Fadi Sharaiha serves with the MENA Leadership Center. This fall, their Emerging Leaders Program has made strong mentor-mentee pairings for Christians from the Middle East and North Africa seeking to grow.

“[A] mentor is someone who has been in the field for some time with a track record of spiritual maturity, achievement, and professional conduct,” Sharaiha said. 

One such match is for an Arabic-speaking church plant in Europe.

(Photo courtesy of MENA Leadership Center)

“They are trying to figure out what to do, what’s next for them, how to conduct the ministry in different levels,” Sharaiha said. “For them, we have someone who has been a pastor [and] who took care of pastors in Europe as well.”

Mentorship isn’t just for leaders. Jesus modeled personal discipleship in His earthly ministry, choosing twelve men and then three even more personally. That means investing spiritually in others is a call for every Christian, in big or small ways. 

“It’s an open invitation from God Himself to us as people of the Church to be more aligned with His purposes and to be more aligned with His heart,” said Sharaiha. 

Sharaiha invites you to dive into both giving and receiving mentorship as part of the Body of Christ! 

“How are you using your time, gifts, and the history, the experience that you have? Are you using it for the glory of God — through mentorship as an example?” Sharaiha said. “The reason I think that the Lord created the whole Church as one body is that we help each other. We are there for each other.”

Interested to take discipleship a step further? Reach out to the MENA Leadership Center if you might be able to offer mentorship to a leader in the Middle East and North Africa. Or consider partnering with this ministry financially to sponsor a life-giving mentorship already taking place.

Header photo courtesy of HIVAN ARVIZU @soyhivan/Unsplash.

“Lawrence had recently become a Christian, and was still hanging around some of his old friends,” says Kamstra. “One of his friends borrowed his house, and when Lawrence came home, he found his friend in the house with three other women engaged in some illegal activities. And eventually the police came knocking on his door, and they accused Lawrence of also being engaged in that activity. And before you know it, Lawrence was sentenced to prison for a very long time.”

While in prison, Lawrence was introduced to Crossroads, an international ministry that connects prisoners with mentors in Christ-centered relationships so that lives, prisons, and churches are restored through the Gospel. Their program is utilized by ministry leaders in more than 20 countries around the world, providing leaders with resources, training, and support.

“He began going through all of our material, he began studying God’s word, and he found he grew in his faith,” says Kamstra. “I asked him, ‘Would your faith be where it is today if you hadn’t gone into prison?’ And he said, ‘No way.’”

Since then, Lawrence has received a presidential pardon.

“He is a barber in his own community. He has his own barber shop, and he gets to share the Gospel with everybody who sits in his barber chair right now.”

Unlikely friendships unfold when two people with completely different backgrounds exchange letters and study the Bible together. As they encourage each other, develop a friendship rooted in Christ, and apply Scripture to their lives, God begins to transform their hearts.

“I’ve been working at Crossroads Prison Ministries for about three years now, and Crossroads is probably one of the most impactful ministries that I’ve ever been involved in, ever,” says Kamstra, “and I’ve done a lot of International Ministries. But one of the great things about Crossroads is our ministry. Crossroads involves the local church. It involves mentors. It involves prisons that involve students.”

So how can we help Crossroads Prison Ministry?

“We have three things that we always tell people,” says Kamstra. “Please pray for our ministry. Pray for our students and pray for our mentors. The next thing is, you can become a mentor, whether you’re in in the United States or in another country. Go to CPministries.org. You can see a list of the countries that we’re already in. You can become a Crossroads mentor to somebody in prison. And finally, we could really use your financial support. That’s another way that you can contribute to our ministry, and that financial support helps us to expand and grow the ministry worldwide.”

Header image courtesy of Crossroads Prison Ministries.

Dr. Hormoz Shariat serves with Iran Alive Ministries and is himself an Iranian Muslim-turned-Christian.

“Just think of it. There is no church in Iran. No mature Christians — [or] very few mature Christians in Iran,” he says. “Pastors? None. So just think of Iran as a family full of children, spiritual children.

