Population:
10.12 million
Evangelical population:
0.27%
People groups:
20
Unreached people groups:
13
Jordan
With Christianity dating back to the first century A.D., the country east of the Jordan River and northeast of the Red Sea now has a population that is 96.3 percent Muslim. Of the 2.3 percent who identify as Christian, 61.8 percent are Orthodox and 18.4 percent Roman Catholic, with Protestants making up 10.7 percent.
The official language is Modern Standard Arabic, but most native Jordanians speak a dialect known as Jordanian Arabic, and English is the de facto language of business and has co-official status in schools and universities.
Native missionaries operate a theological seminary that has trained Christians for work in 19 Arab countries, as well as most of the evangelical pastors in Jordan. The seminary needs assistance to cover tuition for trainees and to help support graduates as they begin church planting in countries with high poverty and persecution.
Ministry leaders also seek help to cover costs of an online training program to help Muslim-background believers plant house churches in Islamic countries. Also sought is regular support for missionaries working in multiple native ministries. A ministry that trains leaders from countries throughout the Middle East helps equip children’s ministry workers and house-church leaders to reach their respective countries with the gospel.
Jordan has a high number of refugees, including Syrians, Iraqis, Lebanese, Yemenis and Libyans. One ministry provides Syrian and Iraqi refugees with aid, and its Christian school serves traumatized refugee children, including special teacher aides for those suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. This ministry thus provides a huge help to the children’s families. Workers need assistance for this ministry, which opens the doors for them to share the gospel with refugee families. A counseling and discipleship center for traumatized refugees also offers vocational training such as skills in sewing or hair dressing.
Sources: Joshua Project, Wikipedia
How to Pray
for Jordan
Pray that leaders will continue to be trained online or otherwise for badly needed leadership in Middle Eastern countries.
Pray that growing signs of persecution of Christians in a country that has long lived peacefully with Christians would come to an end.
Pray that refugees would put their faith in Christ and find freedom to practice their new faith.
More stories from Jordan
Help Train Church Workers in Jordan
The pandemic helped a seminary develop its online programs for church leaders and others being trained to expand God’s kingdom throughout the Middle East.
Help Transform Lives with the Gospel in Jordan
A young man who served as an assistant to the leader of a mosque came to a local ministry’s church to argue with congregational leaders about Christianity. Later going through severe hardship, he had a dream that Christ was bearing his pain and had transformed His suffering on the cross to glory.
Persecuted Christians in Jordan Persevere
A refugee in Jordan was supporting himself and his two children by working at a restaurant after his wife left him for accepting Christ. Recently a deep sense of loss struck him as he worked, and he sought out a secluded place to pray. “He did not notice that there were cameras in the room, and he made a cross sign while praying,” the leader of a native ministry said.
Provide Aid to Refugees in Jordan
Meeting the urgent needs of Syrian and Iraqi refugees for food, clothing and medical care, local ministry workers specialize in helping children; they recently opened a school in a refugee camp for 20-25 students, as many children are unable to read and are not allowed to go to Jordanian schools.
Send Aid to Desperate Refugees in Jordan
A refugee father of two learned his home in Iraq had been destroyed and that he could not return. Local missionaries taught him to make mosaics, and he has earned income selling those through the church.
Help Bring the Joy of Salvation in Jordan
A young Muslim began looking into Christianity online and made contact with a local missionary, but before they could meet, the seeker was frustrated when a traditional church he sought to visit turned him away because of his religion.
