From our 2nd Quarter issue of the Progress Report – Smugglers

I want to thank my God for saving my soul and calling me to spread the Gospel’s message to my big family and the people who live in our country who have not heard the message of salvation or have not even read or seen a Bible before. Also, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your prayers and financial support all these years, which have enabled us to keep preaching, teaching, and sharing the Word of God with sinners to win them to Christ. 

Among them is this testimony. A 39-year-old man grew up in a Muslim family, which was a very devoted Muslim family. His father was part of the Muslim Brotherhood’s movement in our country. In the early 1980s last century, a war began between the Muslims Brotherhood and the regime, which lasted for several years. The regime arrested thousands of people on charges of belonging to the Muslims Brotherhood, and his father was one of them. He was arrested and disappeared; they had never seen or heard about him.

His uncles tried to step up and help his mother as our culture demands, and they tried to raise this young man to follow in his father’s steps. Still, his mother opposed that because she didn’t want to lose any of her children, so he grew up trying to find his own path. At the same time, he hated the regime and blamed the Muslims Brotherhood’s leadership for leaving their people behind as the leaders escaped the country. 

He tried to obey the essential teachings of Islam and find the right Imam (religious leader) to follow, but all of them were appointed by the government, so they supported the regime and praised the president. Growing up, he couldn’t find anyone to trust or follow, so his religious life turned into empty rituals without meaning. At that time, he was consumed with fear of Islam and Allah, then the sectarian war started (almost 12 years ago), and his concerns swelled to include his safety and that of his family.

He told all his extended family that he would not be part of that war. He told them he didn’t want his children to grow up without a father just to satisfy fake religious men, that this war has no just cause, and death has become a part of our daily life; every hour, you hear reports that someone you know has been killed for no reason. All this made him lose any meaning of belonging to his religion.

Then one day, after hearing his uncle had been killed, he told his family that he was no longer a part of the Islamic religion. He quit practicing anything that has to do with Islam. But he had three unanswered questions that continued to haunt him; who is God, where is God, and what is the truth? 

We have a ministry of helping families in desperate need by providing them with the essential needs of life. For example, our members share with their neighbors, who may ask for a teaspoon of salt or a half cup of olive oil to cook a meal. So, one day he asked one of our families if he could have some salt because there was no salt in all the markets, and even if there was, snipers, were shooting in their area. Therefore, no one could leave their apartment for more than five days, and the markets had no salt for almost two weeks. So, naturally, our church member gave him as much salt as he could, and they started to build a friendship.

The man told our church member that before he knocked on his door, he had asked for help from all the other neighbors in their building, who are Muslims like him, but no one helped him, and then he said, “You are from a different religion, and yet you stand with us on many occasions and help us. I really appreciate that!” 

Our man looked at him and said to him, “I help others because I am a Christian man; let me tell you a story about what my Lord told us to do,” and he shared with him the story of the Good Samaritan, and that story opened the door for his many questions about Christianity. So, our man arranged a meeting for the three of us, and I quickly saw this man was like a barren desert. He started to absorb every word I told him, especially when I started to talk about the person and nature of God in the Bible.

Immediately he stopped me and said, “I can’t comprehend everything in one sitting. Can I have a Bible and meet with you again tomorrow?” So, of course, I said yes and gave him a Bible.

It took a few meetings to answer his many questions and explain who God is according to the Bible and how different He is from Allah in the Quran. That is when his eyes were opened to the Truth, and he came to the knowledge of salvation and accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. Then, after only two weeks, the Lord helped us bring his extended family to the knowledge of salvation, and they all accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. 

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