“They’re coming to Christ by thousands every month, but they’re children. They need parents, they need teaching, and they’re hungry. A healthy child is hungry.”

Discipleship is a key focus of Iran Alive Ministries. 

“[We] not only evangelize — which we see amazing results [from]. We just passed 105,000 registered salvations,” Dr Shariat says. “But we [also] try to teach them, connect them to the Word of God, help them to walk with God and obey God.” 

Iran Alive has 5,000 students registered in their online school. But the current team can only mentor a fraction of them!

“These are good problems to have. Many are coming to Christ,” Dr. Shariat says. “Evangelism is easy in Iran, but we need to work together to disciple that nation.” 

He points to a ticking time bomb. 

“I wish I could show you the curve of evangelism. We have been on satellite channels since 2001, after 9/11. We have kept the numbers, and when you see the curve, you see the exponential growth of number of salvations the last few years,” Dr. Shariat says.

“Urgency. That’s my point. Iran is open. But don’t think that’s going to last forever. The Iranian government may come down and things may change. [The] spiritual atmosphere of Iran could change within a few weeks or in a few months.”

Tehran, Iran (Representative stock photo courtesy of Zahra Amiri via Unsplash)

He reminds us of Jesus’s words in John 9:4,“We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.”

“I want to say it’s urgent that we join together to transform Iran, because Iran can be the first Islamic nation that turns to Christ — and I’m serious about it. It is possible if we work together.”

Find your place in the stories God is working out with Iran Alive Ministries.

Header photo of Sistani students in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Iran (Representative stock photo courtesy of Mohammad Moslehi via Unsplash).

“When you’re in the early years with young children as a stay-at-home mom, it can definitely be isolating [and] sometimes not as mentally stimulating as I was used to,” says Arijaan.

Arijaan’s own mother encouraged her to look into becoming a mentor with Crossroads Prison Ministries. It’s a unique ministry opportunity from home where Christian mentors correspond with Crossroads Bible study students in prison through writing letters.

“To take on a ministry that I could do from home and really see the impact and believe in it was so exciting for me!” she shares.

Arijaan Norwood and her family. (Photo courtesy of Arijaan Norwood with Crossroads Prison Ministries)

Now, as a Crossroads mentor, Arijaan not only engages with inmates through Bible study but also sees the spiritual impact on her own family.

Arijaan shares, “My kids see me working on the lesson or writing the letter [and] they’ll ask about what I’m doing. I love sharing with them about God’s heart for those who are in prison and the role that we can play. We pray for them together.

“Another positive impact I would say is on my marriage, kind of unexpectedly. But there are times where my mentee will write something that I’m not sure how to respond to. I’ll bring it up with my husband and we’ll talk it through, and it just brings about deeper conversation than just the day-to-day conversations.”

Through prison mentorship, Arijaan has found a tangible way to connect with the Great Commission and witness God’s movement — both in her life and in the lives of others.

She says, “It’s definitely worth it to invest into the lives of not just those that you see right in front of you, but to gain that eternal perspective as you’re reaching out to all sorts of people that God has a heart for.”

If you or someone you know may be interested in becoming a Bible study mentor with Crossroads, Arijaan encourages, “It’s definitely a step of faith, and it’s easy to think that you don’t have time. I will say that it does take discipline to set aside really just about an hour a week, so it’s not long. But it’s really mentally and spiritually engaging.”

Learn more about becoming a mentor with Crossroads!

Header stock photo courtesy of Sixteen Miles Out/Unsplash.

A3 (formerly Asian Access) develops Christian leaders by creating learning communities that encourage and build them up together.

Joe Handley with A3 shares about a recent trip to an undisclosed country in North Africa. “One of the leaders came up to us and said, ‘I have no mentors.’ They are a first-generation Christian that has been a pastor for at least a decade, and there’s no one speaking into their life.”

Discipleship is a common desire among leaders, and one which A3 seeks to meet.

