Islamic Warrior Finds Faith

“Yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.” John 16:2, NKJV.

In my Muslim faith, I was a committed warrior. I had reached the level of commander in the local rebel army. I wanted to be wherever there was fighting. I believed that if I died fighting Christians then not only would I go straight to paradise, but seventy members of my mother’s family and seventy members of my father’s family would also gain entrance to heaven. I grew up believing that Christians were the enemy. I thought as long as you only did bad things to Christians, God would be pleased.

My family was very poor. They wanted me to get a job to help feed the family. When I was unable to find work near my home, my family pressured me to go to a big city on another island. I had never left the island of my birth, but with their mounting insistence I booked passage to leave. We had family in the big city, and I hoped they would help me find work.

When I arrived at my relatives’ home, I found that some had been jailed, and others had been killed. They were involved in drug trafficking and gang activity. I was invited to join them. I did, but I felt guilty about it. Even my belief that it was okay to do wrong as long as you were doing it to Christians seemed weak. While living in the city, I heard about following Jesus, and even played at it secretly, but I was not committed.

Five days after I returned home for a visit I was invited to attend training with my uncle. For the first time I heard the Gospel explained in a way I could understand. I felt conflicted and confused, yet I kept going to the training. I felt drawn to what I was hearing. By God’s help and grace I began to understand that love, not war, was God’s answer to how I should live my life. By the end of the week, I accepted Jesus. For the first time, I experienced deep, real, abiding peace.

I returned to my home village and began farming and fishing. I shared the Gospel with many of my old friends and soon had gathered a group of twenty people who met with me weekly to study the words of God. My family saw the changes in my life. They used to be mad because I brought no food to the family. Now they are happy because I am able to help many people.

My soldier friends pressure me to go and fight with them. I refuse and tell them what I have learned. They still fight, but they let me stay in the village. “Keep learning what you are learning,” they say. “We like what we are hearing and we want you to teach us.”

I am now 24 years old. For nearly a quarter of a century, I fought wars for God. But now I know that love is greater, and I want to spend the rest of my life showing God’s love to others. I now know that love is true service to God.

Pray that:

God will use this young believer to draw many of his people to faith in Jesus.

The twenty people meeting weekly with this teacher of love will become committed followers of Jesus.

Each new believer will be bold to share the Gospel with family and friends.

Each new believer will take the Gospel to new villages where they have relationships.

Pacific Rim is a region of the International Mission Board, SBC.