Bible Engagement in the Arabian Gulf: Plugging into God’s Power
“If I had read the Bible outside the prison, I wouldn’t have been inside the prison now.” This is what one inmate said to our Representative in Bahrain during one of his Scripture distribution visits in a prison there. “He is now a completely changed person,” says our Rep. “He has read the Bible three times in six months and is very grateful for the free copy of the Bible that we gave him.”
The Bible Society in the Gulf (BSG) first got involved in this ministry in Bahrain in 2003, and since then we have supplied thousands of Bibles in different languages to the Christian men and women prisoners. At festive times, as they are alone and far from home, they especially need the Hope of Christ. We visit them, talk with them, and provide them with the Scriptures in their language. Whether outside or inside the bars, the BSG is keen to provide the Message that gives Hope and Peace to all.
The Arabian Gulf: Fields of Oil and Harvest
The Arabian Gulf is a land of stark contrasts. Vast oil reserves lie hidden under equally vast uninhabited deserts. Enormous wealth is displayed in gleaming modern cities, while nomadic tribesmen in the desert cling tenaciously to their ancient ways of life. The Arabian Peninsula is the very heart of Islam. It includes Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Sultanate of Oman, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. The official language in these countries is Arabic. To reap financial harvests from the enormous oil reserves, the leaders of these countries have turned to western technology. After centuries of protective isolation, the people of the Arabian Peninsula have been brought face-to-face with the rest of the world. Hence, the percentage of foreigners living in the area can vary between fifty and eighty percent.
The Christian church presence varies in the different countries in the peninsula. Most of the churches there are expatriate and come mainly from Asia. Although there are a few locally rooted Christians in the Gulf, by and large, we can speak about a truly “migrant church” living within a Muslim environment. As the BSG, our ministry aim is to be the supporting arm of the church. We want to continue supporting the ministry and the mission of the church by providing Scriptures in the languages that people understand and at prices they can afford. Our centers have made Bibles and Christian literature available in more than sixty different languages.
Making the Scriptures available is important, and it is equally important to help people read and understand what they receive. While selling books is a vital fraction of our work, we aim for much more because as a Bible Society we operate and serve a unique population in a unique region.
The Need: Improving Conditions and Vulnerability of Temporary Contract Labor
A vast army of migrant workers lives in the Gulf countries. The question they often struggle with is the cost of leaving home and family to seek employment in the Gulf. Most migrant workers come to the Gulf from Asia, primarily India, Pakistan, Nepal, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt. On arrival, their employers confiscate their passports. On the construction sites, they risk injury and even death as they work in temperatures that sometimes touch fifty degrees centigrade (122 degrees Fahrenheit). At the end of the day, many return to crowded, cramped accommodations in vast labor camps, usually on the outskirts of the cities. Most are illiterate and their salaries low, but back in their home countries the dream of striking it rich in the Gulf holds a powerful appeal for young Asian men looking to better their circumstances and those of their families.
Asian female live-in domestic workers live under conditions that are like slavery. The structural arrangements, including the threat of violence, restriction of movement, and exploitative employment conditions have led to significantly widespread abuse of these women—a particularly vulnerable group. Individual cases of severe physical abuse by employers and agencies have been reported in newspapers. These include beatings, slapping, pushing around, belittling, verbally insulting, name-calling, pulling or even cutting hair, constant criticism of their work, burns from boiling coffee, broken ribs, scars, and bruises.
Bible Distribution: Lighting the Lamp of Hope
As the BSG, we are committed to help these workers with their daily challenges, focus on their socio-economic conditions seeking avenues to assist them, address their spiritual needs, and help them cope with feelings of hopelessness and despair.
How do we do this?
To start with, the BSG cooperates with all churches of various denominations and acts as a catalyst in developing this ecumenical spectrum (e.g. The church in the Gulf dates back to apostolic times; however, from the birth of Islam in the Seventh Century to the colonial times in the Sixteenth Century the Christian church was almost dormant in the Gulf. It has now grown considerably due to international trade and globalization.)
