Special Report: Libya

A report on Libya, the second of our ten countries of focus for our 2012 initiative TC12*...

 

It is exciting to connect with the Libyan people, particularly through Facebook. An especially made one-minute Facebook discussion-starter clip showed what can happen when a group of people decide to share what they have and work together. The title of the film was the Arabic saying One hand can’t clap. The film was a popular way of connecting with Libyans on a topic important to them. We received 216 comments on this video on Facebook.

 

The video clip is very impressive. If only we can leave the past behind and get rid of the old way of looking at things, because what we need now is both hands!

 

There were 13,890 views of the Libya prayer video on Maarifa with 31 published comments as well as 108 likes on Facebook, 60 comments and 47 shares.

 

The Libyan people are hard to reach and many are not open to the gospel and defensive of Islam:

 

There is no God but God and Muhammad is his prophet. If you think that you can come to Libya and bring your message like you do elsewhere, you can think again. You have not reckoned with the love of the Libyan people for their religion. We are all Muslims here. The few Jews have gone. There are no Christians. Just try your tricks and you will meet the same end that the despised Gaddafi did. Your destiny is to go to hell. So don’t try to take the poor and needy here with you. Jesus will return at the end of time to establish justice and the religion of Islam. Save yourselves before it is too late and stop playing around with the Libyan people – that will be better for you! (Libya, male, February 2012)

 

We received 41,369 visits to maarifa.org from Libya this quarter. We interacted with 112 spiritual enquirers who filled in our 'contact us' form, and there were many more informal discussions on our Facebook page. There were 248 downloads of the book What do you think of Jesus the Messiah? There were 1,643 downloads of the Bible and 1 enrolment in online Bible study.

 

 

The table above shows how we are doing in terms of the targets we have set for the year. As you can see, we are over halfway to reaching our target for spiritual enquirers but, to date, none of these are ready for face-to-face follow-up. We have massively exceeded our target for Bible downloads and hope that this interest will transfer to more enrolments in Bible studies and courses.

 

Please pray for the people of Libya to feel able to express their new found freedom in all aspects of life, including spiritually. Pray for the hearts of those who are hostile and defensive of Islam to soften and warm to the message of the gospel. Pray that the Church would blossom in Libya.

 

*TC12 is a 12-month prayer initiative. We are asking God for an increase in the number of spiritual enquirers from 10 specific countries of the Arab world. Each quarter we pray for two or three countries, asking that God would use the ministry of Arab World Media to bring more people to a living faith in Christ.