Prayer for Youth and Children

Someone emailed me this prayer:

I pray that we do not settle for less than God's best for our Arabic youth and children. We should pray and seek depth, fulfillment and growth not just getting by.

God's Intent for 2nd and 3rd Generation Churches

As I was praying about God's intent for the Arabic Church, I remembered a talk that Pastor Soon-Chan Rah gave about "Generational Differences in Immigrant Churches". It's been a while since I've heard it.

Pastor Soon-Chan Rah is a second generation Korean who has gone through very similar things with the Korean-American church and share his experiences and suggestions of how the Arabic-American church can grow past the 1st generation "new comers" to the 2nd and 3rd generations.



The first time I heard it, it was such a relief to hear that there are other churches that are facing the same questions that we're facing... Will the "kids" ditch Arabic churches... will they go to English-speaking churches? Will they find their identity? It felt so nice to know that there are people who've done it before and are now 3rd and 4th generation churches. I feel like it's so relevant.

I loved that there are models of what the Arabic-American church can be like in a few years... having an Arab-American (2nd generation) church within the Arabic (1st generation) church or having an Arabic (1st generation) church within an Arab-American (2nd generation) church. He talked about other models too.

I also like the banana idea :-D the high assimilation, low identity individual. The FOB who's low assimilation and high identity.

Please God help the 1st generation to see the 2nd generation as an important part of the church. They are the future of the church... and actually the present. Please help the youth to be assimilated into the white culture, but also appreciate their identity, which is Arabic, as something that You've given them. Help them to realize their identity as Arab-American Christians and help their parents understand that as a valid, honorable thing (that they might not understand completely). Thank you God for letting Pastor Rah share his experiences with the Korean church and thank you for letting them go ahead of us and show us how to be a light to the 2nd generation and the 1st generation and how to bridge that gap between the two.

Let me know your reactions from hearing.

Breaking His Heart

‘Cause when we are divided
I can hear Him crying
And I can’t be a part of breaking His heart
Anymore
I can’t do it anymore

I heard this song (words here) when I was in high school and it comes back to my mind when I think of divisions in the church, and how I can contribute to or help to stop them... it doesn't start with blaming others, it starts with what I do and how I really love my brothers and sisters in Christ.

When I first moved to California, and even before, I heard that there were too many churches in California and when there's a problem in one church, there's a split and another church forms. I was really sad to hear that... but now that I'm here, my view changed a bit.

I see that there are different purposes for the different churches. Having so many churches doesn't make them all bad and having one physical church is probably not as beneficial as I though.

Splits because of division in the churches is not good. God says something similar. I think he doesn't like division, but that doesn't mean that we all have to be one local church. First of all, because of distance... but also because people like to worship different ways and have different preferences for their leaders, etc. We need to strive for unity in His Body.

Lord, I don't want to be a part of breaking Your heart anymore. I don't want to stand by and not say anything about the divisions in the church. You're an amazing God. I know that and see that everyday. You love us tremendously. How can we, after knowing that, make divisions and have partiality in Your body? How can we stand by and not say anything against it? How can we stand by and let divisions happen or worse yet, see the divisions happen and not hope in You to reconcile those relationships and not know that You are the only one who can create change... change in people and situations. Help me to be a person who loves unity and brings people in Your Body together.

Please bring healing from divisions to Your Body. I see the effects of it on the people in Your Body and the leadership. I see so much devastation and loss of hope because of it. Please bring restoration to individuals and relationships and most importantly, to relationships with You.

God's Intent For the Body

I've been praying for God's intent for His Body.

God, I don't know exactly what you want for Your Body. I used to think that you wanted Arabic churches to exist in America and be a light to the people and churches around. Now, I'm not so sure. I see so many people stop going to Arabic churches or in addition, to really get their meat, they go to American churches. Are the Arabic churches not enough? Or did you not intent to have Arabic churches here in America?

