ATLANTA – Janée Angel lives on a narrow one-way street in Brussels, Belgium. From her second floor apartment, she can see the nearby tram tracks, the tree-line sidewalk and the market where she buys fresh produce. While several of the three-story, attached houses along her quiet street are occupied by Belgians, Angel’s neighborhood is primarily inhabited by immigrants from North Africa and the Middle East.

For Angel, who is in the last year of her three-year service with the CBF Global Service Corps and whose ministry is supported by the CBF Offering for Global Missions, this neighborhood is the perfect place to be the presence of Christ. 

The majority of her neighbors are Muslim, and almost all of them have never met a Christian. For Angel, who has found herself surrounded by Muslim culture, her ministry begins with understanding.
 
“I find that tension or prejudice can be broken down when you meet someone face to face,” said Angel, a native of Effingham, Ill. “When I first arrived in Belgium, for me, Muslims were a people group in my mind. I was tainted by media and assumptions of my own from living in a post 9/11 world.”

Angel works as the director of a social center, where she teaches English classes and hosts activities such as a coffee house. She estimates that 90 percent of the people in her neighborhood are immigrants.

“As a teacher, I meet the people in my community and then build relationships with them as friends,” Angel said. “The heart of every relationship that I have is being the presence of Christ to so many who have never known a Christian. It is natural for a Muslim to understand that God is the center of all that I do.”

During daily activities and the natural process of building relationships, she has found opportunities to share her story and her love for Jesus.

One friend, who is also her French teacher, asked Angel about Christmas while they sat at a North African café drinking mint tea. Her friend was curious about the holiday and how it relates to the Christian faith. Another friend gathered the courage to ask her for a Bible during a shopping trip to IKEA. She said she wanted to read about the Jesus Angel had talked so much about.

And one day, a student arrived early to class. The woman, knowing of Angel’s background in music, asked if she would sing for her. Angel sang “Amazing Grace,” and when she had finished the student said, “I don’t understand what the words mean when you sing them, but they give me such a feeling of peace.”

Angel has found that at the heart of Muslim culture is hospitality. She has been invited into homes for dinners and has gained an extended family through her students.

“I have probably been most surprised at how I feel at home among my Muslim friends,” Angel said. “God has opened doors with several women here, and they have brought me into their lives and into their families. The comment that always amazes me is when they say that it is because of my worship with my God that they want to spend more time with me. They don't know my God, but yet it is my walk with Him that draws us into deeper relationships.”

To give to the Offering for Global Missions, which supports CBF Global Missions field personnel and their ministries around the world, go to www.thefellowship.info/involved/give. The national goal for 2006-2007 is $6.32 million.

CBF is a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.