There are more churches in the Gulf than many people realize. Large groups of Arab workers from countries such as Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Egypt have brought with them traditional churches like the Coptic Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic, Maronite, Roman Catholic, and others. Expatriates from other countries have found homes in Catholic and Protestant congregations. Likewise, migrant workers from Kerala, India, have established strong Malayalam-speaking church communities all over the Gulf. In fact, all four main strands of Christianity are represented in the Gulf: Oriental Orthodox, Eastern (Greek) Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant.
The multi-national, multi-cultural churches place the BSG in a unique role with a unique challenge: to make the Bible available in more than sixty different languages using different formats and translations at a price that is affordable by the large migrant populations who have very low income levels.
Indeed, it is imperative to translate, print, and distribute the Bible. It is more crucial, though, to help and encourage people to read and understand the Word. The content of the Bible speaks to all, irrespective of their ethnic, social, and educational backgrounds. It is a powerful Book that can touch the mind and heart of every human being. The BSG is grateful for God’s guidance in initiating the distribution of thousands of Tigrinya, Tagalog, Amharic, Arabic, Nepali, Tamil, Malayalam, and Punjabi Bibles to thousands of Eritrean, Ethiopian, Egyptian, Nepalese, and Indian migrant workers living in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Yemen, and Bahrain. The aim of our distribution projects is to help the low-paid, desperate, lonely, and depressed workers to have the Word of God in their mother language for their spiritual nourishment. The impact has been tremendous.
“Because of this amazing project of distributing free Bibles to migrant workers, the deep desire, hunger and thirst for God’s Word can be met now,” said a pastor. “It was our Church’s vision to reach out to the Eritreans. Now, the dream has become a reality. We have been provided with the backbone of evangelism which is the Word of God”.
The Good News of the birth of the Savior Jesus Christ is truly the greatest gift to the homesick, abused migrant worker in the Gulf.
“We are very happy to have these Bibles in our language in our hands,” said a church leader. “We have been praying and waiting for this opportunity for a long time. We thank God for providing these Bibles through the Bible Society. Most of our members are women and they work as domestic helpers and saleswomen in shops. They are lonely and often abused. This distribution program inspired hope and confidence in them. Our partnership with the BSG in this program has had a great impact on my congregation because they know they are not alone.”
An Ethiopian truck driver shared this with us: “This is the sheer grace of God. This is the first time I own my own Bible and I am reading it regularly. The Lord will bless me through his Word. I also want to be a blessing to others by bringing them to Christ because during these times of struggle, desperation through separation from family, job insecurity, harsh working conditions and loneliness our lives are spiritually dry, and we have lost hope of a joyful life we once dreamt of. The Bible will make us dream again.”
A Telugu church leader expressed his joy by saying, “In this Gulf country the Bible Society is like an oasis which gives the Word of God to unreachable and many unknown people who are benefiting from this service. May the Almighty shower his blessings on you. With the subsidized Bibles we were able to meet the needs of our outreach service and provide the Word of God to many migrant workers. Because of these books, more people started attending church regularly.”
For example, the children of migrant workers in the Gulf develop a subculture that is different from their home background. With their parents at work, young people ‘hang out’ in the malls, or surf the Internet for hours, play violent video games, or download the latest application on their smart phones. There was a great need to reach out to these young people in an ever-changing culture and challenging times with the message of the Gospel in an attractive, compelling, cutting-edge, and “cool” format. Hence, the BSG collaborated with the Armenian Apostolic Church in the Gulf and translated, printed and distributed Manga Messiah, a huge hit around the globe,to thousands of Armenian children in Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Cyprus, and Turkey. We also distributed thousands of copies of the same title in English to other nationalities.
“Today, our youth are overwhelmed with decadent, worldly standards. This book will familiarize them with the stories in the Gospels about Jesus, encourage them to live good lives, and inculcate in them Christian principles,” said the Armenian priest during the distribution of the books.
Bible Engagement: Innovative Tools to Spread the Faith
A large percentage of churchgoers in the Gulf are either illiterate or semi-literate. Many of them have a tough time identifying the bus they need to catch. They cannot read the number of the bus. They do not know how to count money when they receive their salary. These people are especially vulnerable when they go shopping since they do not know how much money the shopkeeper is taking for the items they purchased.
