THE BIG (UNTOLD) STORY IN MIDEAST [1.5 MIL MOSLEMS CHRISTIAN SINCE 911]

Joel C. Rosenberg is the New York Times best-selling author of The Last Jihad (about the demise of Saddam Hussein) and The Last Days (about the demise of Yasser Arafat). His next novel, The Ezekiel Option, comes out in August 2005, from Tyndale. An evangelical Christian from an Orthodox Jewish background, his grandparents escaped from Russia. Joel has served as a senior advisor to Steve Forbes, Rush Limbaugh, former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Deputy Prime Minister Natan Sharansky

Despite unprecedented press coverage of Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Middle East since September 11, 2001, one big story is not being told by mainstream media. Scores of Muslims are converting to evangelical Christianity and will be celebrating their first Easter this year, even amidst widespread persecution and the very real threat of death.

Over the past few months I interviewed more than three dozen Arab and Iranian pastors and evangelical Christian missionary leaders in the U.S. and the Middle East. The picture they paint is one of Christianity being dramatically resurrected in the lands where the Bible was written.

One Arab Christian leader tells me that based on his research with churches and ministries throughout the Islamic world, he now believes more than 1.5 million Muslims worldwide have trusted Christ since 9/11. Such numbers are difficult to verify, but the trend is clear.

"More Muslims are becoming followers of Jesus Christ today than at any other time in history," a prominent Arab Christian leader told me recently, on the condition that I not mention his name or organization. "It's not something we talk much about openly, but it is very exciting and very important."

In Afghanistan, for example, there were only 17 known evangelical Christians in the country before al-Qaeda attacked the United States. Today, the number of Afghan Christians is in the thousands and growing quickly.

Church leaders say Afghan Muslims are open to hearing the gospel message like never before. Dozens of baptisms occur every week. People are snatching up Bibles and other Christian books as fast as they can be printed or brought into the country. The Jesus film, a two hour docudrama on the life of Christ based on the Gospel of Lukeâ€was even shown on television in one city before police shut down the entire TV station.

"God is moving so fast in Afghanistan, we're just trying to keep up," one Afghan Christian worker told me, requesting anonymity. "The greatest need now is leadership development. We need to train pastors to care for all these new believers."

In Iraq, mainstream media attention is focused almost exclusively on the violence of the insurgents. But despite numerous church bombings and attacks on Christian leaders, an evangelical revolution is underway in Iraq and interest in Christianity is at an all-time high, say Iraqi pastors and other evangelical leaders who have recently visited the war-torn country.

Over one million Arabic New Testaments, Christian books, and gospel publications for children have been distributed in Iraq by various ministries since the end of major war operations. Bibles are even being printed inside Iraq today. Even still, demand outpaces the supply.

Western Christian organizations are also trying to care for their persecuted brothers and sisters in Iraq, shipping in food, medicine, and other supplies to meet pressing needs. One such group, Samaritan's Purse run by Franklin Graham, son of the Rev. Billy Graham reports that they have "airlifted 16 tons of medical supplies and equipment into Baghdad to refurbish a teaching hospital completed construction of one clinic and supplied medicine for several others, and sponsor[ed] a church that provides food to poor families, Muslims and Christians alike."

As a result of such efforts and many others that for security sake must go unmentioned, thousands upon thousands of Iraqis have already made decisions to become followers of Christ, and many others are coming to Christ every week. What's more, some 162 new Iraqi believers recently began ministry training in an undisclosed section of the country to become pastors and lay leaders.

Similar stories are being reported in countries considered most "closed" to the gospel, from Central Asia to Sudan. In Kazakhstan, for example, there were only three known evangelical Christian believers before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Today there are more than 15,000 Kazakh Christians, and more than 100,000 Christians of all ethnicities.