Photo courtesy of A3.

“When we’re going into a new country, we start to [ask] ‘Who are those first-generation leaders? Who are the leaders of the day that are impacting the church in that region, and what is it they need?'” says Handley.

Oftentimes, the biggest need is for friends — or in other words, “Barnabas” and “Paul” relationships. 

“We try to cultivate an environment where they become Barnabases to each other. Peer to peer mentoring,” says Handley.

“The added dimension is the faculty we recruit. On the front end, they’re all outsiders. Over time, the local leaders become at least half the faculty. But when it starts, you have to rely on these outsiders who are those seasoned veteran leaders that have years of experience in disciple-making, in mentoring and equipping others.”

In A3 cohorts, participants can build peer-to-peer relationships and connect with faculty with years of disciple-making experience. As they are built up, they are then better able to strengthen the local church.

“You have these mentoring relationships that that [come out of training gatherings]. That really helps build the depth for a church in a region that is completely underground, restricted access, has no access to Paul-like figures in their lives,” says Handley. 

“Discipleship, at the end of the day, is ‘How do I become more like Christ?’ Mentoring is more than just the spiritual dynamics. It includes normal relational things — equipping you to deal with your marriage, or your kids or your church or your extended family. They’re different, but there’s a lot of synergy between the two.”

Find your place in this story. Pray for more mentors within A3, and for the growth of the Christian leaders receiving training in this ministry.

“As we continue to expand, we need more seasoned veteran leaders who are willing to give up some time and either travel to a country and spend a week investing in emerging younger leaders, or jump on a Zoom call or Skype call.”

Finally, consider investing with A3 in future generations of leaders around the world. Click here to read more about an exciting matching grant challenge. Gifts made by donors outside of the U.S. to A3’s matching grant campaign will be tripled.

Header image is a representative stock photo courtesy of Gabriel Almanzar via Pexels.

Takeshi Takazawa with A3 says, “They’re healthy, to a degree, but they know that they cannot continue the same way of doing business for the next 10 years. Then what do you do?

“They are stuck in having trouble developing the succession plan or finding the successors.”

This problem of succession affects Japanese churches as well. Takazawa says, “We have existing about 1000 Bible-believing churches in Japan, and they face exactly same thing in the business.”

A3 guides both businesses and churches through the transition of leadership and provides mentorship for the next generation of leaders.

“We help each congregation, each older pastor. We help through seminars, cohort, helping them to identify the vision and the mission that God has given to a particular congregation beyond the existing senior pastor,” Takazawa says.

Once a transition plan is decided, A3 continues to facilitate communication, offer resources, and invite the Holy Spirit into every step. They see times of transition as invitations for people to draw nearer to God and seek His help. This process requires prayer.

Takazawa says, “I encourage you to pray for Japan, the people in the churches, pastors, leaders, Christians, going through this major change. Intercede for us so that we would go deeper with God through this transition.”

If you are a business leader, consider partnering with A3 to encourage and mentor others in business around the world. Learn more here.

Header photo by Aditya Rao on Unsplash.

A worker in Beijing hangs her hands over the testing holes during a 1-minute break period between day-long consistent testing services.
(Photo, caption courtesy of Eric Lin/Unsplash)

China’s economy is widely expected to miss its official growth target this year, raising concern among investors and policymakers alike. Experts say China will not likely start the long journey out of zero-COVID until 2023.

Lockdowns hamper churches as well as businesses, but believers find peace amid uncertainty.

“We don’t know what the future holds. But we know Who holds the future, and that’s Christ,” China Partner’s Erik Burklin says.

The Lord continues to open doors of opportunity for China Partner. What began as a short-term solution to social isolation could now become a standard method of operation.

China Partner’s team mentors Chinese pastors and Christian leaders through long-term relationships. More about that here. Since 1991, China Partner has been invited to train leaders in seminaries, Bible schools, and local churches in 42 cities.

