The Call for Muslim Evangelism

“I am convinced that in any given, dominantly Muslim city there exists a large number of Muslims who deeply desire to be acceptable to God and who are not satisfied with the status quo.”     -Greg Livingstone, Frontiers 

Casablanca, Morocco 

Khalid was born in 1966 to a Muslim father and mother. His parents were Berbers from the city of
Agadir in the southern part of
Morocco. Berbers take a lot of pride of being the original inhabitants of
Northern Africa. They are poor mountain people separated by many different languages. Khalid grew up speaking one of these Berber languages in their home. When he went to school he was taught in French and when he played soccer with his friends in the streets or did anything else he spoke Arabic. Khalid’s parents are part of a migration of Berbers who were looking for a better life in the major cities. This better life eluded his father. King Mohammed VI was corrupt and Khalid’s father would quickly tell you about it. Though he was a dedicated Muslim he was also a communist and was involved in an ongoing struggle with the established Arab government. Besides Khalid, he had three other children but yet had never found contentment in life. Khalid, like most intensely observant children, was always keenly aware of his father’s constant search for meaning and happiness.             Everyone Khalid had ever known was a Muslim. His country was Muslim. His friends were Muslim. His life was Muslim. He heard its teachings and saw its effects every day. In
Morocco, children like Khalid are taught from the Koran (Islam’s holy book) in school 8 hours per day, 5 days per week. Islam is life and there is no other.             Khalid described his childhood like this:            ” I was born and raised in an Arabic Muslim culture. I never wanted to be anything in my life except a great Muslim in word and deed. I tried to learn more about the Koran and Islam at early age. I never liked any other religion. All other religions, to me, were nothing but devilish. As a young boy I was told that God favored his Arabian people above all others and in addition to that God loved his prophet and messenger Mohammad above all others including Moses and Jesus. I loved the thought that God favored Arabs more than any other race and I fell in love with Islam and especially Mohammed.” 

            Khalid’s  name in Arabic means “Everlasting” but because of the guilt he felt he knew that he wasn’t good enough to be everlasting. As a teenager God began to work in Khalid’s life:                        “In 1979, I was listening to a band  who always sung against the poverty and dictatorship we had in
Morocco caused by the King Hassan, and his rich buddies that dominated us. I loved this group because regardless of what may have happened to them by the king and the dictator government, they always sang against the King. One of their songs helped me to start seeking God in a different way or at least it helped me to start thinking differently. A line in the song said, “If all men are from Adam then why so many religions?” That line made me question my prejudice I held.             I thought Mohammed was the sinless One. I watched several Islamic movies that showed the fighting of the believers (Muslims) and non-believers (non-Muslims) and enjoyed them all. The thing I never liked is how someone could invade another and force him to accept Islam or be killed. I always thought about it as negative thing. If I am going to be forced to be something I do not want to be, God knows the heart. If I accept Islam only because I don’t want to die, God who made me knows my heart.              If I were raised in a culture that worships Satan I would worship Satan as well unless God intervened. If I were raised Jew and that is all I had been exposed to, I would be Jewish and worship in the Jewish way. If I were raised in
India where the Hindus worship, I would be Hindu just like everybody else.             I began then to think about things in Koran and Islam twice. At first, I tried to block the thought and resist what I thought was the Devil. I thought that if these thoughts continued that I would be cursed. I didn’t want to be a partaker of the Devil and his ways. All I ever wanted since I was a little kid, and as long as I can remember, was to know God in all of his ways. I wanted to follow Mohammed’s steps closely because he was the favored prophet and messenger of God. I prayed and fasted even though my family never forced me to do so. I walked miles and miles just to hear certain sheikh, but never my soul was satisfied. I voluntarily performed all the practices of Muslims faith. I wanted to worship God and imitate his followers like Omar Beb Khattab, Abou Bakersaddik, and Ottman Beni Aafran. It seemed, though, that the more I prayed and practiced Islam, the worse I got. I was frustrated. I didn’t understand how it was that the Koran states that God hears, but yet I never got one answer from him. I was very miserable. God never communicated with me then, never talked to me, never answered me.             In frustration I stopped practicing Islam for a while but nothing seemed to change in my life. I was still miserable when I practiced Islam and miserable when I renounced the Islam.            In 1984, I was going to school with a neighbor of mine and his friend. My neighbors friend had a cross on his neck and I didn’t like the idea of an Arab Muslim man having a cross on his neck. If I could have gotten away with a murder, I would have killed him that day. In a hateful way I asked him this question, “How can you, an Arab, Muslim, and Moroccan carry a cross on your neck?”  That same school year my history teacher told us that Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God. I became furious. I don’t think I have ever hated Christians in my life, like I did that day. Now, I believe that the teacher he was trying to plant the seed for Christ in our hearts. It worked. You see, I began to hate Christianity more than I ever had before.  I remembered saying “these people are very stupid and very devilish. From that point on everything I touched went wrong”.            When Khalid’s friends would ask him how he was doing he would say, “I’m still alive but dead inside.” At times Khalid would even discuss his denial of Allah with his dad. Surprisingly enough, this didn’t anger his father. He became curious and they would often sit for hours in conversation both trying to determine what the truth was.        

