Mohammad wakes up each morning surrounded by sand, heat and a burden of loneliness. A migrant worker in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Mohammad lives in a cramped, dusty labor camp more than 1,000 miles away from his family. He spends his days working near Sharjah, the third largest city in UAE, and returns to the desert labor camp at night. . . if he’s lucky.

As economic growth in cities such as Sharjah, Dubai and Kuwait City has slowed, demand for migrant labor has decreased. But the laborers are still there – stuck in camps without an income or a way to return home.

NEW HOPE
Mohammad, who became the family provider after his father died several years ago, is no stranger to despair. He remembers one point when he felt the pressure would consume him. Mohammad had been hearing reports of migrant workers committing suicide. And he may have considered taking his own life. But during this period of anxiety, he attended a prayer meeting. The focus that night was on Matthew 6.26,27:

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

As Mohammad heard these words, he felt a sense of peace. He understood that in his moment of need, God would provide for him.

A FIELD FOR HARVEST
Since the oil industry catapulted the Gulf’s economy onto the world scene, expatriate workers like Mohammad have poured into the Gulf states, which include UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and Yemen. In some countries, the number of expatriate workers exceeds the number of nationals; roughly 80 percent of people living in UAE and 75 percent in Qatar are expatriates. Conditions are harsh and people need the support of Scripture to bear their burdens. Yet many workers who come from countries such as Pakistan, Afghanistan and other Central and South Asian countries cannot engage with God’s Word because they don’t have access to Bibles in their own language.

Each week, over 400 migrant workers from Egypt squeeze into small rented rooms for worship. So far they have outgrown every size space that has been rented for their times of worship together. Everyone in the group speaks Arabic yet over 90% can’t read. Now, with an audio Scripture made available for them in Arabic, they can find peace in the Word of God.

In the Gulf region, migrant workers like Mohammad encounter God’s Word in Urdu, Pashto, Farsi and Arabic and many other languages. Sometimes the format is a printed Bible; other times, it’s a recording or an oral story. But in all languages and all mediums, the result is the same: new hope and joy in the midst of daily struggle.

When you pray:

* Pray for opportunities for these believers to share the hope that they have found in Christ with their co-laborers that they live and work with.

* Pray for more audio resources to be made available that can be used in reaching the large percentages of the illiterate in each middle eastern country.

* Pray for churches that will send volunteer teams to minister to these laborers and share with them the hope and love that comes through Jesus Christ our Savior.