It was not Phil’s* first time overseas, but it was his first time in the Middle East. As he stared out over the city with its skyscrapers and the tall, rugged mountains in the background, he thought, “This isn’t the way I picture the Middle East looking.”
I recently sat down with Phil, a student at Missouri Western State University Christian Challenge, to talk about his time in the Middle East. The following is an edited summation of our interview.
What were you expecting when you first heard you were being asked to go on a team to the Middle East?
I was expecting a lot of resistance, pushback, and having to be really secure and secretive about sharing my faith. But instead, I found that people were way less argumentative than I thought, and there was a lot of openness to hear what we came to share. They were kind and extremely hospitable.
What did your parents think about you going to the Middle East?
My parents had to work through me going there, but ultimately they ended up saying, “It’s your decision; do what you feel the Lord is leading you to.” It was a step of trusting God. They also trusted the IMB we were serving with, and they trusted the training our team got through OneLink International.
What was it like trying to share the gospel there?
At first, I would try to smoothly work the gospel into the conversation or throw out “gospel bait,” hoping they would bite on it, but they are mostly nominal Muslims, and so they didn’t bite a lot. After a few weeks, I just started more boldly asking, “So what do you think about Jesus?”
What did the average person you met there think about Jesus?
They all respected him, but more as a prophet with some fairy-tale elements. They believed he existed but almost more like a legend. Maybe like the way we would treat the legend of King Arthur.
Still, we had a lot of good discussions, and only twice did I really find somebody argumentative this summer. And even then, it ended well. My favorite evening of the summer, we were coming back from the mountain around midnight—it’s a night culture—and our friend’s brother was driving us. I said something about going to church, and he dove in with full Muslim apologetics. We ended up sitting in the car “discussing” our faiths for over an hour. And while we had different views at the end, he still wanted to be friends and take a picture together before he left.
I think they are just more willing to discuss religion than we expected. I was surprised to find that a lot of people were not only open to discussing religion, or discussing Christianity, but some were actually willing to visit a church, even if they weren’t believers.
What was church like there?
It’s in the stage where it’s small but beginning to grow. The church my team interacted with the most started out as a house church, but it kept growing. Finally, after the pastor had to knock out another wall in his house to make room, they decided to rent a space to meet in. There were a lot of people who would come and check it out. A lot of the believers are really good about reaching out to their friends.
One of the really good things about this trip is that we got to follow up on some relationships the team last year had started. In fact, we were the third team OneLink sent to the IMB team there. We got to continue sharing the good news and living out our faith in front of young men who had met previous teams. That didn’t mean it was all easy. Often they would say things like, “The Bible is the word of man, but the Quran is the word of God.”
While that was hard, we also got to see some of the things God is doing there. We spent a lot of time with several young men who had just become believers. In fact, one day we were with a new believer and his car suddenly wouldn’t start. He was just planning to call his dad and we’d take a taxi, but then he said, “You guys pray for a minute; I’m going to go back and try it one more time.” We said this kind of lame prayer, “God… help his car start…” Suddenly it started to turn over and fired to life. We just shook our heads in amazement.
What was the funniest thing that happened?
Well, one day we were in a meeting and they were jumping back and forth between the local language and English. Somebody said something to me jokingly that I needed to keep up. I tried to say “I wasn’t good at your language,” but what I said instead was, “I look like a donkey.” The whole room died laughing, and it took a minute or two for them to stop laughing long enough to tell me what I had said.
What is persecution like for local believers?
Their persecution is mainly from the family. They have a really strong family culture. There wasn’t a danger to them of getting killed, but it was more like contempt. They would be viewed like, “My son, who can’t do anything right.” Almost like we would look at the person who is 40, doesn’t work, and lives with his parents. While it’s not death, it is still a big price to pay.
One of our friends said he would hide his Bible up on the roof and sneak up there to read it. Believers often share first with some of their close friends and then gradually open up to family. And slowly, some of their families are starting to investigate Jesus.
What was the hardest thing about going?
I think it was the cost of missing things here. I missed out on an internship. I had to quit my job. I missed a good friend’s wedding. He had even invited me to be a groomsman in it, but he understood why I needed to go.
Was it worth it? Would you go back?
Yes, absolutely. I would say to the person counting these costs of missing things that it’s definitely worth it. My friend didn’t need me there to get married. It would have been nice to be there, but he’s still married even if I wasn’t there. However, the person overseas needs me to be there to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.
How would you say your time in the Middle East changed you?
I would say it made me more fearless. Problems here look a lot smaller. Also, just the OneLink values that got stressed in the training help me as I live my life here in St. Joseph now. I would also say it’s changed the trajectory of my life. I’m looking at applying to be a Journeyman with the IMB now. Because of my time in the Middle East, my life is more oriented toward the lost and the broken everywhere. It’s helped me see that lost people really need to have those same conversations that I was having overseas.
What would you say to another Missouri college student who is considering going to the Middle East?
Go. Take a lot of pictures. Stay away from the street food. People need to hear the things you have to say.
Conclusion
Phil went expecting resistance but found openness. He went thinking he’d need to be secretive but discovered genuine curiosity. He went for a summer and came back with a redirected life.
That’s what happens when college students step into the gap between lostness and the gospel. If you’re a college student wondering whether you should apply with OneLink International, Phil’s answer is clear: Go. The training will equip you, and the experience will mark you forever.
The Middle East is waiting. So are a hundred other places where people need to hear about Jesus. Will you go?
*Name has been changed for security purposes
Photo by Mariam Soliman on Unsplash
