekly to teach them some scripture. They are thrilled the family wants to become Christian but know that simply saying you are no longer a Muslim and want to be a Christian does not necessarily translate to genuine faith in Christ. They have developed a close relationship with this family the past few months and are encouraged that they are now going to a house church and have genuine interest in learning scripture. It is apparent to all of us that this entire family will one day call upon the name of the Lord Jesus. Our friends assure Hassan that they will make sure he is taken care of this month and that they are there for him. As we get up to leave he tells us he is sorry his home is so small and that he has nothing to offer us. We tell him that he has honored us with his hospitality and will be praying for him.
It is examples like this that have convinced me that Islam's strangle hold on this area is is beginning to loosen ever so slightly. Hassan and his family are but one example of the many who are coming to Christ by unusual means in Muslim controlled lands. We have talked to scores of Muslim background believers who tell stories of dreams, visions and other somewhat dramatic events that precipitate their introduction into Christianity. In a place in which it is difficult to find the Word of God the Spirit of God is moving in ways not seen in the States or in other parts of the world.
But once a Muslim background believer (MBB) comes to Christ it is incredibly important that there are means of discipleship available to them. So it important not just that the gospel be proclaimed, but that along with that proclamation a dynamic functioning church emerge where new believers can find fellowship, Bible teaching and accountability.
So it is not surprising that along side the movement of the gospel, God is also raising up young leaders who fill the void of sound Bible teaching and discipleship. One interesting example of this is the Tunisian couple we met for dinner one night. Both of them came from very traditional Muslim families in small villages in Tunisia, but left their Islamic past behind after deeply questioning the things they had learned in the Koran.
So much of what they read in the holy book made no logical sense to them. With the help of a radio ministry that broadcast Bible teaching into Tunisia they converted to Christianity. Both of them were summarily kicked out of their homes and ostracized from their families.
Muslims who come to Christ face immediate persecution from family and tribal leaders. One of our friends from Tunisia told us that many Islamic governments gives support to religious freedom with one side of their mouths but with the other side give support to tribal leaders and family heads who carry out honor killings of family members who become Christians. It is a convenient way to seem modern and tolerant while simultaneously maintaining the archaic sharia law and it's brutal 7th century type violence.
"Islam is a terrible religion." My friend says to me. "Before Islam came to this part of the world mostly what you had was isolated tribal violence. But now what you have as a result of Islam is ingrained and universal hatred, violence and family abuse.
"Wherever Islam takes over, it destroys. That's why it's so vitally important we have a presence here."
On more than one occasion while we were in Europe and the Middle East, we walked around mosques and prayed against them, asking God to neutralize and destroy their effect on this land. Our friends here passionately pray against the demonic influence of this abusive and debilitating religion. More than most Christians I meet in America, they see themselves as being on the front lines of a desperate spiritual battle.
The young Tunisian couple who came to Christ told us that after becoming Christians they moved to Lebanon and attended seminary where they earned their masters degree in Biblical studies. Today they host a popular television program that is broadcast via satellite throughout the Middle East. As a result, their family, most of whom are still Muslim, is constantly harassed and persecuted because of their bold television ministry. The speak of their families suffering with obvious pain.
The more I heard this young couples story the more I was amazed at their incredible courage and keen intellect. We met them at a restaurant in a European port city where they are trying to lay low during the Tunisian revolution. They live under constant threat for their lives. But they live this way with such obvious joy and happiness. As the dinner winds into the night I realize that I am in the presence of true greatness. Here is a couple who has forsaken all for the sake of the gospel.
I leave this part of the world with a fresh sense of how to pray, but more than that I now have faces to put to those prayers. They are faces, young and old of brothers and sisters in Christ who are living out their faith in ways many of us in the States may never understand or appreciate. And yet with all the hardships and often terrible injustices they face, I somehow find myself longing for what they have. I find myself feeling a sense of jealousy for their boundless joy, courageous faith and hope in Christ.
Perhaps of all we have brought back with us this trip, these lessons are most important. And of all we have tried to bring to our friends in these parts of the world with our encouragement and prayers, what they have given to us in return is exponentially greater.
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