Blessed assurance

2 minute 36 second read

Mustafa* comes from an unreached people group in the Arab world. His father was strongly Islamic, but his mother was a Christian whom he permitted to go to church and practice her faith.  However neither Mustafa nor his siblings were allowed to accompany her; instead they had to go to the mosque, study the Qur’an – and they weren’t allowed to ask questions. As he grew up, Mustafa watched his mother as she lived out her faith, and he started thinking about the concept of salvation – the assurance of salvation that there is in Christianity, and the complete lack of it in Islam.

When Mustafa’s father sadly died in 2018, the situation changed as the more Islamic members of the wider family took control. Consequently, Mustafa fled to another country in the region. There he found a Christian pastor and started studying the Bible with him.  Eventually this local pastor led Mustafa to the Lord, discipled him and baptised him; now he knew this assurance of salvation that he had read about it, and seen in his mother, for himself.

And he started reaching out with the love of Christ to others around him.

His staunchly Islamic uncle got to hear that his nephew was now an active follower of Jesus.  As a result he put a post on Facebook offering a reward to find Mustafa’s whereabouts. It was Mustafa’s roommate who claimed the reward! The uncle came searching, found Mustafa and stabbed him, putting him in hospital.

Ever since that time, Mustafa has been on the move, seeking to stay one step ahead of his uncle and other family members, and often changing location. For him, this is normal, this is life; and there are a lot of believers from a Muslim background who, like Mustafa, face this scenario on a day-to-day basis.

But there are many people who are interested in finding out more about Jesus, and Mustafa is keen to do what he can to reach out to them, together with several other teams in this Arab-world country. Despite the threats and opposition, Mustafa’s faith is strong and growing; he is planting seeds in the lives of people whom he meets; he is praying for those who don’t yet know Jesus.

As he says, ‘My suffering is nothing compared to what Christ went through for me.’

We praise God for Mustafa and others like him who have put their faith in Jesus. Please join us in praying that they will continue to be bold in their proclamation of the gospel and that the church will grow both numerically and in maturity. And please also pray that Mustafa’s uncle will encounter the One who went through so much for him.

*Name changed and library images used to protect identities.