“I come from a Muslim family, my parents and four girls. We were very committed to the rituals and religious life,” Arfaoui says, speaking through an interpreter to The Voice of the Martyrs Canada.

Listen to the full conversation here.

Arfaoui’s journey to Jesus began with a dream. “I was in a pit. He came, gave me His hand, and took me from that hole,” she recalls.

“He told me, ‘I am Jesus, and you are free. If you want to, follow Me. If you don’t want to follow Me, you can stay here.’ Those words in my heart transformed my life completely.”

She woke up a changed person, but those changes only brought challenges from her loved ones.

“I had some difficulties in the beginning with some family members, especially my oldest sister. She used to hide my Bible, but I trusted God because these difficulties are part of our faith,” Arfaoui says.

“It’s not easy to share your faith and tell people around you that you’re a Christian. You get rejected.”

However, not every family member resisted Arfaoui’s Gospel witness.

“I lived in one country, and my sister lives in another. God was working at the same time in my life and in her life, and we both came to Christ. I consider that a miracle,” Arfaoui says.

“I told her I had become a Christian; amazingly, she helped me find a church in Tunisia. I was discipled there and baptized. I also met my fiancé, and he became a believer, and we got married afterward. And now we have a beautiful son.”

Pray that Tunisia’s persecuted and isolated Christians will be vibrant witnesses, even to their persecutors.

“Remember that the Lord is faithful. He called us, and He is the one who protects us,” Arfaoui says.

Learn more about persecution in Tunisia.

Header image is a representative stock photo courtesy of Elena Mozhvilo/Unsplash.

We’re withholding names for security purposes, but one Tunisian believer says, “Talking about persecution is a very, very hard topic because the constitution provides freedom, but the society could be hostile against Christians.”

Watch the conversation between two Tunisian believers and VOM Canada’s Greg Musselman.

Tunisia was the birthplace of the Arab Spring in 2011, sparking a revolution that swept across the Middle East. Today, Tunisia is taking baby steps toward democracy, becoming the first country in North Africa to seek the protection of religious freedom.

(Photo courtesy of fancycrave1/Pixabay)

“Citizenship is not based on religion,” the Tunisian believer says. “Citizenship is about the dignity given to every citizen in a country, no matter which religion he belongs to.”

Media provides a critical avenue to discuss religious freedom and more. Speaking through an interpreter, another Muslim-background believer says, “Media is helping the church have a voice outside these walls and [be] exposed to society.”

The process hasn’t always been easy. When this believer started working in the media field several years ago, “Christians were scared or under the influence of others who told them not to work with us in the media. But I prayed, and I said to God, ‘If this is Your will, please help us.’”

Today, some believers will boldly discuss their faith on channels like SAT-7. Pray these testimonies introduce many people to the hope only Christ can offer.

Header image is a representative stock photo depicting the Algerian flag. Photo courtesy of Amine Ghrabi/Flickr/CC.

“We don’t know where things are going, and how things will be in future, especially in the social area,” said Dr. Moez Mediouni in a recent conversation with Voice of the Martyrs Canada on their podcast Closer to the Fire. Dr. Mediouni is a professor as well as TV producer and host in Tunisia.

“Lots of people are becoming poor[er] on a daily basis. Many are trying — especially youth — to leave schools and leave the country. Many are dying in the sea, trying to cross to Europe.”

Christians make up less than 1% of Tunisia’s more than 12 million people. The country is 99% Muslim. (Image is a representative stock photo courtesy of Herbert Bieser via Pixabay)

Christians make up less than 1% of the majority Muslim population. However, churches are not underground. Dr. Mediouni says many Muslim Tunisians know there are Christians in the country. Christians also have a presence on TV and society in general.

“The Constitution provides the freedom of belief, [but] maybe practicing faith is not fully guaranteed,” says Dr. Mediouni. 

