Dear Friends,

Leaving their war-torn home and finding refuge in a new Muslim-majority country in the Middle East, Yusef and Jamila wearily settled into a new and tenuous normal. Life as a refugee is not easy. They are in an unfamiliar country, often not able to find employment, and struggle to obtain basic necessities.

Mary, a U.S.-based World Outreach worker, met Yusef and Jamila in May 2025 on a mission trip to the Middle East. She was part of the leadership team taking a group of EPC World Outreach college cohort students there. Much prayer went into this trip asking God to move among the refugees in this country.

When Mary first met this refugee couple, Yusef and Jamila had been married less than a year, and Jamila was pregnant again after suffering from a miscarriage earlier in their marriage. Yusef had recently come to know the Lord through the leader of a refugee ministry, an Arab Christian man named Elias. Yusef desired for Jamila to also give her life to Jesus. However, he did not want to pressure her into a decision and knew the very real risks that would come with them both professing Christ—the risk of persecution and loss of their Muslim family and friends. Mary and a teammate from the college cohort had the privilege of sharing a meal with Yusef and Jamila three days in a row. They were taken there by Elias, who planned these times together and served as their translator.

During each visit, they shared joyful conversation, delicious food, and seeds of the gospel. They also prayed for Jamila’s health, prenatal care, and baby. These prayers were instrumental in opening Jamila’s heart as she experienced God’s care for her.

One day, Mary shared with Jamila and Yusef how Jesus changed her life. Jamila had been thinking for weeks about putting her faith in Jesus as Yusef had done and listened intently to Mary’s story. At this time, Jamila told Mary if she had a girl, they would name her after Mary. During the visit on the third day, Jamila said she wanted Jesus and prayed to receive him! Jamila beamed as the team then gave her a New Testament in her native language (Arabic).

Mary’s team, including her husband Mark, soon returned to the States, and several months later, Mark returned with a new team, partnering again with Elias to bring practical aid and spiritual hope to those in need. On this second visit, Mark reconnected with Yusef and Jamila—just one day before Jamila was scheduled to deliver their baby! They enjoyed time of fellowship and prayer, drawing encouragement from each other. The next day, Mark and his team flew home, and Jamila delivered a healthy baby girl whom they named Miriam (Mary in Arabic).

A few weeks after Miriam’s birth, Yusef told Mark about Miriam’s name, “I chose it in honor of your wife, Mary. We loved her very much.”
 
God had answered the team’s prayers. Mark and Mary were incredibly blessed by this, and stood in awe of our Father, who works in mysterious ways, bringing people from around the globe together for His glory and bringing lasting change for generations to come. God used Mary’s story to draw Jamila to himself, and now little Miriam will grow up knowing the Good News of Jesus as a result of Mary and her team’s obedience to go be the hands and feet of Jesus. Praise God for the work he has done!

Dear Friends,

Desperate to leave an abusive home living with her parents, Maya accepted a marriage proposal. She was indifferent to the marriage, but in her desperation, she took the first way out she could find. She was still young, but at 17, her life was already full of trauma. Her marriage was not a happy one, but in this season of life, she became interested in Christianity. After some time, however, Maya’s husband learned of the years of abuse she had experienced when she was growing up. Her husband rejected her as damaged goods, divorcing her and returning her to her home of abuse, saying they gave her to him under false pretenses as an undamaged flower. Where is God? Where is mercy? When will there be an end to this pain? Jesus heard those cries and sent the Holy Spirit to Maya to draw her to him.

Over the next several months Maya started her journey to Christ. She started attending online discipleship meetings and started looking for people to meet with in person. Through a series of connections, I was put in touch with her. Maya’s mother was immediately suspicious of me. Why does a 40+ year old foreign woman want to spend time with her daughter, who’s in her early 20s? After that very first visit, the mother told Maya that she shouldn’t meet with me any longer. But the Holy Spirit had captured Maya. I shared many things about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, theology and Christian practice, and we continued to meet over the next 2 years.

Things in Maya’s home were awful. As months went by, Maya plotted to escape everything. She wanted to run away. She eventually told me that she was leaving (in 5 days time!) to go to study in America. She didn’t tell her family out of fear of them stopping her. Once she was in America, she informed them that she had left, but refused to tell them where she had gone. The possibility of familial retribution was too real. Maybe they would kidnap her. Maybe they would do something worse. Maya couldn’t risk it.

After Maya left the country, she seemed to drift further and further away from Jesus, seduced by freedom in America. While Maya was resisting Jesus’ call, he constantly pursued her. Eventually, I was able to connect Maya to a local church, and she started attending and even brought her American boyfriend with her. But Maya had deep questions that no one in the group could answer. Most of her theological questions related to her background in Islam, something that very few know much about. During this time, Maya and I texted frequently, and I was able to visit her that summer. She was living with her boyfriend and not very receptive to conversation about Jesus, but I felt led by the Holy Spirit to leave my Arabic Bible with Maya. “May your Word not return void to you, oh Lord. Please continue to draw Maya to you,” I prayed. Soon after, Maya started having weekly 1 to 1 Bible studies with a woman close to her age in her apartment.

One day, Maya decided she would go shopping at Goodwill. There was nothing like it back home where the idea of ‘used goods’ is for extremely poor people and would be shameful on the family name to shop there. After some browsing, she bought Thanksgiving and Christmas greeting cards, hoping to use them during the upcoming holiday season. Later, as she opened one of the Christmas cards, a small slip of paper fell out of one of them. She picked it up and to her shock, the text on the paper was printed in Arabic! Not only that, but it was a Bible verse! John 1:29 “The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold the Lamb of God, who takes aways the sin of the world!” Maya immediately contacted Me. Maya said, “I think Jesus is calling me again.” Over the next 2 days she visited with the pastor of the church she had attended, and he spoke to her about salvation in Christ. A few days later Maya called me to say she claimed Jesus as her savior and that we were now sisters in Christ! Maya and her now husband were both recently baptized.

Please pray for Maya. We are still praying that Christ will be magnified in unexpected ways. We have hope that He will be glorified in Maya’s new marriage. We pray for Maya’s testimony to grow strong and that the shame of her life in sin would be washed from her mind, just as Jesus washed her sin from her life.
 – M, World Outreach Global Worker

Maya’s faith in Christ came about after a difficult journey. Her story of coming to saving faith is not smooth and linear but took time for the Holy Spirit to work in her heart. Through it all, M was there to help lead Maya through God’s truth and point her to Christ. How can you be such a friend to those around you in your own context?

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