Praying for the Church in the Middle East

For the past many years, the world has watched war and conflict engulf the Middle East. More recently, the Hamas attacks and consequential destruction of Gaza have been a constant headline. As these conflicts continue to spread and affect surrounding regions, we are reminded of the world’s brokenness. It is easy to forget the gravity of war and death when we are not the people who cannot escape it. In an attempt to bring our minds to our brothers and sisters overseas, I spoke with Charlie Costa, a leader of an international ministry organization (Baptist Missionary Association of America Global), serving refugees and local families in the Middle East. 

As a Christian institution, it seems important that we honor our call to pray for one another faithfully. But, it is hard to pray for people you do not know, or for needs you do not understand . Hopefully some of these reflections from my conversation with Charlie Costa will help us reflect on how we can be praying for the Church in the midst of war. 

“I’m based in Lebanon but my ministry is all over the Middle East…we focus on church planting…in the years I’ve been there we’ve planted 36 churches and in the process of planting nine more,” Costa said. It was really encouraging to us both to reflect on how the Lord has sustained his church in Lebanon and across the Middle East, even during this untable conflict. “War is bad. I don’t think two people can disagree about that…We realize that though war is bad, war is an opportunity also for us in the ministry,” Costa said. “As soon as the fighting got bad in Lebanon and people started leaving their homes and their villages, we immediately shifted into relief mode. When you shift into relief mode you start filling up boxes with food stuff and you start visiting refugee centers…we start doing things that help the refugees but also express the love of Christ, and obviously we share the gospel with them. There are things we do that we’re very stubborn about, for example, assistance and relief are not tied in any way; we do not tie them or connect them to whether the individual will sit and heat the gospel or not. We help them regardless of how they react or respond,” Costa, in order to clarify the real mission of BMA, which is serving vulnerable men and women, said. 

I then asked how we can be praying for his ministry. “Let me sum it up for you in three words. I call them the three P’s of prayer. Number one, we want people to pray for perseverance. It is very hard to work under such circumstances…we’re tempted a lot of times to give up; we’re tempted to evacuate because of the danger; we’re tempted just to stay home and try to be safe. But what we need is perseverance, the constant desire that makes us go on despite all the challenges and dangers,” Costa, said. “Number two is protection…We believe that the angel of the Lord encompasses his children to protect them and to offer them encouragement when they are ready to give up,” Costa said. “The third P is provision. To work in these circumstances, funds are needed and some people will ask for funds- we do. We also want people to pray that God is his mercy, provision, and in his mercy, would provide for these needs,” Costa said. 

If you are interested in giving to Charlie Costa’s ministry you can go to BMAglobal.com and follow links to ‘give’. Under this section there is a dropbox where you can give personally by putting in the name Charlie Costa, and including Middle East Relief in the notes. But, more than any material gift, Costa asks for prayers as his team works hard to meet the needs of displaced people across the Middle East. 

Even as men, women and children of Gaza and Lebanon are displaced and engulfed in loss, Costa offers some profound reflections on God’s work in the midst of tragedy. “I always tell people look at the text of Acts chapter 8, I think it’s verse one where he tells about how those people because of persecution, and in our case because of war, have been dispsered. And those who have been dispersed went about preaching the gospel. Ever since the book of Acts that has been a reality and it gets repeated again and again. Nothing is lost in God’s providence, even when it looks bad for us because we get dispersed. God has a plan even for that, to use that for his glory,” Costa said. 

As we enter the holiday season we are reminded of Christ’s love for us in sending his only son for our redemption. At the same time, we must faithfully remember the gravity of our call to love one another as we have been loved. We may not be able to fully alleviate the suffering of a broken world, but we know and believe that our God hears our prayers, and so we faithfully lift them up on behalf of the suffering church.