In a region where today Christmas means almost nothing, Jesus-followers will gather to celebrate his birth in a clandestine meeting. The Faithful Witness team working in North Africa, the very location where the date of Jesus’s birth was first worked out, will bring together nearly 500 first-generation believers.
They will eat couscous for Christmas and worship Jesus in Arabic. It’s something they started in 2022.
The Faithful Witness team leader asks for our prayers:
For many years in this country, there was no unique way of celebrating and remembering the birthday of the Saviour. Only “foreigners” did that. But this gathering is something new and uniquely North African, as first-generation believers come united in boldness to worship Emmanual. Please pray this unique celebration of Christmas will continue for generations to come.
There is a great irony in having to meet in secret in a region where Tertullian of Carthage, a city in modern day Tunisia, was the first church father to suggest Jesus’s birthday was December 25. Apparently, the early North African church speculated that Jesus was conceived the same day of the month he was crucified, March 25. Notice the period of gestation. Tertullian simply set Jesus’s birth date 9 months later.
A century later, a sympathising Roman emperor put Christmas on our holiday calendar. All to say, North Africa was once a vital centre of global Christian influence. Not today. Approximately 106 million people in the region now live and die without access to the gospel.
A Faithful Witness team member confirms this radical historical shift:
In our Islamic context, Christmas Day means nothing to most people we live among. There is no public holiday, no recognition of the day whatsoever. We may see synthetic Christmas trees for sale in department stores, but these are for celebrating the New Year and evidence of Western soft power…
If December 25 falls on a weekday, even Jesus-followers just go about their usual business: following Jesus. We follow him unassumingly and incarnationally into our neighbourhoods and workplaces. Jesus’s presence is a cool stream running through this desert city: God is with us. Happy, happy Christmas!
The Faithful Witness team is focused on mobilising sub-Saharan African students, many from Christian backgrounds in their home countries, to faithfully witness to their North African classmates. Attracted north by university scholarships, we believe God himself has sent these immigrant students as agents of the gospel. Their mission-shaped trajectory is a beautiful celebration of the Incarnation: “The Word became human and made his home among us.” (John 1:14 NLT)
Local church buildings, built during the French colonial era and present in almost every North African city, play a crucial role in this mission. The Faithful Witness team members pastor these congregations and gather many lonely students, far from the traditions and comfort of home. Their minority status drives home the Christmas message in a fresh way:
He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognise him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. (John 1:10-12 NLT)
Pray with Us:
- For Jesus-followers to remain safe when they gather together in secret in North Africa to celebrate Christmas.
- For this team to grow in love and unity as they share the love of Jesus with students in North Africa.
- For more mission workers to join Faithful Witness teams around the world and for more security over the way those teams are funded.