“There are some Christians who even went to the Ministry of Religious Affairs asking for a public building. Normally the state should provide spaces for worship for Christians, but this topic is still not yet taken seriously. Many Christians are forced to use homes [or] house groups [to meet].” 

Intense government persecution may not be present today in Tunisia, but there is high social pressure for believers. They risk rejection and threats from their families by sharing Christ with them. 

“There are a lot of Tunisian Christians [who] can face their friends, they can talk to their friends, but the family is always the last part,” Dr. Mediouni says.  

“Our culture is based on the role of the family and the role of community. So it’s very hard always to be ready to pay that cost. That difficulty is almost faced by everyone who became Christian.”

Pray for courageous gospel witness for Tunisian believers. Pray also for fairness in the upcoming election. 

Click to learn more about Voice of the Martyrs Canada and hear the full episode from Closer to the Fire. 

Header image is a representative stock photo of Sfax, Tunisia courtesy of Taha Loukil via Unsplash.

“When I say ‘North Africa,’ I’m mostly referring to places like Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Tunisia,” says a PTEE leader we’ll call Daniel.

“In all of these countries, the majority is not Christianity. Some of these countries might have low thousands, some low hundreds of local believers in Christ.”

(Photo courtesy of PTEE)

In Morrocco, believers meet in secret because of the severe persecution. However, the Christian population is growing, and young local leaders are emerging in multiple cities.

Theological training takes a holistic approach in this country. “Christians from any background can set up businesses that help people. As part of one of these businesses, we can host PTEE classes,” Daniel says.

“The model would be that students are also trained in business and can go and set up their own business centers with accompanying PTEE classes.”

PTEE sought to begin work here several months ago when “somebody in Morocco invited [us] to come. He wants us to help him set up a study center there to train him and other believers who can then train others,” Daniel says.

“The needs there seem particularly pronounced; a lot of Christians are struggling.”

PTEE trains Christian leaders across the Arabic-speaking world. More about that here.

Ask the Lord to empower and encourage Christ-followers throughout North Africa. Pray that training from PTEE will help believers grow closer to Jesus.

“Believers in these regions have suffered so much and are still facing a lot of persecution,” Daniel says. “People are quite cautious and can be slow to trust one another, so please pray for healthy relationships between local believers within and across these countries.”

Header image is a representative stock photo courtesy of Michal/Pixabay.

“Jesus lived in Egypt. The Gospel writer, Mark, was from Libya,” MENA Leadership Center (MLC) President and CEO Jennifer Murff says.

“The apostles ministered in Lebanon. The Bible, as we know it today, was codified in Tunisia.”

MLC helps high-impact Christian leaders in the MENA region. More about that here.

MLC courses equip Christian ministry leaders in countries suffering from conflict, turmoil, and hostility to the Gospel. When leaders get the tools and training they need, the effects trickle down to improve whatever work God has called each believer to do.

“The training inspired me to new approaches to ministry… I began to implement the material, combining both my passion and skills for a more significant impact in God’s kingdom. Thank you for the abundant, precious resources you left in our hands.” – Key Ministry Leader from Jordan
(Photo, caption courtesy of MLC)

Christian leaders can do more for the Kingdom of God by working smarter, not harder. “We started the center four years ago, and we have had over 1,500 enrollments,” Murff says.

“We have trained 422 ministries in four languages and 36 nations.”

As more Muslims encounter Jesus, the demographics of Christian leadership change.

“We want to transform society, and that’s mostly by working with Muslim background believers. It is the fastest-growing segment of our work,” Murff says.

“We’re seeing so many people come to know the Lord and then step into leadership.”

You can help MLC through a special year-end giving challenge.

“We are looking to raise $75,000 [before December 31] to make sure that we give our participants what they need,” Murff says.

“We are expanding quite a bit, and we want to do production-quality, on-demand courses with live meetups.”

Header image courtesy of MENA Leadership Center.

Many host communities in the MENA view refugees as a “blight” or the scourge of broader society. In Lebanon, for example, the blame for government corruption and mismanagement often falls on Syrian refugees.

