Amid conflict, economic crisis, and mass displacement, Middle Eastern churches and Christian ministries are serving the poor, the displaced, and the marginalized in inspiring ways. But this gospel work is becoming very difficult in the mess of international politics and sanctions. One Christian ministry is doing a random sampling of a percentage of their beneficiaries every month to verify and document that the beneficiaries are not among the Syrians and Syrian entities sanctioned by the United States and the European Union. Other ministries have categorically refused to implement such surveys because they are not willing to deny humanitarian aid to anyone in need. In addition to compliance dilemmas, ministries and humanitarian actors are faced with the challenges of “unintended negative consequences” of sanctions. For example, bank transfers from abroad to Lebanon have been blocked for the simple fact that a denomination’s name includes the word “Syria” (for historic reasons, the names of many church denominations include the phrase, “for Lebanon and Syria”). Banks in Lebanon have refused to open bank accounts for Syrian refugees employed by Christian ministries—including one of which I was a board member—as a result of over-compliance.