In Sudan despite a ferocious civil war, genocide and widespread religious persecution, particularly in the Darfur regionÃ¢â‚¬â€literally tens of thousands of Muslims have made decisions to become followers of Jesus Christ just since 2001. A seminary to train new pastors is run in a mountain cave. Hundreds of churches have been planted, and thousands of small group Bible studies are being held in secret throughout the country, though two evangelical leaders asked me not to mention the specific numbers out of concern it could lead to still more persecution.

Other Arab Christian leaders tell me that the immense controversy last spring over The Passion had an intriguing if unintended and counterintuitive effect in the Middle East. Charges by American Jewish groups that the film was anti-Semitic caused enormous interest among Muslims to see the film for themselves. Soon The Passion was being shown in theaters throughout the region, and popping up on tens of thousands of bootlegged DVDs, including in Saudi Arabia and Iran where it is typically illegal to buy or sell Christian materials. While it is difficult to accurately assess the impact of the film, I can report that in Lebanon, some 310 people are known to have made decisions to become followers of Christ after just one showing of The Passion.

A wonderfully inspiring book published last fall by Brother Andrew (of God's Smuggler fame) and Al Janssen of Open Doors International takes those interested in what God is doing to reach Muslims on a powerful and unforgettable journey that reads like the 29th chapter of the Book of Acts. Light Force: A Stirring Account of the Church Caught in the Middle East Crossfire (Revell) is chock full of amazing anecdotes you will never read in the New York Times or the Washington Post.

My wife and I had the privilege of having lunch with the authors in Southern California where we peppered them for more details. What struck us most was Brother Andrew's boldness and incurable confidence in a God who can open doors to reach the most unreachable. Over salads and iced tea, Andrew humbly shared story after story of how he personally shared the gospel with Yasser Arafat, with Islamic Ayatollahs, and with Palestinian terrorists exiled to Lebanon. He also told us his unforgettable experience of preaching the gospel to 400 Hamas leaders in Gaza City, which he relates on pages 182-190 of his book.

"I can't change the situation you face here in Gaza," Andrew told the Hamas leaders. "I can't solve the problems you have with your enemies. But I can offer you the One who is called the Prince of Peace. You cannot have real peace without Jesus. And you cannot experience Him without forgiveness. He offers to forgive us of all our sins. But we cannot receive that forgiveness if we don't ask for it. The Bible calls this repentance and confession of sin. If you want it, then Jesus forgives. He forgave me and made me a new person. Now I'm not afraid to die because my sins are forgiven and I have everlasting life."

Hearing the story, I had to confess to Brother Andrew that it had never dawned on me to pray for much less preach the gospel to Hamas leaders. But isn't that what Jesus tells us to do, to love our enemies? What made the story all the more remarkable was that rather than lynching Andrew for trying to convert them to Christ, the Hamas leaders invited him to speak to other Muslims.

"Andrew, I believe you know that I teach at the Islamic University," said one. "To my knowledge, we have never had any lectures about Christianity. While you were talking, I was thinking that it would be helpful for our students to know about real Christianity. Would you consider coming to the university and giving a lecture about the differences between Christianity and Islam?"

Even the Palestinian Christian leaders who accompanied Brother Andrew to the event were taken aback. "I think my God is too small," said the head of the Palestinian Bible Society. "I never thought that a Christian could speak to radical, fanatical fundamentalists. But even if someone did have a chance, it never occurred to me that they would actually want to sit and listen to the gospel. Today God showed me how big He is."

Such are not stories being told by the mainstream media, but they are important stories nonetheless the good news of a great God. He is risen! He is risen indeed!

First Anniversary of Iraq Conflict Brings Good News

By Amber Davidson
& staff reports

Addressing the American people on the first anniversary of our military action in Iraq, President Bush acknowledged the suffering of friends and families who have lost loved ones in the conflict. Due to the daily network news reports of ongoing bombings, shootings and casualties, Americans need no reminder of the continuing troubles in that nations,

Too seldom is any good news reported – yet good news there is. Since the fall of Saddam’s regime,
underground churches in Iraq have begun operating above ground and the Christian church in Iraq has seen unprecedented growth.

