Pray For…The Arab of The United Arab Emirates
Stats
•Population – 538,000
•Percentage of Evangelicals – < 2.0%
•Language Spoken – Arabic
•Major Religion – Islam
•Persecution Index – 33
The Levant Arabs originally settled all over the Arabian Peninsula and later migrated to North Africa. Today, several hundred thousand Levant Arabs live along the northern edges of the Arabian Desert. The Arabian culture was developed by tribes of nomads and villagers who lived in the Arabian Desert for many centuries. It was also from there that Arab migrations began, eventually leading to the expansion of the Arab world. The Levant Arabs have had a close association with Islam throughout their history; and today, all of them except for the Arabic Jewish Arabs are Muslims. The Levant Arabs typically live in villages located near fertile regions; but they can also be found near mountain foothills in less arid regions. Although they have settled in towns or villages, they have held on to their tribal affiliations. The various tribes are ruled by sheiks (Arab chiefs that are considered to be experts in Islam and in relating to the outside world). Social life is extremely important to Arabs. They like to share a daily coffee time by sitting on the floor and drinking coffee from cups without handles. Almost all of the Levant Arabs are Muslims. There is a great need for the Gospel to be preached among the Levant Arabs. Currently, there are only a few agencies ministering to these tribes. At the present time, there are only a few known Christians within the Levant Arab community, with the largest number found among the Iraqi Arabs. Evangelization efforts among these tribes are challenging due to restrictions in many of the countries, as well as general antagonism towards Christianity.
•Ask the Lord to call people who are willing to reach out and share the love of Christ with them.
•Ask God to give the Levant Arab believers opportunities to share the love of Christ with their own people.
•Pray that their traditional Muslim culture will soften, creating open doors for the Gospel to be preached among them.
•Ask the Holy Spirit to open the hearts of these people towards Christians so that they will be receptive to the Gospel.