North Africa had a strong Christian influence in the first several centuries AD. Now for centuries it has not only been mainly non-Christian, but extremely resistant to the gospel.
Normally, missionaries can’t just go to North Africa and start evangelizing. It’s illegal to distribute Christian literature. Sharing the Gospel is a criminal offense. It’s not illegal to own a Bible in North Africa; but it’s illegal to give one to someone else.
Southern Baptists, however, have found a way to fill North Africa with Christian literature and the redeeming love of Jesus. The literature is not distributed in North Africa; it’s distributed in Southern Europe.
Each year hundreds of thousands of North African immigrants to Europe board ferries in Southern Europe to return to North Africa to visit family. In these ports, International Mission Board (IMB) missionaries give Gospel packets to those boarding the ferries. Each packet includes a green, pocket-sized, French-Arabic New Testament, a JESUS film DVD, and other evangelical literature. The ferries then carry the travelers, cars, and the Gospel across the Mediterranean Sea. This is the single largest source of Bibles in North Africa!
This project has drawn the attention of North African countries and made the front page in several of their newspapers. The articles have instructed the people not to accept the packets. An IMB missionary adds with a grin, “That usually makes them want it all the more.” More than 20,000 Gospel packets are given away at the Southern European ports every summer. Hundreds have made a decision for Jesus Christ as a result of this IMB project.
Have you ever given to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for the International Mission Board? Does your church give through the Southern Baptist Cooperative Program? Ever keep up with, and pray for missions, through Baptist Press or your state Baptist paper? Then you have had a part in sowing the Gospel in the closed countries of North Africa.
Read more about it:
See the stories in Baptist Press at bpnews.net (two stories, NORTHERN LIGHTS; Imam at Sahara’s Edge; 11-4-2008), or in your state Baptist newspaper.David R. Brumbelow
March 23, 2009David is a pastor and author of The Wit and Wisdom of Pastor Joe Brumbelow, hannibalbooks.com.
David, this is very exciting to me that the Lord would give us a way to reach where doors are closed. We must all pray for those seeds to be watered and grow and multiply. Praise the Lord that God is moving through our efforts in spite of the obstacles. I have relatives in North Africa. That's where my mother was born. I never knew them. But I've often thought of them through the years. I will pray for them all the more now. selahV
Posted by: selahV | March 23, 2009 at 08:07 PM
Wow now ain't that just a peachy idea. That is what always amazes me. We think we are out of ways to reach others and then a post like this comes along. May God grant more Bibles to be sent to that area so that the travelers can bring them home with them. Thanks for the inspiring word.
Luke
Posted by: Luke | March 24, 2009 at 08:35 AM
SelahV,
Wouldn’t it be something if our giving to missions here in Texas, Oklahoma, and throughout the USA ended up bringing the Gospel to some of your Algerian family members you’ve never met?
David R. Brumbelow
Posted by: David R. Brumbelow | March 24, 2009 at 08:36 AM
Luke, that is what I thought when David sent me this post. I pray I find out more stuff like this as SBC ENCOUNTERS forges on to find a place in the SBC blogosphere of blogs. I love to know these things. selahV
Posted by: selahV | March 24, 2009 at 08:48 AM
David, yes. that does excite me. I may never know them this side of heaven, but God can make a way for me to know them in eternity. selahV
Posted by: selahV | March 24, 2009 at 08:50 AM