Spending two years anywhere is more than enough time to learn some serious lessons about yourself, God, and the world around us. Here’s a few of the most life-changing lessons I learned from my two years in the Middle East.
Freedom is a Serious Blessing
I had numerous friends tell me how much they longed to go to America where they could finally be free. For a while I rolled my eyes and told them that there are laws in America as well too. Nearing the end of my stay there, I started to realize what they meant. A lot of countries do not have fair laws. Places, like where I was at, have rules that essentially keep people in poverty. There are laws that say you must buy a car less than five years old. Then they tack an additional 100% tax on it. In order to buy a small car, people have to pay at least $10,000, and that’s just about as cheap as they go.
We complain about minimal wage here in the US, but the rest of the world has it even worse. Some people make about $10 a day, while rent for an apartment is no less than $200 a month. This means it takes 20 days to just pay off your rent, then you have food, taxi expenses (because you don’t have a car), utilities, clothes, etc. Honestly, I have no clue how people survive in places like this.
Then there’s spiritual bondage. In most Middle Eastern countries, if you are born Muslim, then you have to stay Muslim. There is no changing. This means many fake it. They live in constant fear that someone might find out. We can’t even fathom what it must be like to be told what to think or face imprisonment, disownment, or death. And who can you trust? Anyone could turn you in if they found out. Talk about bondage!
The Gospel Must be Preached
My heart broke for the people I lived among. We shared the gospel multiple times every day, and not even that was enough. With so much fear built up around leaving Islam and so many false facts about Christianity shared in the mosques, we had our work cut out for us. We’d get honest questions like “Has anyone ever left Islam for Christianity?” “How can you believe God had sex with Mary?” “How could people outsmart God and kill him?”
So many of these people had never met true believers. I met hundreds of people who literally never heard the gospel before. Yet they needed to hear the gospel ten times over just to understand what it meant and begin to grasp what freedom, grace, and salvation really represented. On top of this, they needed to hear the gospel a hundred more times to overcome their fear.
These people needed the gospel. They had no hope. They lived in constant fear from others, from their government, and from God himself. Men had no purpose, women felt worthless. So many of them felt like God was watching them every second of every day just to catch them whenever they might mess up. They needed love. The sort of true love that only the gospel could bring.
The Apathy of the Western Church
The whole time I was in the Middle East, and even still now, I feel a deep sadness. Here were people who needed Jesus so desperately, while millions of western believers hold the news they need but yet care more about chasing materialistic goals. We make sure our kids have more toys than can ever fit in their toy box, we buy nice cars, the newest iPhones, we go on lavish vacations and squander our time with entertainment. Many of us (myself included) are willing to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on things that make our life more comfortable and easier, and then pass the collection plate when a missionary asks for money to build a church or orphanage.
We are willing to endure long tedious hours of a job we hate so we can afford the dreams that hardly meet our expectations. Yet very few of us are willing to go live hard lives doing such incredibly rewarding and meaningful lives as missionaries.
Now, I know this sounds harsh, but I’m preaching to myself also. The fact is that there is a huge need for the gospel, but yet our desire for comfort and pleasure is still so strong that we just ignore it.
God Doesn’t Want to Make You Do Something You Hate
All these other life-changing lessons I learned were pretty hard and challenging, so I want to close this out with something encouraging. I followed God to the Middle East because I knew he was calling me. It was hard, but I did enjoy it. After two years, God gave me another calling to equip and send the church out. This calling thrilled me. I learned that God desires to call us to things we love.
God doesn’t typically send us into things we will hate. It might seem like we’ll hate it, but he’ll sustain you. If you think God might be calling you to go somewhere as a missionary, it might sound terrible, but following God will give you far more joy and satisfaction than anything this world can offer. So, I’d encourage you to follow God. Don’t be afraid to do whatever it is you feel him nudging you toward. I promise you won’t regret it.
I hope this post both challenged and encouraged you to live adventurous and Christ-filled lives through wild steps of faith. And if you have any other questions about my time in the Middle East, please let me know. I’d love to answer them!
Thank you, Rayana Evelyn, for asking this question.
If you are having a hard time finding what exactly God is calling you to, you might do well to read my other blog post titled Discovering God’s Calling for Your Life.
If you liked this blog, you might enjoy my last blog post where I answer the question What is Your Craziest God Story from the Middle East?
