Issue 59 - 29 November 2011

Dear friends,

While writing this newsletter, people in Egypt’s capital Cairo are queuing up at the polling stations to vote for a new parliament. Last week we saw a new wave of demonstrations and violence in Cairo. Protesters demonstrated against the army top that is accused of attempts to guarantee their future political power. During the past week some 40 people were killed, and hundreds injured.

Arab Vision works in the middle of a world that is on fire, literally or politically. We are thankful that we can still continue our TV ministry, but we don’t know for how long.
Please pray for the countries in the Arab world where violence and insecurity are daily realities.

New! Promotional DVD about Arab Vision Although new changes may happen quickly in the Arab world, causing our new promo to be outdated soon again, we launched our new 7 minutes video on the Arab world and the ministry of Arab Vision. Please go to our website www.arabvision.org to find out when the video has been uploaded. You can watch it there and download it. Please feel free to use it to share our ministry with your friends, family and your church. To cover the cost of the production of this promo, your (small) donation is welcome!

  Ongoing! People responding to our TV programs A few examples of people responding to the Gospel after watching our Christian TV programs:

Pray for me, please. I was a Muslima but I saw Christ in a dream and he told me to drink from a river. Please, I need a Bible for reading it. My family kicked me out of my home because I became Christian. I get my encouragement from watching Christian TV channel now. I don’t have a job or a house now. So please pray for me and send me the Bible. - A woman from the United Arab Emirates

Thanks for your programs; please pray for me. I am a Muslim and I want to know about Christian prayer. Please pray for me because there is a spirit of fear which controls me and I want God to get it away and put peace in my heart instead. - Saudi Arabian man

I am a Muslim but I want to study the Bible and I bought that book but I don’t know how to read it, let alone understand it. Should I start with the New Testament or with the Old one, or should I read both together? - Man from Egypt

Now in production!
Testimony: A present day Hannah Our TV producer Amir has been passionately working with Arab Vision for over ten years now. He is often deeply moved by the testimonies he hears from people he meets in his work. This year he is producing the fourth season of a series for Arab women. When asked whether he could share a story from the programs now being produced, he tells: “About this season of women programs, we did a lot of great stories; they are all impressive, but the one that I have been touched by the most, is Soher’s story from Egypt.

This lady couldn’t get pregnant for more than 15 years. She is from Upper Egypt, where they hold the tradition that giving birth is a family honour, and where it is a shame for a woman to not have children. Like Hannah from the Bible, who was ashamed for not being able to give her husband children, Soher felt the same. Her husband’s family used to treat her very badly, to the extent that her father-in-law beat her so hard, that she lost her right eye. When she tried to get medical help, they prevented her from doing so, as they believed this to be an action against God’s will. Through all this, Soher kept her faith and always believed that no matter how much time would pass, one day God would reward her and give her what she longed for. But after 15 years of struggle, medical treatments and surgery, her hope started to fade, as no divine intervention was likely to happen. Her future seemed so bleak, and in her heart she started thinking that God had left her; she started to accept what seemed to be God’s will in her life. Suddenly and completely naturally she got pregnant, and had a healthy son, followed by another one three years later. I like this story particularly, because I saw an amazing faith in this lady.”

This is only one out of 26 stories; the series will be finished by the end of 2011, and will then be broadcast by several satellite channels, several times. Please pray that this project will be light and salt for millions of Arab people watching – and we know that both women and men watch these programs, and respond.

New! Church and Mission
Partnership in mutual dependence This fifth book in our Grassroots series discusses the relationships, both factual and ideally, between sending churches, missionaries and their agencies, and churches in the countries where those missionaries work. Those relationships are often problematic.  What can be done to better cooperate in the one mission of Jesus Christ? Church leaders and mission leaders presented and discussed the papers that are published in this important book. Order by mail: contact@arabvision.org. Price: 10$, excluding postage. The Grassroots series is an Arab Vision/Interserve Publication.

For more news, you can also subscribe to our print newsletter (4x per year), by sending your postal address details to contact@arabvision.org.

Thank you for your prayers and support!

Wishing you a blessed Christmas season on behalf of our Arab Vision team,

Umm Al-Farieq
International Director
Arab Vision International