Free v.s Closed Countries
Generally you will find that there are a lot of people saying that they are willing to go into restricted countries. What are the advantages of being in a closed country v.s a free one?
In the Arab world there are really only two areas that have freedom of speech. That is not to say that persecution might arise from another avenue than from th
In the West bank, the government under Fatah you can generally move around and do evangelism openly. As I earlier mentioned that does not mean that you will not encounter problems just that the government in itself will not oppose you.
The other Arab government where you can freely do evangelism is in Lebanon. Lebanon has a 30% Catholic population and allows for absolute freedom in evangelism, they will even provide you with a missionary visa.
The rest of the Arab world is more difficult, where you can get deported or arrested for doing evangelism.
So what does evangelism look like in a closed country?
Well, I have been in quite a few of them and I would have to say that it is not one of my best areas. The idea is simply to go and make friends and then share Christ with them.
From my point of view however, it must look really weird for someone to come move into a place (in a closed country) live on a tourist visa, and not work. That must look real weird to the police and everyone wondering, “What is this guy doing here?”
Whenever I have been in a closed situation like that, I find myself trying to make chores just to keep active and hopefully meet people, but I found the majority of my time sitting and wondering what was acceptable and what wasn’t. Most of the time was just wasted.
Someone could live in Saudi and only be able to witness to a handful amount of people a year.
Open countries
Now, it is very difficult to do anything substantial in say, Morocco. However, one can (and people do) focus on ministry on Moroccans in Spain. Muslims are immigrating into various parts of Europe and they have entire neighborhoods that could and should be targeted for evangelism.
Libya and Somalia are both closed countries, however in Malta I was able to meet them daily and share Christ with them.
Some more examples… Iran is very closed, however here in Lebanon we are able to pass out hundreds of Bibles to them a day!
There are many options around. However there are few people wishing to explore them and do them. If we really believe that Christ is the only way, we need to act.
Tags: evangelism, howto, sharing, tatics, witnessing
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