“One man did a test with God. He was religious — not a Muslim, not a Christian, but [part of] a split-off group from Islam in Syria,” he says.

The man had heard about Jesus but didn’t believe. Then, members of the militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) came to the neighborhood, killing people.

The man and his family asked Jesus to save them. 

“He hasn’t even trusted Jesus at this point. He’s just saying, ‘Jesus, if you’re real, could you please do this? We will believe,'” says Doyle. 

“They walk out the door. They can see HTS. There’s killings in the street. They calmly have their things, [he] puts his wife and the kids [in], gets in the car, drives through some of the HTS. It was as if [HTS] never even saw them.”

Boy sitting in a broken car in Syria. (Photo courtesy of Ahmed akacha/Pexels)

The man made good on his promise to God. He believes in Christ and tells the story of how he and his family should be dead but were saved. 

“Is anything too hard for God?” Doyle asks. “Was that a challenge for God to make them invisible, or make HTS not see them, or whatever happened? That’s nothing for God.” 

Praise the Lord for how He is still moving in Syria. Then, please pray that more Syrians will be spared from death and know the hope of Christ.

“He’s still saving lives, one by one. Every soul matters,” Doyle says. “As believers, we can rejoice in that.”

Header image: Representative stock photo courtesy of Omar Ramadan via Unsplash.

Doyle’s friendship with Amir first began when Amir reached out to him online. 

“I started sharing the gospel with him, and gloriously over the internet, he came to faith in Christ. It was beautiful,” says Doyle. “And he was reading some of the books that I’ve been privileged to write, and asking questions, and grew up Muslim, but just so drawn to Jesus.”

While about to go on stage and preach at a Jewish Messianic church in Tel Aviv, Israel, Doyle received a text from Amir.

“He’s calling me from Iran,” says Doyle, “and I said, ‘Amir, I have to go up and preach right now. But would you like to say something to the people in Israel?’ I’m going up to a live microphone. ‘What do you think?’ I’m whispering it to him. He said, ‘I would love to.’ I went up and said to the congregation, ‘We don’t normally start this way, but I have on the phone Amir from Iran. He loves Jesus, and he has a message for you.’”

Amir proceeded to remind Doyle, and the congregation he was preaching to, of an important truth—that no matter where we’re from, all Christ followers are united as brothers and sisters in the family of God.

“He said, ‘Brothers and sisters, we want you to know the majority of Iranians don’t hate you. It’s exactly the opposite. We love you. And for me, as a believer in Jesus, I want you to know I’m praying for you. Please pray for us here. And one day we’re going to get together, Iranian believers in Jesus and Jewish believers in Jesus, and we’re going to worship together. Maybe it’ll be in Jerusalem, maybe it’ll be in Tehran together, but we look forward to that because we both love Jesus, and that’s what keeps us together.’” 

According to Doyle, “The people were stunned—and then, it just broke into this standing ovation. I mean, where are you going to hear that message?

“It just reinforces that’s the answer to all this,” continues Doyle. “Jesus has no boundaries. Jesus has no borders. Jesus’ family is of all nations. He’s the one that brings peace and reconciliation between people. War won’t do it. United Nations won’t do it. Government won’t. Only Jesus can.”

Header photo courtesy of Uncharted Ministries.

Also on Tuesday, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification system released an alert saying “the worst-case scenario of famine is playing out in the Gaza Strip.” You don’t have to look far to find photos and stories of the people living this reality.

Tom Doyle, president of Uncharted Ministries, talks with Christians on both sides of the war. Here are their perspectives.

“We hear of Israeli Defense soldiers praying for people in Gaza.‘We want to get rid of Hamas,’ they say, ‘not the innocent people,’” said Doyle. “That’s a story you wouldn’t see on the news, but it’s real.” 

Doyle said many areas of Gaza have plenty of food, but many others have no food getting to them. Uncharted works with the Baptist Church in Gaza, which is distributing aid. But even for those who are able to receive provisions, it’s not so simple.

(Photo courtesy of Uncharted Ministries)

“As one of the Muslim-background believers told us: ‘We have two enemies. The first is Hamas, and the second is everybody outside of our tent, because people are stealing our food,’” said Doyle. 

Palestinian believers have chosen a different goal: “Some of them had a chance to leave during this war, and they chose to stay to spread the gospel,” said Doyle. “Can you imagine having a family and choosing to stay when you have young kids in the midst of the war?”

Pray for the safety and well-being of the Palestinian people, especially the children, and for the believers in Gaza to endure the difficult circumstances. Pray for the spread of the Gospel in Gaza, and for the believers who have chosen to stay and minister to their fellow Palestinians.

“We’re praying for the believers there through all of this, that they survive,” says Doyle. “They’re caught in the middle of it.”