I'm imagining, especially with the economy, if we had to move to another country, like Japan or China, and we lived there for years and years, and we found American people, wouldn't we want to connect with them on every level, especially on the spiritual level (because it's important to us)? That's why I thought that we needed to have Arabic churches in America.

Please let Your intent be known to us. Help us to do Your Will on earth as it's already done in heaven.

Arabic Churches in Southern California

In the last year I've attended at least four churches in California. Here are some that I've found... please let me know if there are others.

• Arabic Christian Center for Evangelism (ACCE) in Crystal Cathedral
• Escondido
• Glendale Church (they meet in this church building)
• Long Beach
• Mideast Evangelical Church Pasadena
• San Bernadino
• San Deigo (El Cajon)
• Temple City Church, Arcadia
• San Diego Arabic Baptist Church
• and many more...

Please God, bless Your body. Let each of the people in Your body get closer to You. Let there be unity between the body.

Please bless the kids. Help them to grow in their knowledge of You. Help them learn and want to know more about You. Give them good role models that they can follow as they grow up. Please let them be a light to their families and the people in their schools and let them be a light to the older people in the church.

Bless the second generation youth who might or might not belong to these churches. Give them a sense of identity in You and let them hunger after You. If they've been affected by splits in the church, please heal them from that hurt and give them hope in You, hope that You'll bring unity to Your body. Teach them how to be leaders and make them humble servants and leaders.

For the Arabic-speaking shabab who might have come recently to the US, I pray that You help them to be plugged into the Body first. Help them to fit into the culture around them. Be their best friend and be their guide if they're lonely here. Help the church get close to them and be their family if their family is not around.

Bless the marriages here. Protect the relationships that you hold so dear to You.

Bless the leaders in the churches. Give them a vision for Your work. Help them follow Your leadership.

Bless the senior people in the church. Give them the help they need and help the church to support them.

I'm asking all of this because I know You care about the church, Your body. You care about it way more than any of us does. Protect Your church from the devil and his tactics. Give us unity.


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Why Blog? Why Pray?

I just moved to California exactly a year ago. I had heard a lot about the Arabic protestant churches in California... not really good things to be honest. I had heard the infamous quote "whoever wakes up on the wrong side of the bed starts a church" or "li kouli mowaTin aseess (to every citizen, there's a pastor)". I figured that I'd find churches that were empty with no one really caring about them.

I had heard great things about the Coptic church (from people in London!), and how they reach out to the community around them and go on mission trips to help others.

When I got here and tried to get involved in protestant churches, I didn't see churches with no people in them. I found that there were a bunch of people who were working hard at trying to make their churches work. I also found lots of people who used to go to churches and gave up going to Arabic churches altogether.

I also noticed that a lot of the youth were lost... their leaders had given up on Arabic churches years ago and gone to English-speaking churches. The youth themselves tried to go to English-speaking churches or (every once in a while) go to Arabic churches or retreats, while others went to Coptic churches, but some still don't fit in anywhere. There are some youth that fit into Arabic churches and are growing and being a huge benefit.

I noticed that there were some leaders in the churches who felt like the church belonged to them and need to control it. There were a few that just worked hard, were humble, wanted others to help, trained others, and wanted God's work to continue.

Distance is also a big factor. The whole region is so big and even though there are churches everywhere, people still drove at least 45 minutes to an hour to go to their church. People and churches are spread so far out that it's hard to be involved for an extended amount of time.

These are the issues and the state I found things in and it's just my point of view too. I could not be getting the whole picture. It seems gloomy, but I see that there are a lot of people who are willing to work hard and have not given up on the Arabic churches. They work humbly and try to work with others in unity. I see that there are people who've been praying for the youth, for the churches, etc. I want to be one of those people. I'll show you the questions I'm asking and the prayers I'm praying. I know this is not a short-term thing. I know God can change the hearts of the people here and can bring unity through His spirit. Please join me in this prayer journey.
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