My birthday was this past week. It was a very different one, as Kathy and I were overseas with our mission—Indigenous Ministries (I have a “Ministry Updates” page where I report more fully and regularly on that work). It was also “momentous” as I reached the official “old age” mark of being 65. Today, I feel “tired” but not “over the hill” quite yet. There is great work and opportunity before us.

Lots of friends have sent their greetings on social media, often saying that they hoped I celebrated well, or asked what plans I had for my special day. Some even asked if I’d gotten Medicare taken care of (I think so). We actually wound up having to push the celebrations off until the day after, because a different activity would occupy the day itself.

I spent my birthday in a refugee camp.

Above, clockwise from top left: Our pastor gathering the Yazidi men (and a few women together); A., our team member, taking a picture of the group; Craig and Pastor F.; Yazidi children; speaking to the Yazidi; one of the buildings in the camp.

Starting in the morning we traveled a few hours north of our ministry office to a city on the Turkish border. There we met with our partner, a pastor who has faithfully served in this region for many years through many conflicts and dangers. He has established ongoing work among the Yazidi people, refugees who were in the news during ISIS’s “heyday,” but have largely been forgotten as new crises take center stage. He took us to a Yazidi refugee camp to deliver kerosene for heaters to the families that have lived there for seven years. IM has a “Rapid Response Fund” that allows us to pay for this and other emergency needs. Our pastor has faithfully served this community, and some of the Yazidi have become believers and a part of his church. We could tell they knew and respected him. Both before and after the distribution, we prayed for our God to help these people, and specifically that they would know the truth. They asked us to pray that they could go home, and we did that, too, all in the name of Jesus. This fuel would be enough to get them through what we all hope is the last cold spell of the season. And we left knowing that another reminder of how the gospel moves Christians to lovingly help them was left behind. Our pastor will continue to follow up.

Two days later, we headed off in the opposite direction, to the far eastern end of the country. We were going to a city and province that has suffered greatly for the past 35 years. During the Iran-Iraq war, Iran bombed the city regularly. But because these people had historic ties to their Kurdish relatives across the border in Iran, Saddam Hussein saw them as traitors. He ordered a chemical bomb attack on the city, using poison gas to kill over 5,000 and leaving a legacy of sickness and birth defects for decades. Subsequent wars (the U.S. invasion of Iraq and then the Al Qaeda/ISIS incursions) led to more bombs, more death, and more despair. All these years later, it remains an impoverished region.

Scenes from our visit to the east. We had heavy snow in the mountains one day. Our meals were amazing, and I asked for a picture of me sitting cross-legged as proof I did it for a short while!

Through a providential friendship with a Muslim government official from the area, we have been invited to visit, and we did so in conjunction with distributing both food and kerosene through more Rapid Response funds. But more than that, we have been asked by numerous officials to bring our Christian ministry into the region, including starting a church. Our “official” friend graciously arranged our schedule, our meals, and even opened his home there for us to stay. Our time in this city amazed us with the open doors and receptivity of people to prayer and ministry in the name of Jesus—they already know our leader, John, by name through his past visits and ministry. One official we met on this visit spent a great deal of time with us sharing that it is wrong to think Islam defines this region. He said Islam “only” arrived 400 years ago, and that this region has been one where religions have existed together in peace. He also wants a church to be started. The local religious leader literally chased John and Dee down the street just to make sure we knew we were welcome and they were waiting for us to stay. Perhaps suffering so much from others who practice their own religion has prepared them for a future outpouring of the Spirit. We are praying for that, even as we recognize that the challenges are huge.

In between these two ventures, John and Dee and Kathy and I went out for dinner in a beautiful restaurant here in the capital city of the region to celebrate my birthday. We had a wonderful meal on the patio with a heater near our table keeping us quite warm (it is just beginning to warm up here), complete with picture-perfect desserts and an after-dinner stroll around a few shops nearby. I also discovered what my name sounds like here!

To say that visiting here can whipsaw your perceptions and expectations would be putting it mildly. We’ve been in a rapidly developing city with many western features, but the divides between rich and poor, local and refugee, are clear. We’ve also traveled the length of the country and in the extremes seen villages and refugee camps with fewer resources that sit in the shadow of breathtaking mountains. Kathy has said it is like being on one of those travel documentaries that heads to exotic, remote places.

