Cracks in the Ground of Strategic Cities • Frontiers USA

Cracks in the Ground of Strategic Cities

Three Frontiers field workers share what it's like to be the first messengers of the Gospel in cities that had no witness for Christ.
March 4, 2019 By Katie Beck
reaching Muslims in strategic cities

Frontiers workers Daniel and Karla were the first known workers to live in their sprawling South Asian city.

Their new home is a strategic city that serves as a regional hub of commerce and trade. People from villages around the region are drawn to the city for work. Many of these urban migrants represent different unengaged Muslim people groups. This creates unprecedented potential for planting the Gospel among several least-reached populations—all within a single city.

“This city is a key place for the spiritual yeast of the Gospel to expand and grow through the whole dough,” says Daniel. “It’s exciting being some of the first known missionaries to bring the Gospel here.”

This creates unprecedented potential for planting the Gospel among several least-reached populations.

“Daniel and I prayed so much for this place before coming here,” Karla adds. “Now our prayers are being lived out every day as we shop in the market, drink tea with locals, and fall asleep hearing their language.”

Sarah, another Frontiers worker, is seeing God open the gates of another strategic place with no known believers. Sarah’s city is home to a prestigious Islamic university. Muslim students from around the world are drawn to the institution. For years, Sarah has prayerfully fixed her eyes on bringing a long-term team to live and serve there.

“Imagine what could happen if all these Islamic students start to follow Jesus,” Sarah says. “They’ll go back to their families and communities as revered scholars. If they take the Gospel with them and teach others to follow Christ, then the impact is massive!”

“GOD HAS OPENED A CRACK IN THE GROUND AND PLANTED ME AND MY MINISTRY INSIDE IT.”

Before moving to the city, Sarah began learning everything she could about the place. Other workers in the country joined her in praying for an open door to move there. After a couple of years, an opportunity finally opened up for her to teach English.

“Now it feels as if God has opened a crack in the ground and planted me and my ministry inside it,” says Sarah, the first long-term Gospel worker to live in the city. “His Word is going to grow, and that crack is going to get wider and wider.”

Prayer Points
  • Praise God for opening doors for Sarah, Daniel, and Karla to serve in strategic cities to reach the peoples with the least access to the Gospel.
  • Pray for more workers to respond to the challenge of going to the peoples and places that still have no one sharing about Jesus Christ.
  • Pray for the Gospel to take root in strategic cities—that whole Muslim families and communities will put their trust in the Savior.
Editor's Note

Names and places have been changed for security.