In Their Own Words: Three Refugee Stories
Jenny*, a missionary in Europe, collected these stories of faith from three refugees that she's gotten to know personally through her work there.
God Must Be Jesus’s Father (Refugee #1)
I came to faith through studying the virgin birth. I wrestled with the idea of it and came to the realization that all the other prophets had a physical father whereas Jesus had no physical father. This father must be God which would make Jesus the son of God! I also realized that I had been worshiping idols, prophets, Mohammed. It was as if I was praying to a wall. There was never any answer. … But now I worship Jesus, the living God! I had started to seek Jesus in [my home country in the Middle East] but didn't have a Bible, so I used the internet as a way to find out more information about Him. God brought me here so that I might find Jesus. But the truth is that Jesus found me. Now I understand that God has forgiven my sins through Jesus’ death on the cross and I have a new life in Him.
Islam Couldn’t Fill the Hole in My Heart (Refugee #2)
I was interested in the miracles I had heard Jesus performed and did some research online as well. I realized that only the true God could do such miracles which meant that Jesus had to be God. I was seeking God through Islam but never found Him there. I had a huge hole in my heart that Islam couldn't fill. I knew only Jesus could and he has filled it now. There is no real love or forgiveness in Islam. But through the Bible study, I learned that Jesus forgave all my sins on the cross granting me access to God. God brought me here to discover Jesus and learn how to follow him in peace!
My Wife Was Secretly Going to Church (Refugee #3)
My wife was in a house church in [my home country in the Middle East] and I didn’t even know about it! She used to be so anxious about everything but now she had such a peace! She had changed so much that I knew something was happening with her that was supernatural. I asked her and she told me about Jesus so it piqued my interest.
Eventually my wife got into trouble in court because she was visiting a house church. That's when we fled. When we arrived in Europe back in the fall, my Christian friend Jenny gave me a Farsi Bible. I have read it twice from cover to cover since then. Two things stuck out to me while reading the Bible. One was that Jesus gives a purpose to my suffering. I love the book of Job. God confronts Job with the fact that he wasn’t there at the foundation of the earth. The other was the use of the law and how Jesus rebuked the Pharisees with trusting the law for their salvation instead of trusting Him. It is not about outwardly keeping the law but about the heart. Through reading the Bible, God lifted the veil from my eyes to see Jesus as the only way to God. I want to live my life for Jesus, body, heart, mind, and soul. Life without Jesus is not worth living anymore. God had a plan to bring me here so I could find Jesus. Now I am 100 percent convinced that I want to live for Jesus. God is now giving me endurance to suffer like Job. We have found joy even though life is so hard here.
Please pray for these and other refugees who are finding faith in a new homeland.
*Name has been changed.
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SEE MOREPray that churches would care well for missionaries on home ministry assignment, and that missionaries would tangibly feel God's love.
Pray for a new parish-style church in Bangkok, Thailand, where the missionaries and church members are able to live in close proximity to one another and more easily minister to the community around them.
Pray for God's provision for missionaries raising support, and that they would remember that developing ministry partners is a ministry.
Pray for God to raise up missionaries to plant churches and teach theology in places where the gospel has been distorted.
Pray for the Wolof people in Senegal, identified as an unreached people group, as the gospel spreads through a new church plant.
Give thanks to God for the hundreds of thousands of Iranians who have come to faith over the last two decades. Pray for God to protect believers and draw more to Himself.
Pray that the global church, including the PCA in the U.S., would make evangelism a priority, and share the truth with those around them.
Pray that God would draw many PCA church members, pastors, students, and those passionate about global missions to the GMC conference in November.
Give thanks and pray for a couple in Japan who recently came to faith as they faced the last days of the husband's life.
Pray for those in Turkey continuing to rebuild from last year's earthquake, and for continuation of the spiritual growth seen as a result.
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