In early February, leaders from both EQUIP, an Atlanta-based international missions organization founded by Dr. John C. Maxwell, and Perimeter Church in Atlanta, traveled to war-torn Iraq. Joining EQUIP’s key ministry partner in the Arab world, Kasrel Dobara church (Cairo, Egypt), the team held strategic meetings with pastors in Baghdad and conducted a leadership training conference in Erbil, Iraq for pastors and church leaders.

Among the team was: Dr. John Hull, President of EQUIP, Dr. Doug Carter, EQUIP’s Executive Vice President for Public Affairs, Dr. Randy Pope, Senior Pastor, Perimeter Church, and Mr. Phil Orazi, a Chick-fil-A executive.

The team’s first stop in Iraq was the capital city of Baghdad. Observing a nation clearly struggling to recover from decades of abuse at the hands of one of the worst tyrants in human history, they nonetheless discovered the Iraqi people to be full of hope and enthusiasm for their newfound freedom.

Their first evening in Baghdad, the EQUIP team hosted two pastors for dinner. One pastor has been a lay pastor for an underground church in Baghdad for many years. At one point, he was imprisoned for preaching the gospel. After a horrific prison experience under Saddam’s regime, he was unexpectedly and miraculously released.

He now says, “God used Coalition forces to destroy Saddam and give us freedom. I thank God for the courage of the American soldiers who have paid a great price for our nation to be free.” He added that he is praying the American troops will stay until a new government, guaranteeing political and religious freedom for every Iraqi, is firmly in place.

Since the fall of the regime, this pastor’s church has been growing rapidly and has already outgrown the new church building that is designed to seat 450. Many of the regular church attendees are university students preparing for key roles in the future of Iraq.

Another pastor the EQUIP team met leads a church of 500 in Baghdad. He says it is overflowing with new attendees. His church also has plans to build a new and larger sanctuary to accommodate the exponential growth.

From the day his underground church began in 1991, the congregation prayed for the fall of Saddam’s regime. Though he often admitted the situation seemed hopeless because Saddam had a death grip on the nation, the church continued to pray.

He said, “I believe God used the American forces to topple Saddam and unshackle the church in Iraq to proclaim liberty and salvation throughout the land. I pray the troops will stay until we can have a democratic government that guarantees religious freedom, including the right to share our faith with
others.”

The EQUIP team also hosted a meeting in Baghdad with about a dozen local pastors, who represented almost every evangelical church in the city of five million people.

Not only are these existing churches thriving, but according to the team, more churches are being planted all the time. Another pastor in Baghdad, who leads a rapidly growing church of about 250 people, has already helped plant two other churches since the fall of the regime. He has a vision of helping plant evangelical Christian churches in every city and town of Iraq.

Some 140 pastors and church leaders, representing 80 percent of the evangelical leadership in Iraq, participated in a huge leadership conference hosted by EQUIP in Erbil, Iraq. Leaders and attendees
traveled from Basra, Baghdad, Kirkuk, Mosul, and many other cities in Iraq. One pastor drove 600 miles from Southern Iraq. He said, “I would have walked 600 miles if necessary. I am hungry for
leadership training and we urgently need leaders to plant churches in Southern Iraq.”

After teaching for two days, the team all agreed that they have never taught a group more eager to learn. “We were overwhelmed by the excitement and gratitude as we taught basic leadership principles from the Word of God and could hardly leave the meeting room as they surrounded us expressing joyful gratitude for the training and pleading with us to return soon,” noted Doug Carter, Executive Vice President for Public Affairs at EQUIP.

Iraqis are going about the business of rebuilding their nation, filled with a passion to see freedom and democracy flourish in their land. The evangelical churches are growing rapidly, but in a country of 30 million, more are needed.

If you are interested in helping these precious brothers and sisters at this critical time or in finding
out more about EQUIP, visit www.iequip.org/sponsorpastors.

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