SHE grasped the rope eagerly, that elderly peasant woman of north west Iran, and tugged vigorously to send the message of the bell over all the village, "Come to the church—come to the church." That ringing bell is symbolic of the three angels' messages, which must be sounded to all the 143 million inhabitants in the 4.5 million square miles of the eleven major countries and handful of desert sheikdoms that comprise our Middle East Division.
From our mere human point of view, fulfilling the gospel commission seems an impossible task. Since the Advent message was first preached in the environs of the Middle East Division it has taken ninety years to reach division membership of 3,500. But the workers of the Middle East are not discouraged, for in prophetic writ are these promises:
"Among earth's inhabitants, scattered in every land, there are those who have not bowed the knee to Baal."—Prophets and Kings, p. 188.
"When divine power is combined with human effort, the work will spread like fire in the stubble."—Selected Messages, book 1, p. 118. The key to our success is in the linkage of the divine power with human effort. God declares in Zechariah 4:6, "Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit . . ."
The 3,500 members of the Middle East Division realize that God's work on earth cannot be accomplished by their might and power with a population-member ratio of 42,000-to-one—it can be accomplished only by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The 288 workers of the Middle East know that they cannot take the gospel to the far-flung corners of this division through their own might and power with a worker-population ratio of one-to-500,000. They can accomplish it only through the Heaven sent power of the Holy Spirit.
Through the years we have prayed for the latter rain and have seen only a few sprinkles. We look, by faith, to the promised showers of refreshing and blessing. Currently the church in the Middle East is using the time-proven channels of the various departments of our organization, particularly the showing of temperance films, Five-Day Plans, public evangelism, medical work, educational institutions, and Sabbath school evangelism. In a limited way, Bible correspondence schools and the literature ministry are being used. From these approaches, through the years baptisms have averaged between one hundred and two hundred yearly; but the past quadrennium has seen the beginning of a gospel breakthrough. The spirit of God is working as we seek to unite human effort with divine power. In 1968 the number of baptisms jumped to 450, and then to 487 in 1969. The Middle East has seen its first centurion evangelist in Fakry Nageeb, who in 1968 baptized 112, and 244 in 1969.
In looking to. the future, the Middle East Division committee feels that a new thrust, linking worker and layman together in soul-winning endeavor and this team uniting with God, must push forward in the following areas:
1. Completion and use of a new series of health and Bible correspondence course lessons that are currently under preparation.
2. The wide distribution of penetration tracts. A series of four each, for Moslems and Christians, are now being prepared.
3. A greater emphasis in village evangelism. A majority of the baptisms in the past two years have come from village areas, and it is believed that many small gospel fires over a wider area will have a greater impact upon the population if we move out of the traditional areas where our work has centered in the past.
It was a village woman in Iran who was ringing the church bell that brought all the Christian population of the village to the small mud chapel. We had gone there in the middle of the week and simply announced that we had come to hold a gospel meeting if they would permit us to use their church. With faces aglow with interest, they drank in the promise of a soon-coming Saviour. There are fifty such villages in that corner of Iran near the Turkish-Russian border where there are churches without pastors of any denomination. We ourselves have only a handful of members and an inadequate working force. Village after village in this area has indicated their church will be open to any gospel worker we send.
In the large town of Rezayeh, centered among these villages, a recent evangelistic series by George Terzibashian and L. C. Miller brought, without advertising, 150 listeners night by night. One thrilling aspect of the campaign was that many attendants were earnest young people seeking truth in these modern times.
These multitudes of shepherdless Christians and the Moslem millions, not only of Iran but the entire Middle East, wait to hear the three angels' messages. True, we have a high worker-member ratio of one-to-eleven; but in comparison with the worker-population ratio of one-to-500,000, there is a serious lack of pastors and evangelists to serve as front-line gospel troops. As Christ prophesied in Matthew 9:37, "The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few."
Since the promise is sure that if human effort is combined with divine power, the work will spread like fire in the stubble, we in the Middle East pledge ourselves to pray more and work harder. While we do so, let us heed the words of Christ and pray that "the Lord of the harvest . . . will send forth labourers into his harvest."
