God's amazing grace and protection in Afghanistan

Ansari*—along with his wife, two teenaged daughters and young son—once believed in and strictly followed the tenets of Islam and Sharia in their native Afghanistan.

But when one of the daughters became deathly ill, nothing in their own faith system could help them, nor could doctors. Some ‘underground’ Bibles for Mideast ministers in their area heard of the girl’s problem and offered to pray for her. With no other options, the family agreed … even though in Afghanistan, an Islamic state by constitution, any expression of any faith other than Islam is simply not permitted and means certain persecution and often, even death.

After prayer, the young woman received a powerful visitation from Jesus … and was dramatically healed! The entire family, now thoroughly convinced of the reality and Truth of the Gospel, immediately joined the Kingdom of Christ. They became faithful members of an ALG underground church which meets regularly for prayer and worship about 30 miles from their home. Even without their own vehicle, they somehow manage to attend the secretive weekly services.

During worship this past Sunday, someone prophesied that the family urgently needed a thicker prayer covering from the church due to looming dangers in their lives. The church of course obediently prayed for divine protection.

Back in their own home that evening, the children heard unusual sounds outside. The family decided to read and meditate on Psalms 91 and 121—both Psalms of assurance of God’s protection. They then spent some time in prayer. 

Filled with the Holy Spirit, Ansari’s wife stood, feeling compelled to read Micah 2:10:  "Arise and depart, for this is not your rest. Because it is defiled, it shall destroy; yes, with utter destruction.”

Jesus then appeared to Ansari, telling him to leave the house immediately. So without taking anything with them, even a change of clothes, the family fled their home.

Afghanistan ranks second only to North Korea for places where it is hardest to be a Christian, according to research by Christian charity Open Doors

By dawn the next day the exhausted family reached their pastor’s house. Both the church leader and his wife had had the same dream that night, seeing Ansari and his family coming to them! So they were praying for them.  And even as they did, the little family arrived at their doorstep!

They received a warm welcome of course, and given the opportunity to rest and recover.

By noon that day a believer rushed over to see the pastor.

"Ansari's house is burning!” he exclaimed. “Someone set it on fire last night and it’s completely destroyed but still burning. Nobody wanted to stop the fire or save the family … so no one knows whether Ansari and his family are dead or alive. I was all by myself there, and couldn’t do anything. That's why I came here right away!” 

The pastor invited him in and astounded the man by showing him the family safe inside his home. He explained how the Lord had divinely guided  and protected them all.

A LONESOME PIETY: A former Muslim praying somewhere near Kabul, Afghanistan, in hiding from relatives who want to kill him for forsaking Islam and converting to Christianity [Credit: Ibarra Sanchez for The New York Times]

He then called all the church members for a joyous time of praise and worship which went on until Tuesday morning.

“Though we lost our house and all our belongings,” Ansari says, “we have Lord Jesus and HIS eternal Kingdom.”

“That is enough for us to live and work for Him,” his wife adds.  

Praise the Lord for His love and care!  Please keep this family and the church there in your prayers.

_____________________
* Name changed for security reasons

Three new churches in north India!

About a year ago, a Bibles for Mideast pastor took a team of workers to visit a Hindu village chief and his wife in North India. Married as young teenagers, the couple had been trying to conceive for 30 years. They prayed according to Hindu beliefs, had visited Hindu temples from north to south and offered countless burnt offerings to idols … but still, no child.

The pastor shared the saving message of Jesus with them, and then offered to pray. While the chief refused, his desperate wife agreed and managed to convince her husband to receive prayer well.

North Indian Hindu woman

When they’d finished, the pastor prophesied the couple would have a baby boy by the same time next year. He handed them a sample gospel and asked them to read it and pray to Jesus every day. 

The stubborn chief refused, but his wife knew this to be their last resort. She dutifully read and prayed every day, and within two months, discovered she was pregnant! It was an easy transition to believe in the reality and Truth of Jesus, and her husband became convinced as well.

After the birth of their son, the village chief contacted the pastor and requested he visit again and pray for them. The minister agreed, then boldly pressed for more. He told the chief he would come, but that he also wanted him to arrange a three-day retreat and request all villagers to attend. The chief agreed, and made the necessary arrangements.

Village evangelism

So the team visited the village about two weeks ago for the retreat, holding gospel meetings as well. About 150 locals showed up, including family members of the village chief from other nearby communities and another village chief.

