Twenty years ago, our mission agency had one missionary couple actively ministering to Muslims in Africa*. Ten years ago, Osama Bin Laden and Al-Queda orchestrated a vicious terrorist attack on mainland United States. Today, Bin Laden is finally gone (at great cost to the U.S. and its allies), and we have over hundred missionaries who work among those practicing Islam. To loosely connect the dots, one can see a connection between these events. Islam has grown in its influence worldwide, even though Christianity—and not Islam—is growing at a faster rate worldwide. Christians are responding to the bright spotlight the world has thrown on the Islamic world, not with swords for swords but with compassion for the hearts of people who are tied to a freedom-less religion of works.
Our school supports workers who work in open and closed Muslim countries, and while the utmost secrecy must be used to protect their identities, prayer occurs on their behalf as they labor in some of the most intimidating and spiritually-dry settings on Earth. Over the next few days though, I want to share a few stories of victory happening throughout the Muslim world.
*a distinction exists between animistic Mulsims and Muslims in closed Islamic countries. Generally, animistic Muslims are rural and isolated geographically, are more recently converted historically, and less entrenched in true Islamic theology. This doesn’t mean that the work of evangelizing these people is any easier than people who are in more traditional Muslim areas.
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