The leadership of Integrity Worship Ministries has long been interested in impacting the nations of the Middle East and North Africa. Over the last few years donations have been made to support believers in these areas. In addition to funds, worship products (i.e. CDs, cassettes, videos, etc.) have been “seeded” into the region. One significant investment has been the funding of a recording studio in the region for the purpose of recording indigenous worship music of national believers. A number of recordings have already been made in this studio.
In 2003 IWM conducted an outreach to Arabic-speaking leaders. The opportunity to bring leaders from the Middle East and North Africa together for a week of ministry, training, exhortation, and dialogue was the next step in the IWM strategy to impact that region.
There were 63 pastors, worship leaders, and worship team members from all over the Middle East and North Africa, as well as from other parts of the world.
The church backgrounds and traditions were varied as well. The variety of churches represented included Baptist, Brethren, Catholic, Charismatic, Coptic, Orthodox, Pentecostal, and Presbyterian. With miraculously timely financial support from missions-minded donors, IWM was able to provide for the travel and accommodations of all the participants.
Future opportunities include the offering of additional worship institute classes, the recording of a first-quality Arabic praise and worship project, and radio/TV broadcasts of Arabic worship programming.
