Stories of Faith - Episode 38

Modern-Day Paul: ‘I Planned to Kill Him; Now I’m Prepared to Die for Jesus’ 

In Egypt, converting from Islam to Christianity is seen as a betrayal of your family and heritage. In Muslim families, any member who leaves their Muslim beliefs and upbringing subjects themselves to tremendous pressure from their immediate and extended family to renounce Christ and return to Islam. Some are locked up, others are isolated, tortured or even killed. Recently, our Open Doors team in Egypt met with a new believer who shared his awe-inspiring testimony of how God used his cousin’s conversion to remove the scales from his own eyes.

Mostafa hoped the rumor wasn’t true. 

If it was, he knew he was obligated to protect his family’s honor. He knew he would have to kill the cousin he had grown up with on the desert lands of Upper Egypt. It was his family’s orders. It was why he had traveled so far from home to the capital city of Cairo. 

Questions About Jesus 

The rumor was true. Mostafa found his cousin in a church listening intently. Quietly, he slipped into the seat behind Mohammed* and waited for the service to end. But then he noticed something strange. The words he was hearing—the prayers, especially the worship—didn’t disgust him. 

Instead, the lyrics of the songs touched him deeply, he says. 

Mostafa approached his cousin with tears in his eyes. 

He recalls his words to Mohammed that day: “I came all the way from our family’s village to spy on you and see if you had indeed become a Christian,” he said, wiping a tear from his cheek. “I should inform your family about what I saw, but I just can’t. I think the choice you made might have been the right one. Can you tell me more? Why did you leave Islam for Christianity?” 

Surprised by his cousin’s question, Mohammed took Mostafa to his house where the two cousins spent the evening talking about the gospel. That night, Mostafa had a dream. He saw Jesus on the cross, looking at him and saying: “I did all of this because I love you, and I want you to be free from your sins.” 

Mostafa’s vision is similar to what many Muslim converts describe. Many sources have reported the same phenomena. Dreams and visions like Mostafa’s are repeatedly cited as specific ways God reaches Muslims throughout the Arab world and beyond. 

New Life With Jesus 

The next morning, Mostafa told Mohammed what he saw in his dream. He asked his cousin to pray together with him for his salvation. 

Through tears, Mostafa screamed to God: “I planned to kill my cousin, Your follower. But now I am prepared to give my life for You myself.” 

The following month, Mostafa was baptized with his cousin standing next to him. He hasn’t told his family that he and Mohammed are now followers of Jesus. Currently, the two young men are living as secret believers, following Jesus in the place He has provided for them. 

Like many converts from Islam to Christianity, the cousins are choosing to keep their faith a secret. New believers in hostile places like Egypt hide their Bibles and connect to other Christians online or visit secret meetings. They follow Jesus’ teachings in their actions, hoping that how they live their lives will influence those around them for the gospel. Only when they think it’s safe do they share their new faith with others—in hopes that the underground movement of secret believers will grow. 

Culled from www.opendoorsusa.org

Stories of Faith - Episode 37

In an Iranian Prison, God Used Me—and a Muslim Imam—to Bring Others to Him

Mojtaba Hosseini is 30 years old. He used to be one of the leaders of a quickly growing house church movement in Iran. That was before his church was raided and he was arrested and imprisoned for three years in an Iranian prison (following a first arrest resulting in probation). Recently, we visited him (he was released in 2015) in a safe place outside Iran. 

Mojtaba’s story is an important reminder that while God may (and often does) use the suffering of persecuted believers to bring others to Him, the depth of isolation and pain they experience is still very real. He also shows us the importance of praying with our brothers and sisters whom God is using in miraculous ways in the darkest of places. 

Like all Iranian Christians, Mojtaba knew the high stakes. 

If he organized and led a secret house church—an illegal act in Muslim-majority Iran seen as a “threat against national security”—he, along with anyone participating in the church, could be arrested if they were discovered. And since he was a leader, his arrest would likely mean a conviction followed by a lengthy prison term. If he was arrested and somehow avoided prison, a second arrest would surely mean a long sentence behind bars. 

Still, just as the disciples of 2,000 years ago and today’s persecuted church leaders risked their lives to build the Church around the world, Mojtaba persisted. 

