Dear Friends, Family, and Prayer Warriors,
We were visiting a village in the desert recently when God opened to us an amazing opportunity to share the Gospel with a friend there, whom we’ll call M. Islam teaches many of the stories from the Bible (Abraham, Joseph, David) but with the glaring exception that, according to the Koran, Jesus never died on the cross. M. considered this just a small difference of no real consequence. So the Lord allowed me to tell him why the cross means everything! I have never seen anyone in such anxiety over the thought of the Judgement. He said he has questioned in the past if Islam was truly the “right religion”. I believe there are many with these same doubts and questions. We sat around a campfire until early the next morning talking about the Lord. I wish I could spend every day sharing the Word so freely, with the Holy Spirit so evident.
M. asked us to pray for his best friend who was having a dangerous surgery the following week. Our family prayed together that the friend would at least live long enough to hear the Gospel. But he died a week later. Our children grieved with us and said, “But he never even had a chance to hear the gospel!” They thought of the millions of lost Muslims all around us, and made the obvious conclusion, “We need more Christians to come here. Why don’t they come?” Of course our kids have always known why we are here, but it was exciting to see God show them the need. Please pray with us for laborers. Maybe someone reading this letter will be part of the answer.
M. later came to visit us at our home. He accepted an Arabic Bible to read. He lives very far from me, but has kept in touch by phone. Please pray for God to do the work in his heart that only He can do. It excites me to think of the Gospel spreading through this Bedouin village. The Bedouins are a very needy unreached people group. I don’t know of anybody in our country trying to reach them. They need your prayers and they need more laborers to teach and preach the Gospel to them.
Every lost soul is in Satan’s kingdom locked behind the gates of hell. Jesus said the gates of hell would not prevail against His church (Mt. 16:18). Gates don’t move, so Jesus was assuming the church would be on the offensive. Our great weapon is prayer.
Because Billions Have Never Heard
Jason Christiansen