By Brent Hamoud
The task of global missions in the Middle East must contend with a host of challenges, but perhaps the most prevalent obstacle confronting missionaries is political borders. These manufactured lines cutting land masses into nation-states are more stifling to Great Commission-inspired missionary ministry than we likely realize. The hard reality is that we operate in a world awkwardly fractured by highly regulated boundaries, and this political arrangement of territory and people comes at a cost to Christian witness by blocking missionaries from accessing people and preventing them from settling into places. Borders are thorns in the missionary side and the Church would enjoy more vibrant outreach if they simply loosened up.