Impact Middle East has individuals available to share with your Church about what God is doing in the Middle East. 

Contact us at info@impactmiddleeast.org for more information. 

Watch and Download the

Day of Prayer for
the Church in Iraq

DVD here.

Through the windows and into the narrow street leaks the sound of elated worship and fervent prayers from the apartment of Um Maliki.  As a former Muslim, each day she risks her safety as she follows Christ.  Yet each week she could not imagine not opening her home, despite the risk, to the house church that has begun meeting there. It is the body of Christ that gathers, made up of those who are “strangers” to the traditional churches that dot the urban Cairo area. 

Um Maliki’s walk with Christ began like many other Muslims, through a dream in which Christ appeared to her.  Since then, she began gathering others of both Christian and Muslim backgrounds to share with them the gospel that has changed her life.  

The stories of those who gather each week in Umm Maliki’s home are diverse.   Some are like Um Maliki, legally a Muslim yet followers of Christ.  Others were born into Christian families and are legally allowed to follow Christ.

Religion is more then a faith system in the Middle East.  It is an ethnicity.  Just as you might meet someone in the states who is a “Jew” and yet has never been to synagogue, in the Middle East, Christianity and Islam are also ethnic lineages one is born into.  The government prohibits Muslims from becoming Christians but openly encourages Christians to become Muslim.

On any given night of the week, as the sun sets and darkness begins to cover the city many people quietly slip into homes all over the city where they meet regularly as secret house churches.

“Cairo” might mean “Victorious,” but it has been nick-named, “The city of 1,000 minarets,” in light of the many mosques that fill it.   Perhaps home to more then 22 Million people, the need for the gospel nearly dwarfs the effectiveness of the traditional churches present.  Once nearly entirely a Christian nation before the Arab invasion, Egypt now draws its ethnic lines at about 90% Muslim and 10 % Christian with only 1% of the country as Evangelical.

Umm Maliki gathers those in her home who are strangers to the church; those who have been overlooked by the traditional churches near her home.  Muslims are rarely welcomed into Traditional churches and many of the common people struggle to understand the complicated language used in most churches.  Despite the existence of many Churches in the urban area, house churches are playing a strategic role in bringing the gospel to many who cannot be a part of a traditional church.

Umm Maliki knows that many in her area are becoming aware of her gatherings. There may be a day she may stand before a government official and answer for her faith in Christ and the “Church in her home.” But, Um Maliki also knows that  there will be a day when she will stand before Christ and He will say, “I was a stranger, and you welcomed me in.” (Mt 25:35)  We praise God for the way the body of Christ is gathering in the form of “strangers” to worship him.