You’ve probably heard the phrase, “When God closes a door, He opens a window.” But what about when God opens a door? Well, in the case of Jordan* and his wife Terri*, two of e3’s missionaries in Spain, walking through a door God opened led to Him opening many more doors, each providing incredible opportunities.
Jordan and a group of believers were recently praying with and for people in the center square of a large city in Spain. That was when God opened the first door.
Jordan saw a man with headphones on, and he felt the Lord drawing him to go pray for him. So Jordan tapped him on the shoulder, the man took off his headphones, and Jordan prayed for him. He said, “Why would you pray for me?” And Jordan replied, “Because I believe in the power of prayer. Jesus has changed my life, and I believe He can change yours.”
“This led to a really long spiritual conversation,” Jordan said. “He was there in this crowded space because he felt completely alone and wanted to be around people. He didn’t have any friends, he didn’t have a job, he didn’t have a family or children. He was living on a park bench sometimes and out of the backseat of a car other times. So I told him we were going to pray in the name of Jesus – not Allah, because this guy was from Morocco – that he would find a job. Then two weeks later, he got a job, and he wanted to celebrate with me because I was there when he was at his lowest.”
Terri shared this story with a refugee ministry she was meeting with, which inspired them to want to collaborate with her and Jordan.
“That opened a door for us to meet Bahram*, a gentleman from a hostile Middle Eastern country who was a refugee,” Jordan said. “He was a Christian who was arrested for his faith, imprisoned, then forced to leave the country or stay in jail for 10 years. So he was put in another Middle Eastern country for five years, then placed by the UN in Spain. We met him at a prayer meeting, and he came up to us and said, ‘God has highlighted you to train me.’”
Bahram said he felt called to plant a Persian-speaking church in Spain. This opened the door for Jordan and Terri to guide Bahram through the Four Fields, a strategy for entering an area, sharing the Gospel, discipling believers, and planting churches that do the same.
“A day later, Bahram sent me a picture saying, ‘Hey! I just trained my Middle Eastern underground church in the Four Fields you just showed me yesterday,’” Jordan said. “He was still leading the underground church in his native country from Spain. He was also leading a group in the second Middle Eastern country he was sent to. Bahram is this incredible leader who is hungry to raise up more leaders.”
As Bahram continued to learn from Jordan and Terri, Bahram trained and discipled the groups he was leading in the Middle East.
“The people in those groups began going out and sharing the Gospel and doing discipleship training together,” Jordan said. “By the third week, the leaders of the groups told Bahram, ‘I think I could do that! Can I gather my friends and family where I live and start a group?’ And of course he said, ‘Yes! We’ve been praying for that!’”
Within a few months, those groups under Bahram multiplied into 10 groups across three Middle Eastern countries.
“How did that happen?” Jordan said. “It happened because I prayed for a guy on the street, and God opened the doors.”
We are so thankful for the doors God has opened for Jordan and Terri and for their faithfulness to walk through them. We are excited to see how God will work through them and Bahram in the months to come!
*Names have been changed to ensure safety and anonymity.