Middle East

Sharing Christ’s love through practical service, including valuing and caring for children with special needs and their families.

About The Middle East

This majority Muslim nation is home to nearly 45 million people. Historically, the ethnic Christian minority existed peacefully, but in recent years tolerance lessened, and most Christians left the area. This migration, combined with geopolitical factors that make it difficult for Christian expats to enter, means that today, most of the population will never meet even one follower of Christ.

In addition to lack of access, one of the strongest barriers to the gospel in this region is the social, legal, and familial pressure to maintain tradition. People who choose to reject Islam and instead follow Jesus Christ face rejection, financial insecurity, violence, and even prison.

Our Approach

This team has a unique opportunity to serve disabled children and their families through occupational therapy services. In this traditional, shame-based culture, children with autism and other disabilities are often denied the opportunity to reach their full potential. Their families face shame, guilt, and exclusion from extended family and community.

Through partnership with a small local church, this team provides therapeutic care that affirms the dignity of these children, and ministers to their families. Therapy sessions, which take place both in a clinic setting and through home visits, allow for relationships to grow with families. Over time, children are loved and valued, mothers are encouraged, families are prayed for, and gospel seeds are planted.

Vision

We engage this forgotten community through practical service which makes a difference in peoples’ lives as they encounter Jesus’ love and truth.

Pray for the Middle East Team

Pray for additional speech pathologists and vocational therapists to join the team. We need more Christian professionals who want God to use their vocations to make Jesus known to a forgotten community.

Pray that the overwhelming love of Jesus would be communicated to these families, who have nowhere else to turn.

Pray for more and better-equipped communities of Jesus-followers in the Middle East.

Pray for the team’s safety. Their love and service to this forgotten community can sometimes be falsely perceived and portrayed as a threat to society.