The meetings took on a festival atmosphere and Holy Spirit showed up gloriously. Each and every person accepted Jesus as Lord and Saviour!  On the fourth day, all the new believers underwent baptism and … lo and behold: a new ALG church was born!

The leader from the neighboring community then asked the team to come visit his village as well.  So off the missionaries went. They held two days of gospel meetings and saw over 70 people accept Jesus as Lord. They too were baptized and yet another ALG church came into being.

Prayer in the street

By this time, some of the local Hindu population converged on the new believers, waving their saffron flags and chanting Hindu and anti-Christian slogans. But they proved no match for the new Christians, who joined forces and chased them away without incident.  

At the request of a former Muslim family in a region further afield, the team then journeyed to meet up with four Muslim families. They held several days of prayer and fasting with even many other local Muslims joining in. By fast’s end, seven families put their faith in Jesus, along with 13 other followers of Islam. All were soon baptized and a third new ALG church added to the Kingdom!

BAPTISMAL ceremony

These new churches and believers urgently need prayer for our Lord's mighty protection. Anti-Christian movements flourish in the ‘new India’, and persecution is rife. Please also pray the Lord to open other villages in North India for evangelism and new churches.

Once again, thank you for your support of our ministry. We could not and cannot do it without the help of God’s people.

A gracious life, well-lived and perfectly ended

Pastor Paul (Director, Bibles for Mideast)
Pastor Peter Haneef (President, ALG Churches)

Mrs. Grace Perry (84), the beloved mother of our sister Susanna Perry-Ettel of Bibles for Mideast, entered into the heavenly abode. She was, till her last breath, an active joyful woman of strong faith, full of love and laughter.  One of her common 'admonitions' to her children as kids was, "If you have nothing to good to say about someone, don't say anything at all." She constantly would find something to praise and/or encourage in even the most difficult people, Susanna recollects.

We, Bibles for Mideast and the Assembly of Loving God Church share our heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family. May our Risen Lord comfort and console them in this time.

Here is the message she posted (with her three brothers) on Facebook:

GraCE mARINA pERRY

It is with great sadness we share the news of the sudden passing of our beloved mother, Grace Perry. It has come as a shock since despite her age, she was extremely fit and active up until what appears to have been a heart attack. Here one minute busily sweeping up after dinner, gone the next when she stepped out to dump the dust bin.

We were all gathering together at our [my and my husband’s] Haliburton home for our first whole family reunion in a number of years. So it's a tremendous blessing we're all together to support each other and our father, John. For that I am beyond amazed and thankful. I see God’s Hand orchestrating it all.

Mom/Grace had been a central pillar in our immediate family, our extended family, as well as an active golfer, bridge player, church goer, always volunteering in her Pittsburgh church and community helping those less fortunate. She will be SO greatly missed.

Miraculous healing, deliverance and salvations in restrictive Middle Eastern kingdom

Report: Bibles for Mideast and the Assembly of Loving God (ALG) Church in the Middle East

Pastor M, married with two young boys, four and six, works tirelessly and fearlessly building a strong underground church in the midst of unimaginable constraints on what he can ‘legally’ say, do, share, or be in a highly restrictive nation of the Middle East. A former Muslim working with Bibles for Mideast and the ALG, he has an amazing story of his own healing and salvation but we’ll have to leave that for another time.  

Two weeks ago, he completely disappeared. Religious police, after finding a gospel tract with his phone number on it, had tricked him into meeting with them. When he agreed and they met up, they brutally beat him before hauling him off to ‘religious court’.  

"Why did you leave Islam and become a Christian minister?" the judge demanded at his trial.

"I was a sinner and got into all kinds of trouble,” Pastor M. replied. “I also contracted a serious disease and became a dying patient. But the Lord Jesus Christ saved my life. He healed me, and also rescued me from sin and death by His crucifixion and death on the cross of Calvary. He rose from the dead and still lives. I believed in Him and received salvation. Then, the Lord Jesus Himself called me to His ministry. So I am now trying to help my fellow brethren find salvation as well."

ISIS burns hundreds of Christian books in MosuL

The court ordered he be imprisoned for 15 days. He was told that if he returned to Islam, he would remain in jail for two more years and then be in service to the religious authorities in their fight against Christianity. Should he decide not to renounce Christianity, he would be beheaded. It was as simple as that.

The young husband and pastor refused their demand so was sent to prison to await execution, and the horrible torture began.

