MIDDLE EAST: Leaders Arising Amidst Christian Persecution

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The Voice of the Martyrs

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🗓️ 19 October 2024

⏱️ 25 minutes

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Summary

Middle East Concern was founded in 1991, in response to needs expressed by Christian leaders in the Middle East and North Africa. Through a network of ministry partners, Middle East Concern seeks to help Christians facing persecution across the Middle East and North Africa. They work to come up with strategies to improve conditions and protect rights of Christians with a goal of seeing Christians able to live out their faith in Christ freely.

Brother Rob, a researcher for MEC, shares with VOM Radio this week about his work and about persecution faced by Christians in the MENA region.

One of Rob’s areas of interest is Iran, and he will tell us about recent large-scale research that shows how many Iranians are questioning and even rejecting Islam since the Islamic Revolution. Many of those have become followers of Jesus Christ—despite the risk of persecution.

Rob also tells how God is bringing good out of Christian persecution in Türkiye (formerly Turkey) as Turkish Christian leaders are stepping up to shepherd the church after the expulsions of numerous foreign Christians. The Turkish government’s strategy since 2019 has been to designate Christians from other countries living in turkey as a “threat to national security” and force them to leave, causing upheaval to many families who’ve lived there for decades. David Byle was one of those pushed out of Türkiye after fighting the expulsion order through the court system.

Israel is another country where Rob monitors religious freedom and you’ll hear about challenges to gospel outreach there. Brother Rob will also share how we can pray for Israel, including Palestinian Christians in the West Bank and Gaza, as there is so much conflict there.

“The Christian community in this part of the world,” says Rob, “are the light and salt in these lands.”

Prayer is the central part of the ministry at Middle East Concern as they continue to seek God’s wisdom in each sensitive situation. Learn how you can pray specifically for Christians in Israel, Iran and Türkiye as Rob shares the needs of the church in these nations.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	There is quite a lot of pressure on Palestinian Christians to consider emigrating.
0:06.0	There are just so many different pressures and lack of opportunities,
0:11.0	but this is something really sad because the Christian community in this part of the world
0:18.1	Has such an important role to play they are the light and salt in these lands.
0:26.6	Jesus never promised his followers an easy path. In fact, he told his disciples that the
0:31.6	world would hate them.
0:33.4	He sent them out as sheep among wolves.
0:36.2	Jesus's words came true in the life of the Apostles,
0:39.2	and they're still coming true today in the lives of his followers around the world.
0:43.4	Join host Todd Nettleton as we hear their inspiring stories and learn how we can help.
0:48.1	Right now on the Voice of the Martyrs radio network.
0:51.2	Welcome again to the Voice of the Martyrs Radio. My name is Todd
0:53.7	Nettleton. We are in our studio today in Bartlesville, Oklahoma with another of
0:58.3	our one name guests. We are just going to call him Brother Rob. Brother Rob is a researcher for a ministry called Middle East Concern.
1:07.2	Brother Rob, welcome to Voice of the Martyrs Radio.
1:09.8	Thank you very much.
1:10.7	It's good to be here.
1:11.6	Well, we are glad to have you maybe to start out.
1:14.7	Just tell a little bit about Middle East Concern. What is it? What does it do?
1:19.1	And how does it partner with the Voice of the Martyrs? Well, Middle East Concern is actually a network of different ministries,
1:26.0	and we seek to help those people who are facing persecution in the Meena region.
1:31.0	Working closely together with people on the ground,
	...

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