I had my first opportunity to counsel someone in Arabic two weeks ago. It was challenging, to say the least! He is a 30-year old Syrian believer from Christian background. He has been a refugee in Jordan for about a year, along with his mother. His situation is much better that most. He lives with his sister and her Jordanian husband. He came seeking advice. He is supposed to leave for a western country in less than 2 months. However, that embassy learned that while his parents have been separated for more than 5 yrs, they are not officially divorced. So they want his father, who is still in Syria, to go with them. My friend cannot see how God might possibly be using these circumstances to reunite his parents. He only sees how it could postpone his travel, causing him frustration. We looked together at Romans 8:28-29. I assigned homework for him which he had only halfway completed when we met the second time last week. In the second session, this brother was able to express openly how frustrating it has been for him to be a refugee. As I sat there listening to him, I thought to myself, "Wow, how many Syrian and Iraqi refugees have no one to confide in and help them understand their situation from a biblical perspective." Please ask God to give this brother the diligence to complete the homework that I gave him, and that God would use it to help him overcome fear through deeper trust in Him. Please ask God to help me and my family be able to understand what Arabs are saying and be able to express ourselves in appropriate ways. Would you also listen to
this teaching from David Platt about how we as believers should respond to the refugee crisis?
I'm excited to see who God will bring together next month for a day of training in biblical counseling at another evangelical church here. I asked one of the leaders in our Arabic church if I might be able to train some believers in biblical counseling by co-counseling with them. I see training laymen in biblical counseling as one aspect of promoting biblical parenting here. Would you ask God to give many Arab believers a desire to learn and serve in biblical counseling?
