Making a start in the Arab world

James and Hope live in an Arab city known for its riots and revolutions. They know the smell of burning tires. But the explosion that ripped through the city killing 100 people took the danger to another level.

Most mission agencies would have evacuated them. Instead their mentor turned up with a small team and began working beside them. It was to be a turning point.

With limited Arabic James and Hope prayer walked the most devastated neighborhoods. From 6-8:00 am they walked and prayed in neighborhoods that no foreigner would normally be in.

Soon they made connections. All they had to offer was prayer and the people welcomed them. They met CC who had been seriously injured and whose house was barely liveable.

Sitting outside drinking coffee she asked, “Why are you here?” They answered, “We’re praying for the community in the name of Jesus and asking for God’s blessing.”

CC wept as they prayed for her.

A few days later they returned to discover an aid agency had chosen her as the first one in her community to have her home restored. The work was completed in three days. It was better than before the explosion.

CC told them, “This is because of our prayers!” She became the first new disciple James and Hope baptized.

Soon eight women were meeting in CC’s house to listen and discuss the stories about Jesus.

James and Hope would meet with their language teacher in the morning and learn the stories in Arabic then share them with the group with some questions they’d memorized. Coco would lead the discussion but James and Hope had no idea what their responses were.

Coco shared the gospel with her 85-year-old mother. Who told them, if you pray my son gets a job and God answers, I’ll believe in your God. The next day he had a job as a security guard, she turned and believed and was baptized.

In the aftermath of the explosion James and Hope learned how to enter a neighborhood. How to pray for needs and see God answer. How to be invited into homes for coffee. How to tell a Bible story to Arabs. All this while they were still learning the language.

Meanwhile God was preparing them for an open door in another part of the country.

Mohammed was from a region dominated by clans engaged in crime. He’d been a drug dealer for 30 years. He had spent ten years in jail for murder. In prison, he’d cried out to God to make himself known. Now released and at home, God woke him up one morning and told him to go and wait outside for his messenger.

Meanwhile a German missionary on his last day in the country who had no Arabic. As he drove through the region, his rental car company was tracking his movements and became concerned that the car had been stolen. They remotely disabled the car and it rolled to a stop outside Mohammed’s house. Through a translator, the German shared the gospel, and Mohammed believed and was baptized.

Soon after James and Hope were out sharing the gospel in the city, they met a local disciple who doing the same. She was the translator for the German missionary. Through her, they heard Mohammed’s story and the next day, the three of them drove out to meet him.

They not only met Mohammed, they also met his two wives and sixteen children.

One of his wives explained I wish you’d come earlier. Since meeting Jesus he no longer gets drunk, he no longer beats us he’s given up cocaine.

Immediately James and Hope trained Mohammed to identify his relational world, pray for them, and share his story and the gospel. Then they went with Mohammed to meet his sister, her husband and her family. They all turned and believed and Mohammed baptized them the next day.

When their jihadi son came home and discovered what his parents had done, he took a rock and threw it at his father narrowly missing him but hitting Mohammed and putting him in hospital.

Mohammed became known in the village as, “Our very first infidel.”

He responded with forgiveness and love and didn’t stop talking about Jesus.

His story has spread to other villages and now he is known as a man of forgiveness.

In his village, twelve families have become disciples and there are baptized disciples in 35 villages in the region. Mohammed has trained a coworker and they are out most days sharing the gospel and making disciples. They’ve set a goal to have at least one church in every village in their region.

If they can reach their district it will open the door to reaching every district. Already the gospel is traveling through their disciples to other Arab nations.

Mohammed is the last person you would ever choose to be an apostle to the Arab world. The foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men.

Podcast interview: 321-James and Hope: The Work