MIDDLE EAST: Serving on the Sidelines

Source: Interserve Great Britain & Ireland, October 2020

Mind-blowing stories of transformation. Tales of healing and deliverance. Living immersed in another culture. Leading studies in the Word, discipling those with seeds of faith. Scratch, screech, take off the record—this isn’t our story.

My husband and I didn’t fit the traditional missionary role model, but God has still used us beyond what we could have imagined. Having spent four years teaching middle-class locals, Ben switched tracks and became principal of one of the two MK schools in the city—serving families who are here with NGOs, refugee projects, theological schools, etc. I have served our organization by supporting the work of short termers coming to the country and now by leading the country leadership team. I seek to provide emotional and spiritual support to those who are arriving, those learning to thrive here and those transitioning back to their sending countries. Both of us are working in the background, on the sidelines, serving the servers.

We need the language pros, the theological whizz kids; those with a heart for the outcast or able to slip the good news into every conversation. But we also need those who are willing to serve in other capacities: sending, supporting, sustaining. There are many roles in the kingdom work of God. Paul planted, Apollos watered, God brought about the sprout. But there are also those who till the soil, pull the weeds, prune the branches.

» Read full story.

» Also from the Middle East: read a story of transformative business development in Creating Opportunity When the Need Is Great (One Collective) and get another behind-the-scenes look at life in the Middle East in Giving Birth During COVID-19 (Anglican Frontier Missions). Finally, consider listening to a 14-minute podcast episode on Bringing Hope to the Middle East (Bible League).

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