Our recent trip to the Middle East to minister to leaders serving refugees was a humbling experience.
It made me think, though I have known Jesus since 1973, what price am I willing to pay to follow Jesus?
80% of those attending were from MBB's who have paid astronomical prices to follow Jesus.
What from the 32-year-old kidnapped by ISIS, who tortured him three days a week, then Friday was a torture party. What kept him from leaving Jesus? Jesus appeared to him in jail every night, giving him solace. Then after four months, the jail windows opened for him to escape from Iraq to Turkey.
What with the 18-year-old girl who saw ISIS rape her mother in front of her, then rape her when she was nine years old? When they fled to Turkey, she was raped again at 15 by her employer.
What about the Jordanian man whose wife aborted their child when she learned that he became a Christian and filed for a divorce on the grounds that her husband had become an infidel. She got everything. He lost his job and was jailed for ten months.
These are just a few of the people we met on our trip to the Middle East. They still follow and love Jesus. They are, in fact, ministers who lead home groups and underground churches.
Watching those who have suffered so much for Jesus and are still yearning to know Jesus and make Him known put me to shame. Their zeal reminded me of the book of Acts, of Paul’s journeys (of which many happened right here).
There are so many needs here: needs for discipleship, needs for teachings about Personal Holiness, about the Biblical Portrait of Marriage, about money management, and much more.
Most of those ministers discipled themselves through YouTube, so you can imagine what training they got, and yet, they are all on fire for Christ.
In the next few weeks, you will be reading some of the stories of those we met. We will change the names and photos so as not to jeopardize them.
Turkey is the doorway to many nationalities who are all residing there: Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kurdistan, and the Turks themselves.
4G3 will be starting three discipleship Institutes in Turkey to reach 150 refugees, who in turn will reach 15,000 in the next 15 months.
Would you like to be part of this revival?
You can.
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