In the Field: The Gospel in Arabic

"Yik yak! Yik yak!" It's 2 p.m. in Cairo. Metal plates bang together. The tea man must be coming again. Honking, always honking. It won't stop, not even at night. The call to prayer, fives times a day - the first at 3 a.m. and the third coming soon.

These are the sounds of Ashley's* mission field. These are the sounds of Cairo, Egypt. She'll learn later that "yik yak" man is really asking for people to sell things.

When Ashley was 13 years old, she attended church camp, where she heard an Iranian pastor speak. He prayed that for students at the camp to become missionaries, and since then, Ashley has wanted to work in the Middle East. As a teenager, she planned to attend the United States Naval Academy, thinking the military would be her path to the Middle East. But a brain tumor derailed her plans. Instead she attended a state school where she joined a campus ministry.

In her junior year of college, she attended The World Mission Summit with her campus ministry. Leading up to the conference, she felt God telling her to go to Africa. Like every other attendee, she was given a book with a list of countries where she could be a missionary. She turned to the the section for Africa and prayed over every country. "I felt nothing for any of them. It was all sorts of terrible," Ashley recalls. "I couldn't picture myself there, had a really hard time feeling passionate about the people. Then I realized, that North Africa is included in Eurasia." So she turned to the section for Eurasia. The first thing she saw was a map of Africa with an arrow pointing to Egypt.

"In an instant, my heart broke, and I got a small taste of the deep passion that the Lord has for Egyptians, and I wept all night. I was so overwhelmed with love and that God gave me a piece of His heart for those people," Ashley says. "It was really sweet too, because I knew if He loved Egyptians that much, He loved me that much." So in 2015, Ashley packed her bags and headed to Cairo, Egypt.

Islamic Cairo

Ashley is one of a team of missionaries in Cairo. (And by the way, the tumor that derailed her original plans for getting there, it's been healed in answer to prayer.) Although being a Christian is not illegal, Egypt is still a closed country. Pastors will have their visas denied, so the people who go there as missionaries have secular jobs. In the case of Ashley's team, they teach English. Because the missionaries in Egypt are not pastors, they go through training once they arrive. A typical day includes four hours of Arabic lessons, half an hour of team prayer, free time to spend on homework or ministering to the people they have met, and three hours of teaching English.

In her Arabic class, Ashley's teacher tells her, "If you don't remember your homework, then God can't use that when you're in front of an Egyptian." And God does use it. Because their lessons focus on Christianity, the missionaries are able to share the Gospel as they ask their Egyptian friends to help them learn Arabic.

After six months in Egypt, Ashley shared the Gospel in Arabic for the first time. One of her good friends, Farah, came to visit at her apartment, and they discussed why it can be hard for people who aren't Christians to understand the Bible. Because of her classes, Ashley had memorized a verse in Arabic from 2 Corinthians 3. She was able to explain that only through Jesus can the Gospel be made clear. "The really cool part was that there were some words I didn't know, but the Lord gave me the Arabic for it," she says. "She [Farah] didn't have any questions, and there wasn't any language barrier. It all worked, and God really spoke to her."

The view from Ashley's apartment. The tower
is where the call to prayer comes from.

If you were to enter Ashley's Cairo apartment, you would find a tea tray set up with sugar, nuts, cookies and other snacks. Anytime a friend visits, Ashley and her roommate are prepared hostesses. "Everything in Cairo centers around food," Ashley explains. "You can't do anything there without eating." A shopping trip will always end with Ashley and her friends sitting down to eat. Having a friend over means serving an appetizer, two meat dishes, dessert and fruit, "because fruit doesn't count as a course, but you have to have it," Ashley says.

It was after a meal at Ashley's apartment that Farah started another conversation about faith. Ashley's parents were visiting during Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting. They had prepared dinner for Farah to break her fast, and during clean up, she asked Ashley about prayer. For Muslims, Ramadan is a time to seek God, so Ashley and Farah prayed that Jesus would reveal himself to Farah through a dream or vision. "They firmly believe that God speaks through dreams, so they expect Him to," Ashley says. "It's really cool because almost every Christian that I know that's converted has converted because they've had a dream or a vision of Jesus."