Header photo of Gaza Strip courtesy Jaber Jehad Badwan via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Uncharted Ministries’ Tom Doyle says, “There are three above-ground churches in Gaza. There’s a Catholic church, a Greek Orthodox church, and a Baptist church.”

Following the attack, Pope Leo called for “an immediate ceasefire.” In Qatar, truce talks between Israel and Hamas have stalled after two weeks, with each side blaming the other.

“They’re just not even close, really, on negotiations. A peace settlement has been offered many times to Hamas, and they’ve rejected it,” Doyle says.

“It’s a messy situation, but we pray there’s going to be a breakthrough and a settlement for peace sometime soon.”

Meanwhile, starvation is spreading in Gaza. The UN says one in three people goes hungry for days. Uncharted partners with the Baptist church in Gaza to distribute food and help people find shelter.

“There are Muslims who have become believers, and so they are the secret church,” Doyle says. “There are groups all over the Gaza Strip. We’re trying to help them as they’re going through difficult times living in tents.”

Pray for a breakthrough in the ceasefire negotiations.

“We’re just praying that God would intervene and there would be a peace treaty that would stick,” Doyle says. “We pray the hostages would be released, and the poor people in Gaza who have endured this for almost 700 days now, could have a better life.”

Learn more about Uncharted’s work in the Middle East here.

Header image depicts Gaza war damages circa 2023. (Wikimedia Commons)

A Muslim man once asked Tom Doyle with Uncharted Ministries this question. They were traveling together in Tehran years ago. The two men had just exchanged the facts that Doyle was a Christian and his guide was a Muslim. 

“I think all of the young people in Iran are going to convert to Christianity,” the man said.

“What? Why would you say that?” Doyle replied.

“Well, who would you want to follow? Jesus, who talks about love and joy and helping people and sacrificing ourselves for others? Who would you want to follow? Him? Or that guy?” 

They were near Palestine Square, and the man pointed up to a multi-story mural of Iran’s Ayatollah.

Today, Doyle says, “I hope [we] won’t just fall into group think: ‘Iran is this horrible enemy’…. Never before have they been more open to Jesus.” 

Nuclear tensions continue

For people in Iran today, life under their leaders continues on shaky footing. Iran is still at cross purposes with other powers that be. On Wednesday, the regime suspended cooperation with the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog. Surveillance cameras have already been removed from its nuclear facilities, the report says.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian (Photo courtesy of Khamenei.ir, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=150832367)

Iran also rejected a U.S. invitation to immediately resume diplomatic conversations about its nuclear program. It might be just a pause, though; Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi told CBS News through a translator, “The doors of diplomacy will never slam shut.” 

Whatever happens next in these conversations, the everyday people will pay the price. For many it will be through the struggle for daily existence; for others, through deep anxiety. Others will lose their lives. Some 935 people were killed in Iran during the 12-day Israel-Iran war, many of them civilians. 

Yes, leadership matters. You’ve probably heard that many Iranians want a change in their government. Doyle affirms that Christians in Iran are among them. 

“Obviously, they don’t want their country to go through destruction or loss of innocent lives at all, but this is something they have been praying for for decades, that this fanatical leadership would be removed,” he says. 

At the same time, Christians following God have different marching orders. “Our goal is for every human life to hear the gospel and to come into a saving relationship with Jesus,” says Doyle. 

Find your place in the story. If you’re a Christian, consider how good it is that God leads His people and the world perfectly. Please pray along with Uncharted Ministries that more Iranians find Christ, even in today’s chaos.  

Header photo: Tafresh, Markazi Province, Iran (Photo courtesy of Mostafa Meraji via Unsplash)

“You could never think, by watching the news there, that there could be any peace there or any humanity whatsoever — and [yet] there truly is,” says Doyle.

“As far as Jesus’ church reaching through the political, ethnic boundaries, all of that, so many things are happening that are good.”

Israeli believers on rescue missions

He says one Palestinian family with four kids is trying to escape an incredibly dangerous area in Gaza. 

“Israeli believers are trying to get them out and save their lives. It’s truly, truly amazing,” says Doyle.

(Photo courtesy of Uncharted Ministries)

“One Palestinian believer showed us a note that flew out of a helicopter saying, ‘Move from this area. IDF is going to be trying to find some Hamas terrorists.’ They say it’s snowing in Gaza, it’s snowing. It’s the notes coming [down].”

Messages of peace from Palestinians

Meanwhile, Palestinian believers are sending messages like these: “We don’t want war with Israel. We don’t have anything against them. Please get rid of Hamas. Please keep us safe, though.” 

This heart for peace has been there from the beginning. Back in October 2023, one Palestinian believer was forced by Hamas to watch the parade of hostages into Gaza. Doyle says he sent the message, “I’m crying here. This should not be happening to human beings, and I’m so sorry. Please tell the Israelis we’re sorry about this.”

