“I will pour out my Spirit on all people” says God, “and your sons and your daughters will prophesy, and your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.” -Acts 2:17

Muslims in the Middle East are turning to Jesus in unprecedented numbers. This is also true of African Muslims with 667 every hour leaving Islam and embracing Christianity for several reasons, and one of these reasons being out of a supernatural experience with Jesus himself (this equates to 16 000 per day and 6 million per year) (1). Here, however, we have the story of Amir and Rasha. Amir and Rasha along with their two children fled from Homs, a small city in Syria where life is anything but pleasant (2):

“Since 2012, we have been living in a tent… It is not an easy life. About a year ago my wife’s mother was killed by a sniper when she went out to have some fresh air. My wife’s brother was killed on his way home.”

Recently, shares Rasha, she was given a vision of Jesus: “About three months ago, I was given a vision of Jesus Christ. I was sleeping and all of a sudden I saw Jesus Christ in white. He said ‘I am Christ. You will have a beautiful daughter.”

At this time she was eight months pregnant and a month later their baby girl was born. But it wasn’t only Rasha who had a vision of Jesus, her husband did too: “I saw Jesus Christ. He was dressed in white. He said to me ‘I am your Savior. You will follow me.’”

The strongest proof of this extraordinary and dramatic change is their baby girl with the very Christian name Christina! Both Amir and Rasha have now decided to follow Jesus, and both have stopped their previous Islamic practice of attending mosque: “We decided to follow Him. We named our baby Christina. We left our old Islamic customs.”

However, understandably, Rasha still dresses as a Muslim woman with her head covered by a veil because of fear: “Our clan is very big; we’re afraid now. They might kill us.” There is the family dynamic present too: “Our family knows we are Christians now. Becoming a Christian is, for them, the same as if I had destroyed the Kaaba in Saudi Arabia. It is because we walked in the darkness and are now in the light. I want to protect my family.”

Sadly, they are also continuously on the move hoping to not get stuck within Muslim communities: “We now have no fixed place to live, we go from place to place,” and “Now, because we are Christians, others don’t want to help us. The church is helping as much as is possible.”

Despite these hardships they remain hopeful because Jesus is their Lord: “The most important thing is that we know Jesus Christ as our Savior. He will save us. We regularly pray to the Lord, we freely worship Him, and He protects us. God is with us. God will resolve our situation.”

References.

1. Al-Jazeerah. 2012. 6 Million Muslims convert to Christianity in Africa alone each year. Available.

2. Janelle, P. 2016. Muslims Turn to Christ in Unprecedented Numbers Pt. 1. Available.