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From: Joel Rosenberg
THE BIG (UNTOLD) STORY IN
THE MIDDLE EAST
Easter 2008 Update
 (Washington,
D.C., March 24, 2008) -- "I
will build my church," Jesus said, "and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it." (Matthew 16:18)
The lead story on Drudge over the weekend was the Pope baptizing a prominent
Egyptian author who converted from Islam to Catholicism, and for good reason.
It's a huge story in Italy
and the Muslim world, especially coming as it did the week that Osama bin Laden
accused the Pope of waging a "crusade" against Islam. But this
particular baptism is just the tip of the iceberg.
Despite unprecedented press coverage of Afghanistan,
Iraq, and the Middle East since September 11, 2001, one big story is
generally not being told by the mainstream media. Hundreds of thousands of
Muslims are converting to evangelical Christianity and will be celebrating
their first Easter this year, even amidst widespread persecution and the very
real threat of death.
I first began reporting this story in 2005 after interviewing some three dozen
Arab and Iranian pastors and evangelical Christian leaders in the U.S. and the Middle East.
Over the last three years, however, I have had the privilege of traveling to Iraq, Jordan,
Egypt, the West Bank, Turkey, and Morocco. What's more, I have had
the honor of meeting with and interviewing more than 200 Arab, Iranian,
Kurdish, Sudanese and other pastors and Christian leaders. With more data, the
trend lines are becoming even more clear and the story is even more exciting.
The God of the Bible is moving powerfully in the Middle
East to draw men, women and children to His heart and adopt them
into His family in record numbers. More Muslims have come to faith in Jesus
Christ over the last thirty years -- and specifically over the last seven to
ten years -- than at any other time in human history. There is a revival going
on among the ancient Catholic, Coptic, and Chaldean churches. Today, the Church
is being truly resurrected in the lands of its birth.
Consider the latest evidence:
* AFGHANISTAN -- In Afghanistan, for example, there were only 17
known evangelical Christians in the country before al-Qaeda attacked the United States.
Today, there are well over 10,000 Afghan followers of Christ and the number is
growing steadily. Church leaders say Afghan Muslims are open to hearing the
gospel message like never before. Dozens of baptisms occur every week. People
are snatching up Bibles and other Christian books as fast as they can be
printed or brought into the country. The Jesus film, a two hour docudrama on
the life of Christ based on the Gospel of Luke, was even shown on television in
one city before police shut down the entire TV station."God is moving so
fast in Afghanistan,
we're just trying to keep up," one Afghan Christian worker told me,
requesting anonymity. "The greatest need now is leadership development. We
need to train pastors to care for all these new believers."
* UZBEKISTAN
-- There were no known Muslim converts to Christ there in 1990. Now there are
more than 30,000.
* IRAQ -- As I shared on Fox & Friends on Easter morning, in Iraq, there
were only a handful of Muslim converts to Christianity back in 1979 when Saddam
Hussein took full control of that country. Yet today, there are more than
70,000 Iraqi Muslim background believers in Jesus (MBBs), approximately 50,000
who came to Christ as refugees in Jordan after the first Gulf War in
1990-91, and another 20,000 who have come to Christ since the fall of Saddam
Hussein. John Moser, the executive director of The Joshua Fund, and I just
returned from nine days traveling through five provinces in Iraq. We met
with 19 Iraqi evangelical Christian leaders. I had the privilege of preaching
in a church of more than 100 MBBs from Baghdad
-- a church that didn't even exist in 2002 before liberation. We also had the
privilege of meeting and interviewing numerous former Islamic jihadist
terrorist who have come to Christ and are now pastors and church planters.
* KAZAKHSTAN -- In Kazakhstan, there were only three known
evangelical Christian believers before the collapse of the Soviet
Union in 1991. Today there are more than 15,000 Kazakh Christians,
and more than 100,000 Christians of all ethnicities.
* EGYPT
-- More than 1 million Egyptians have trusted Christ over the past decade or
so, report Egyptian church leaders. The Egyptian Bible Society told me they
used to sell about 3,000 copies of the Jesus film a year in the early 1990s.
But in 2005 they sold 600,000 copies, plus 750,000 copies of the Bible on tape
(in Arabic) and about a half million copies of the Arabic New Testament.
"Egyptians are increasingly hungry for God's Word," an Egyptian
Christian leader told me. Last Christmas, I had the privilege of visiting the
largest Christian congregation in the Middle East, which meets in an enormous
cave on the outskirts of Cairo.
Some 10,000 believers worship there every weekend. A prayer conference the
church held in May 2005 drew some 20,000 believers.
* IRAN
-- In 1979 when the Ayatollah Khomeini led the Islamic Revolution, there were
only about 500 known Muslim converts to Christianity. Today, interviews with
two dozen Iranian pastors and church leaders reveals that there are well over 1
million Shia Muslim converts to Christianity.
* SUDAN -- Despite a ferocious
civil war, genocide and widespread religious persecution, particularly in the Darfur region -- or perhaps because of such tragedies --
church leaders there tell me that more than 1 million Sudanese have made
decisions to follow Jesus Christ just since 2001. Since the early 1990s, more
than 5 million Sudanese have become followers of Jesus. Seminary classes to
train desperately-needed new pastors are held mountain caves. Hundreds of
churches have been planted, and thousands of small group Bible studies are
being held in secret throughout the country.
In December 2001, Sheikh Ahmad al Qataani, a leading Saudi cleric, appeared on
a live interview on Aljazeera satellite television to confirm that, sure
enough, Muslims were turning to Jesus in alarming numbers. "In every hour,
667 Muslims convert to Christianity," Al Qataani warned. "Every day,
16,000 Muslims convert to Christianity. Every year, 6 million Muslims convert
to Christianity." Stunned, the interviewer interrupted the cleric.