“Even sending that message on his phone was so incredibly risky if he got caught,” Doyle says. “But that’s what happens. The gospel transcends all those barriers.”

Believers in Gaza share hope of Jesus

Other believers in Gaza from Muslim backgrounds are standing in faith, too.

Christians from Gaza circa 2021
(Wikimedia Commons)

When the Uncharted Ministries team asked them if they had been able to share Jesus amid this horrible war, they said, “With hundreds of people, hundreds.’”

“They’re just sitting, hoping to not get caught in the crossfire, and so they’re with other families,” Doyle says. “The question they’re asked is, ‘Why do you have so much peace? How can you smile in the midst of this?’ And they tell them, ‘It’s because of Jesus, how He changed our lives.’”

Let the peace of Christ rule

Because the gospel of Jesus overcomes all human barriers, please let Him rule your prayers about this war. Consider basing your prayers in Colossians 3:12-15 as a starting place.

“Pray for the Muslims that have become believers there (in Gaza) and meet together in small groups. They’re in incredible danger,” says Doyle. “Pray for the Israelis in the surrounding cities — in kibbutzim (small communities) — and [for] soldiers that are believers. They’re doing their best to keep people safe and help despite all the destruction.” 

Pray also for the remaining hostages and their families, and that peace will come to Gaza instead of Hamas terrorism and war.

Header photo: Israeli pastor and a Palestinian missionary praying over the Gaza Strip from Israel. They love each other as brothers in Christ and they love both people groups. (Photo, caption courtesy of Uncharted Ministries)

“In fact, our national leaders in Syria [with] Uncharted say that as you go to all the checkpoints, they’re not even hiding it anymore. Their headbands, everything just says the Islamic State on it,” says Doyle. 

These national believers tell Uncharted Ministries that leaders under President Ahmed al-Sharaa are openly threatening to wipe out Christians. Brutal targetings of Alawites, Druze and Christians have already begun.

Doyle points to the spiritual battle. “Last year, our team in Syria reported more people coming to faith in Christ than ever before,” he says. “So we know there are bigger issues than just a radical Muslim government taking over. The gospel’s on the line. Jesus is building His church in Syria in some of the most dangerous situations you can imagine.”

Two miraculous deliverances

Doyle says things are so desperate for Syrian Christians that their trust in God runs incredibly deep. “Every day they don’t know what they’re going to encounter, because HTS (Hayat Tahrir al-Sham) is just combing through these Alawite areas, these Christian areas,” he says.

“They are day-to-day telling us, ‘The prayers that are being sent up to the throne, God is using them to save us. We would surely be dead by now if there weren’t groups of people praying around the world.’”

Here are two stories of God answering these prayers.

During the sectarian violence that broke out in coastal Syria in early March, one Christian family could hear armed men coming door to door down their street. They were on their faces in their home, begging God for protection. 

“We don’t have to worry,” their young son suddenly said. When his parents asked him why, he replied, “Because Jesus loves us, and He’s strong enough to protect us.”

Attackers of Christians and Alawites, March 2025 (Photo courtesy of Uncharted Ministries)

Doyle says, “And do you know, they heard the footsteps coming to their house… and the footsteps kept going. They walked right by. It was almost as if the house was invisible. They didn’t come in, they didn’t do anything.” 

At another house, armed fighters discovered two Christian brothers and their families. The men dragged the brothers out into the street. Each was given a gun and commanded to shoot his brother. But neither would do it.

Their captors said they had three seconds to fire, or they would kill them themselves. 

Doyle says, “They can’t find it in themselves to shoot their brother. So they’re prepared to die, praying to Jesus, ‘Lord, into your hands I commit my spirit.’”

The captors counted to three, the brothers didn’t shoot, and then, “they get distracted by something that’s happened somewhere else in the city, and they take off, and the [brothers] are still there, they’re alive, and they came just seconds away from being murdered,” Doyle says. 

To this day, the men don’t know what distracted their would-be killers.

Find your place in the story

Please keep Syrian believers in your prayers daily. Uncharted Ministries’ partners are boldly delivering aid and relocation assistance for fellow Syrians. The work is incredibly dangerous.

Pray for the above-ground church in Syria. Pray for the secret home churches of people from all backgrounds.

Learn more about Uncharted Ministries and how you can partner with them here. 

Header photo of children in Idlib, Syria is a representative stock photo courtesy of Ahmed Akacha via Pexels.

As if to underscore this tension, reports have come that groups affiliated with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) have taken a few local matters into their own hands. Dozens of people were executed this weekend in the city of Homs, many of them former Assad officers. HTS fighters entered Homs on Sunday to regain control, and arrests were made of perpetrators. But things aren’t as simple as they sound. 

Tom Doyle with Uncharted Ministries helps us see the dynamics at play in Syria’s new reality. 

