A modern Elijah - A story from the Arab world of God answering prayer

Kamal, a new friend, had hardly got through the door before he was excitedly asking for a Bible.

He had been having dreams of a man in white appearing to him in the desert, where he was 'seeking the truth'. He told us a little of his life and his family.

Being satisfied that he was a genuine seeker, we watched the Jesus video with him, prayed with him and lent him a New Testament, suggesting he read through Luke's Gospel. We had urged him to discuss his search with his wife, and promised to pray for them both.

Two weeks later, he was back, eager to move on. He had read his New Testament and wanted the 'longer version' which he had heard about on SAT-7 (the satellite TV service for Christians of the Middle East and North Africa). He produced a slip of paper with neatly-written questions about how Christians behaved and what the rules for prayer were. We looked with him at some of the Sermon on the Mount, and explained that it was not a matter of rules but of relationship. Again we prayed, and he was eager to join in.

Long visit

His next visit was a long one, and it was clear that he was moving towards a saving faith in Jesus. He described his wife as a 'pious Muslim' and he wanted to respect that, but he agreed with us that at some stage he would have to tell his wife what was going on in his life. He had already discovered from local gossip that there was another Christian man in his area, and knew that life in our society was not always simple for known Christians. How the team prayed for Kamal and his family!

A week later, a defeated and burdened Kamal was at our gate. He had chosen to tell his wife of his journey, and she had reacted with fury, saying she would divorce him for his betrayal. She was refusing to speak with him, or to eat or sleep in the same room as him. At this point, we realised that he had made a commitment to the Lord and was not even considering going back on it, come what may. Together, we watched a film on God's love in action. We were challenged by his courage, and prayed with him for breakthrough, leaving the outcome in the hands of the Sovereign Lord. At the same time, we told him we did not believe that divorce was the Lord's will in this situation, and over the following days we kept on lifting up Kamal before the throne of grace and thanking God for his intervention.

On the Jesus side

It seemed that in no time Kamal was at the gate again, this time beaming all over his face. 'Everything's fine', he kept assuring us. 'God is great! We could hardly wait to know how God had moved in this family, and sat Kamal down to share his story. He told us of his elder daughter's severe attack of mumps, and of the complications she had been suffering, which had, of course, greatly alarmed his wife. Having some medical background, he also knew that this was a potentially serious situation, and when his wife broke her silence to discuss the situation with him, he heard himself say: 'I know Jesus is the healer. I'm going to put my hand on this side of her neck and pray to Jesus. You put your hand on the other side and pray your Muslim prayers, and we'll see what happens.'

He stopped, waited for us to catch our breath and then added with an enormous grin: 'And the Jesus side went down immediately.' Satisfyingly, the other side of the little girl's neck remained as swollen as before, and there was a long silence before his wife sighed and said: 'OK, so you're a Christian. Well, I'm not, and nor are the children, so you are to keep this to yourself and not mention it to our relatives.'

'I know Jesus is the healer'

He had subsequently prayed for the other side of his daughter's neck to be healed, and she was much improved, but we could see that Kamal had had a glimpse of God's power and compassion, and that things would never be the same again for him. We believe that this is only the first instalment of God's activity in this family, and continue to pray for breakthrough in all their lives.

This article is reprinted, with permission, from the autumn issue of Go, the quarterly magazine of Interserve,

For more information on SAT-7, which is a satellite TV service for the Christians of the Middle East and North Africa, visit www.sat7.org