"Hold on! Let me clarify. Do we have six million converting from Islam to
Christianity?" Al Qataani repeated his assertion. "Every year,"
the cleric confirmed, adding, "a tragedy has happened."
One of the most dramatic developments is that many Muslims throughout the Middle
East and even in the United
States are seeing dreams and visions of
Jesus. They are coming into churches explaining that they have already
converted and now need a Bible and guidance on how to follow Jesus. This is in
fulfillment of Biblical prophecy. The Hebrew Prophet Joel told us that "in
the last days, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters
will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.
Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those
days....And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved."
(Joel 2:28-32)
In Epicenter: Why The Current Rumblings In the Middle East Will Change Your
Future, I devoted an entire chapter to these dramatic trend lines and why
Muslims are converting in record numbers. I am currently working on a new
non-fiction book and documentary film called Inside The Revolution, to be
release during Easter 2009, with much more detail on this subject, including
first person accounts of former Muslim terrorists who have become the new
Apostle Pauls of our time -- murderous religious zealots who had visions of
Jesus Christ and are now pastors, evangelists, church planters and powerful
Christian leaders. Other books I would highly recommend on this subject are
Light Force: A Stirring Account of the Church Caught in the Middle East
Crossfire by Brother Andrew and Al Janssen; and Secret Believers: What Happens
When Muslims Believe In Christ.
Is life easy for these Muslim converts? By no means. They face ostracism from
their families. They face persecution from their communities. They face being
fired by their employers. They face imprisonment by their governments. They
face torture and even death at the hands of Muslim extremists. But they are coming
to Christ anyway. They are becoming convinced that Jesus is, in fact, the Way,
the Truth, and the Life, and that no one comes to the Father in heaven except
through faith in Jesus' death on the cross and powerful resurrection from the
dead.
One of the reasons my wife and I began The Joshua Fund was to educate the
Church around the world at what God of the Bible is doing in the epicenter. We
want to mobilize a global movement of Christians praying for these dear
brothers and sisters. We want to find ways to encourage and strengthen them. We
want to provide them with Bibles and Christian literature, and with
humanitarian relief supplies so they can love their neighbors and their
enemies, as Jesus tells us to do. Their stories are typically being told by the
mainstream media, but they are important stories nonetheless. Theirs are
testimonies of the greatness of our great God.
To visit Joel's WEBLOG with the latest on events in the Middle
East and Russia, please click here.
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To learn more about The Joshua Fund and "Operation
Epicenter," and/or make a secure, tax-deductible financial contribution --
even on-line -- please click here.
To visit The Joshua Fund's WEBLOG and learn more about our
EPICENTER conference in Jerusalem, please click here
EASTER PRAYER REQUESTS
* Please be praying for the family and friends of the Catholic bishop that was
just murdered in Iraq.
Father Paulos Faraj Rahho was kidnapped after Mass in the city of Mosul several weeks ago.
Pray for comfort, for courage, and for the Catholics in Iraq to be able
to love their neighbors and their enemies as Christ gives them strength after
this horrendous tragedy.
* Please pray that those responsible for this murder will be brought to earthly
justice, and that they will seek and find eternal forgiveness from our Risen
Savior.
* Please pray for all Iraqi Christians this Easter weekend, that the Lord would
give them great courage and boldness to stand strong and to be seen a positive
force for peace and reconciliation throughout all of their country.
* Please also pray for the family of Israeli pastor David Ortiz and his wife
Leah in the town of Ariel.
Their 15-year old son, Ami, was injured when a bomb was sent to their home
yesterday, disguised as a Purim present. Please pray for complete healing and a
speedy recovery. Pray for courage and strength for the family at this difficult
time. Please also pray for the Lord to give strength and courage and His gentle
favor on all of the pastors and believers in Israel this Easter weekend.
* Please continue to pray for those Israeli yeshiva students, their families
and friends who were affected by the recent terrorist shooting in Jerusalem.
* Please pray for the 500,000 Israelis who live near the border of Gaza that continue to be
hit with dozens of rockets and missiles every single day with no end in sight.
* Please also pray for the Palestinian Christians living in the West Bank and Gaza who will celebrate
Easter this weekend at the risk of their lives. Pray for their courage and
strength in the face of the radical Islamic jihadists who seek destroy
Christians, Jews, as well as fellow Muslims who are not as radical as they.
* Please continue to pray for the poor and needy and the victims of war and
terrorism in Israel
and the Muslim world. For Jesus told us in Matthew 25:31-40, "When the Son
of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His
glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will
separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the
goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. Then
the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed of My
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave
Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you
clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to
Me.' Then the righteous will answer Him, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and
feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You
a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You
sick, or in prison, and come to You?' The King will answer and say to them,
'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of
Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'"
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The Joshua Fund will continue to do our best to keep you up-to-date on the
kinds of projects we are doing, brief you on how those projects are proceeding,
and let you know about the kinds of projects we are developing for the future.
In no way do we want to pressure anyone to give financially. We fully believe
the Lord will provide for the needs of the people we seek to serve. But if you
or others wish to help, we welcome your support, and all financial gifts are
tax-deductible.
To contribute to the on-going work of The Joshua Fund please make your check
payable to "The Joshua Fund" and send to:
The Joshua Fund
18950 Base Camp Road
Monument, Colorado 80132-8009
Thanks so much and may the Lord richly bless you and your family as you bless
Israel and her neighbors in the name of Jesus. May the Lord truly care for you
and your family this Easter season.
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