As indigenous practitioners committed to promoting the emergence and multiplication of healthy, Christ-centered faith communities across the Arabian Peninsula (AP), we recognize the importance of having networks and structures in place to support believers facing situations of persecution.
While we hope that Christ-centered faith communities and individual believers will one day be able to practice their faith freely throughout the region, we also believe that persecution is a normal part of the life of faith for believers in the AP today. We believe that healthy faith communities emerge when believers are encouraged to stay within their natural social networks whenever possible. Additionally, experience has taught us that quickly connecting new believers to an indigenous faith community is a key factor in preventing premature persecution.
As a faith community, we encourage the following trust guidelines:
Believers will be encouraged to consider persecution as normal (Matt. 10:16-22; II Tim. 3:12) and encouraged to face it with the support of the indigenous faith community. This may include helping believers under pressure to find refuge within another indigenous faith community in their country (Matt 10:23).
In light of our trust guidelines, we recommend the following healthy practice:
When assessing any given case of persecution occurring within the Arabian Peninsula (AP), individuals and organizations outside the AP are encouraged to contact the Community of the Arabian Peninsula (CAP) or similar indigenous faith community to gain the perspective of mature indigenous believers on the ground before taking action on any specific case of persecution.
When cases of persecution are identified, the CAP can partner with international advocacy organizations to provide the following services to believers within the AP:
- Encouragement, advice, and mentoring from indigenous believers living within the society.
- Local legal representation.
- Assistance in relocating from one village or city to another within their country.
- Assistance in finding employment in a new location within their country.
- Opportunity to integrate into an indigenous faith community.
- Counseling and pastoral care.
In the rare event that a believer needs to leave the AP as a result of persecution, we feel strongly that it should be done in counsel with an indigenous faith community within the AP, such as the CAP, in the interest of promoting unity, trust, and the emergence of healthy faith communities across the AP.
The CAP can be reached at: [email protected]
Pray that we, the persecuted church, will maintain a Christ-like attitude towards the hostile society around us.
إذا كان لديكم مشاركة (شعرية، أدبية، تشجيعية، صلاة، الخ) وتودون مشاركتها معنا فبإمكانكم ارسالها إلى البريد التالي