In Ashley's experience, Egyptians are very open to hearing the Gospel. They want to understand Christianity, but it takes a long time for them to accept Jesus. "To become a Christian, if you're a Muslim, you literally give up everything," Ashley says. "To be Arab is to be Muslim." That, to Ashley, is the hardest part of witnessing to Egyptians.

"Almost every day, I witnessed people hearing about Jesus for the first time, or the first time they would hold the Word of God in their hands. Almost every day had that first. It just takes a really long time to make a decision to follow Jesus," Ashley says. "Sometimes, it can be disheartening, because these people that you share with, you love them. You're friends with them because you genuinely love them. It's really hard to know the reason you're there is because people are dying and going to hell. And you love them so much that you want them to be saved so much, and it takes a long time."

Ashley spent a year in Egypt. She is currently back in the United States, but she plans to return to Egypt as soon as possible. Once she has completed training in Cairo, she hopes to eventually move to Haifa, Israel and minister there. She has maintained contact with Farah, who often tells her, "Tell mom and dad hi for me."

Prayer requests from Ashley:

• For her friend Sarah, whom she has not had contact with since returning to America
• For her friend Farah because her home life is difficult
• For the continued transition back to life in America
• For financial support so she can return to Egypt

*Names have been changed for the safety of those Ashley is ministering to in Egypt and so that her work in Egypt is not compromised. If you would like to learn more about Ashley's work or support her, you can email me at nicoleejones14@gmail.com for more information. 

All pictures have been provided by Ashley.

The Great Challenge

I stood near the top of the stands and watched as more than 1,500 students flocked toward the stage. For the past 24 hours they had been meeting missionaries - eating meals with them, hearing stories of the people they were ministering to around the world, asking them questions. Now, they were volunteering. They were joining what the speakers had just called "The Great Student Awakening."

Four years ago, I was one of them. Four years ago, I was one of the students committing to giving a year of my life to missions while praying about a lifetime. While I wait on my time to go to Denmark, it is truly a blessing to watch these students commit to a year of missions as well. It is a blessing to see them and thousands more get excited about reaching the lost on their own campuses and in nations around the world.

When I was in college, I heard one of the greatest challenges of my life:

"Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation."

- Mark 16:15

College wasn't the first time I had heard that verse. I grew up in church. I have the Great Commission memorized in both Mark's and Matthew's words. But college was the first time I was challenged to take those of Jesus' words seriously.

Jesus came from heaven to earth. He taught and healed. He bled and died. All so we could have a relationship with Him. He came to us. He came because His heart broke for us. 

Students prayed for residents
of Indonesia - the largest Muslim
country in the world.

Now, His heart breaks for them. For the Syrian in the refugee camp. For the child dying of starvation in Africa. For the college student in Europe who thinks the church is obsolete. For the gang member in Latin America. For the members of ISIS. For people deep in the jungles who have never even heard His name. For the Americans who have rejected Him again and again. His heart breaks, and He wants someone to go to them.

Just like it cost Him, it could cost us everything. Up to and including our lives.

That is the challenge I and many others accepted four years ago. It's the challenge another couple thousand students accepted just over a month ago.

Students experience what it's like to attend
a religious service in the Middle East
while hearing about mission opportunities
in the region.

And now it's the challenge I issue to you. Be willing to lay down your finances, relationships, goals, and maybe even life to bring people to Jesus. But before you pack up your bags and leave, pray about what that looks like for you. It is an honor to go, but it's also an honor to send. After all, the Bible says missionaries can't go without being sent.

To help you understand both the blessing and the difficulty behind accepting this challenge, I intend to introduce you to different missionaries each month. There will be current and past missionaries. There will be young and old. There will be missionaries from home and abroad. I hope their stories will challenge and encourage you.

Join the conversation: How will you respond to Jesus' command to go? What will it cost you to reach the lost in this world?