In the city where we live in the Arabian Peninsula, most public transportation is by privately owned passenger vans that run on a route like a bus. I was silently riding home from work one day in one of these vans when I was brought into a conversation. No sooner had I spoken a few words of Arabic than the previous topic was forgotten.

“Are you a Muslim?”

“No, I am a Christian.”

“You know the gospel is corrupted.”¹

“Seek God’s forgiveness! The gospel is God’s Word. How can you say that God couldn’t or wouldn’t preserve His Word? There’s no proof of any changes anyway.”

“But it says so in the Qur’an.”

“Sorry, I don’t accept what the Qur’an says about the gospel. Have you read the Bible?”

“No, it is forbidden because it has been changed.”

“You should read it before you say it has been changed.”

“No way!”

At this point, the van had reached my street, so I exited, asking myself what the point was. But there is a point. Muslims will not understand Christ until they see Him in the Bible. By God’s grace, there are many Muslims who are ready to read it for themselves. Some of them are interested in culture, some are just curious, some are looking for ammunition, but some have heard the gospel on Christian radio and are ready to read it as the Word of God. ²

One of those ready to hear was a young man named Mujtahid. ³ He had written a letter to a radio ministry requesting a Bible. My colleague met him and asked if he would like to study the Bible with us. He jumped at the offer, and over the next few weeks he read most of the New Testament and studied the book of Mark with my colleague and me. He seemed both hungry and receptive, and we had great hopes. During that time, it became clear to my colleague that his house was being watched. He mentioned it to Mujtahid, who became afraid. That was the last time we saw him.

Waseem was introduced to me by a Christian friend who had shared the gospel with him and given him an Arabic Bible. When I met him, he told me that when he read the New Testament, it was as if he had found a whole new world. He too was a voracious reader. He began a study in the gospel of Mark with me, and was eager and receptive. He even made a profession of faith. A few weeks later, he asked me about marriage. We looked at what the Bible said about not marrying outside the faith. He acknowledged this, but within a few weeks he was married to a Muslim woman. He ceased meeting with me, and no longer read his Bible.

Faris also wrote to one of the Christian radio programs requesting a Bible. I had two goals when I met him—to give him an Arabic Bible, and to ask him to study the Bible with me. He too leapt at the chance, and was very grateful for the Bible. He told how he had listened to Christian radio for years, and how he considered himself a Christian. That first night I gave him an outline of the gospel, and he asked me how Christians pray.⁴ I talked about how prayer is not ritual, but pouring out our hearts to God in worship and supplication, and I gave him Matthew 6 and John 17 to read.

After I left he read far into the night, knelt and prayed the Lord’s Prayer, and then fell asleep. He dreamed⁵ that night that he was walking and came to two high mountains, with a deep valley between them. He began to climb one of chem. When he reached the top he could scarcely breathe for lack of oxygen. The river in the valley was barely visible below. As he watched, it began to rise and fill the valley. He was terrified, screaming as the water overwhelmed him; but immediately it began to recede. As it did, it left the mountains green and the air clear, and he could breathe again. I asked him what he thought the meaning of that dream was. He said he thought it was a picture of what happened to him when he became a Christian.

We studied the entire gospel of Mark together over several weeks, and at the end of that time he made a clear confession of faith in the gospel, having understood clearly the person and work of Christ.

“A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path.…Other seed fell among thorns.…Still other seed fell on good soil” (Mark 4.3–8).

Pray for the sowing of the gospel on good soil in the Arab world, and the establishment and growth of churches. The events of the last few months serve to emphasize the urgency and importance of Muslim evangelism. At the same time, there is greater scrutiny and pressure on missionaries working in the Muslim world in general, and in the Arab world in particular. The challenge is to see in every situation the opportunities that God brings for the sake of the kingdom and glory of Jesus Christ, and then to be faithful servants.

Basheer Abdufaldi (not his real name) is a Western church planter working as a tentmaker in the Arabian Peninsula.

Notes