January 22ndCompelled to Serve
One Canadian couple left the comforts of Canada to join a Pioneer’s team (2 families and 2 single interns) serving in a Muslim city of about 300,000 people. The team has been there for 5 years.
As they prayed, they built relationships with the people God led into their lives. Each one worships in secret, afraid they will be rejected by family and friends.
Here are their stories. We have changed their names to protect their privacy and keep them safe.
Addi has two young children. He is very serious about following Jesus, and in spite of being completely isolated and without a community of faith around him, he has held firm in his faith since he met Jesus in the early 1990’s. His Christian foundation is strong and he has studied theology in Europe.
Daily life is not easy. He works hard to provide for his family, but they struggle financially.
His wife has not accepted Addi’s faith, although she occasionally comes with him to meetings. For years he believed he was entirely alone, keeping his faith to himself.
Fatou drove over 4 hours to worship with a small Christian church for many years. Only when she met with Pioneers missionaries did she realize there were other believers right within her own community. This gift of fellowship close to home has been a great blessing in the midst of difficulty. She feels intense pressure from her family to marry. But she doesn’t want to marry a Muslim, and in a city where she only knows a few Christians, she struggles as she considers her future.
Jaafar has been a believer for more than five years. In his mid-twenties, he is a very committed Christ-follower. He has not shared his beliefs with his friends or family. When he met our team, he felt an instant relationship and trust with them. He does not feel free to share his beliefs in his own social group. Even though they are moderate Muslims, if they suspect him of doubting their cultural and religious traditions, he would be set apart and likely rejected by his peers.
Addi, Fatou and Jaafar thought they were alone in this city of more than 300,000 people.
But they are not. This small group of Christians is God at work building His church in this spiritually isolated area. Together with our team, they are a community of Christians within a Muslim city worshiping in their own heart language. As a Pioneer partner, you are helping to forge new Christian communities in some of the least reached regions of the world.
Thank you for your continued prayers and financial support. Together, we are bringing Christ’s love to people groups where there is no church and just a few solitary Christians who worship by themselves, longing for Christian fellowship.