An emerging trend turns this concept on its head. Instead of being a societal detriment, many refugees want to give back.

“[It is] very interesting to see (Christian) leaders from Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Jordan, Syria, [and] Lebanon looking at volunteer management,” Fadi Sharaiha with MENA Leadership Center says.

“They’re [saying], ‘We have refugees who want to be volunteers. How can we do this (train them)?’”

Refugee volunteers seem like a simple solution to meet increasing demand. “Because of the economic crisis [in the MENA], Christian ministries want to do more,” Sharaiha says.

“Whether it’s a food bank or outreach, they want to do more. They want to help people in the streets.”

Distributing aid to refugees.
(Photo courtesy VOM USA)

There’s only one problem. “It’s very tricky [working] with refugees regarding volunteering. You need not to build [refugee] expectations [of paid employment] but also be realistic” about the needs of your organization, Sharaiha says.

Gospel workers turned to MENA Leadership Center for help. “The MENA Leadership Center is a one-stop shop for capacity-building, training, and coaching for Christian leaders in the Middle East and North Africa,” Sharaiha says.

Earlier this month, nearly 40 leaders representing 18 Christian ministries attended a refugee management course orchestrated by MLC. Pray the course will help believers organize and orchestrate refugee volunteer management programs throughout the MENA.

MLC needs help from believers like you to keep enrollment costs low for Christian leaders. More about that here.

Header image depicts a sticker on a street lamp in Sebnitz, Germany on March 22, 2022. (Wikimedia Commons)

On top of that, it can be difficult for the Church to grow. We spoke to a Tunisian Christian who lives outside the country. For safety reasons, we will call him Joe. He says, “Statistically, we have lots of people that have come to the faith and get baptized as disciples. And then we lose them. It’s a big number of people that we have lost. They came to get baptized, and we don’t see them afterward. One reason is fear.”

“Secondly, it’s the mentality. They don’t understand why they should belong to only one group.”

When the call to prayer goes out, as it does five times a day throughout Tunisia, Muslims go to any nearby mosque. They do not belong to one congregation. Joining a local Christian church is a hard transition.

Unity

Pray that God will bring an understanding of diversity to the Tunisian Christian community. Joe says, “We can be different. We worship in different ways. That problem of disunity, it exists with the missionaries themselves. It’s sad when you see mature believers coming to do mission work, but they want to do the mission work not only for Christ, but for their denomination.”

This leads to a lot of problems in ministry, Joe says. “The Baptists say, ‘Oh, I don’t like the Pentecostals,’ and vice versa.”

Ask God to bring unity and growth to the Church in Tunisia.

Learning curve

Christians coming from a Muslim background in Tunisia relearn a lot of what they know about the Bible and Jesus. It can be an identity crisis as people learn things as simple as the word “Hallelujah.” The discipleship takes time.

There are parts of the Christian life that Muslims in Tunisia will already be more familiar with. Joe says, “In Tunisia, we don’t have polygamy, for example.”

(Header photo courtesy of pmoulie from Pixabay)

Three men kidnapped Suleiman Bouhafs last year and brought him to Algeria, where he faces criminal charges for his faith. According to the US Commission for International Freedom (USCIRF), Bouhafs faces six charges, including “insulting the Prophet Muhammed.”

He was living in Tunisia under refugee protection from the United Nations after fleeing persecution in Algeria several years ago. MENA Leadership Center’s Fadi Sharaiha says Bouhafs’ case is a concerning departure from the norm in Tunisia.

“Tunisia is one of the most advanced countries in the Arab world. Whenever we talk about human rights and freedom of thought, Tunisia is an excellent country, in that sense,” Sharaiha explains.

More than a year after Bouhafs’ abduction, Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed says he’ll investigate following pressure from human rights watchdogs.