“It’s like the Gaza Strip. We think of Hamas, but there were several terrorist groups in Gaza. The same thing in Syria. There were several groups that opposed al-Assad but also were Sunni Muslims. They weren’t all together. They each had different goals,” he says, adding that Ahmed al-Sharaa (formerly known as Abu al-Jolani) is trying to bring these groups together.

Rebels unfurl Syrian revolution flag inside Hafez al-Assad mausoleum, December 2024. (Photo by getty images – telegram, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=156639771)

Doyle also highlights Syria’s 74% Sunni Muslim population, ruled for decades by Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite regime. “For [Sunnis] to not have control of the government for 50 years [under Assad], you can see that there’s a time of retribution that’s coming,” he says. 

Doyle believes once HTS consolidates its power, the world will start seeing more grave things happen in Syria, especially for Christian minorities. He says there’s an underground church full of people who used to follow other faiths but now are followers of Jesus.

“There is a strong group of believers in Syria that are truly heroes of our faith, that have stood up through this time [under Assad]. Many of them have been beaten. Many have gone to jail. They’re watched continually by the secret police. That won’t change with this new government coming in,” Doyle says. 

“So pray for the church there. Whether it be on the ground or underground, these are salt of the earth believers that are standing for Christ, and we need to stand with them during this really difficult time.”

Learn more about the work of Uncharted Ministries. 

Header image is a representative stock photo courtesy of Omar Ramadan via Unsplash.

If you were confused, you weren’t the only one. 

As the world watches to see if the ceasefire holds, Tom Doyle with Uncharted Ministries reflects on the ongoing 15-month war, saying, “We just need the Lord to intervene. People look at it from a lot of different angles. We love both. We love the Palestinians. We love the Israelis. They’re both suffering through this. It’s been horrible, but we want to see peace.” 

Unfortunately, the potential for future war between Israel and Hamas is far from over. Israeli security officials say 4,000 fighters have been recruited to Hamas since early December. That’s not always by choice, says Doyle.

(Photo courtesy of Uncharted Ministries)

“We know that happens in Gaza, that Hamas will force people, ‘If you don’t do this, will kill your family,’ and all of a sudden that young, 18-year-old is in Hamas, sadly.” 

Yet Doyle says the past 15 months have led many to turn to Christ from Islam.

“You can imagine how dangerous their life is now, not only with this war going on but also with if that’s made known that they follow Jesus now,” Doyle says. 

Pray more Palestinians and Israelis will find true peace with God and with each other. Also know that there’s still hope in Gaza among Palestinian. 

“They’re praying that the Lord intervenes, that it’s over soon. They want to rebuild their lives. That’s what they’re hoping for. They’re very resilient people,” Doyle says, though adding they’ve never been through something as horrific as this war.

“We’re praying that hostages are released, Hamas is defeated. I guarantee you that is one thing they would be cheering — if Hamas left Gaza, the Palestinians would be cheering and thanking God for that. They’ve suffered so much under them for so many years.”

Header photo of a child in Gaza from 2022 courtesy of Mohammed Ibrahim/Unsplash. 

Tom Doyle with Uncharted Ministries recently met with their Syria field leader. Militants are targeting Alawites, a divergent religion related to Islam that was upheld by the previous regime. 

“Of course, this is payback, because Bashar Assad was an Alawite, and now the ruling leaders are going after the Alawites,” Doyle explains. “Some of them (the Alawites) were terrorists, for sure, but then there’s just good Alawite people that are living in fear — [there is a] lot of death, lot of kidnappings, bodies along the road in Alawite areas that are just being left there.”

Doyle shares there have also been clear threats to Christians that “you are next.”

“There is a Christian group that was was doing something in Damascus, and they’re already being threatened that ‘This is a Muslim city, and there will be no more Christian activities here,’” Doyle says.

A minaret and a church steeple side-by-side in Syria. (Photo courtesy of Ali Wassouf/Unsplash)

“This is what’s happening just out in the open, but somehow it’s not being covered much. So we need to pray for the church in Syria.”

Despite the extreme daily pressures, a local believer sent Doyle’s team this message. 

“This friend of ours signs the letter, ‘Rest assured, my dear brother, we are all well through the Lord,’ even though there’s clamp downs on when they can go outside of their homes, they’re not getting paid, their government is not functioning well, and there’s open threats. Many of them know people that have been killed. But in the midst of it, the Body of Christ is shining.” 

As HTS consolidates power, remember and pray for the Church with your eyes open. 

“Pray for our Christian family in Syria, who’ve been through so much with the Assad leadership for over 50 years, and now we have this new leadership that is starting to show its true colors, [which is] going to be open hostility to Christians,” says Doyle. 

Learn more about Uncharted Ministries here.

Header image is a representative stock photo by Alexas_Fotos via Pixabay.