A Dream, A Poem, and a Personal Encounter

One night in 1989, prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union, a young Central Asian woman named Gulya, from a very secular, atheistic (but still nominally Muslim) family, had a dream. In the dream the moon turned red and she witnessed horrible events happening all around her. In the midst of this she saw a book open to a page of poetry. She had the same dream three nights in a row, so she was able to memorize the short poem. Curious, she looked through many books of poetry trying to find it—but could not.

Not long after, Gulya and her family went to visit some friends. Across from the friend’s house, Gulya noticed a young Russian woman wearing a scarf on her head. Usually only elderly Russian women wear scarves in this way. When Gulya asked her family about it, they said, “Don’t pay any attention to her; she is part of a sect.”

Russian Baptist women usually wear scarves to cover their heads, in accordance with their interpretation of 1 Corinthians 11:6. The Communist Party in the U.S.S.R.—still in power at this time—taught that Baptists were an aberrant sect that sacrificed babies and drank blood, but Gulya didn’t know this. The warning just made her more curious, so she asked the young Russian woman about the scarf. The answer involved God, so it was completely incomprehensible to Gulya, who was raised during Soviet times when atheism was the official doctrine. She had never heard anything about God. At the end of the conversation, the Russian woman gave her a small book.

Gulya slipped the book into her bag and took it home. She opened it to a random page—and there was the poem from her dream! She couldn’t believe it, but there it was. She looked all through the book to find out who the author was, but could not find where it was written. So she went back to the young Russian woman and asked her.

The answer again was incomprehensible because it involved God, but Gulya was invited to a meeting on Sunday morning where she could learn more. At one point during that meeting (a church service), everyone got down on their knees to pray.

Although there was no one behind her, Gulya felt as though big hands were on her shoulders gently pushing her to her knees. That day she received Christ. Then, she learned that the book she had been given was the Bible, and everything in her dream was written in it. The poem she had memorized from her dream was the Lord’s Prayer, and the horrible events she saw were from the plagues of Revelation. God is bringing Muslims to Himself around the world.

*Alexander Pierce is an MTW missionary serving among Muslims in Central Asia. His name has been changed for security reasons.

Interested in serving among Muslims? Check out some of our opportunities to serve at mtw.org/serve.