Middle East and North Africa

Religion, especially Islam, uniquely characterizes the Middle East and North Africa. According to Pew, more than half of the 20 countries in this region have populations that are at least 95% Muslim.

Despite their ancient heritage, Christians remain vulnerable and relatively few. Today, the region is home to 15 million Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant Christians, who persevere as a faithful remnant amid adversity and, in some places, violent persecution. The Middle Eastern and North African Church needs well-equipped leaders who can preach the Gospel amid hostility and address urgent questions concerning suffering, reconciliation, and engagement with Islam.

Through LeaderStudies, ScholarLeaders supports 11 leaders from Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine as they pursue PhDs to guide the Church in understanding Christian history and identity, teaching and preaching in context-responsive ways, engaging Muslim neighbors with integrity, and pursuing biblical approaches to peace and justice.

Through the Vital SustainAbility Initiative, ScholarLeaders has worked closely with Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo to develop plans for training pastors in Egypt and throughout the Arabic-speaking world.

In 2009, we celebrated the reconciliation ministry led by Musalaha founder Dr. Salim Munayer and his colleagues at Bethlehem Bible College with the ScholarLeader of the Year Award. In 2019, we also recognized Dr. Yohanna Katanacho, Academic Dean at Nazareth Evangelical College, who writes, speaks, and teaches on love for enemies made possible in Christ.

To learn from the theological wisdom shared by Middle Eastern and North African Christian leaders in the ScholarLeaders Fellowship, check out these Global Insights:

ScholarLeaders’ own Wageeh Mikhail, Director of Catalytic Venture – Religions, also hosted this 12-part House of Wisdom video series, which originally aired in Arabic on SAT-7. Watch to learn how Arab Christians in the Middle Ages developed theology that continues to guide Christians worldwide today, as well as how these forerunners of our faith interacted with their Muslim neighbors. (English subtitles are available, thanks to a generous gift from The Village Church, Rancho Santa Fe.)

Join us in prayer for our sisters and brothers who live and serve in the Middle East and North Africa. Pray for Christian leaders who teach, train, conduct research, produce resources, minister, and proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ amid hardship and danger. Pray for new believers who choose to follow Jesus at great cost. Pray for the peace of Christ to reign.

Photo: “Hills above Jericho on the West Bank” (2021) by David McLenachan (Unsplash)

Prayer Community

Emmanuel Ndikumana from Burundi

When I started the journey in 2014, Burundi’s prospects were very good. Researching on reconciliation promised a huge contribution to the healing of the nation. In 2015, however, another violent political crisis erupted that seriously affected not the nature or orientation of my research, but the way I was going to collect data. Fear, suspicion, mistrust, etc. replaced the openness, and freedom of speech and movement people had been enjoying for the previous ten years. The accusations, counter-accusations, and the policing of speech and movement put my research on hold for a significant amount of time.

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Prayer Community

Andry Randrianasolo from Madagascar

The primary ongoing challenge faced by the Lutheran Church of Madagascar is the fight against syncretism within the Church. Although Christians come to church on Sundays, there are some who continue to visit witchdoctors, seeking help from ancestors on the other days. This is exactly why pastors need to be equipped with skills and tools in the field of Intercultural Studies to help them identify the problem, study the situation, and provide discipleship and teaching according to people’s needs.

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Prayer Community

Daniel Dama from Benin

The Benin government has approved my arts and culture ministry for peacebuilding: Africa Sings. This phase comes after the registration of the organization and it is a crucial step. I am also delighted to inform you that Africa Sings was recently featured in the official journal of the Benin government.

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Prayer Community

Serge-Armand Yao in Côte d’Ivoire

In Côte d’Ivoire, there are more than 60 ethnic groups, divided into four linguistic groups. From 1999 to 2011, Côte d’Ivoire has experienced deep sociopolitical crises as a result of ethnic tensions, sectarianism, and nationalistic and sometimes xenophobic behavior. Unfortunately, Christians in general and Evangelical Protestants in particular have contributed to these growing tensions.

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Prayer Community

Emmanuel Mukeshimana from Rwanda

Pray for peace in East Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, and Eastern Democratic Republic). This region has been the territory of unending conflicts. Pray that people in East Africa will be able to move freely and that refugees will be able to return home.

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Prayer Community

David Kasali in the Democratic Republic of Congo

We ask for your intercession on behalf of Beni. Our town has been brutally attacked twice in six days. The armed group that has been killing civilians in the Beni territory since 2014 has made incursions into the town of Beni and into our neighboring town of Oicha, killing over 75 of the most vulnerable inhabitants over the last three weeks. On November 24, one of the members of our contractor’s construction crew, the son of one of our campus guards, was killed in his neighborhood near our main campus.

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Prayer Community

Dieudonné Djoubairou in Cameroon

Cameroon is a Central African country with ten regions. There is an English-speaking Cameroon and a French-speaking Cameroon. In the past few years, there have been social and political crises in the Northwest and Southwest between the Ambazonian separatists and the government, and in the Far North because of the Islamist Boko Haram. These crises seriously affect peace in our country and the Church has suffered seriously. Churches are closed and pastors have run away. People live in very bad conditions.

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