Rise Up Project Profile-Middle East
Middle East: A New Team Launch for Ministry to Widows — Project Profile
An Alliance team in the Middle East has opportunity to expand to a city where people have little access to the good news in the local language. No known locally led churches exist, and less than 50 believers are known in this city—that is one person out of every 30,000 people!
These least-reached people have a long history of oppression and genocide instigated by other ethnic groups. They desperately need the good news of Christ to experience healing, spiritual freedom, and eternal hope. The Lord has made it clear that He is leading one family to help establish a new team. Newly commissioned Alliance workers will join the team in late summer 2023.
People in this region view speaking English as one way to broaden their work opportunities and improve their quality of life. Therefore, many go out of their way to learn English from native speakers. The general culture is hospitable to Westerners. Our team’s goal is to start a community center in one of the “least access” areas of the city where we will teach English and help meet the community’s needs.
Through the community center, we hope to build a lasting and positive reputation among the people of this city, create inroads into the lives of the people, and ultimately share the love of Christ with these people whom God loves so dearly. Our team’s presence exists to help launch a dynamic, locally led church-planting movement in this country.
In conjunction with the launch of this new team, we have the opportunity to partner with the Arabic-speaking believers to minister to widows and orphans. In the Arab world, the husband is the only effective provider for the family. Therefore, when the husband dies, there is no support for his wife or children, and the children are considered orphans.
We know of over 600 widows in one city to whom the Arab believers are working to provide help. There are also opportunities to help a group of 1,500 widows in another part of the city. The government will not assist these women and children because, by law, they must provide the body of their deceased husbands as proof that they are dead. The women can’t do this because their husbands died in the war, and their bodies were not recovered.
Some of these widows were forced into marriage rather than willingly being married. There are also widows of the former police and military men. Our team has an opportunity to partner with the group of Arab believers to aid these women and children who have no way of providing for themselves in a culture that will look the other way. In giving help, we can share the love of Christ in action and in word.
Through Alliance Women project funds, we will use $5,000 to provide the widows and orphans with basic necessities (food, clean water, heat, blankets). We will use $10,000 to provide coffee shop tables and chairs, classroom tables and chairs, six whiteboards, a projector and screen, four classroom TVs, and English teaching material for our team’s community center. These supplies will help the community center to provide a meaningful and impactful presence among the people we desire to serve.
We are thankful for this opportunity to partner with Alliance Women in God’s work to reach some of the least-reached people in the world! Please pray first for these people, that the Lord would draw their hearts to Himself and give them the courage through His Spirit to commit their lives to Him fully.
Would you also intercede for our team as we seek to create inroads into the lives of these people? Pray that God would bring “people of peace” to our team who will be receptive to the gospel and provide ways into the community through our relationships with them. Pray for our team, that we will have unity as we seek the Lord for His plans and purposes and that we will be encouraged and endure hardship, which will inevitably come. Please also pray that God would provide the property of His choosing in the best place in the city for the community center. Alliance Women has set a goal to raise $15,000 for this team launch and ministry to widows and orphans. Visit www.alliancewomen.org/give to participate.