The legendary hospitality of the Middle East really is what they say it is, and we were treated to large feasts with extended families in two different homes, one in a city, one in a small village, and both being extravagant and delicious. And lest you get the idea that everything related to gospel work here is a walk in the park, we witnessed some intense local opposition the week before. Great open doors always are accompanied by real adversaries.

My role is focused on the preparation of materials, working on future teaching schedules and events, launching our Bible college extension, and teaching here whenever needed. While overseas, I do what I can with whatever opportunity I may have, no matter how small. I wish I could do more. But the privilege of seeing what God is doing is a very great and humbling one. It leaves me with some disjointed impressions. Let me share just a few.

1. Christians who care about gospel advance should redouble their efforts in praying for this region. The news you may have heard about Muslims in the Middle East having dreams and visions of Jesus or others directing them to gospel witnesses of all kinds are true. Workers here are, in many cases, finding what we are finding—great open doors that are breathtaking in scope. They go beyond what the current workforce and resources could address, but God is still advancing the work. Every person or family we met were happy for us to pray for them in Jesus’ name, and we did that in every setting—private or public. They were genuinely touched that we would ask our God to bless them, heal them, watch over them, and provide for them. People believe in prayer here. We western Christians should believe in it, too. Pray for resources. Pray for the workers here, ours and others doing similar work in other places. Pray that God will give us great wisdom in how to address these opportunities well. This region is filled with evidence of answered prayers and opening hearts.

2. The attitude of so many that the Middle East is a quagmire, a nightmare, a lost cause, a backwater, and/or an unreachable mess is SO WRONG. It is filled with hundreds of millions of souls that have yet to know the beauty of saving grace, the freedom of forgiven sins, or the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives. And yet, even prior to knowing Christ, the common graces of curiosity, laughter, kindness, openness to conversation, responsiveness to love, and hospitality to strangers are here in abundance, just to name a few. It is not an easy place for westerners to live, but it is one that you and I can begin to love well—whether here or from a distance. And fruit is coming where the gospel is shared. One young man helping us trusted the Lord after living for years with ISIS. His faith, though new, is growing and is evidenced in his countenance. Neither Islam nor the Middle East is monolithic—there are so many facets and shades of difference and varying degrees of accessibility. Don’t write off a large percentage of the world for the gospel.

3. Child sponsorship programs that are gospel-driven can really work. I add the “gospel-driven” caveat because a number of agencies, including Christian ones, have signed agreements in some places not to “proselytize” or in any way share anything about the gospel of Jesus. That is not our organization’s position. Instead, we do everything in Jesus’ name. When a child is sponsored in our program for example, their families come under the watchful care of one of our staff members, who regularly visit their homes, pray with them, share the gospel with them, and offer Sunday school to the children where possible to teach about Jesus. Provision is made for children to be educated (many refugees have not had access to education for themselves or their children for years—and in some cases, ever). Every family is given a Bible in audio form in a stuffed toy animal with a built-in player. The church plant here is filled with such families that have been touched by our organization’s sponsorship program—many riding vans and a bus we have rented for that purpose. To feed and clothe people without ever sharing the gospel with them would be a failure with eternal consequences. When done in Jesus’ name with gospel witness, fruit will come.

4. We need to train leaders, and quickly. We are beginning to think in the same terms that Paul did during his first missionary journey—establishing churches in Galatia on the way out, and appointing elders on his return trip at the end of his journey back to Antioch. Our Bible college is one tool to accomplish this, and even before that is ready to graduate its first class, we will use our other available means—conferences, seminars, discipleship, etc. to fill gaps as churches seem to be ready to be born soon. Pray for wisdom, the right resources, and creativity as we work on this need.

If God is doing this kind of work in ways and places that most of the Christian world is ignoring, imagine what he may be doing in other such places! And just think what might happen if Christians went to serious, concerted prayer for continuing breakthroughs in these places, and then sought out people who are doing work there and helped them through encouragement and financial support.

I write all of this with nearly two weeks of our itinerary ahead of us. Let’s see what God does next! Pray for our continuing health and strength along the way.

If you would like to help replenish IM’s Rapid Response Fund to help with these kinds of needs here, in Egypt, in India, and in other places where we provide aid, just click the button below, and follow the drop down prompts to choose “Rapid Response Fund”