Stories from the Field

May-June 2006

Lebanon I met Christians who are not Christians!
By a Christian Worker on the field

God continues to do amazing things among one of the house groups in South Beirut. The core of this group is made up of two extended families from a Maronite (Catholic sect) Christian background. Last month we learned about a young Shi'ite Muslim woman, Myssam (not her real name), who came to the doorstep of the house that hosts this group because of a vivid dream God gave her.

Since then, Myssam has become a follower of Christ, and over the past month has continued to meet weekly with this group. Over the past weekend, God added two other Muslim-background people to this group. One of the women in this group had invited a Muslim woman, "Amira," to come to their Saturday meeting, and she came. Amira listened intently throughout the singing and teaching of God's Word, clearly moved. After the regular worship time, the whole group sat with her for 3 more hours, answering her many questions and sharing Jesus with her. Amira became a believer that day, and went home a changed woman.

Amira shared with the group a burden she had on her heart for her husband, "Ali," who is an alcoholic. The church planter who currently leads this group challenged Amira to share everything she learned with her husband, and to bring him back the following day to meet with the group. Amira returned home and told her husband about her encounter that day. She told him, "I met Christians who are not Christians!" (to Muslims in our area, the word "Christian" carries all kinds of political and historical baggage and has very little to do with what we understand a Christian to be). She proceeded to tell him everything that she experienced that day, and he asked her many questions. The next day, she returned to the house group with Ali, and the whole group had assembled again. Ali asked many questions and raised some of the typical Muslim objections related to the deity of Jesus and the crucifixion. The church planter shared with Ali the story of Jesus healing the paralytic (Luke 5:17-26). He asked Ali, "Who alone has the power to forgive sins?" Ali, with surprising conviction in his voice, answered, "GOD!" His eyes were opened to the truth of who Jesus really is. With his wife beside him, and surrounded by the Body of Christ, Ali became a child of God that day.