Who will take the Gospel to Gaza the day after the war?
Despite all the talk about what the "day after" the war in Gaza should and will look like, All Israel News Editor-in-Chief Joel Rosenberg believes that politicians seem to have no compelling plans.
“I honestly don't have a plan to map out for you,” he said in the latest episode of his show, "The Rosenberg Report," which airs on TBN. “I’ve sat with Prime Minister Netanyahu. I've sat with Arab leaders. I'm not hearing anything yet that seems super compelling.”
But does the Church have a plan for Gaza?
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Rosenberg asked Evangelicals, “How does the world want us to care for more than 2 million suffering Palestinians and bring them hope? Who will take the Gospel of Jesus Christ to Gaza?”
Tom and JoAnn Doyle, the founders of Uncharted Ministries, have served the Church in the Arab Muslim world for more than 25 years. They not only deliver the message of the Gospel into the hearts of Muslims but also train, equip and disciple them throughout the Middle East.
They have both visited Palestinians in the Gaza Strip multiple times and keep in constant touch with prominent figures within the Christian community there.
The Doyles admit that they have a lot of spiritual hope for Muslim Palestinians, despite the war and maybe even because of it.
“Muslims are coming to faith in Christ,” Tom told Rosenberg during the interview. “People that have generations of generations of Muslims have said, ‘I'm fed up. I need something different.’ And they've turned to Jesus, and they have been transformed.”
“Not only that, Joel,” he continued, “They don't hate Israel anymore once they come to faith.”
Tom described a Gazan friend named Mahmoud, who used to be Muslim. When he came to faith in Christ, he said, "I want to be a full disciple."
Then Mahmoud read the Sermon on the Mount and began to struggle with the concept of "love your enemy." For him, the enemy was over the fence. It was Israel. It was the Jews. He hated them, but Jesus, He has to love them.
Mahmoud prayed and hoped for tolerance.
Then, gradually, God replaced the hate with love.
When Mahmoud heard the sound of rockets flying out of Gaza toward Israeli territory, he found himself praying for the Jewish people on the other side of the border.
“Hatred can be replaced with love. I don't think the U.N. can pull that off,” Tom joked. “Jesus can transform a heart.”
During the interview with Rosenberg, the Doyles shared more inspiring stories about ex-Muslims discovering their faith in Jesus Christ across the Middle East and influencing others around them.
Some of these stories also appear in their books, Women Who Risk: Secret Agents for Jesus in the Muslim World and Dreams and Visions: Is Jesus Awakening the Muslim World?
The couple also launched a video series called, "I Found the Truth," about former Muslims sharing their spiritual journey of how they came to faith in Christ.
“It started slow, maybe 4,000 people checking these videos. … And now it's almost 2 million a month,” Tom said. “Indonesia, Iraq, places all throughout the Middle East. People are watching these privately.”
Tom’s wife, JoAnn, had the opportunity to work with women in Gaza during her multiple visits to the region. She found that many of them had been living desperate lives — even before the war — and endured all sorts of abuse.
“If we can reach those Muslim women with the love of Jesus, they really are the spiritual influencers — the spiritual gatekeepers of their family,” she told Joel. “They can transform their whole family, starting with their children. Their husbands see the change in them. Often, they are drawn to that change and then they are often influenced for Jesus as well.”
JoAnn’s prayer for the "day after" in Gaza is that Christians would start reaching Gazan children with the love of Jesus. Nowadays, Palestinian children are being indoctrinated at home, in mosques, in the media and in schools. They are being taught to hate Jews and glorify martyrs, she said.
“We have a girl named Dina. … She's a preschool teacher in Gaza,” JoAnn told Rosenberg. “And she was teaching during Hamas training camps. She was supposed to teach those kids Jihad.”
One day, Dina who teaches elementary, preschool-age children, called Joann and Tom and said: “I want to teach them that Jesus is the Good Shepherd.”
When the Doyles told her that she would risk being killed by Hamas terrorists if she were discovered, Dina insisted: “I have already crossed that bridge and I am ready to lay down my life for Christ.”
“She sent us pictures,” JoAnn described. “These precious little children did what we do here, you know, a little piece of construction paper with the sheep, with cotton balls. She did that — and in Arabic. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. And you know, those kids soaked that up.”
“We're all drawn to love. God created us to love because He is love. So, if we can reach those children at a young age and retrain them, re-transform their minds. … That's the hope for the next generation.”
Originally published at All Israel News
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