Yet, no matter where Khalid turned he saw Islam. He saw pain, emptiness, and religious ritual. He was tired of it. Very tired. He cried out to God, “Allah, if you exist, get me out of this country. Take me anywhere just not another Muslim country.” He had made his decision. He was leaving. 

Escaping
Morocco            Khalid didn’t want his family to try to stop him so he told only his brother and headed for the port where ships from around the world came in and out. His friend, Abdul Latif and he, at the age of 23, held fake fishing poles over the water as their disguise just waiting on their opportunity. At the soonest possible opportunity, they snuck on one the massive boats and hid in the dark, cold engine room. For 3 days they waited after the ship had left port surviving on only water and humus (a common Moroccan food). Fear pounded in his chest as he they emerged from that engine room. Moroccans caught as stow-aways are often cast into the ocean and never heard from again. His desire to leave was greater than his desire to live so out they came.             On the 4^th day they emerged and began working with the deckhands of the boat hoping to lay low until they reached their destination. No such luck. The authorities found them and intensely pressured them for answers, “Who are you? Where are you from? Why are you here?” They did what most would do: they lied. They told how they had been orphans traveling on boats as long as they could remember. They had no parents and no home country. Their American captors didn’t believe them but left with the options of turning around, killing them, or letting them stay, they chose to let them stay and work on the ship until they reached their destination: The United States of America.  

God Begins to Work            Once out of the religious oppression of his home country he began his true search for God. At a Salvation Army in
North Carolina he met a kind Christian woman named Mrs. Jeffers. She had compassion on him and took him in, helping him find a job. Not speaking much English, he was given an Arabic Bible by a missionary traveling through town:            “In the
United States, I decided to study Jewish faith and Christianity since I couldn’t fully accept Islam. Somebody gave me a New Testament in Arabic and I began to read it.  At first I wanted to read it to make fun of Christians since they believe that God has a son. My thought was to find funny things in it to make fun of those ignorant people. As I began to read it, however, the idea that Jesus is the Son of God began to work in my heart. I had never read anything like that about any man in the whole world. All I ever knew about Islam is fight, fight, fight, kill, kill, kill, hate, hate, hate. But Christianity is built on love with no fighting, no stealing, and no hate. One of the very first verses that the Lord Jesus used to get my attention is John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave the only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish but have everlasting life.”  It was written in the Bible that was given to me in many languages at the front page, and as I began to read it, I stopped at the very first phrase “For God so loved the world” until that day I never thought God loved me. I had prayed, fasted, and helped people without charging them but yet lived miserably. I thought God hated me. He had given us commandments that I could not fulfill. I had prayed and asked him things and never heard from him. “For God so loved the world” got me to thinking for the first time about God’s love. I couldn’t figure it out. I was so enamored with the statement that God loved me that I wasn’t bothered at all by the next sentence that states that God had sent me his only Son that I may have everlasting life.             Until that time I had never thought about his love.  I began to read the bible and began to fall in love with Jesus. There was no hate in Jesus. I wanted to be a Christian more than anything. But there was one thing that Jesus wanted from me, I couldn’t let go of it. I would let go future, money if I had any, but I never could let go of my family. I loved my family so much than anything else in the world. And Jesus says in his Word, “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” Matthew 10:37 

