Prayer that Crosses Borders: Creating a Refuge for the Nations

When Omar* and Amira* left their homeland of North Africa in 2011, they had no idea that God was preparing them for a mission far beyond what they had imagined.

Growing up in North Africa, Omar and Amira were raised in the same church and were both discipled by The Navigators, giving their lives to Christ when they were 14. Observing Navigators around them — including Omar’s uncle — they learned from a young age how to practice a God-centered life and how to live out everyday ministry.

Omar and Amira got married in 2005, and they continued to share the gospel by volunteering and training with The Navigators in nearby countries. Developing a heart for the nations, they went on short-term mission trips, and felt the Lord calling them to people from a particular Middle Eastern country.

“Our long-term plan was to live and do ministry there, but it didn’t work out because of the war taking place there,” Omar says. “But the Lord opened an opportunity for us to immigrate to the U.S. in 2011, and we started to do independent ministry among refugees from that country.”

In 2015, Omar and Amira got connected with The Navigator city leader in Raleigh, North Carolina, where they had moved. At the time, around 10,000 refugees from that country had entered the city, and The Navigators were praying for someone to lead a refugee ministry.

“I shared with him my heart for them,” Omar says. “I was surprised how the Lord had led us to be here, specifically for the people to come. I joined The Navigators Nations Within ministry in 2016, and we’ve been working with refugees from that country since then.”

The Power of Relationships and Prayer

Omar and Amira’s ministry in Raleigh is centered around two key ingredients: relationships and prayer.

At the beginning of their ministry, Omar and Amira started a prayer group in their apartment every Wednesday night, where they would come together with believing neighbors and pray for opportunities in their community. Week after week, the Lord sent them new people to connect with — most of which had backgrounds from a different world religion — and they would share the gospel and invite them into their home for prayer and a meal.

As their community grew, Omar and Amira began investing in their new connections through Life-to-Life^® discipleship and meeting practical needs — taking them to doctor’s appointments or grocery stores, teaching English, and helping them apply for jobs. “That was our focus: how to help them and become their friends,” Omar says.

Over time, they saw the Lord work powerfully in the lives of their friends. From casting out demonic presences through prayer to simply being an example of how to joyfully and lovingly live a life for Christ, they witnessed as, one by one, families started to know and accept Christ for the first time.

“Things started to happen in their lives, and we felt that the Lord had something greater planned than we ever thought through our simple weekly prayer meeting,” Omar says.

Aisha’s Story

For a woman named Aisha*, Omar and Amira’s ministry was truly life saving.

A couple from another Middle Eastern country, Aisha and her husband, Hassan*, had met Omar and Amira a decade earlier when they had first moved to the U.S. After two years of not being in contact, Hassan reached out to Omar one day, desperate. “He told me that his wife was under attack,” Omar remembers.

Aisha had been plagued by demonic attacks, and after being hospitalized twice with no physical conditions confirmed by doctors, she had hit a point where she was no longer able to eat or drink for 10 days. Scared his wife was near death, Hassan asked if Omar would be able to pray over her.

Omar and Amira came over to their place and shared the gospel with them for three hours, and then invited Aisha and Hassan to come to their church to be prayed over. A couple nights later at church, they worshipped and shared the gospel again. Omar invited Aisha and Hassan to pray to receive Christ. They prayed together, sitting and crying, as they committed their lives to the Lord. Then, Amira prayed over Aisha for healing and for her to be free from the demonic presence that had been burdening her.

“We asked her how she felt, and she said she felt joy and peace and was so happy for what she received from the Lord,” Omar says. “We asked if she was able to drink, and she finished two bottles of water. The next day, she woke up feeling comforted and peaceful, and she had her first meal in 10 days.”

With her spirit lifted, Aisha shared with her family about how the Lord saved her. After months of losing hope and preparing for death, they felt free! In their joy, Aisha and Hassan prepared a feast, praising the Lord and giving Him glory. Since then, Omar and Amira have continued to disciple them, encouraging them to read the Bible on their own and continue growing in their faith.

“For the first time, Aisha understood that God was her father and that He was for her, not against her,” Omar explains. “Where before, she was terrified and scared, she knew she couldn’t go back to the life she had been living before. The old creation was no longer dragging her back.”

Crossing Barriers for Christ

Through Omar and Amira’s ministry, the nations are being reached powerfully here in the U.S. They’ve seen families praise the Lord for the first time, and have witnessed the Lord build a community centered on the hope of Christ and loving each other as He first loved us. The impact has been generational and transformative: one relationship and prayer at a time.

“When we pray, we allow the presence of God to come to people, and they will experience His presence and the freedom He provides,” Omar says. “We don’t have to go through apologetics. It’s prayers that have crossed barriers because we have given them an encounter with God himself.”

*Names changed for privacy

Discipleship Tip:

One way that Omar and Amira built community and shared the gospel is by meeting the needs of those around them. Look around you — are there any practical needs that you can meet? Think about people in your community that might need resources or help, and consider how you can step in to serve, using that as a building block for relationship to flourish.