ASI Abroad
Market Place Witnessing in the Middle East
MENA Union
02/29/2016
My husband and I walk down a dusty street in the Middle East. The call to prayer bellows from a mosque behind us. Donkey carts, horse carts, and tuktuks whiz past us while cars beep their horns.
We are excited because we are on our way to eat with a friend, Ahmed, and his family. Ahmed befriended us one day, and since then we have had many in depth discussions with him about family, life in the Middle East, morality, and religion. He speaks in broken English, and we speak in broken Arabic, but we are able to communicate enough.
Ahmed is one of many people in the Middle East North Africa region, which spans from Morocco to Iran, who are true-hearted, eagerly desiring to please God and to live a life of honor. He is following what he knows. And he is asking us many questions. We want to tell him more-carefully, prayerfully, and for the glory of God. We want to be friends with Ahmed for eternity. We want Ahmed to know Jesus Christ and that Jesus Christ is coming soon.
With over 500 million people in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region, there are abundant opportunities by God’s grace to make friends for eternity. And friendship is key because in many of the countries in the MENA region public evangelism is illegal and official church work is prohibited. In fact in a vast majority of the cities in the MENA region there is not even a single Seventh-day Adventist.
For this reason the MENA Union of the Seventh-day Adventist Church has created a program, Total Employment, to recruit SDAs from around the world and to help them find jobs in the MENA region in secular workplaces. Total Employment is seeking professionals from a variety of backgrounds: businessmen and businesswomen, teachers, healthcare workers, IT specialists, artists, international development specialists, musicians, social workers, human resource specialists, engineers, chefs, graphic designers, and many more.
Total Employment recruits individuals that are hard working and adept at their work. Yet these same individuals need to be flexible and adaptable and follow the Holy Spirit’s promptings and take time to invest in friendships at work and in the local community. And by God’s grace such friendships will last for eternity.
After eating supper with Ahmed at his family’s house, my husband and I walk back down the dusty street in the Middle East. We have been blessed by uplifting conversation and more questions from Ahmed about our faith. We are praying and looking forward to see how God leads in this friendship.
Is God calling you to make friends for His glory in the MENA region? Is God calling you to join the MENA Union’s Total Employment program? Please consider this call prayerfully. If you would like to know more information, send an email to go@totalemploymentsda.org.