“Professor, can we look at your Bible?” asked Omar, one of Andre’s new university students. “You said you always have it with you. Can we see what it says?” Andre, a Frontiers worker, had just wrapped up the first day of English class for the new semester when Omar and […]
A Stateless People Living in the Shadow of Wealth
In the oil-rich Arab Gulf, hundreds of thousands of people live with no legal identity. They are al-Bedoon. In Arabic, their name means “those without.” The history of the Bedoon begins in 1961 when the fledgling nation of Kuwait gained independence from the British Empire. Kuwaiti families were required to […]
A Surrogate Family on the Field
My friend Adana and I sat on the floor of her living room, a picture book flipped open in front of us. Adana was teaching me new vocabulary as I tried to describe what was happening in the wordless picture book. Around us, her family members were napping—as were most […]
Dodging Donkeys and Motorbikes in a North African Medina
I get out of the taxi about 50 yards from the ancient gate leading into the old city, called the medina in Arabic. The afternoon is gloriously warm for early spring, and locals move about at an easy pace. A throng of uniformed schoolchildren pass by, lost in laughter and […]
Sometimes We Dance
A teammate and I pop into the tent of Amira, a woman we know in the refugee camp where we run a learning center. She greets me with a kiss on my left cheek, right cheek, left cheek, right cheek, then she hugs me with an extra left-cheek kiss to […]
A Muslim Man Shares About a Dream of Jesus
“I’ve had a dream of a man in white,” Hanif said. This was one of the first things he told me after we hired him to work with us in our consulting business. “There was so much light all around this man,” Hanif continued. He shared that the man came […]
The Power of the Word to Reach 12,000 People
AbdeRakhman and his sister Maimona are among several people in our Sub-Saharan city who are open to the Good News. Together we’ve gone through an entire series of health lessons that incorporate stories from the Word. Now AbdeRakhman and Maimona are convinced that everyone needs to know the ways of […]
Learning the Vocabulary of the Heart
I was recently invited to a baby shower for Manzoor and Deena, a refugee couple who came from the country where my team and I serve. The shower was hosted by believers from a church that had generously provided nearly a whole nursery for the family. Deena has had several […]
Black Missionary Heroes
“Please tell more Black missionaries to come,” locals often said to Leslie Pelt, an African American worker serving in Nigeria with SIManother agencySudan SIM Internationalior Mission. Many of them told her she was the first Black missionary they had ever seen.1 Today, African American believers are underrepresented on the field. […]
Jesus Only at the Bench Press
From the moment I met Majda, I adored her. She was one of the first clients to sign up for private training sessions after I became certified as a personal trainer. One day between sets on the bench press, I asked her to tell me a story from either her […]