Palestine (MNN) — Only about 2% of Palestinians are Christian. These Palestinian believers are vastly outnumbered and persecuted among their Muslim neighbors, yet they also face marginalization outside their Palestinian community under occupation.
Despite these challenges, would you believe Palestine is a top missionary-sending country?
The Palestinian Church sends out roughly 3,400 missionaries per one million Christians.
Jack Sara, President of Bethlehem Bible College says, “One of the cool things about Palestinian Christians is they are very proud of their faith and they are willing to share it wherever they are. The situation with occupation and difficulty suffering certainly has made out of them a resilient people, particularly the Christians.”
(Photo courtesy of Brett Zeck/Unsplash)
This commitment to missions reveals the Gospel heart cultivated in the Palestinian Church, and serves as a challenge and encouragement to other believers.
“The global Church would do a good thing to provide a platform for Palestinian Christians to speak, to come and share experiences there [and] some of the lessons learned from living the Gospel in such hard circumstances,” says Sara.
These hard circumstances often qualify Palestinian missionaries to connect with people in other countries where life is difficult — and offer them the Living Hope of Jesus Christ.
Sara says, “We’re living in an atmosphere where you’re, in all circumstances, between a rock and a hard place. So you learn to grow your faith, you learn to depend on the Lord, [and] your faith grows as you get deeper in the Word of God.”
Do you know any Palestinian Christians, especially on the mission field? As the Lord brings the people of Palestine to your mind and heart, please take the time to join them in prayer.
Sara offers these requests: “Pray for the unity of the Palestinian Church. Pray that the Lord will transform more churches in places that are with no Church.
“Pray that really the Church would continue sending people outside…. Even when they are becoming immigrants sometimes, they are missionaries wherever they go. In every circumstance, [pray] that the Lord would keep us mission-minded first.”
Click here to learn more about Bethlehem Bible College.
Header photo courtesy of Bethlehem Bible College.
