Stories from our field
Imam finds Jesus via online course
Because of the restrictions due to Covid-19, a missions team in an Arabic speaking city decided to offer courses online. At a certain point, Kadin signed up for one of the courses.
Kadin began ‘The Life of Jesus’, a course from GlobalRize that the missions team had translated and adapted to the Arabic context where they work. Within two weeks, he had finished the course. Soon after that, he started another course about forgiveness that the team had developed themselves.
His mentor is Hicham, a member of the local church. By the time Kadin starts the second course, they have gained each other’s trust and communicate with each other via WhatsApp. One day, Hicham said to his team leader, ‘Kadin shows a lot of interest. He asks really good spiritual questions.’
Imam
A couple of days later, Hachim told, ’Believe it or not, but Kadin is an Imam! He had become confused by the contradictions in Islam, so he went online looking for answers.’ That is how Kadin found the course about Jesus.
Online evangelism is an easy way for Muslims to begin their search for Jesus, because they can take their first steps anonymously. The missions team had decided to recruit local believers like Hachim as mentors, so that they could guide Muslim seekers in a way that fit their context.
Bible
After a while, Kadin told Hachim that not only is he an imam, but he is also in service to the government to instruct other imams. At a certain moment, Kadin asked, ‘Can I meet you? And how can I get a Bible?’ Hicham and another church member met with him face-to-face. When they met, Hicham gave him a Bible. ‘He received it with such respect,’ Hicham told the team leader later. ‘He kissed the Bible and covered it with his hand as a precious treasure.’
City park
A couple of weeks later, Kadin and Hicham met again in the city park. The missions team had prayed many times in that park that God would show Himself to the ‘influencers’ of the city. It is an enormous encouragement that God showed them specifically in that park, that He is at work in the heart of this Muslim leader.
The team leader says, ‘I would love to walk through that park myself and explain the Scriptures to Kadin. But I am a foreigner and it is much better that a local believer such as Hachim meets with him. Our team is here to support and equip people like him to share the Gospel.’ Since then, there are twenty people who have been baptized in this city and there are three strong leaders.
