Maghreb" ("The West")

A Letter from the International Director I stood at the southern tip of Europe - Gibraltar - and studied the mass of North Africa's 2,800-foot Jebal Musa, lurking low on the horizon 15 miles away. I thought of the Moroccan tourist who had driven near this very spot a few months before on his way back to Morocco from vacation in Spain. He saw volunteers handing out Christian materials, and he spontaneously put both his hands out of the car as though asking for a bundle of packets. When asked what he wanted the man answered: "On the way into Spain I received a packet and talked at length with one of the volunteers. I have made a deci- sion to follow Christ. Not just me; my wife too has decided to follow Him with me." The Spanish pastor who was handing out the packets loaded the man's car with materials he could take back to his people in Morocco. For six years several agencies have been giving New Testaments, videos, audiocassettes and children's books to an estimated 800,000 visiting North Africans who pass through ten gateway ports in southern Europe. On some days as many as twenty percent of those who hear the message of Christ through personal conversa- tion, pray to become Christians. The organizers of the unique outreach met while I was in southern Spain to evaluate the program. They agreed that it had been the most responsive year that they had experienced. "It's not because of our ministry alone that this is happening," the project coordinator has said. "God is preparing hearts. There is such a hunger that people are responding with joy to the gospel." This imaginative evangelistic outreach is just one indication of an awesome movement of God among the people of North Africa. In a land many Christians have considered to be impenetrable, God is rapidly breaking down centuries-old emotional, religious and cultural bar- riers to the gospel. A mission statesman from the region, following a trip to a country in North Africa reported recently: "Although most of them are with very limited resources, I have seen the POWER of GOD working there as I have seen NOWHERE ELSE IN THE ARAB WORLD among people from non-Christian backgrounds." Yours for the Harvest Luis Bush International Director AD2000 & Beyond Movement 1 “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” — Tertullian Endless sand…sun…camels…caravans…nomads…ancient writers of all time – Tertullian, Cyprian and Augustine. Their trade routes crossing the emptiness…these are a few of the words rise up and speak to us today: mental pictures that flash across the mind-screen when most • Tertullian: the triumph of spiritual life in a sick society of us hear the words “North Africa”. • Cyprian: the challenge of church growth in hard times For others the images are more personal and fearful: gun- shots…tear gas…smoke…screams filling the streets from reli- • Augustine: the quest for faith in a stricken world gious, ethnic and political conflict both ancient and modern. In the fourth and fifth centuries, however, this spectacular The Arabic-speaking people who live to the east simply call Christian growth was followed by an equally remarkable col- it "The Maghreb" ("The West"). But to Christians everywhere lapse. The churches which were poised to take the gospel North Africa is known best as the "Land of the Vanished throughout Africa faltered, stum- Church." bled and soon disappeared without The church in North Africa was born on the very day the a trace. They failed completely to global church was born. From the lands we now know as Libya, capitalize on the freedom offered people (Acts: 2:10) first brought news of that remarkable them by the Edict of Milan in AD Pentecost. They were soon followed by others who had lin- 313. When Vandal and Arab invaders gered in Jerusalem to spend more time in the company of the arrived in the fifth and apostles and the other Christians there. "Every day they contin- seventh centuries, the ued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread churches were unable to in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts" offer any resistance or (Acts 2:46). even to survive the Sometime later, news reached the Libyan coast that Peter introduction of had visited a Roman centurion, and the Gentiles in his house new religious sys- had received the salvation of God and the gift of the Holy tems. Spirit just as the Jews had. The Gentiles of North Africa - Centuries have Romans and Berbers - heard with great interest how the apos- passed with little tles and elders in Jerusalem had welcomed men and women like visible Christian themselves into the church of Christ. presence. Today, Christianity is therefore a fundamental part of the rich however, there is a North African heritage. The way of Christ was known and loved fresh movement here long before it reached northern Europe and America. The of the Holy Spirit gospel that took root in North Africa in the first century was across North the vulnerable faith of a persecuted minority. For three hun- Africa. Christians dred years the Berbers heard and responded to the Word of around the world God not because of Roman power but despite it. Roman gover- are praying that nors and magistrates did their utmost to suppress the faith, the so-called destroy its leaders and force its followers back into the pagan "Vanished Church" temples. A relentless stream of stringent laws, enacted at the will become a visible and victorious highest levels by a succession of tyrannical emperors, was church in the near future. designed to wipe Christianity off the face of the globe. A mission leader who has minis- Yet the churches of North Africa flourished in those years tered in the Middle East for more than of persecution. (See the testimony of Perpetua on page 7) twenty years tells story after story of Tertullian, a leader of the 4th century church, wrote: "Despite God's working in recent times. He concludes that "The Spirit of the fiercest opposition, the terror of the greatest persecu- God is moving in currents across the Muslim world. We are living tions, Christians have held with unswerving faith to the belief in pregnant days." that Christ has risen, that all men will rise in the age to come Today there are an estimated 10,000 known Arab and and that the body will live forever." So firm was their faith, and Berber believers in North Africa. Certainly there are many more so effective their outreach, that by the third century most of secret believers. Intense pressure and outright persecution what is now Tunisia and much of Algeria had become Christian. have driven many to emigrate overseas. The early believers achieved these marvelous results In many ways simply preserving the existing church is a through personal witness - without radio, correspondence great victory. But could there be hope for more than mere courses, audio or videocassettes or printed literature. North preservation? Africa produced many celebrated martyrs and some of the Could this be the time for the rebirth of the vital church of greatest theologians, including three of the foremost Christian ancient North Africa? 2 The Call to North Africa Christians in the streets of North Africa are saying that 3. A call for partnership they have never seen such response to the gospel as now. Some time ago eight Muslims in a North African universi- Leaders of partnerships and ministries, and leading mission ty city decided to acknowledge their faith in Christ by taking researchers agree. "It's as though we are seeing a vision of baptism. Later they said: "We decided to follow Jesus partly one who calls, 'Come over to North Africa and help us!'” they because we saw that His followers knew each other, loved say. At this crucial hour North Africa is calling out to each other, and spoke well of each other." They had recog- Christians everywhere nized the importance of Christians joining in effective part- 1. A Call for Prayer nership to share the gospel with the people around them. "We have seen great gains in the last five years," say In 1986 North Africa's first annual regional partnership Christians throughout the Arab world. "More people are pray- meeting brought twelve people from eight agencies to talk ing for us than ever before in history! That gives us confi- and pray about ways they could work together to reach the dence, and a spiritual mandate to be fruitful in the land. With region. By 1998 the partnership had grown to 80 agencies this kind of heavenly prayer cover we know the Arabs about and churches. In the last five years alone the number of orga- whom we care so much will have a chance to hear." nizations partnering to reach North Africa has doubled. Certainly God has answered the prayers of intercessors 4. A call for media ministry to unleash His divine power. During the early 1980s a signifi- Christian radio and satellite television broadcasts have cant number of people throughout North Africa received sown much seed in North African hearts – and a harvest is special divine visitations within a relatively short period of now being reaped on the ground. In the past it was difficult time. Some 300 people were converted in a coastal city to determine just how effective these types of ministries region of Algeria. Dreams, angelic visitations and visions con- really were.

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