Training For Danger

Names have been changed for security reasons.

As the trainer stood before the national missionaries, he saw many faces he recognized. Some he had trained on previous occasions. Others were new to him but seemed familiar because their faces and mannerisms bore a strong resemblance to the other Kenyans and Ethiopians in the group.

One new man was unlike the others. His lighter skin tone, Indian facial features and traditional coastal clothing identified him as a Somali. A first for the trainer. A first for this missionary group.

His was name Marcus. He had lived all of his life in a village in Somalia. He was a respected man there, a prayer leader in the mosque. Life was good for Marcus except that he suffered from a serious stomach ailment that persisted depite treatments by medical doctors and traditional health remedies.

One day, as Marcus studied the Koran, he read about Isa (Jesus) being a healer.  Being a man of prayer, he prayed to Isa for healing – and his stomach ailment disappeared. Jesus had indeed healed him.

His natural response was to tell others what Isa had done for him. After all, Isa had done what doctors and medicine men could not.

The local village and mosque leaders heard about Marcus and his testimonials about Isa. They confronted Marcus asking him if he had become a follower of Isa, but he admitted only to telling others of what Isa had done for him. They instructed him to stop talking about Isa. But he would not.

Eventually, Marcus found himself barred from the mosque and forced to leave his family and home village. He traveled to large city in a neighboring country. There he met a Christian who led him to a believing faith in Jesus and he met a group of Kenyans and Ethiopians who were training to evangelize and plant churches among unreached people groups along the border regions of Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia.

The trainer asked Marcus what he would do after his training. "I will return to my home," he replied. When asked if there would be danger involved in his preaching about Jesus in his village, Marcus said that he might be killed but he was going to return anyway.

Marcus is just one of many indigenous workers whom God has called to follow Jesus and preach the truth of the Gospel in the Middle East and North Africa.  

Pray that God would call many more men like Marcus to do the work of evangelizing. And,pray that God would protect those men and women who, like Marcus, are faithfully serving Him in the MENA region.

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