POBLO-TX 2nd Annual Banquet Update

We are so thankful for all our partners in the ministry who helped to make this year's Annual Banquet a success. Thank you for your generous gifts to POBLO-TX to help support our new missionaries. By the grace of God and the help of Thrivent, we were able to raise over $40,000. We hope to raise enough money to get Pastor Aamir Masih a full-time job as our newest POBLO-TX missionary. Ground work for the next mission site has already begun in Carrollton, TX. Please continue to keep Aamir in your prayers for this mission site.

The evening was blessed with representatives of more than 30 different congregations and mission societies, along with people from 12 different nations! We thank the Pastors Walt Weiser and John Lindner, Dr. Jim Dretke and our guest speaker, Jerry Rassamni for their powerful words of encouragement. Thank you for your continued prayers, your faithfulness to the Great Commission and your love and compassion for the lost. We thank the Lord for your partnership in bringing the Gospel to all nations! (Matt 28:19-20)

The Friendship of Jesus & Muslims Conference April 3-6, 2008 Detroit, Michigan

What an incredibly blessed and exciting event we experienced during the recent "Friendship of Jesus & Muslims Conference". With more than 180 people registered to attend, we had the pleasure of meeting with many LCMS (Lutheran Church Missouri Synod) representatives, the Mission Board, and POBLO Missionaries. LCMS President, Dr. Rev. Gerald Kieschnick set the tone with his words of encouragement our first evening together.


As this historical gathering got underway, we could not help but feel we were witnessing a small piece of heaven as the scriptures were being fulfilled "After this I saw a large number of people that no one could count, from all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues standing before the throne and the Lamb, dressed in white garments and holding in their hands palm branches." (Rev. 7:9) There were more than 20 nations represented at the conference.

We were privileged to hear from those faithful servants of the Lord who had been serving in the harvest field for untold years, offering their words of wisdom, gleaning from their experiences, offering us fresh insight to reaching the slaves of Allah. And what a joy it was to behold those captives set free from the chains of Islam, as Muslim converts to the Christian faith stood up from Morocco, Iraq, Lebanon, Indonesia, Pakistan, Kosovo, Bangladesh, Gambia and the U.S.

One by one, with each testimony, we were encouraged and emboldened by the Gospel and the FRIENDSHIP of JESUS, the friend to all sinners, to impact the lives of our Muslim neighbors with the Good News. They all shared of the One True Friend, who went the furthest distance, to the point of death, that they might have life. Many converts also told of the friend who cared enough to point them toward Jesus and His sacrificial love on the Cross.

Friday afternoon, we were given the opportunity to dialogue with three Muslim guest panelists who shared their perspectives and desires to deepen the friendships between Muslims and Christians. In hoping to offer a possible solution, one Muslim panelist closed with this comment, "The closer we get to God, the closer we get to each other." So much for religion. If only he knew that apart from Jesus, the Friend of sinners, no one can get closer to God. (Phil 2:6-8)

Christ came to us, that we might know HIM. Muslims, however, believe they must work their way toward God, through their own efforts and good deeds. The only reason we are close to God is because He became close to us in His Son, Jesus Christ, reconciling us to Himself. Therefore, our Muslim neighbor desperately needs Christ as much as we do, in order to get closer to God and to us.

Pastor Karim and Kimberly Idrees
Missionaries at Large