As I’ve conversed with people the past several months, I’ve gotten a lot of questions about my time in the Middle East. As much as I’d rather use these blogs to help and encourage you all rather than talk about myself, I’ve learned recently that by sharing my story I can help a lot of people. So, I decided to start a new blog series where I answer your questions, please post your questions below, or on my facebook or instagram pages. In this post I’ll answer one of the most common questions I’ve gotten: Why did you go to the Middle East?
A Change in Focus
To be honest, I didn’t want to go for a long while. Ever since I was little I said I wanted to be a missionary, but that was mostly just because I thought that’s what all the good Christians did. When it came down to it though, I didn’t want to leave the US, my home, my family, and my friends.
What changed is that I saw the need. I got involved with a campus ministry that was very evangelistic, and eternally-focused. I realized that my life here on this earth is like an inch compared to the endless miles of eternity. How could I focus so much on this life that I neglect the vast majority of my future. With that understanding I realized how pointless money, fame, success, and comfort was. This life is going to end soon and the only things that will carry on into the next life is my faithfulness to Christ, and the people that I help point to Christ. Everything else should exist simply to enable each of us to do these two things better.
The Need
Then I learned about the need in the 10/40 window. The 10/40 window is a geographical box that covers north Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. In this box resides 95% of the world’s most unreached people groups. There’s varying levels of ‘unreached’, but the typical definition means that these people have very little exposure to the gospel. This could mean that they don’t have a single Christian friend, they don’t know where a single church is, and they have no gospel centered resources for them available online.
Think about this, these are people who have statistically never heard the gospel once, and who will statistically never hear the gospel before they die. So, you might be thinking that if this is where the biggest need is, then that’s where the biggest chunk of missionaries go, right? Wrong.
Despite having 95% of the biggest need, less than 5% of missionaries go to this region. Which means that most missionaries are trying desperately to share the gospel with people who have probably already heard the gospel and rejected it, or who could easily find the gospel if they looked for it. Meanwhile, there are people desperately searching for the gospel but have absolutely no opportunity to hear it.
“Unacceptable”
When I heard this news, my heart broke. This was unacceptable to me. I considered my life and realized, how could I not go? What right did I have to be a Christian? What right did I have to be born in the US into a Christian family where my odds of receiving the gospel were unbelievably high? I had no choice in this. I simply lucked out. And this is likely the same case for you. Even if you were born in an unbelieving family, being born in a “fairly” Christian nation grants you a huge opportunity to recognize your sins and turn to Christ.
We didn’t get to choose this, God was just kind to us. But then I realized something. What if I had been born in India or the Middle East where there’s little to no exposure to the gospel? Would I die without ever getting a single opportunity to find Christ? Most likely.
If you are like me, this would be terrible news! Jesus is the single greatest thing that happened to me. My eternity is sealed. I have hope, peace, joy, and true love in my life. Without Jesus I’d be directionless, hopeless, selfish, unfulfilled. I can’t thank God enough that he placed me here in the US from birth, but what about all those who weren’t born in Christian nations?
“Go to the Middle East”
All these things prepared my heart. Though I was still afraid, the need outweighed my fear. How could I let my little pansy fear keep me from giving someone else the same opportunity to receive Christ as I had? How selfish did I have to be to let the good news stop with me?
Of course there are different roles a person can play in sharing the gospel with those in unreached people groups. You can pray, give, or go. Everyone should be praying, and I personally think everyone should be giving as well too. Not everyone should go, but I believe that far more should be going to these unreached people then currently are. So, I asked myself, “what about me?”
What was my reason for not going? And this became the tipping point. I had no excuse. I didn’t have a girlfriend to keep me in Denver, nor did I have any family dependent on me. My college season was wrapping up. Yes, I was scared, but I knew that wasn’t reason enough to not go. So, I took a step.
After spending a lot of time in prayer and fasting, I decided to trust God with a year in the Middle East. I didn’t necessarily feel a huge call telling me “go to the Middle East”. Instead, I had facts. I knew the need. I recognized what was important, and I felt convicted that I could play a part in meeting this huge need. So, I went. And after the first year, I committed to a second year. And though I might be back here in the US, I’m taking steps and continually setting it before God about when he might send me back.
A Challenge
Our lives as Christians should consist of following God and loving others. The single greatest way we can love others is to share the gospel with them. How unloving must we be to not take part in reaching those who have never heard the gospel before.
One quote that played a significant role in sending me came from a book called “In This Generation” by Todd Ahrend. It goes something like this, “I find it incredibly unfair that we will spend millions of dollars and thousands of hours re-reaching those who have already heard the gospel and rejected it when there are millions if not billions of people out there who have never heard the gospel once, nor ever will, unless we go.” I’d strongly recommend you read this book. And I pray that you would honestly and genuinely seek God on whether or not he’s calling you to go to these difficult places where the need is so great. Put aside your fears, forget about the hardships and discomforts you may face, and come before God and ask “What is your will for this next season of my life?”
I hope this post informed, encouraged, and challenged you to live an adventurous life with Christ through wild steps of faith. God has a great plan for you, but it will require difficulty and sacrifice. I know how hard it is to give things up, but I also know it’s worth it.
Please respond below if you have any questions about this post, or if you’d like me to answer a question in my next blog post!
If you are having a hard time discerning what is your will or God’s will, I’d recommend you check out my blog God’s Calling or Your Own Desire?
If you are simply afraid, I can understand that. I hope you will be encouraged by my post Conquering Fear
