During this past season on the field, my loneliness has felt amplified.

My team went through a major transition, and two of my closest friends moved away from the field. In addition, global crises and increasing political tensions in the region have made everything feel heavy and uncertain.

So much was happening that I wasn’t sure I’d be able to bear it.

Forced into new terrain with God, I began naming the fears and doubts that had taken hold in my heart. Some of the ones I kept coming back to were these:

• Maybe people were right when they said they didn’t think I was called to the field.
• Is it supposed to be this hard? Am I supposed to be this tired?
• God has forgotten about me and my needs. It looks like He’s there for other people, but why not for me?

At my core, I knew that these fears and doubts weren’t true. So I strived to keep a firm grip onto the truth: God had called me to reach Muslims, and He hadn’t ever forgotten about me. Even though my heart was tired and bruised, I fought to keep holding on to what I knew to be true.

Then in the middle of all my questioning and wrestling, God left me with no trace of doubt that He had made a place here just for me.

It happened in an unlikely moment—mid-bite into a steaming shawarma sandwich surrounded by Muslim friends in a hole-in-the-wall café.

And there, smack-dab in the middle of all my questions, God showed me that I wasn’t alone. He hadn’t forgotten about me. He had given me a family.

As I laughed with my friends in that dingy shawarma shop, God pointed out that I have a home among several families in my Muslim community. Five, in fact. That’s five sets of adoptive aunties and uncles, siblings, and neighbors.

God put me, a lonely girl, in not just one family—but in multiple families.

These families know that I follow Jesus Christ, and many of them want to know more about what the Word of God says.

Pray that He’ll use countless sleepovers and late-night talks in my families’ homes to draw them toward the Savior.

• Thank God for calling single men and women to the field, and pray that many more would say yes to reaching the lost.
• Ask the Lord to equip single workers with courage, perseverance, and joy as they share the perfect love of Christ with Muslims.
• Pray that Muslims will be drawn to the hope of the Gospel through the faithful ministries of single laborers.

**This account comes from a long-term worker. Names have been changed for security.**

Main photo by Noorulabdeen Ahad

Original article: https://frontiersusa.org/blog/set-lonely-in-families