My wife and I found out that we were expecting our first child three months before arriving on the field. We weren’t sure how the arrival of our little one would impact our ministry, but we feared it would force us to take a temporary step back in connecting with our neighbors.

The arrival of our daughter, indeed, changed everything about our lives. She brought new sleep patterns, won our hearts, and caused us to cry out to God for help.

However, to our surprise, having a newborn also gave us opportunities to connect with more Muslims in our community.  

In our host country, it is customary to bring coffee, tea, and chocolates to the hospital when a baby is born. During our short stay, visitors brought us enough chocolates to last for a month!

Once we were home, we had more guests in the first six weeks of our daughter’s life than we had had in the first six months of living in our host country. My wife’s coworkers came to visit and brought lunch with them. An old friend who lives hours away made the trip to meet our baby. And many neighbors and new friends stopped by to bring gifts and meet our little one.

Not only did our newborn bring friends together but she also helped us make new connections.

Our daughter was born with a tongue-tie, which necessitated feeding her with a bottle. We quickly accumulated an oversupply of milk, so my wife reached out on a regional parenting group chat to see if any nearby mothers needed supplemental milk.

Through this, she connected with another new mom who lives in our neighborhood, and they struck up a friendship . They get together regularly, and we are praying for opportunities for the two of them to have spiritual conversations.

While we expected becoming new parents to slow down our ministry work among Muslims, God has used this wonderful life transition to do just the opposite. We are thankful that God’s blessing to us—our new baby daughter—has opened the door to minister to others as well.

Pray:

• Pray for this Frontiers family as they bring up their daughter on the field.
• Praise God for using even children and babies to open the door for Muslim men and women to learn about Him.
• Ask God to continue to grow this field family’s new and renewed friendships and provide opportunities to share the Gospel.

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

Main photo on iStock

Original article: https://frontiersusa.org/blog/babies-bring-ministry-opportunities/