Now, China Partner uses Zoom training to disciple Chinese leaders instead of in-person seminars.

“When we started China Partner, it was not an online type of ministry. But technology is so easy these days; it is like a new normal,” Burklin says.

“Who [could predict] Zoom would become one of the major platforms God would use [for] ministry?”

Pray for wisdom and discernment as church leaders navigate the legal process for registration.

“They (the Chinese government) passed a new internet law March 1; this was a typical way for the government to control things,” Burklin says, adding that the process is similar to registering a physical church.

“You can register your website or your internet content with the Religious Affairs [department;] there’s an application process you must go through.”

Header image depicts a public sanitation worker during the recent lockdown in Shanghai. (Photo courtesy Xiangkun ZHU/Unsplash)

But Joe Handley of Asian Access says there’s a bright spot amidst the chaos.

Asian Access equips national church leaders to multiply churches and make disciples. “We had been planning for several years to do a digital media initiative to equip younger generations, as well as where the persecuted Church lies” in South Asia, Handley explains.

“It just so happened that the pandemic opened that door for us to invest heavily in digital technology.”

(Graphic courtesy of Asian Access)

Through a new digital approach, Asian Access is opening work in two new countries this summer. While he cannot name one country for security reasons, Handley says, “the leaders we’ve been talking to in Thailand for several years are very interested in this idea.”

COVID-19 can’t stop Gospel growth

Meetings began a few weeks ago in the closed nation. Typically, Asian Access begins its leadership development program in-person. “We meet on the ground face to face life on life; you’re growing together in community. But with digital technology advancing like it is, we’re able to create an online community, so to speak,” Handley says.

Through online video conferencing, Asian Access trainers met with a dozen national leaders for an orientation meeting and three days of “deep dive” discussions. Calling it a “soft launch,” Handley says his team plans to use this approach to navigate pandemic restrictions. “It’s about a one-year module until we can get in the country and be face to face with people,” he says.

Despite several connectivity and communication challenges, the program is off to a great start.

“The leaders were overjoyed. They just loved it; they were hungry for something like this, and the interaction was dynamic.”

It’s taken years of prayers and failed attempts to reach this point, Handley says. “[It] is a Muslim-dominant country where there’s a lot of persecution, and we have been challenged with trying to figure out how [to] serve the needs there,” he explains.

“We have been begged for many years by several leaders in the country to please come. And everything we’ve tried has [failed].”

Ministry leaders will use what they’ve learned so far to begin work in Thailand. “We’re in the process of selecting the 12 to 15 leaders that will be on [the orientation] call in two weeks. And then sometime in August, we’ll do the three-day opening week with them,” Handley says.

How to help

Use prompts listed alongside the article to guide your prayers. Become a financial partner here. “We have a matching grant of $200,000 to get this off the ground; I believe we’ve raised just over [half],” Handley says.

Pray for multiplied Gospel growth through this initiative.

“We change the few who change the many by investing in a few key leaders and going deep with them. They become catalysts for God’s Kingdom in their country.”

Although things changed in unexpected ways this year, praise God for giving leaders the creativity to adapt and overcome.

“We were hoping to be in 20 countries by the end of the year; we had big plans for the Olympic Games. Now with the pandemic, most of the countries we work in are either on some form of lockdown or at least shelter-in-place type orders, so that changed the landscape altogether,” Handley observes.

“Currently, we’re in 17 [countries]. It should be foreseeable that we can be easily in 20 by the end of the year, assuming we can continue in these online digital formats.”

Header image depicts video conferencing session organized by Asian Access and in-country leaders. (Photo courtesy of Asian Access)

“The only one who can help you is God,” she told him.

Richard didn’t think his mom’s God could help him, but he was at the end of his rope. He hadn’t prayed a day in his life. But that day, Richard got down on his knees and said: “God, if you are real, help me change. Help me get out of this.”

