Middle East

If you had asked me before outreach where I thought I'd be going, I probably would have said Papua New Guinea or Guinea-Bissau, serving tribal communities. Instead, God sent me to the Middle East, a place where many women are unseen, unheard, and aren’t seen as valuable.

Only about 0.2% of the population identifies as Christian. This was where God had called me to go and share His love. It wasn't where I imagined going, but it was exactly where God wanted me.

I traveled with a team of twelve, and we spent three months serving there.

One of the first things we learned was how important it is to respect the local culture. The girls on my team we all wore hijabs and abayas whenever we went out. While these garments are associated with Islam, they are also deeply woven into the culture, and we need to honor the people we were serving.

Our ministry looked different than anything I had experienced before. Every day we spent intentional time interceding for the nation before going out each evening to meet people and build genuine friendships. As a team, we committed to praying for at least an hour every day as a team. I learned firsthand that prayer isn't just preparation for ministry—it is ministry. Throughout those three months, we watched God answer prayers and got to see things come to fruition.

Because we couldn't openly speak the name of Jesus, we had to learn how to represent Him before we ever spoke about Him.

That changed me.

I realized I needed to spend far more time in God's Word and in prayer than I ever had before. Looking back, I probably spent more time in the prayer room than I did in my own room or even with my teammates. God became everything I depended on. He taught me what it truly meant to find my fulfillment in Him instead of anything else. I wanted so desperately to see lives changed that I knew I couldn't do it in my own strength.

We learned that people would notice Christ in us long before they heard us talk about Him. Our actions, our kindness, our patience, and the way we loved people became our testimony.

Many of the women noticed something different about us, even if they couldn't explain it. I can't count how many times women told me they felt like they could trust me. Some shared things they had never told anyone before. Eventually they would ask me why I seemed different.

That opened the door for me to tell them about Jesus.

I was able to share my testimony and explain the hope I had found in Him. Many of the women were open to prayer, no matter what they believed. We prayed for healing, for peace, for their families, and for whatever burdens they were carrying. We even witnessed several physical healings while we were there. Every conversation, every prayer, and every act of kindness reminded me that God was planting seeds. I left believing that those seeds would continue to grow long after we were gone.

Building trust with the local people took time, but once those relationships began to grow, they became one of the greatest blessings of my outreach. I loved hearing their stories, spending time with them, learning their dances, and simply being a friend they could trust.

One thing that deeply impacted me was hearing the women talk about their lives.

Many of them described feeling isolated and unseen. They shared how difficult it was not being able to fully express themselves or have others truly know who they were. Some were only allowed to leave their homes if their father or husband gave them permission.

Yet despite their circumstances, they welcomed us with incredible hospitality.

They invited us into their homes, shared meals with us, and treated us like family. One young woman became especially close to me and even invited me to her brother's wedding. It was such an incredible honor to experience such an important part of her life and to experience just a wedding from another culture.

When it was finally time to leave, saying goodbye was one of the hardest things I've ever done.

I realized that many of them had encountered the love of Christ through us without even realizing it. Maybe they couldn't quite put words to it yet, but they had experienced something different and they knew that.

I don't know if I'll ever see those women again.

But I pray for them often.

I pray that every seed planted continues to grow. I pray that God sends more laborers into the Middle East to water those seeds and continue the work He began. And I pray that one day those women will come to know the incredible love and freedom that can only be found in Jesus Christ.