I received a call from Syria once again this last Friday. Along with the good reports of the work being done by the volunteer missionaries and how effective the simple message of God’s love has been, I was once again stunned at the incredible danger in just being there, much less trying to share the Messiah Jesus with people!
Looking first on the positive side, the Lord is pulling people right out of the flames of hell–quite often just before people die. Over the months, HOB missionaries have had the opportunity to pray with countless victims of the civil war in Syria. These are people who were mortally wounded and dying. In the last fleeting moments of life, many of these people prayed the simple sinner’s prayer and went into eternity forgiven and part of the family of God. What a miracle we will witness soon when we all stand before Jesus and are introduced to these people.
These miraculous transformations are continuing to this day but not without great cost. For those of you that have read these updates, you have already read of many accounts of the tragic deaths of so many of these volunteer missionaries. These missionaries are trained on site. They are all right in the middle of hundreds of thousands of refugees, and receive hours upon hours of intense training in God’s Word every day and learn how to share it with others around them, mostly all Muslims. These folks, hardly believers very long themselves, are then so often killed in a short time. There is a continual stream of these courageous people slipping into eternity. This last week’s losses were another installment of the many Christian martyr’s that were part of the prophetic dream shared in last week’s update. If you haven’t read it yet, I would urge you to read it.
This time, the cost in lives was 25. It is hard to even grasp the enormity of such a loss all at once. These folks had been traveling, more or less together, as they shared with people. They were not far from Damascus when they were caught between a group of Hezbollah soldiers and a band of Al Qaeda terrorists. Not all of the details have come in yet, but it appears that all 25 of them were shot and killed. Once again, Pastor R**** found himself grieving over more Christian martyrs. This was a large loss. The evil one is furious at what is happening , and he is desperate to stop it. He can’t stop it! There is such a flood of people coming to Christ now that one cannot even get an accurate count. Everyone of them experiences God’s love in such a way that they want nothing more than to become a tool to reach many, many others like themselves.
R**** described these people as having the hearts of lions. They had no fear and were more than willing to give their lives for their Master. They are now in the Presence of their King!…as we also will be soon. I could not help but think of Romans 7:18-27:
“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
“We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is not hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself interceded for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.”
Thank you all for your prayers and support for HOB. They are doing a miraculous work, but their lives are on the line every single hour. Every one of them get up in the morning with one thing on their mind, and that is to share Jesus with one more, and then one more, until the day is over. Every one of them also know that they may not make it back home when they leave. What if it were that way for each of us??
God Bless, and Keep Looking Up! The KING is coming,
Jake Geier