Send Hope

Write to: Believers in the Middle East

Thousands of believers from countries across the Middle East, including Syria, Iraq, Jordan and Egypt, have signed up to receive daily messages from Christians around the world – and you can write to them!

Open Doors has launched a Hope for the Middle East encouragement app. Email us a short message (to inspire@opendoorsuk.org) – maybe with a picture or a 15 second video – and we will pass it on to persecuted Christians who will be able to access your messages via their phones and tablets.

Already, the app is being well received by Christians in the Middle East. One believer wrote: “May the Lord bless you, I’m very happy with this app. I hope we can encourage each other in reading the gospel. May the Lord repay you for your efforts…” Another said: “Thank you for this valuable devotion. May the Lord bless you and us as well, now and ever and to our last breath.”

Guidelines

• If you can, please upload with your message a good-quality photo OR short videoOR audio clip – as the Middle Eastern culture is very visual and audio based, messages containing media are easier to share on the app and are viewed by more people.
• Write a short message up to 500 characters without a picture, or 100 characters with a picture (including spaces).
• You could include an encouraging Bible verse.
• If you are willing, you can state your first name, age, profession, and/or country. Be aware that this information will then become public on the internet and may be shared on social media by believers in the Middle East. Do not include your full name or full address.
• Provide a picture so that more people view it, eg a Bible verse, a group of you praying, a picture of a cross, you waving at the camera, nature. etc.
• As believers in the Middle East are facing struggles, you could talk about how you deal with personal (spiritual) struggles – is there a special prayer that helps you?

You must email your message to inspire@opendoorsuk.org only. We cannot pass on hardcopy messages.

Technical things

• Make sure pictures and videos are in the landscape orientation (and copyright free!)
• Try to send pictures that are at least 700 pixels wide, but not more than 1080
• If the pictures contain posters or text, please make sure that they are legible
• Leave enough space on your video, or if you have text in your picture, for an Arabic translation (roughly, your text should not take up more than 20 per cent of the image)
• When creating a video, include a short description, make sure that it is under 15 seconds in length and no larger than 1GB.
• Do not create a complicated video with music and moving text, because the video will be translated into Arabic. Simply send the text you want to include in the video (in mov, mp4, m4v, wmv and flv formats only, between 400-1000 kbps) and any specific instructions – like when/where you want the text to appear. The aspect ratio must be either 4:3 or 16:9
• You could record an mp3 song snippet and/or include a message up to 30 seconds in length.

Struggling with what to say?

Below are some ideas of messages you could send.

Keep the faith brothers and sisters. We fight the good fight. You are loved deeply by the Almighty.

Be strong, brothers and sisters. My husband, David, myself, Anna, and my two daughters, Hannah (aged 9) and Lucy (aged 5) are praying for you. Your faith is an inspiration to us all. We are telling our friends in the church about what you are going through. We are praying for you. God bless!

On behalf of Your family, God, we are praying for the safety of all our persecuted family. We pray for their protection. Lord, let Your love fill them once again specially for those who are about to give up. Lord, let them see the hope again in You, that You are always there for them. Lord, we are lifting our family to You. Guide them protect them, and let Your most precious and holy blood cover them. Amen.

Send to us!

This campaign is online only. Please email your message to inspire@opendoorsuk.org

And we’ll do the rest!

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