To help these migrant workers overcome such difficulties and be able to understand the Gospel Message, we initiated an Adult Literacy program for them. It is more than teaching them the alphabet. The content of the course is geared to empower illiterate people with essential knowledge about hygiene, money, budgeting, family planning, and other essential survival tips. One of the lessons in each of the four workbooks is from the Word of God. Hence, the goal is to help the learner reach the level of 5th standard in one year by helping them to read twenty-five words per minute, write eight words per minute, and do three digit calculations like additions and multiplications.
We sent a volunteer, an Indian from Andhra Pradesh, to an Adult Literacy training seminar in Hyderabad to be equipped to run a church literacy program in the UAE. Presently, he tours Telugu-speaking at churches and training church leaders how to use the Adult Literacy books. So far, thousands of workbooks in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Nepali, and Urdu have been distributed. Demand is growing by the day. Pastors and labor camp leaders are constantly requesting more and more copies of the workbooks for use in the newly-formed study groups made up of unskilled laborers, construction workers, house maids, and farmers.
One Telugu pastor introduced the Adult Literacy workbooks to house maids in Satwa, Dubai. These house maids wear watches but may not know how to tell the time. They carry Bibles but cannot read them. It is difficult to make out the literate from the illiterate by their appearance. When asked why they carry Bibles with them, they usually say that they will ask others to read to them. The other reason is: a status symbol. They will be seen as educated. To reach as many as possible, literate church members are encouraged to adopt one or more illiterate friends either from the church or the labor camps and spend time with them on a regular basis, helping them to do the exercises in the workbook.
The Adult Literacy program has inspired a renewed hope in life for many. It is an eye opener for many. Now, not only do they recognize letters and numbers, but they also appreciate the churches’ care and love towards them. They have come to understand the love of Jesus Christ and His plan of salvation. Many pastors and volunteers believe that when these men and women leave the Gulf and go back to their villages, they will be able to find better jobs and churches to join because of the Adult Literacy program. “Truly, a success story!” as one pastor put it.
Moreover, over the past years, the BSG reached thousands of illiterate Christians with audio Scriptures, such as God’s Story, The Life of the Messiah, and Mini Bible College (containing 215 lessons in 18 languages), uploaded on mega voice players (solar-powered devices), in Sinhala, Urdu, Fijian Hindustani, Amharic, English, Nepali, Arabic, Tamil, Portuguese, Filipino, Hindi, Konkani Kannada and Punjabi. These were then distributed to housemaids who take permission to come to church once a year, to Hindu workers in a cement factory, to home groups, to Fiji pilots of Indian descent, in shoe boxes for a Care Network project in the labour camps, and to Bengali workers on construction sites.
“This is a great tool. I cannot speak all these languages, but the mega voice player speaks for itself,” said one of the pastors. “Thank you for providing me with the opportunity to share God’s Word in so many languages. The mega voice players with the Mini Bible College are a great help to me and my mentees. One of them went back to his village in Andhra Pradesh with his mega voice player. He wrote back sharing with me the good news about the many villagers who had become believers after hearing the Good News.”
Story telling, another Bible engagement tool, is fast catching on in the Gulf as an effective method of sharing the Good News with literate and non-literate audiences alike. As a result, attendance in youth groups and labor camp meetings has increased and renewed interest is shown in studying and applying Scripture to daily life. Recently, a staff member shared Bible stories with more than 100 groups and gave a demonstration of Simply the Story to over 3000 people in different churches. Simply the Story is an oral style inductive Bible study. Simply the Story Workbook has 52 stories for STS workshops. They are also used as a course book in Orality schools to help illiterate church leaders use stories to teach God’s Word. This hands-on workshop equips participants to tell Bible stories. The audience hears a Bible story three times, discusses it following a set of questions, and finally contributes personal application methods. The “good old way” of story telling has proved that it continues to be an effective tool to share the Gospel with today’s post modern societies.
Truly, the “Word of God” is bearing fruit!