The judge of the court had two sons of his own, plus five daughters. Sadly, he lost his older son at 21 last year to testicular cancer. Now his second son faced the same diagnosis. Doctors had given up both hope and treatment for the younger boy, so he lay in bed at home in excruciating pain, waiting to die.

A week after the sentencing, the judge woke in the middle of the night to a mighty voice sounding in the bedroom.

“Release the pastor from jail!” it boomed. “Ask him to pray for your son to be healed.”

Not liking what he heard, the magistrate ignored the plea.

The next day, his son’s sufferings increased to almost beyond what the boy could bear. That night, the judge dreamt a ball of light, somehow encasing powerful words, headed toward him. The words seemed to flow from the light as it approached.

"Release my servant from the prison and ask him to pray for your son!” he heard echo through the room. “With his prayers, your boy may be cured and healed."

Surely this had to be the work of Satan trying to misguide his faith in Islam! He got up, read some portions from the Koran, and did a Sunnah Namaz (ritual prayer done in special circumstances). 

The third night, the Lord Himself appeared before the judge.

"I am Jesus, the Son of the Most High,” the man in white proclaimed. “I did die on the cross and now live forevermore  [interestingly, Muslims do believe Jesus was raised bodily to heaven by God, but do not believe he died on the cross—Ed.]. You are needlessly persecuting my servant! Release him from prison. Your son will be healed. And, accept Me as your Lord and Savior. This is the only way you and your household can be saved from hell."

Jesus then disappeared. The judge rose from his bed to the sounds of his son screaming out in pain. Rushing to the room, he saw his wife and daughters standing by the bed, weeping. Overcome, he disclosed the details of his dream. They listened in amazement. Without hesitation, his wife and daughters begged him to release the minister and get him over to their house to pray for the boy. The son urged him to as well.

When prison officials got the unexpected order from the judge, they immediately freed the pastor and had him sent to the family’s home.  

The judge poured out all he had heard and seen, and asked forgiveness for the prison sentence and execution order. Pastor M of course agreed, and was led to the young man’s room.

He began by sharing the Truth of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.

“Will you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior?” he asked.

The sick young man agreed straightaway. The others followed, kneeling down and inviting Jesus into their hearts and lives.

The atmosphere now thickening with holiness, Pastor M began to pray. As he did, all were filled with the Holy Spirit. The boy jumped from his bed and began to dance, praising and thanking Jesus for his total healing! Everyone rejoiced in the Lord, the family bursting with a joy they’d never known.

The next day, the judge took the minister back to his court, this time to release him according to court law. For the following three days, Pastor M stayed in the magistrate's home, praying, fasting, teaching from the Bible and preparing the new believers for baptism. On the fourth day, the whole family were baptized. 

As all this was going on, the pastor’s church knew only that he had been beaten and taken away. They hadn’t heard anything from or about him since his disappearance—when they had immediately launched into a time of concerted prayer and fasting.

At one point, his wife—overwhelmed with the strain of continuous prayer, fasting, and understandable concern—became critically ill. Believers rushed her to hospital where doctors began treating her, and discovered she is carrying the couple’s third child.

She remains in hospital, recovering, but with her husband now by her side. Please pray for them, the church, the believers, and Bibles for Mideast ministry in the Middle East. Further exciting news is that the judge’s son has joined our Lord’s ministry and will be working alongside Bibles for Mideast after more extensive training.

Religious police on patrol in Saudi Arabia

Pastor M thanks all who joined the orchestra of prayer for his release and his wife's recovery.

Please also pray for the next baptism service which he had been planning for his church before being ‘sidelined’. Local fundamentalists may well cause problems and resume persecution of this pastor and the church he loves and leads.

How do spiritual fruit manifest in your life?

“... the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
generosity, faithfulness,  gentleness, and self-control.”
—Gal. 5:22-23a (NRSV)

The first three qualities of spiritual fruit—love, joy and peace—are essential ingredients of our inward spiritual life.  They are the direct result of our personal relationship with God, settling in our hearts as Holy Spirit abides within us.

The next three aspects of the fruit of the Spirit—patience, kindness and generosity—are outward manifestations of that inner love, joy and peace. These fruit are developed in and through our relationships and interactions with other people.

The last three fruit—faithfulness, gentleness and self-control—are further outward manifestations reflecting our inner love, joy and peace.  

All these qualities of Christian character are produced in believers as we submit to the guidance of Holy Spirit. 

“[W]hat happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.
Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good—crucified.”
—Gal. 5:22-24 (MSG)