             His search led him to the only Arabic congregation which was Orthodox. He went every week, always walking 6 miles one way to hear more about Christ. When he told the priest that he wanted to be a Christian, the priest told him he needed to confess.             So he began: “I am an illegal alien. I have falsified my papers. I don’t…”              The priest interrupted him in frustration. “Wait, wait, wait! That’s not what I’m talking about! Just come to get baptized next week.”            So the next week he came ready and was baptized as a Coptic Christian. He received his new Christian name: David. Along with his name he expected his life to change. It didn’t happen. He still had a problem with drinking and other things. So, he quit church altogether. From there his search led him in and out of the Mormon church and down to
Georgia where he met a young girl from a Baptist church named Amy. He went with her to her church in
Cumming, GA where he heard the gospel and came under such heavy conviction that he refused to go back. They were soon married and had 2 children they named Adam and Sarah. With children came more problems, more drinking and drugs, and more fighting.  

The Turning Point            Khalid and his family moved back to
North Carolina for reasons of work but God had other reasons. There Khalid, needing money for drugs, robbed hundreds of vending machines landing him in prison for the first time with 22 felony charges.             Life had come to a halt. No drugs now and no drinking. Just hour upon hour of reading that Arabic Bible he had received years before. He compiled tracts and as much literature as he could get his hands on. Then came the news in the mail that changed the way he looked at himself: Amy was filing for divorce. “What?” he thought. After all I have done for her?! I don’t deserve all this!” But the Holy Spirit began to convict him of his sin.             “In Jan. 1997, after so many years of living a very miserable, disappointing life, I prayed and asked God to forgive all my sin and to save me from going to hell. I remember I said “Lord I don’t want to die and go to hell. Please save me.” And I heard the Holy Spirit of God speak to me about my family saying, “Do you love me more than these.” I responded to the Lord, “I just want you. My family can go. I just want you. Please save me.” I immediately felt peace in my heart like I never felt before. I thought about the verse “Peace I give unto you not as the world giveth, my peace I give unto you.” (Jn 14:37) 

            All he would do from the time he got up to when he went to bed was read the Bible and witness of Christ to his fellow inmates. He even started an inmate Bible study that is still going on today. He had never been happier in his life. With an excitement he had never known before Khalid thought in his heart there in that prison cell, “Now I know why God let me be named Khalid! I am everlasting in Christ Jesus!” He had never been happier in all of his life. In fact, when his parole was up from prison he was a little sad to leave as he had learned to love the hours he spent with God in His Word every day.            Amy had moved back to
Georgia so Khalid called and wrote her. He promised her he had changed. He was released on Saturday morning and headed straight for his family in
Georgia. He was back at that same church,

Common
Peoples
Baptist
Church in Cumming on Sunday morning. God began to fix his marriage and his family. He was learning more and more about Christ and His Word. His wife, seeing the change in his life, also accepted Christ as her Savior and saw her own life drastically change.  

A Unique Testimony for Christ            After a number of years of faithfulness to church and bus ministry God called Khalid to preach and reach his Muslim brothers and sisters in
Morocco. Currently Khalid is in training and involved in discipleship at

World
Vision
Baptist
Church and the Our Generation Training Center. Now Khalid can share his testimony of Christ and the Bible with millions of his own people still in the darkness of Islam through Satellite TV and with your help. He is one of only a small handful of Moroccan converts who has a heart to share his story of salvation with his people.            God is preparing hearts. The Holy Spirit is working. The veil of Islam can’t block out the Holy Spirit. Men and women who are searching for God just like Khalid fill the countries of the
Maghreb. Many will hear and accept Christ. We have a powerful God who is opening up doors of opportunity and you can have a part. We need your help to contact, win, and disciple the men and women seeking for God and truth in these Muslim countries. They should not have to leave their countries and learn a new language like Khalid had to in order to be saved. We have a responsibility to get the gospel in their language inside their homes. Will you help?

Read other articles like this one on our website at www.projectna.com