Baptisms and Restorations in Middle East ICOC ^Featured

A Syrian man named Nidal came to Lebanon in 1997 looking for a job. He had a Kurdish background, with no awareness of Christianity at all. He met disciples at the end of 1998, studied the Bible and became a disciple. He lived in a brotherhood household and grew in his faith at the church. In 2005-2006, the war and economic crisis in Lebanon forced him to move back to his country, Syria. Evangelist Moufid Tohme remained in contact over the phone occasionally to give him spiritual advice. Still with time he became lukewarm and drifted away due to being far from the church. He then married a lady from his background who had been a school teacher and had two children from her. However, he remained calling Moufid for marital advice.

With time, he started sharing the Bible with his wife. Three months ago, Nidal called Moufid to inform him that the severe war in Syria has resulted in having numerous people rebel from the fanatic groups and reveal more interest in Christianity. So they started making churches in their areas and sharing the Bible with people. Nidal joined a group that preached and shared the Bible. He called to ask for help in starting a church in that devastated region. The evangelist asked him to come to Lebanon to restudy the Bible and get proper restoration. He agreed to visit Lebanon informing the pastor that his wife has already studied the Bible with him and accordingly he baptized her.

Nidal attended the Middle East Conference in December 2013 where he got restored and prepared for his new church mission in Syria. That was the last church that our beloved brother Maher Al Hinn planted before he passed away immediately after that conference.

The church is now in a region in Northern Syria. Two weeks ago, Nidal studied the Bible with his friend who also got baptized, and whose wife is now studying the Bible. Nidal is currently leading a Bible Talk at his house and the church from a Kurdish background is growing in that area.

It’s amazing how we humans can be so narrow-minded when it comes to God’s sovereign plan. How quickly we so often say that a story is over and that a period comes after a disciple drifts away or after words like “fallen away,” “discouraged,” and “lukewarm.” But to God, all that is about our human condition, which we usually don’t see the way God does. God sees possibility and the continuation of a story in us. “He raises the poor out of the dust, and lifts up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory” -- 1 Samuel 2:8.

The drastic war in Syria has opened doors to salvation and to glorify our Heavenly Father. We kindly urge all the brothers and sisters to pray for the new Syrian church because they are enduring great suffering and the danger in their country is tremendous.