Pastor Ignores Dangers to Share Love of Christ to Muslims in Rural Jordan, Discovers 'Huge Thirst' For Bibles
Although Jordan is a relatively moderate Islamic nation in the Middle East, sharing Christ's love to its predominantly Muslim population still carries huge risks.
For one thing, conversion to Christianity is still officially illegal. Muslim families and clans in Jordan's tribal society are also known to act violently when one of their members turns to Christ, according to Open Doors USA.
These dangers notwithstanding, one young local evangelical pastor is pursuing his mission to serve as witness of God's love in the hinterlands of Jordan where people hardly know about Jesus.
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Pastor Rashad started his mission 10 years ago when God responded to his request. He asked God at that time, "Lord, I have a heart for Muslims. Please bring them to me."
God answered him two days later when a Muslim who was starting to follow Christ asked Rashad to come with him to pray for his Muslim friend.
Rashad then started a new ministry when he heard the voice of God asking him not to wait for Muslims to come to him but for him to be the one to meet and talk to the Muslim people in their homes.
Since then, Rashad has been traveling to remote areas in Jordan, sharing the love of Christ to everyone he meets.
Christians live mostly in the Jordanian capital Amman or the Jordan Valley and comprise just 6 percent of the country's population, according to the Jordanian embassy in Washington D.C. Open Doors USA says there 169,000 Christians in Jordan, which has a total population of 7,877,000.
The majority of Jordanians are Muslim, about 92 percent of whom are Sunni Muslim, and just 1 percent Shia or Sufi.
Rashad said his fellow Jordanians in the villages he visited were amazed to hear an Arabic-speaking man talking about Jesus. The children thought he was American or English.
In his visits, Rashad found out that there is a "huge thirst" for Bibles in the villages where Jordanians are now worshipping Christ—often in secret. Despite the dangers, these secret Christians attend house church meetings Rashad organizes for them.
"Yes, there is danger. But we believe in asking God for protection, not in trying to stay safe," Rashad said.
Despite the efforts of Rashad and other Jordanian evangelists, the number of Christians in the country continues to decline, according to Open Doors USA.
The Christian persecution monitor said Jordan remains on its latest World Watch list of the top 50 Christian-persecuting countries. Jordan ranks number 27 in the list, with the level of Christian persecution rated as "very high."
