Jesus Christ is in the war-torn places in the Middle East, "in the middle of the desert, in the dirt" and touching the lives of "the poor in spirit, the broken-hearted, the contrite, the desperate."
Young American Christian missionary Tyler Connell has been spreading this message in his tour of college campuses around the U.S., sharing with fellow young Americans the stories from his most recent trip to Middle East, where he visually recorded a dramatic move of God among Muslims, particularly with refugees, Charisma News reported.
Connell and his team from a group called the Ekballo Project have visited several campuses including Harvard, MIT, Iowa State, Clemson, and the University of Georgia. "In every stop we saw the presence of Jesus break in to these college campuses and touch students, with bodies healed, people saved, and people giving their lives to serve in the mission field," Connell said.
He said college students are amazed to learn what God is doing in Iraq and Syria. "Jesus is moving in these Middle East nations," he told Mark Ellis of God Reports/Assist.
In May 2015 Connell said he and his team spent eight days in the Middle East, going house to house among the refugees. "They were all Muslims but they all said they were disillusioned with Islam and they didn't know what they believed anymore," he said.
"They asked, 'What is the truth?' There was a perfect cocktail of circumstances that caused them to be open to the preaching of the Gospel," he added.
He admitted that he and his team had to confront their fears in going to dangerous places in the Middle East. "We realised that intimidation and fear was only a smokescreen. On the other side of that fear was our greatest breakthrough of joy and laying down our lives and seeing Jesus move like we never imagined," he said.
Connell narrated one moving story about a fellow young missionary named Daniel who works with Syrian refugees.
Like him, Daniel and his team also go house to house to visit Muslim families and sit and talk with them about the Gospel.
One afternoon Daniel walked into a white tent with a family of eight people inside. "Hi I'm Daniel and I'm here to tell you about Jesus," he announced.
The reaction from the family stunned him. "The family freaked out, they looked at each other, almost turned white. The father was excited, yelling," Connell recalled Daniel's words.
"What's going on?" Daniel asked.
The interpreter then explained to him that the night before his visit the whole family was sitting in their tent having tea together when a man in white opened the door to their tent and stood at the entrance. They said the man was glowing.
"Hello, My name is Jesus and I am sending a man tomorrow named Daniel to tell you more about me," the man told them before disappearing.
So when Daniel arrived at their doorway and told them his name, they were shocked beyond belief.
"They asked him to tell them more about Jesus and he gave then the Gospel and the whole family gave their lives to Jesus," Connell said.
Connell recalled a visit they made to a large Syrian refugee family. "The joy that broke out among these people was incredible," he said. "Jesus' presence was stronger than I have ever felt, in that little dirty room, with cat pee everywhere."
"There were about 25 people in there and Jesus' presence was stronger than any conference, any prayer room, any camp-high moment. Jesus was there in the middle of the desert, in the dirt, with Muslims. He is attracted to the broken hearted, the contrite, the desperate. The King of Heaven was right there with the poor in spirit," he said.