“Why didn’t I stop my work for the church after I was first arrested?” Mojtaba says, smiling. “I don’t really know. There was no logical explanation, but we felt that the Lord wanted us to continue. We knew this would mean we could get arrested at any moment.” 

Mojtaba tells his story with an eye for detail and a passion for Christ. He takes time to think about his answers and often grasps his Bible to look for a verse. 

“I Corinthians 1:29 says that ‘God did all this to keep anyone from bragging to Him,” he says. 

It is a central theme in his prison story: “It’s all about God, not about me.” 

He knew God was with him when he was in prison, Mojtaba explains. But that knowledge didn’t make prison life comfortable—far from it. 

For the majority of his sentence, he was in a ward with murderers, robbers and drug dealers. No one could be trusted. He also struggled to find hope—not knowing when, or if, he would actually be released. 

“I felt a deep fear inside of me,” he explains. “And often, even though the Lord was close, I was sad about my situation. My hands were tied, my voice wouldn’t be heard by human beings.” 

‘It’s Not About You’ 

It was those uncertainties of not knowing if he’d be robbed, killed, or even if he’d be released that were the most challenging. In his darkest hours, desperate for help to go on, he turned to prayer. 

“I prayed; that was all I could do,” he says. “At first, they were prayers of repentance. I thought God was punishing me for my mistakes by putting me in prison.” That was the moment, he says, he realized he was “nothing.” 

“Then the Lord spoke to me. He said: ‘Stop being selfish Mojtaba, it’s not about you; it’s about Me. Look around you.’” 

For the first time since being jailed, he began to truly look at people, attempting to see them as God does. 

“I saw poor people, people who had committed the worst crimes. People that felt so alone.” 

Mojtaba felt a prompting from the Holy Spirit to share God’s Word with these people he saw every day: “God spoke again to me, saying, ‘It is time that you share Me with them. They need Me.’” 

Mojtaba offers a hindsight observation: “It’s funny how God works sometimes. It would have been absolutely impossible for us to pass the big gates of prison to bring the gospel to those who needed him so badly inside. But God just placed me and other Christians inside the prison, among them to shine His light.” 

An Unlikely Source in an Iranian Prison 

The former church leader began sharing his testimony and the gospel with the other prisoners. Some came to faith; others were just very happy he wanted to pray with them in Jesus’ name. He began to long for and pray for a Bible, even repeatedly asking the guards for one. 

“I didn’t get one,” he said. “None of the Christians did.” 

Then God intervened—through one of the most unlikely sources. The prison imam, who came every day to pray with the Muslim inmates, offered to help. 

“He was impressed by our commitment to our God,” Mojtaba says. “I think it was God who filled his heart with kindness for us.” 

Getting a real Bible into an Iranian prison was impossible, but the imam had an idea. He would bring in printouts of the Bible disguised as an English lesson. One of the friends Motjaba had made in the ward was good at English and translated the scriptures into Farsi. From there, Mojtaba copied the texts and gave them to the prisoners who had requested them—both those who were curious about his faith and those who had already given their heart to Jesus. 

Soon it became known among all the prisoners that Bible verses were circulating. 

“We even got requests from other wards,” he remembers. “People were asking us for more. And the best thing was that prisoners were giving their lives to the Jesus of the Bible.” 

‘God Placed Me Among the Prisoners’ 

Reflecting on his time behind bars, Mojtaba offers a revelation that we can all learn from. 

“I never prayed for God to release me from prison,” Mojtaba says. “I can serve God anywhere, inside or outside of prison. It doesn’t matter what situation I’m in. I can work in God’s Kingdom wherever He places me. 

“And at that time God placed me among the prisoners.” 

He urges us to pray for his country and for those who are in prison for their faith. Currently, an estimated 21 Christians are imprisoned in Iran for their faith with an estimated 14 awaiting verdicts on their conviction appeals. 

“My prayer for all Iranians is that they hear the good message of Christ,” he says. “And for the Christians who are under pressure, I hope and pray they can experience the big contrast I felt. They might not be in a good situation, but I pray they feel an inner peace and joy because they know Jesus.”

Culled from www.opendoorsusa.org