I’ve just returned from a few weeks of traveling in Israel, Egypt and Jordan along with a small camera crew. We are presently working on a very important project that I will be announcing in more detail in the weeks and months ahead. Needless to say, we had the opportunity to visit with the believers in each of these countries and have some fantastic reports concerning what God is doing throughout the region.
In Israel, we were able to meet with several Messianic Jewish and Arab Christian leaders to get a solid reading on the temperature of the believers in Israel. We were also able to meet with a few Muslim leaders while there, including the son of the former Mufti of Jerusalem.
In Egypt, we had the tremendous opportunity to visit with Pastor Sameh Maurice of Kasr El Dubara Church. This is not only the largest evangelical Church in the Middle East, but it also sits on the edge of Tahrir Square, where the revolution broke out and in many ways, continues today. This church is making a tremendous impact on the nation and the surrounding regions as well. We were also blessed to be able to gather privately with many other friends and hear about the tremendous revival taking place among Muslims throughout Egypt. Despite the intense difficulties in Egypt, the Lord is moving in dramatic ways. I look forward to sharing some of the many stories that testify to the Lord’s goodness in the midst of difficulty.
Finally, we were able to visit with some dear friends who are serving the Lord in the nation of Jordan. the day we were leaving a small city of about 40,000, there were approximately 60,000 Syrian refugees heading to the outskirts of the city to a refugee camp. The opportunities in the region for ministry are endless. The Middle East truly is a playground for those who love to be a part of what God is doing.
I would ask you to please remember my team in prayer as we continue our travels in the month of June. Please pray for our health and safety, and for all of the various circumstances to be divinely orchestrated. We also have some significant financial needs. If you are able to give toward the project in small or more significant ways,
There are presently two ways to give:
To send a tax-deductable donation by check, make it out to “I2 Ministries” write nothing in the memo line and send to the following address:
Joel Richardson
Grandview MO
PO Box 776
64030
USA
If you wish to make a non-tax deductible gift online, you may use the following button:
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Thank you for your prayers and support. I look forward to sharing more details and updates in the days ahead. Blessings!
7 Responses
Joel, I am curious if the good news that you report includes the Coptic Church and the Patriarchate of Alexandria?
It is well and good for Evangelicals to do well when outnumbered by Muslims, but we need to look at more than Evangelicals.
Thank you.
David,
First, there are many very significant prayer meetings with Copts, Catholics and Evangelicals together all crying out for Egypt and worshipping the Lord together. I attended an all night prayer meeting on Pentecost with believers from all three groups. It was a very lively prayer meeting. I was honored to be there. There seems to be stirring toward genuine faith in all three primary segments of believers there and this coming together to pray is a significant thing that has been taking place now for several years. On the other hand, the Copts, Catholics and even many of the Evangelicals tend to embrace not only a strong replacement theology, but also an outright political anti-Semitism. In my view, this will never be fully shaken from the traditional Churches – it is now so long established there. The Evangelicals on the other hand have a much better chance of seeing the error of this theology. It will not be until the Church corporately repents of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism that it will truly experience the full outpouring that the Lord has promised to Egypt in Isaiah 19. In the mean time, the pattern has been that when someone becomes enflamed in their faith, they tend to gravitate toward the Evangelical Churches.
I need plenty more belief, plenty more power of prayer and more Holy Ghost with me. Please pray also that God gives me gifts of God’s grade.
ja sameh came to speak at my church here in central brazil. my neo-pentecostal cell church, altho endorsing end time prophecies, doesnt seem to sympathise with israel’s position in the global conflict against her.
i might want to believe that evangelicals in egypt do not mention israel for reasons of safety. but i don’t feel that is accurate. they are already targets due to their rejection of allah.
political anti-semitism, whether explicit or merely effectual, is a big reality in many evangelical and even spirit-filled churches.
lets remember that the hebrew words for curse in genesis 12 are two different words: the cursing is a HEAVY curse – for those who LIGHTLY curse Israel – merely speaking lightly of her. ie missing gods heart for her and missing her plight.
the amazing thing is that this plight is so so very well demonstrated to all nations and possibly a majority of the people of this earth. the play is being played and has been played out, repeating itself, for hundreds, thousands of years.
i am listening to abba eban’s 2.5 hour speech to the UN in 1952. there are so many details. i think of michael oren’s book six days jampacked with detail upon detail of the leadup to a six day event. so it is seeming quite possible that jesus will use this issue of israel as an issue of judgement, just as outlined in genesis 12, joel 3 and matthew 25.
we could therefore see that in all this horrible saga, in every aspect, god is weighing up the nations, he is sieving, again and again, throiwng into the wind, allowing all to hear and see the story, and to make up their own mind.
what is shocking to us is that this issue finds its play in the very heart of the church. but it should not be shocking.
I had a friend and he was my dearest and best friend. There was great love and understanding between us. We were there for each other. I loved him greatly and still love him. He means a lot to me. But in January we had a small misunderstanding and since then he has stopped talking to me. I tried many times to set things right between us but he is adamant. He ignores all my messages and it has greatly affected me. He is the only friend I have. I miss him greatly. I am emotionally disturbed. I have been praying to God to give him back to me. I humbly request you to pray for me – for my friend to understand. He also needs emotional and physical healing. He is very sick.