The following information comes directly from a front line worker in Saudi Arabia:
One of the most encouraging mission’s reports we, here at The Waiting World, have heard in a VERY long time, comes from a man who has worked in Saudi Arabia for over 20 years! This nation was once called “the most closed nation on earth” by mission agencies and workers. But ALL of that has changed over the past few years! It started with the new crown prince and is slowly moving in the “Jesus direction”!
This doesn’t mean you can go out and preach Jesus on any street corner, but workers there are saying that, “The great domino of the Muslim World has fallen!” As you can imagine, it started with the new crown prince advancing to power. Before that, the “religion police” would regularly visit the shopping malls, for example, and beat a woman who wore “too much make up” or men whose hair and beard were not cut properly. The opposite of that is that churches have been planted, and one church recently held an open air Christian wedding, complete with worship music and a Christ-centered message!
Please know that behind this movement there was a major cost: Saudi nationals who were brave enough to convert to Christianity endured (if they were lucky!) beatings, prisons, losing their livelihoods, and were ostracized by family and friends. Also involved were western workers who sought out jobs in Saudi Arabia, moved there with their families, and have been praying for years that the nation would open. And then, slowly, God opened the doors. With the rise of the new Crown Prince, the nation began offering visas to people from other nations…49 nations, in fact. While mostly western nations were invited, South Africa was just allowed in to this Muslim stronghold. Then a few mission teams finally believed this man’s message and began to come to see for themselves if the “gates” had really been blasted open. The first team was from another Arab nation. Today, this speaker reported, even Chinese mission teams have come! Of two cities that were considered totally off limits to Christians, Mecca and Medina, one (Medina) has now opened to westerners coming in for work.
But the sad truth is: they need many more mission teams and workers coming to Saudi Arabia! “Even though the Jericho walls have fallen, no one is rushing in!”, this man reported with a great deal of sadness.
His one prayer request was for more workers. More laborers need to come to the fields “white for harvest!” And so, this is what all of you prayer warriors need to do: PRAY FOR WORKERS TO RISE UP AND MEET THE CHALLENGE OF COMING TO SAUDI ARABIA! God has already opened the doors!