As 2021 began, The Flow Foundation began a partnership with J. and his family, who are missionaries to Syrian and Iranian Muslim refugees in the Eastern Mediterranean. Their story is so inspirational that I want to share it with you even before we have it listed on the missions page of this website!
J. and his wife felt called by God to share Jesus’ love and truth with Muslim refugees in the mid-2010’s. In 2018, their family left the United States and begin working with a small team of other disciples to share Jesus with thousands of displaced and disillusioned refugees who were fleeing their homelands of Syria and Iran. In the past two years, they have witnessed God transforming people’s lives with His powerful love and grace.
Here’s what J. says about his team’s work:
“The type of ministry we are doing is a network of relationships. If you are familiar with the “disciple making movement” approach, you know we look for “persons of peace” (like in Luke 9 and 10) and stay with that person to reach those around them and train them. Like 2 Timothy 2:2 we are looking for trustworthy people who will train others, who will train others, and so on. We say if you can find 5 or 10 people like this, you can start a massive movement and have a lifetime of work to do. We build outward and not towards ourselves. In the early days of working with Muslim background people, it was all about serving physical needs and earning trust. Along the way, we found a man who turned out to be a ‘person of peace’ with the Kurdish people. A couple of years later, a teammate of ours found ‘person of peace’ in the Iranian people. Things grew from there and in 2018 began to take off. Our small team has baptized nearly 400 Muslim-background people in the past 2 years.”
Currently, The Flow Foundation is providing financial support for a local Christian woman who will work full-time with J’s team. Also, we will provide funds for J and other team leaders to travel to different refugee camps to meet and disciple more “persons of peace.”
Finally, here is what J. says about his experience:
“Thanks to God, he keeps filling our cups. I travel around meeting with people who want to hear the Gospel, training people to facilitate Bible studies with their friends, and helping start house churches. Getting to do this on a near daily basis with teammates from the Middle East and Europe who have become close friends, and getting to live on mission with my family, is a treasured gift from God. My faith has grown so much by seeing God at work in people’s lives.”
Look for more information about J’s work with Muslim Refugees coming soon to our website.
(Names are excluded for safety)
Bruce