(Image courtesy of Crossroads Prison Ministries)

Thirty minutes later, the cops kicked down his door, put him in handcuffs and carted him off to jail. Calling his mom from jail, Richard asked her, “What kind of God do you serve? I am in jail. He didn’t save me.”

His mother replied that God was saving him – saving him from his own destructive behavior. It was a difficult message for Richard to hear, but he took it to heart.

Richard was sentenced to 11 years in prison and soon discovered that God could redeem his situation. He began studying the Bible and encountered the love of God through reading His Word.

Richard’s hunger for Scripture only grew after he signed up for Crossroads Prison Ministries’s mentorship program.

He began the program as a way of keeping his mind off his surroundings but as he began completing the studies and reading letters from his mentors, he noticed his mind and heart beginning to change.

Richard Sifuentes (Photo courtesy of Crossroads Prison Ministries)

“I started reading 20 to 30 chapters of the Bible a day, and it changed my life,” Richard said.

Toward the end of his prison sentence, disaster struck. Richard found out his wife passed away and he could not attend the funeral.

Ready to give up on life and on God, Richard threw his Bible in the trash can. But it wasn’t long before he rescued the Bible from the garbage. As much as Richard wanted to forget God and His Word, he couldn’t.

He then came across Jeremiah 20:9: “But if I say, ‘I will not mention his word or speak anymore in his name,’ his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.”

“I realized that God’s Word was a blazing fire in my heart that could not be put out,” Richard said.

Since then, Richard has been faithfully and passionately reading and preaching God’s Word. Now on the outside, he is an ordained evangelist and has his own prison ministry in Texas called Deep in the WORD Ministries.

(Image courtesy of Crossroads Prison Ministries)

Richard says the Crossroads program is a big reason why his life has turned around. “The lessons and letters meant the world to me,” he said. “I kept all my letters from my mentor. The way they would encourage me built me up.

“It changed my life. I was a gangster for all my life and then all sudden, God changed me from a gangster to a minister, he changed me from a mess into a message.”

To this day, Richard will go back and read the lessons and letters he received while he was in prison. He also has made it his mission to tell as many men in prison about Crossroads as possible. When he visits men in prison, he brings a pile of Crossroads enrollment forms to pass out.

“The reason I have a hunger to go back into prisons and minister is because I remember the ministers and Crossroads mentors who visited me,” he said. “I’m giving back what I received.”

You can reach men and women in prison with the life-transforming message of the Gospel. Find out more about becoming a Crossroads mentor here!

Header photo courtesy of Crossroads Prison Ministries.

Lisa Blystra, President and CEO of Crossroads, says Alpha focuses on more introductory faith questions for new believers in prison, while Crossroads specializes in biblical mentorship.

(Image courtesy of Crossroads Prison Ministries)

“When they finish the courses that Alpha has to offer, they will be invited to pursue further exploration of their faith through the long-term discipleship that Crossroads offers. And then Crossroads will likewise promote Alpha to our respective key audiences and stakeholders.”

Alpha for Prisons brings the Alpha course – a series of interactive sessions that explore the basics of Christianity – into more than 400 prisons, jails, halfway houses, and juvenile detention facilities in the US. The Alpha course will reach a total of 900 prisons in 50 countries around the world.

Crossroads Prison Ministries is currently touching over 37,000 men and women in prison across the globe with the Gospel message through its Bible-based mentorship program.

Both ministries also share a common passion for and commitment to engaging volunteers from churches to care for those in prison.

(Photo courtesy of Denis Oliveira via Unsplash)

“The Church has the answer to the problem of mass incarceration in America and beyond,” Blystra says. “When Christians faithfully share the Good News of Jesus’s unconditional love, mercy and grace to those who are so desperate for hope, lives are eternally transformed.

Please ask God to bless this new partnership between Crossroads and Alpha. Pray “that we would see an uprising of people in the Church…and an eagerness of more and more people really responding to the call to care for the prisoner.”

To learn more about how to get involved with prison ministry at Crossroads, click here!

Header photo courtesy of Jesse Gardner via Unsplash.