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ANY POSSIBLE WAY
Not everyone likes to read. Not everyone owns a Bible. Not everyone can even imagine that God has anything to say to them. But He has a lot on His heart, and He wants them to get the message. Some way. Any way.
This issue of CALLED features several seasoned MENA tentmakers and a tentmaker-just-won who have seen how God's Word has been powerful in crisis, in friends' lives, in prayer, and in the covers of a New Testament. God speaks any way He can be heard. He will make a difference, because He always accompanies His Word with Himself.
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MY VERY OWN INJIL
Louis
“I like you. You don’t just take care of Mamma. You take care of me as well!”
I didn’t think I was doing anything extraordinary for Nafisa, the young-adult daughter of Mamma Salma, the elderly lady in the hospital bed nearby. But I have learned that my patients’ families experience challenges when their loved one is very ill. So I had engaged Nafisa with small talk, encouraged her, and explained how to relate to her mother when she was frustrated. I had even suggested, “Why don’t you talk to God about how you feel? He can hear you!” And I had given her a hug.
But as I was leaving the room I felt impressed to ask if she’d ever heard of the Injil. Her response caught me by surprise. “Yes, but this is so strange you should ask me.” READ MORE
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LIGHT IN A DARK PLACE
His Word, My Witness
 You may pray for the day you can hand a gift-wrapped Bible to your nonChristian friend because you want to bring them in direct contact with a personal, loving God. But God's Word, carried in your thoughts and conversations, can still be a shaft of light that brings hope and courage to them even before they are privileged to hold a Bible.
“His Word, My Witness” is a series of to various themes familiar to our nonChristian friends, and shows how the conversational use of Scripture sensitively introduces biblical concepts that can bring encouragement as well as a sensitive revelation of new truth. A recent addition to the series, Obedience from the Heart, introduces scriptural passages that express loving obedience to a personal God that contrasts with the behavioral submission that an unapproachable, impersonal being requires.
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CARRIED BY HIS SPIRIT
God's Word is 
His voice speaking
just as surely
as if we could hear it
with our ears.
adapted from My Life Today, page 283
And my conversation,
carrying His thoughts
without text and reference,
can share His Word
just as surely as if He is
speaking to those around me
Himself.
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THE LION IS TAMED
Christina
God's Word weaves itself all the way through Christina's testimony, serving as landmarks in her taming experience.
I arrived here in the Middle East 13 years ago hoping to find rest from the struggles of a painful marriage and the weight of responsibilities too large for me to handle. But I was emotionally and physically broken. Living and working in a different culture only added to my burdens. Homesickness nearly crushed me.
I distinctly remember one of the doctors at our hospital greeting me on my first day, “Welcome to the jungle.” In those first few weeks, I learned what he meant. I was working with beasts—lions, tigers, leopards, snakes. I was living in a fearful world of roaring colleagues, corrupt co-workers, stalking businessmen, unfaithful friends. Inspite of the misery, I kept telling myself, “No regret, no surrender.” At first I cried; then I became one of them. READ MORE
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ALL I COULD SAY
Jacquie
I work at a company hospital in a closed MENA country. I first came here 20 years ago and worked for seven years. There was no problem in the country. It was strong; there was peace and order. I finished my tenure and returned home.
However, in 2012 one of the large city hospitals called and asked if I would like to work for them. They arranged my visa and I returned. This time the country was depressed. The city was like a ghost town. The palace was totally destroyed. There were broken cars and broken buildings everywhere. The place was a rubble. The country tried to rebuild. But we experienced war instead.
I was working away from the city when the revolution took place. We didn't usually experience fighting around us. But that night five years ago the bullets came anyway. I was on duty in the intensive care unit. Everyone was frightened. All I could do was begin repeating Psalm 46. I knew that Christians in my host country who publicly express their faith risk imprisonment and persecution. But I repeated the first verse over and over in front of anyone who would hear--
"God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear..." Psalm 46:1
I know the people around me were wondering at what I was saying, but I felt safe; the power of God's Word was with us. I knew I wasn't just repeating empty words. I sensed His protection over all of us.
Praise God we were not hurt. I am here to testify to the strength of His promises. I claimed them openly, and He answered.
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STILL IN HIS CARE
Mindi
In the latest addition to the Arise and Shine video series, Mindi shares how their faith has been strengthened as she and Phil have transitioned from MENA Total Employment tentmakers to workplace opportunities as tentmakers in North America. Even as they watch God working in their lives now, they continue to see MENA tentmaking in their future.
Her three-minute testimony is available through the MENA Total Employment website, www.temena,net, and reminds us that even when we don't understand His leading, we can trust Him to place us where He can use us day in and day out.
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In every command and in every promise
of the word of God
is the power,
the very life of God,
by which the command may be fulfilled
and the promise realized.
He who by faith receives the word
is receiving the very life and character of God.
Christ's Object Lessons, page 38
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