David*, a Yemeni refugee believer living in the Yemeni diaspora, shares about the challenges and opportunities in the growing Church in his community.
Late one night, a Yemeni follower of Jesus began to pray. He was tired and discouraged. It had been more than two years since moving with his family to live in this specific diaspora community of Yemeni refugees with a goal of sharing the love of Jesus with those around them.
As recently as the 1970-80s, the country of Yemen was divided into separate nations due to different ethnic identities and ideologies. After being re-unified as one nation, the two sides have continued to fight internally, with one side promoting Shia Islam and the other Sunni**.
Due to civil war, famine, disease and persecution, more than 4.3 million people have been displaced within their own country, and over a million have emigrated from Yemen as refugees to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Kuwait, Somali, Djibouti, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the United States and other countries***.
David* decided to follow Jesus as a young man while still living in Yemen. As a teen, he became friends with a foreigner and his family who were believers. Before their family left, his friend gave David an English Bible, which he couldn’t read. Though his parents were open-minded, David’s father threw the Bible away when he found it. Feeling as if he'd done something wrong, David began studying and following Islam in earnest — but doing so only yielded more questions. It was years before he found a fellowship he could attend and learn about the Christian faith. By then, he had already decided to follow Jesus because of the testimony of his friend’s family and all the teaching about Jesus he had read in the Qur'an. In 2014, he left his country to live amongst the Yemeni refugee diaspora. In that time, David met and married his wife, and they had two children.
The Church in the Yemeni diaspora
When his family moved to their new location in 2022, they joined a small group of Yemeni believers who met weekly in hybrid (online and in-person) meetings. David serves through various translation and prayer projects, as well as being part of Discovery Bible Study (DBS) groups and prayer coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region within OM. In addition to the weekly hybrid meetings, once a month, another group of Yemeni believers meet to pray, brainstorm, discuss challenges and opportunities and partner in their shared vision of reaching the Yemeni people with the love of Jesus. “The more we can pray together and partner together, the more we can reach others with the gospel. The people of Yemen were key in spreading Islam across the world many years ago. A lot of Islamic leaders were from my country. I believe if the people of Yemen embrace the gospel, they will be the forerunners of it in the same way,” David declared.
Each opportunity to share, every new profession of faith, is a big reason to celebrate, as each of these victories has been hard fought. “Even though we are outside the borders of Yemen, we still are influenced by our own culture and community. The Islamic influence reaches us even here,” David explained. In a family-oriented culture, where name and identity come through family connection and reputation, for a Believer from a Muslim Background (BMB), the risks of isolation and persecution are great. As refugees themselves, the believers have to rely on the wider Yemeni community in their host country for support. For this reason, they can’t be widely open about their faith. Sharing the gospel is done slowly, on a one-on-one, relational basis.
As with the refugee community, interpersonal challenges often appear in the church community as well. One night, David arrived home after learning that a man he’d been ministering to — hoping he would become a leader — had become upset at someone and upset others in his response, and decided to leave. Tired and discouraged, David cried out to God: "Lord, this is difficult. I don’t know how to keep going." After he prayed, he received a text from another Yemeni believer. Later, before going to bed, David began to read the message from his friend: “Persevere, take heart and do not quit. Galatians 6:9 says: ‘Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up’ (NIV). Reflect on what Jesus did. He persevered and overcame; He looked to the Father and that’s who He got His power from.”
David smiled and continued to share. “The Lord reminded me that night that I am not supposed to fix people. I am just to bring them to Him. It’s not on me to do the big things. It’s easy to make a plan for growth and work for big things. But that’s not how it goes. I’ve learnt to rejoice in the small victories just as with the bigger ones.
“I rejoice in the community here. Yes, there will always be struggles. It will continue to be a slow process. There is a sense of community that is beautiful. As another friend reminded me: ‘We are in the people business, and the work is different. If you work in a company or factory, you know when you start and end, when a project is done, etc. But with people, it’s not like that. You have to trust the Lord. But the Lord didn’t call us to be productive. He called us to be faithful.’”
Pray with us for unity among the Yemeni Church, both in the diaspora and within Yemen. Pray for more believers to share God’s love with the Yemeni people. Pray for the people of Yemen who hear of the love of Jesus to want to know more and decide to follow Jesus. Pray that just as they helped spread Islam, they will share the gospel throughout their nation, diaspora and the Muslim world.
*name changed
**https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/15198/YM