God is for all nations, and we have 300,000 Arabs we are blessed to have the opportunity to serve.”
Though that emotion could have been voiced by any Christian resident of the Middle East, the words were those of Nabil Costa, executive director of the Lebanese Society for Educational and Social Development. For him, such service plays out in the mission of Baptist educational institutions in that region.
Costa and Suha Shahin, principal of the Baptist School of Amman in Jordan, were among several representatives of Baptist schools in the Middle East who spoke to a crowd of nearly 150 during a recent symposium sponsored by Samford University and The Alabama Baptist.
In the Middle East, some Baptist schools function to support and mobilize Christians to go outside the schools and make an impact on the people in their region.
The Arab Baptist Theological Seminary in Lebanon, for instance, has graduated several hundred students from different countries in the Middle East region. These students, for the most part, have returned to their home countries after graduation to serve in ministry.
Others are serving in Arab communities in other parts of the world. In one place where it is not safe for Baptist representatives to stay more than a few hours, seminary graduates are living, building relationships and planting churches.
Other nonseminary Baptist schools in the Middle East provide an environment for non-Christians to see real Christianity lived out in front of them. Of the 1,200 students kindergarten through 12th grade at Shahin’s school, for instance, only 10 percent are truly believers. The education there offers a chance for cultural Christians and non-Christians to change their views of “Western” Christianity.
“As you can see, it’s a big missions field,” Shahin said. “We choose issues that will not bring conflict to show them love and kindness — this side of Jesus.”
In these schools, students participate in prayer times and Bible studies as well as singing Christian songs. “Every student is ready and at good potential for the Holy Spirit to work in his or her heart,” Costa said. (TAB)
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