...I’m staying on the wrong side of a 10 lane motorway with no mediums or pedestrian crossings. This means I pray every morning as I cross this street to get to work. Here the drivers’ first instinct when you run in front of them is to honk rather than brake or swerve. My first attempt at doing this saw me running in a terrified zigzag before diving onto the opposing pavement leaving my left jandal still out in the middle of the road. This provided much amusement to a group of soldiers looking on. I’m learning that the Arabs here think very little of you if show any fear.

Living in a small Middle Eastern city we’ve had to re-think ‘church’. What does ‘church’ look like in this culture? We don’t have it fully worked out. But I hope that how ‘church’ looks continues to change, to become more relevant and accessible to the people here.

At times I struggle with a lack of fruitfulness in my ministry and even question what my family and I are doing here in the Middle East. But when someone like Nan, a recently baptized new believer, so dramatically turns to him, I’m refreshed in my spirit again and feel able to carry on.  Interestingly, when I first met her I confess I didn't like her at all. She was very hard and abrupt. The woman we see before us now however is a warm loving individual.  That's transformation.

In a volatile nationalistic city in the Middle East, missionaries are always looking for God-inspired ideas that will create fresh openings for the gospel. A recent initiative saw some encouraging results.

A WEC team in a resistant Middle Eastern city has had a huge answer to prayer.  The small group of believers have prayed for years for “people of peace” to be discovered in their community (see Luke 10:1-12).  It seems that God is answering this prayer.

 Abdul became a Christian while studying in a country outside the Middle East. He returned to his Muslim family a year later, but began to doubt.

Sharing the gospel always calls for sensitivity and creativity.  Once you cross a culture however, the challenge of how to “sow seeds widely” becomes even greater, especially among resistant least-reached peoples.

An interesting situation developed on a WEC Trek to a Middle Eastern country late last year.  The team were prayer walking in a city known to have only a handful of believers.  One believing family ran a gift store and tea house there, so some of the team entered looking for gifts to purchase.

Ethnodoxology. “Ethno what?” you’re probably asking? “Ethnodoxology is the theological and anthropological study and practical application of how every people group might use their culture’s unique and diverse artistic expressions appropriately to worship the God of the Bible.” A long sentence that boils down to “play something we know!”

A WEC church planting team recently hosted a seminar on dreams in a Middle Eastern city.  Recognising the fascination of dream interpretation in much of folk Islam, the team invited an author on dreams according to the Pentateuch, Psalms and the New Testament to speak.  Following the presentation a local believer bravely shared her story.