Advancing the Gospel by Creative Digital Means

Thank you so much for your generosity to this ministry and the people of North Africa and the Middle East (NAME) God calls us to reach with the gospel. Because of your prayers and sacrificial giving, Christian workers are using unprecedented opportunities to join God in His work by placing gospel ads and videos online in front of more people than ever. Your support will enable us to develop and incorporate online and social media strategies into their church planting ministries.

Engaging a Digital Generation.

• In the last year, we helped nine teams launch new digital engagement strategies in places with little or no previous access to the gospel.
• In the past six months, 2,411,669 NAME people saw gospel social media ads.
• Over 10,000 watched a video presenting the gospel, and over 3,000 reached out to start messaging conversations.
• Hundreds received Scripture in their language and started reading it for the first time with ongoing conversations with many of these.
• Praise God, 613 NAME people moved from online connections to offline relationships.
• Best of all, 11 new brothers and sisters professed faith as a result of a media strategy!

Testimonies Made Possible by Your Giving:

“One of the guys who responded to our ad turned out to be from a neighboring country. He had spent a few years working in the Middle East so spoke just a little bit of the local language. Between his limited language skills and Google Translate, I shared the simple gospel with him. But what is cool is that we have a connection with another believer from the same country who is currently studying at the seminary I went to, and we had seen him recently. I was able to connect the two guys, and they are planning to set up an online Bible study. This was particularly helpful because we don’t know of any churches here that speak his language.”

“One of the contacts we received is a college student in our city who recently decided to follow Christ. The first in his family to believe, he is committed to studying the Word, growing in faith and deepening his relationship with Christ. He has also expressed that he wants to follow the Lord in baptism, become an active member of a fellowship, and understand how to share with friends and family. He attended a service with two team members for Easter. Please pray for the two team members and the local pastor of the multi-lingual church as they partner to follow up with discipleship and Bible studies and walk alongside this young man.”

“Last summer a lady messaged and asked for prayer for peace in her country. She messaged again at the beginning of January and said, ‘I asked you to pray for peace and Allah answered your prayers. Please pray for me now. My life is a mess, and I am far away from Allah. He hears your prayers!’” Please pray for this woman who is seeking God.

“We had a man respond [to our ads], and once we connected him with another speaker of his language, he expressed his desire to follow Jesus. Currently, in addition to followup from our team, he is also receiving followup from other people who speak his language.”

Please Join Us in Prayer:

• Please pray for protection over the workers and the technology they use, as they broadly sow gospel seeds.
• Pray for the seeds to fall on good soil, on those genuinely seeking to understand gospel content, and that they would respond with ready hearts.
• Pray for perseverance in learning new tools as these teams exhaust every avenue to get the gospel to those longing to hear it.

Thank you for your generosity and prayers. Your sacrificial gifts and intercession are truly transforming lives as we partner together to solve the world’s greatest problem, lostness.

God Uses the Internet for His Glory 

Our team was new to digital gospel engagement but excited to jump-start our first social media campaign. We had no way of knowing whether a thousand people would respond to our online gospel ad or no one. We posted our first ad in cyberspace and waited.

Amir,* a young Middle Eastern man, replied to our ad and asked for a Bible! I delivered it personally to have a chance to meet him, and we talked for an hour about the message of Jesus. At the end of the conversation, Amir asked to go to church with me, and we set up another time to study the Bible together. We began by reading the Gospel of Matthew. He took copious notes during our time together. Within a couple of weeks, Amir prayed to receive Christ as his Savior!

A month later, another Middle Eastern man, Ahmad,* responded to our second gospel ad campaign. Like Amir, he was open to meeting face-to-face, and I had the chance to share the salvation message at our meeting. After that, we met several more times to study passages from the gospels. Ahmad, too, was interested in coming to church but did not have a car. So I asked Amir to pick up Ahmad and bring him to church since they lived in the same part of the city.

They began coming to church together each Sunday and staying afterward for more Bible study. We met another time each week for a discipleship lesson. We praise God that Ahmad also professed faith in Christ, and we scheduled a time for them both to be baptized. On the evening after his baptism, Amir said, “Today was the best day of my life!”

“Can you bring me a stack of Bibles?” Ahmad asked after a church service. “I want to have some on hand to give to others.” These new followers of Christ are true disciples, studying the Scripture and worshiping their Savior while also giving Bibles to their community and sharing their faith! Through them, even more Middle Eastern peoples are learning about Jesus.

We connected with them through social media, and it is evident that God is using the internet and social media for His glory. He brought fruit from our very first digital campaign, and we pray that He will bring many, many more seekers to faith in Christ as we continue sharing the gospel online.

Your partnership is critical for our work. Will you pray about covering the cost of our next social media ad campaign? Just $25 will enable a long-term worker or partner to walk alongside a seeker from initial online contact through in-person meetings and Bible studies. $100 will share the gospel with 5,000 Muslims in our city. How will God use the blessings He has given you to bless others? Click “give now” in the green box on our webpage to be part of what God is doing to transform lives and make His name known in the Middle East!

*Names changed for security

90% of young Arabs use social media every day. They are searching for answers to life and finding Jesus online. Watch how we are engaging them with the gospel on social media and then in person so the Spirit can lead them to salvation.

Najat* said she searched for 20 years to find something more in religion, frustrated with Islam and the hypocrisy she saw. She searched online, visiting various sites, including a NAME team’s website and social media pages. She messaged us from the contact information on the site. We sent her a digital copy of The Savior film, and after that, she requested a Bible.

Though she started her search online, Najat soon gained the courage to connect in person with a ministry partner. Through their conversation, he led her to follow Christ. A few days later, she shared that she was already prepared to change, become a Christian, and follow Jesus on the day she met face-to-face with the ministry partner. Najat also told us about a friend with whom she shared the news of becoming a Christian. The friend responded, “Without me? I want to become a Christian too!”

Praise the Lord that, as a brand-new believer, Najat immediately gathered other searching friends to learn about Christ. As a result, a new women’s Bible study started within just a few weeks of her salvation due to one woman’s online search for God.

*name changed

Many people in the Bible were doing ordinary, everyday things when God called them to serve Him in a special way. Is God calling you? Could He be leading you to serve Him among the peoples of Northern Africa and the Middle East? View the video.