Testimony
2 minutes 51 second read
Reem* first contacted Arab World Media in September 2023 by clicking on the ‘Contact Us’ link on their ministry website. She messaged saying, ‘I want to know more about Christianity and how to become a Christian.’
When Nader,* one of the responders from the team asked her why she was interested in learning about Christianity, she said, ‘I am tired of searching on the internet. All the information is conflicting, so I decided to reach out to a Christian who knows Christianity well. As you know, there are no local Christians here in this part of North Africa, so that is why I contacted you directly.’
Nader then began to explain the character of Christ in the gospel. But, like most Muslims, Reem viewed the Christian faith through the lens of Islam, understanding all terms and concepts from an Islamic perspective. She found it hard to understand terms like ‘Son of God,’ or the concept of the Bible being God’s word written through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
After several months of discussion, dialogue and reading with Nader about the basics of the Christian faith, Reem understood the gospel and was able to articulate these truths correctly. At that point, she sent a long voice message explaining her story.
As a little girl, Reem lived with her family in Egypt. There was a church on the street where the family lived, but even though she always wanted to go in, her mother would never let her. This made her even more determined to learn about Christianity. She thought that the people attending the church seemed wonderful and she couldn’t see anything scary about it.
After the family returned to her North African country, she started asking why she wasn’t allowed to learn about Christianity. She was told that Christians were infidels who worship three gods. But it seemed to her that all the reasons she was given were based on blind loyalty to Islam; no one gave her a clear explanation. Instead of giving up, she searched even harder. As she read online about Christianity and watched videos of Christians, she concluded that some people just had very closed minds.
She found in Christ the God she was searching for, a loving God who calls for love and forgiveness. She loved Christ very much.
In March 2024, after much dialogue and discussion with Nader, she prayed and accepted Christ as her Lord and Saviour! She was very happy with this decision and felt peace and security in her heart. But she was also afraid of what might happen if her family found out about her faith, so she decided not to tell anyone that she was a Christian; she determined to keep it a secret in her heart.
Naturally, Reem stopped performing Islamic rituals, and her family started to notice. One day, her sister entered her room, heard her praying aloud ‘the Christian prayer’ and went to tell the family immediately. It was a very scary day for Reem, but God gave her great strength. She stood and told her family that this was her decision alone. She had become a Christian out of firm conviction and faith in God, and she asked them not to interfere and to leave her alone.
Reem does not understand what happened to her family, but they accepted her decision as though controlled by a stronger authority and fell silent. In the following days, they tried to talk to her about it, but she remained steadfast in her decision and words.
Reem longs for there to be a thriving Church in her homeland, and desires to have a role in proclaiming the gospel in her North African country and to her unreached people. She prays for their spiritual blindness to be removed and for them to also be convinced that Christ is the only way, the truth, and the life.
*Name has been changed and library images used.
This story was first published in Arab World Media’s April 2025 Praise Report.
