Saints,
As I write this I have just left one of my Perspectives classes (on Global Missions) and ironically the focus was our mandate and someone asked why no one is headed to the 1040 window. If you are not familiar with the term “1040” window, let me quickly break it down. The term “1040 window” was coined to refer to the region between 10 and 40 degrees north of the equator with the highest level of socioeconomic challenges and the least access to the Word of God, which includes, roughly 2/3rds of the population. These people are 84% with the lowest quality of life in the world, and 82% of the poorest. The major religions in this region are Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism and tribal faiths. Within the past few decades, the world has begun to fear this region, because of the political struggles, religious battles, wars, terrorism, etc people have begun to see this area as dangerous, untrustworthy, hopeless. But I have hope for these people who have won my heart.
Many of you may know that I have had the privilege to do ministry in America and the Middle East with these very people and ever since returning from Jordan in 2009 I have longed to return. My time in the States since then has been full of hardships that produced major growth and created new strength that comes only from my Father in heaven. I have been blessed to become continuously closer to both of my parents, and many of my Muslim friends. I have been serving a community of predominantly Muslim refugees in Clarkston who are from Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, etc. I had the privilege to work in Grace’s Missions department under Jon Stallsmith who truly helped me find my spiritual gifts, while helping me grow in them by running a conference that equips people to minister specifically to Muslims, to make common ground in order to share the gospel of Jesus Christ, educating people on the true Islam, not the radical fundamentalist version. My heart has remained burdened for these people, and I know that God is leading me to a radical life that involves long-term Muslim ministry both here and abroad.
While I am writing another “support letter” for a mission trip that I believe has been divinely set up by God, I hope that each of you would truly take time to read what I am saying and not just do the simple task of writing a check or placing my letter on your refrigerator. I would hope that by the end of this letter you would be compelled to learn a bit more of the Muslim people and their beautiful, servant-focused culture of honor that I have fallen in love with. These are God’s children. He made them just as He made you and me. I cannot tell you why they were born into what has become such a hostile region, or why they were born into a Muslim family, but I can tell you this, God did not make over 865,000 million mistakes. You see, in the Psalms it says “My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed substance, in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me” (Psalm 139:15-16). So before anyone, even our Muslim “cousins” as many in ministry call them, was made, God knew it, and knew the days that were planned for each of us, Christian and Muslim alike. Although they are misunderstood and small groups of them confused and violent extremists, they are LOVED BY GOD despite their faults, just as you and I are. As I have grown in my understanding of God, I have also grown in my complete understanding of how much I cannot comprehend or fathom His love, His unending grace, and His glory. He loves, more than I can understand, and He loves those like His son Jesus, who have done nothing to deserve death, as much as He loves the most violent terrorist, and that is hard to chew on. Before you take time to read on, please reflect and pray specifically for radical Islamic extremists, and if necessary, let us repent of judgment’s we made against these violent people and recognize that only God is the true judge and that God still loves these precious men and women. Thank you for listening, praying and supporting me.
I have been preparing to go, yet again, to a land that many people think me crazy for even considering visiting. God has been speaking to me about my return, training me, healing me, and preparing me along the way. I have researched, read, and studied these beautiful people in the 1040 region of the world and in my own homeland. I feel led, by God, to reach a people that are so lost, yet exemplify so much of what Christ called us to do. For you to understand a bit more let me share some of my experiences. While in Jordan in 2009 I met Rawan, a very devout, and highly educated Muslim woman in Amman. She takes 5 buses to get to and from work at an English education center, and heads home to cook for her 8 brothers. She invited me to dinner in her home, took me out for tea and argeelah (or hookah) and constantly gave me praise about my Arabic and my modesty. She has lost hope, because authorities in London will not allow her to take a job if she is veiled. She left me with her family’s prized prayer rug. I also hung out with a college student named Fatimah who is a bit on the rebellious side. (Her name actually means, one who I kept from bad character, I think the Lord wants to redeem her name!) She wears shorts, racy tops, has her nose and eyebrow pierced, goes on dates and only prays during Ramadan (a month of fasting). She along with 8 other University students accompanied me throughout most of downtown Amman treating me to gifts, and honoring me. Before I left Amman her father personally wrapped and delivered His beloved Quran to me as a display of the utmost honor. Her father, has been to Mecca 8 times, has read and memorized the Quran over 50 times. Ahmed and Osama (now a believer, Praise God!) are brothers, who, throughout my time in Amman, treated me to night after nights of argeelah, tea and meat feasts, as well as an exclusive trip to the Dead Sea with loads of college students, accompanied by a private DJ. Leaving Amman I realized that I had a lot to learn about servant hood from these people, and I have. I spend time in Clarkston with refugee families, speaking about Jesus and reading from the Quran and the Bible, especially with my friend Duaa, and have seen many come to faith. I leave for Jordan, expectant of how God will move there with Fatimah, Rawan, Ahmed, Osama and others, but also sad to leave my Muslim friends in GA (Duaa especially) for a time, grateful for the more they have taught me about their culture and faith.