MLC connects leaders with legal help

Analysts describe closer political ties between Tunisia and Algeria, raising concern about Tunisia’s human rights and religious freedom. MLC courses provide essential help and resources for Christian leaders in both countries. Learn more here.

“One amazingly important course describes how to navigate [the legal system] in a country that is anti-Christian. [The course teaches leaders] how to navigate within the laws, the lobbying, advocacy; who to call whenever something bad happens,” Sharaiha says.

“We have amazing instructors who have been in this field for many years. Some of them are internationally recognized lawyers within the UN.”

Pray the Lord will do something miraculous to help Suleiman Bouhafs. Additionally, “please pray for Christians to be united in those countries (Algeria and Tunisia); pray for them to be rooted in Christ,” Sharaiha requests.

“Pray for boldness and courage [for] reaching out to other people as well. [In North Africa,] being a vocal Christian is more challenging.”

In the header image, Algerian Interior Minister Noureddine Bedoui and Tunisian Interior Minister Hichem Fourati, during the first joint meeting between Tunisia and Algeria on October 6, 2018. (Wikimedia Commons)

These nations also risk increased unrest as the food crisis mounts. The 11 countries named in the Allianz report are Algeria, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, and Turkey.

Climate change

Nick Archer with World Concern says climate change has impacted global food production as well. “There’s definitely evidence out there that things are changing. Even within the last couple of weeks, there’s been a huge heatwave that’s hit Europe. People have a lot of concern around that and why it’s happening.”

“Even here in where I live in Virginia, we’re seeing some stranger, more unusual weather patterns.”

East African drought and famine have gotten steadily worse for years. World Concern works in the region, providing nutritional supplements for children and those most vulnerable. Archer says, “Right now, we’re conducting these programs in South Sudan in Somalia. In fact, we had another shipment of this product called Nutributter that arrived in South Sudan just a couple of days ago.”

More than disaster relief, World concern helps communities build resilience to drought and famine. Archer says, “One of the terms we talk about now is ‘climate adaptation.’ How do we help communities adapt?”

One of World Concern’s methods is providing clean water. Archer says, “Rather than streams and wells drying up, we try to create greater sustainability that both helps people, but also help their animals. I think this is one thing that people don’t always understand, particularly about pastoral people, is that the animals are their livelihood.”

How to pray

How can Christians interact with such overwhelming need? It’s more than giving, Archer says. “Lean into the problem and say, ‘Lord, what do I need to learn from this? Is there a response you need from me?”

The header photo shows dead animals during an East African drought in 2011. (Photo courtesy of Oxfam East Africa, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

Tunisia’s people will vote “yes” or “no” to approve the draft on July 25, and elections will be held in December. MENA Leadership Center’s Fadi Shariha says it’s all part of the plan to change the status quo and remove corruption from Tunisia’s government.

“I think that [Saied] did a beautiful job of shutting down the Islamic fanatic movements in Tunisia; he stopped them and dealt with those fanatic Islamic parties in a good, wise way,” Shariha says.

Tunisia’s judges will suspend work in courts this week and hold a sit-in to protest Saied’s purge of their ranks. Last week, Tunisia’s President dismissed 57 judges on accusations of corruption and protecting terrorists, a move the United States criticized.

Equipping believers for Gospel work

Tunisia is one of only a few places in the Middle East/North Africa region where Christians find a small measure of safety. Even though Tunisia is a Muslim-majority country, “they use the civil law, which is amazing; they don’t go through Islamic or Sharia law,” Shariha says.

“This is a beautiful country for our brothers and sisters coming from a Muslim background. In terms of religious freedom, Tunisia is one of the best countries in North Africa.”

Tunisian Christians turn to MENA Leadership Center for training and a support network. More about MENA Leadership Center here.

“We see leaders coming from different generations, and we have succession planning for those leaders,” Shariha says.

“We just love having them on board; [Tunisian Christians] provide a great perspective to ministry and a good perspective on how to handle life.”

Header image is a representative stock photo courtesy of Karim Ben Van/Unsplash.