The cause of climate change is controversial, but its impact means even the Middle East and North Africa are getting hotter. Fadi Sharaiha of MENA Leadership Center says that as temperatures rise and weather patterns change, ecosystems and cultures suffer.

Sharaiha says there are four different categories of culture affecting climate change in the Middle East and North Africa.

1. Water scarcity: “The Middle East is known as the most water-stressed region in the whole world,” Sharaiha says. Rising temperatures cause higher evaporation rates, making water sources more scarce. Communities that rely on those water sources could face conflict or economic problems.
2. Extreme heat waves: In the summer, temperatures can jump above 122 degrees Fahrenheit. These heat waves can cause heat-related illness and death rates to rise as well.
3. Desertification: Best described as extreme drought, desertification can change the land that was once used as farmland into barren, cracked deserts. This means economies that rely on agriculture face collapse, and food shortages threaten to follow in the wake of these droughts.
4. Sea level rise: Some communities thrive off of the sea. However, bodies of water such as the Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea, Arab Gulf, and Persian Gulf are rising. This throws off ecosystems reliant on these seas and endangers communities built on their shores.

“Regardless of whether this is a natural cycle or this is a man-made one, this is what is happening,” Sharaiha says. “This is what we are facing right now.”

So what should the Church’s response be? Sharaiha says the Church needs to watch crises like these and be proactive in responding to them. “If we have cities disappearing, then people are going to go somewhere else,” Sharaiha says. “We need to have the churches being prepared [on] how to handle refugees, food security issues, [and] wars.”

MENA Leadership Center helps communities prepare to meet some of these concerns. They have courses on working with refugees, strategic problem-solving, and Gospel-focused innovation.

“We are training leaders on how to use the digital church and how to do discipleship programs for that,” Sharaiha says. “There are opportunities for the Church to shine and to serve the community and thus bring more people to the kingdom of God.”

Learn more about the MENA Leadership Center here. And pray. “Pray for the Middle East. Pray for the Church to be ready to take its own position and role in terms of being light and salt to the world.”

Header photo courtesy of Unsplash.

It’s all part of a dryer trend in the region over the past 30 years. Eric Mock of the Slavic Gospel Association says, “The same dry trend that we’ve seen in the US is the same dry trend that they’re seeing in Far East Russia and through Central Asia. And Central Asia was already a very arid climate. It’s the land of camels and difficult to farm. In the middle of this drought, we’ve seen photographs of water wells that are just completely dry with just an old bucket. And people don’t know where they’re even going to get a bucket of water.”

You can help

SGA has responded by equipping local churches to help their neighbors in need. You can get involved with this work here.

Mock says, “With only $10, you can send a bag of food and a few bottles of water to a family. That’s literally the cost of a pizza for us. It could mean food and water for someone for seven to eight days. Pray for the people there and then get behind providing the aid.”

As the churches carry out this work, pray the hope of Jesus would enter what looks like a hopeless situation.

The header photo shows a Bactrian camel, native to Central Asia. (Photo courtesy of Edmart80, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Volunteers with shovels have been trying to contain the blazes. But the real problem for people living in these regions is the effect on air quality. Authorities in Yakutsk even warned locals to stay indoors as air particles reached 40 times the recommended level. Officials label this extreme situation an “airpocalypse.”

Eric Mock of the Slavic Gospel Association says, “The air circulation through there has always been very difficult. In the middle of the heat, it is quite stagnant. During fires, the smoke will generally not dissipate. This is really surprising in those regions that see just incredible temperatures plunging to 60 and 70 below zero in the winter. They have just horrendous cold in the winter but also very miserable, hot summers.”

Sending help

SGA has been sending help into the situation by equipping local churches to reach out into their communities and help those in need. You can get involved by visiting SGA’s website.

Mock says, “We’re helping with food, water, and items like that, all delivered through the local church. In disasters like this, people look for answers. And even difficult times can be life-changing times for the sake of the Gospel.”

The header photo shows wildfires in the region in 2019. (Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2019, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo/deed.en>, via Wikimedia Commons)