It goes without saying that for most of us, it is nearly impossible to picture for ourselves what the conditions really are where many missionaries serve in today’s world. This is certainly the case with the House of Blessing missionaries. The circumstances vary from place to place across the Middle East, but there are some constants. Every day is filled […]
MIDEAST UPDATE 7/10/2018 “Continuing Sage in Daraa”
In our last update, I mentioned that a large number of the House of Blessing missionaries in Syria went into the Daraa area due to the unfolding human tragedy resulting from the Assad regime retaking control of the area from the rebel forces who have been entrenched there for several years. There are widespread reports of indiscriminate bombings with […]
MIDEAST UPDATE 7/3/2018
In today’s update I would like to reprint an older episode as I sometimes do so that we don’t forget the great things God has done in the past in response to the prayers of God’s people. This story involves a number of House of Blessing missionaries, one of them being a man named Omar. This Omar however is not […]
MIDEAST UPDATE 6/27/2018 “Staring Death in the Eye”
It has been nearly two weeks since the last Mideast Update was written. As we have seen over the many updates, the conditions on the ground change from one day to the next. Recently, along with the normal update information, I provided some of the details of the military siege on Eastern Ghouta and the catastrophic consequences for the […]
MIDEAST UPDATE 6/15/2018 Greater Love Has No Man
As I begin to write today’s update, I think back to House of Blessing missionaries I’ve written about so many times…people like Omar, Same, Mufiedah, Fatwa, Sarah, Fatima and so many others. Then, of course, there is Pastor R, leader and founder of H.O.B. A question that could be asked is: “What motivates a missionary to continue doing what they […]
MIDEAST UPDATE 6/5/2018
I spent some time thinking back over the scores of updates written in the past six years and wondered how often they may seem repetitive to readers. Over these past handful of years there have been stories telling of the Bibles provided and distributed, many accounts of the souls reached, stories describing some of the horrors witnessed and experienced by […]
MIDEAST UPDATE 5/21/2018
Almost 2,000 years ago, Jesus made this promise to the disciples: “…you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and […]
A DIVINE PRIVILEGE
Very few people who sing the old hymns written through the years know the life stories behind the words they are singing. Quite often, what made these hymns so powerful and moving, was the pain and suffering the composer had to go through. It is these bitter experiences that are often the source of the greatest inspiration. Although God is […]
MIDEAST UPDATE…The March of the Martyrs…5/7/2018
Throughout the centuries since Jesus commissioned the Church and empowered it on the Day of Pentecost in the first century, the fallen Lucifer has done everything possible to destroy it. Jesus warned that, just as He was hated, His true followers would be hated as well. The Apostle Paul described his own circumstances to the Corinthian Church with these words: […]
URGENT PRAYER NEED: House of Blessing
This is a very short request for prayer. The House of Blessing leadership and its missionaries have an urgent need for prayer. A number of HOB missionary leaders were caught in a surprise attack by a number of Muslim extremists who shot and killed 27 of them, including brothers Akram and Mustafa. An additional 15 were injured in the attack […]