While this email is getting lengthy, please bear with me, as I will now fill you in on my actual plans for Jordan this time around. I will obviously be reconnecting with all my friends in Jordan, whom have been facebooking me in anticipation of my arrival. Many of them have had a chance to meet my sister via skype and inform her how excited they are for my return, praise God! My focus upon arrival will be to get established in the area I will be living, in a home with some “workers” that is placed strategically I think by God in between the 2 largest malls, not for the shopping, but for the people! I will then speak with my contacts through the UN at a Palestinian Refugee Camp 10Km outside Amman where I will be volunteering. My Arabic class will start in August, and I will hopefully be able to start some Holy Book studies with students on campus. I have also made connections with a group of women who do art therapy for women who have been abused. This is a touchy subject in the M.E. and one I feel God is leading me towards pursuing as my true focus for my ministry. Throughout my stay I pray that God will use me to usher people into an encounter with the one true Savior Jesus and that many would come to know Him in my time there. God has already been setting up contacts for me over there and I have not even landed! I was even just informed by a M friend in Clarkston that His brother in law, who is King Abdullah’s personal “secret service agent” would help me with anything I needed! (Like maybe setting me up for a meeting with the King?) I can’t contain my excitement, but there are still many things to be put in place before I leave.
I will be finishing up my “preparation” time in these next few weeks finishing classes, completing a 3 day intensive training through my sending agency, and raising money, through fundraisers, letters and prayer. This is where you come in. I need to raise roughly $8000 dollars by the first week of June, which includes flights, housing, food, transportation, and small expenses like visas. Before asking you for financial support, I would ask that you would partner with me in praying that God would allow me to trust that He would “supply all my need according to the riches of His glorious Kingdom”, believing as it says in Habakkuk that all we must do is ask and God will respond “see if I will not fling wide the gates of heaven and pour out abundance on you until there is no more need”. Pray for more hours for me to work as I am trying to raise at least a quarter of this cost myself. I hope that you also would focus on asking the Lord how He might have you give. If He might have you just dedicate a time of prayer and intercession for me or give a specific amount. If you feel led, you can donate money in one sum or as a pledge for each of the 7 months I will be there, or donate airline points or buddy passes (which is the most expensive need).
I want you to understand, that above all, I would appreciate your prayers, through this fundraising time, and as I am abroad. I would like to request specific things from you to pray for, if I may be permitted to do so. Pray for the people of the 1040 window. Pray for the 865,000 million Muslims in the world who are ripe to receive the Kingdom of God. Pray for divine appointments, to meet with students and even high up leaders in authority over Jordan. Pray that the people of Amman would have encounters with Jesus. Pray for Fatimah, Rawan, Ahmed and the many others who inshallah will soon find hope in the Savior of the world and enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Pray for the rich educated devout families, the poor, people in the slums and the Bedouins of the Wadi Rum desert. Pray that God would reveal to me, His specific vision for my life in missions. And pray please, that God would encounter me, in whole new ways while I am in Amman, so that I might serve and love out of the overflow of His goodness to the people of the Jordan. As I close this I also pray that God would bless you with an abundance of His love, speaking sweet truths to you about how He sees you as His child and I bless you with the spiritual coverings in Ephesians 1.
Salaam,
Rachel
