Last year, we had outreach to a refugee camp. Someone came to me saying a Muslim man, the only teacher in the camp, needed healing. I and my team went in. We met him. He was sitting along with his four wives. He could not stand. He could not use his legs. The Lord told me that the problem was demonic, that is why he cannot use his legs. I told everyone there, "I will pray for him. He WILL get up. He will go around showing what Jesus can do." In obedience to the Holy Spirit, I commanded him, "Get up and walk." I did. He suddenly jumped up! With shock in his eyes, the man told me, "It was like chains were wrapped around my legs. Now the chains are gone." All his household came to Jesus. I heard later a church formed and over 300 are now followers of Jesus. This year we helped them to extend the building where the believers gather in the camp. God led me to offer him prayer! The Almighty One answered. Now there are hundreds of disciples.
When I was imprisoned for fifty days in Sudan it was very dark. God gave me ability and strength I have never experienced before. I was constantly encouraging people. I prayed for guards and inmates if they were sick. We all had to drink dirty water with worms visible, the same water that was used for the toilet. Nothing happened to me, I stayed healthy. No doctors there. For the sick, it was either healing or death. Over a period of thirty-six days, I would pray daily for everyone who asked. Two or three people a day, I prayed. All were healed!
"What kind of magic is this?" they would ask me. "It is Jesus (Isa) healing you, not me." I gained a good reputation with them all. Six people came to Jesus. One of them is an Imam. Kris was grateful that God used him to heal the sick and lead people to Jesus. Not only that, he was grateful he could suffer for the Gospel. He told me, "Persecution comes for a good reason."
There are two distinct Irans. The leaders, and the people. And among the people, is the fastest growing church in the world. The Holy Spirit is moving among the people in a powerful way, building His church through what is called the Discipleship Making Movement. There are no buildings, no property, no leadership. It is strictly God's people, sharing with one another, growing the church, and spreading throughout the country of Iran. Estimates are that there are now close to one million Christians in Iran and it is doubling at a rate of every five years. And these are all Muslim Background Believers, MBBs. People are calling this the Iran awakening. The word coming out of Iran is that the Mosques are empty in Iran. God is moving powerfully in Iran.
So, three weeks ago we were feeling sorry for ourselves that we were stuck in our houses... A group of us were praying and as we were praying, God directed our prayers towards our neighbors. We live in an extremely poor part of town and most of our neighbors have "blue collar" jobs where they live on what they make in that day. As the lockdown in Jordan started, most of our neighbors lost their jobs and their source of income. As we prayed, the Lord laid a burden on our hearts to somehow reach out to the very needy in our area and try to help.
Our apartment building has a guard. His name is Joseph. He is the neighborhood connection. We asked him if he knew about 10 families that we could help (that was the money we had gathered) - he said YES! Some of the neighborhood men had already come to him with tears in their eyes and asked for work or a handout because they had nothing. He quickly wrote down ten families that needed help. Then he said, "there are more". We prayed again and asked our community for an offering and we gathered enough to buy twenty big food boxes. Each box costs $35 and has the basics: rice, oil, powdered milk, canned meat, spaghetti, tuna, sardines, canned beans, tea, sugar.
We put a message on each box sharing with them that God loved them and we did too. We also asked in the message if they had prayer requests - so they wrote prayer requests and handed them back to Joseph for us to pray. We took the requests and went to prayer getting words of encouragment and Scriptures to give back to them. We had the chance to share the Gospel as well in some of the messages.
Now we have heard that the Lockdown here in Jordan will last until the end of April and possibly through Ramadan which ends May 23rd. The needs in our neighborhood are growing and we want to expand the outreach to reach more people! If you would like to join us in this outreach, we would love to partner with you. We set up a giving channel for those that want to give online or send checks. Here is the information:
The website is www.ywamorganic.org/donate/jor
Under the projects drop down box chose Neighbors Relief. The information for mailing checks is on the web page. Please make sure you include a note so they know how to designate the funds.
Even in the midst of the Lockdown, God is on the move.
With you for the Kingdom, Martha
P.S. Now we have raised over $20,000 and we are helping over 700 families nation wide through various strategic partners. Food, love, prayer and home visits are reaching the poorest of the poor in many of our major cities - thanks to your generosity!!