Here’s the 2nd installment of Tarek’s journey of faith. Click here to read part 1. I will not soon forget the level of eagerness with which Tarek received his new Bible from my husband Kevin. Tarek was dropping Kevin and the children off in one location and then would continue […]
3 Things We’ve Learned While Parenting on the Field
“Why haven’t you shaved your baby’s head yet?” our local friend Fatima demanded when we took our baby Samuel to visit her. “You should, or else his hair won’t grow well.” My wife and I came to the field as a couple with no children. Visits to our friends seemed […]
A Journey of Faith: Taxi Rides with Tarek
Join us in this first installment of a 3-part series on Tarek’s journey of faith. My children and I stood in the shade of a tree, shielding ourselves from the hot North African sun while my husband Kevin stood on the sunny sidewalk attempting to flag down a taxi. A white […]
In Christ Comes Safety
A field worker who ministers to Syrian refugees reflects on valuing Christ above safety. It’s something we value more than almost anything. We think we can control it, and we never want to jeopardize it. Safety. We’d like to believe that if we live in certain places, stay away from […]
A Familiar Good Friday
Jamshir sipped his cup of tea as his wife Nadia nibbled on a savory pastry. “Do you know what today is?” I asked the couple. Jamshir nodded and smiled. “It’s Good Friday,” he said. He had seen it printed on the calendar they had hanging in the living room at […]
Between Hope and Fear
Several months ago, we hosted a short-term prayer team from the United States and sent them out to pray in provinces where there are no Gospel workers. Now, we were retracing their footsteps and looking for persons of peace—local men and women whom God uses to open doors for […]
A Reason to Stay
“But this is your home,” I said to my friend Abdul Rahman. “Why are you leaving your country?” Abdul Rahman was a new Muslim-background follower of Jesus in Northeast Africa. He’d become my close friend during a training and discipleship program that our team had started. In this program, participants […]
Syrian Refugee Update: She Smiled So Much
We sat around the campfire with five local families, laughing, singing, telling stories, and playing games on an overnight campout in the mountains. If it weren’t for the soft desert sand beneath our feet and the cadence of Arabic dominating the chatter, it would have felt like we were back […]
The Biblical Priority of the Unengaged
When I was finishing my university studies many years ago, God started to speak to me about those who had no access to the Gospel. Initially, I was not willing to alter my plans. Movies, messages, and even a dream could not move me. I felt I had done my […]
A Burden Not Meant to Bear
I stood outside our house, locking up the front gate, as the neighborhood imam began broadcasting his evening sermon from the nearby mosque. “The Quran teaches us that the message received by the prophet Muhammad was unique,” the mosque leader proclaimed. I leaned on our rusty gate, curiously listening to […]