The Arabian Peninsula Partnership
The Gospel for every person and a church for every people in the Arabian Peninsula amongst indigenous peoples
14 May, 2010
Christ loves the rejected.
Praise
Praise God for the open doors into local's lives that team members have experienced over this past month.
Prayer
Pray for training sessions in the area for Arab Christians who will go to various countries around the globe for summer outreaches to the Gulf Arabs travelling there.
Please continue to pray for the provision of a believing husband - it's the same request as before ... small sentence, big request!
It is a real challenge to get a visa for this country. Tourist visit visa's are limited, and to obtain a business visa, some difficult-to-meet requirements need to be fulfilled. Do pray that the king and his government will make obtaining visa's easy so that more people will come and minister in this country.
"Margaret", a tentmaker in our country, is answering some Arab friends' spiritual questions by email. Please pray that God will aid her use of Arabic to use expressions which will reach into the hearts of the friends for Christ.
Pray for a believing single girl who was recently given short notice by her employer to move across the country to work at a different outlet location. The company has treated all their employees very poorly - withholding pay, denying days off, cutting salaries without cause, etc. However, the employee has little recourse. Pray for wisdom for the 'tentmaker' families that are helping her with this situation. Pray for justice and fairness.
Testimony
"I put on my newest dress and spend hours before the mirror making myself as attractive as I can. I will have only a couple of minutes to make an impression on him. I don't know him except that his name is Ahmed. He has asked my father to see me and if he likes me, he will propose for marriage. Each time this happens, I go through all the emotions of excitement and hope, despair and depression; if I am rejected, it is likely to be because I am smaller than most men want their wife to be. They want tall kids and therefore prefer a tall wife. Oh... I hope this time I will be chosen. The agony to face my ridiculing brothers and neighbours if I will be rejected again. Oh God, I promise to become a devoted Muslim if you just let Ahmed accept me."
Ahmed will be led to the guest room to see the girl in the presence of her mother and exchange a couple of words. Then he will let the father know in the following days if he wants to pursue a marriage. Ahmed will probably be looking at about 5 girls suggested by his sisters and mother before making a choice.
The girls have almost no influence on making the young men propose marriage to them and tend to accept anybody proposing to them, afraid that no others will come to propose. Pray for the rejected girls of this country. They will struggle with accepting and loving themselves. Some develop ways to cope with the rejection by isolating themselves, wrong eating habits, permanent anger or pursuing forbidden internet/telephone relationships.
Pray God will change this culture and pray that the rejected girls will come to discover there is a Christ who loves them.