A former Muslim who had been radically healed of cancer through the prayers of Bibles for Mideast believers has helped spearhead the formation of a brand-new Assembly of Loving God (ALG) church in Uganda.

Pastor Mustafa*, already overseeing close to 40 underground churches across Africa, had the privilege of conducting its very first service recently. Holy Spirit moved powerfully, he reports, and the 25 Muslims in attendance all accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

As he traveled back home, Pastor Mustafa and his team decided to visit Mariam Nabatanzi and her 38 children to tell them the wonderful Truth of the gospel. [You may have heard about Miriam, known as the most fertile woman in the world, and just happening to live not far from the new church plant.**]

Born into a Muslim family, Mariam was married off at 12 to a 40-year-old. By the time she was 13, she had her first set of twins and in the years that followed, gave birth 14 more times—including six sets of twins, four sets of triplets and five of quadruplets. Suffering from a rare genetic condition, by the time she was 36 she had given birth to 44 children.

When her husband abandoned her completely four years ago after the birth of her last child (one of twins, the other died), she was left to raise her 38 surviving children alone.

Mariam welcomed the visitors and soon began to open up about her life. She had found marriage to be a hard journey, she admitted. Her mostly-absent husband would beat her violently at any perceived affront on the few occasions he did show up (usually about once a year, according to one of the sons).

“So I grew up in tears,” she explained. Every waking minute she spends looking after her children and working to earn some money.

When she’d already had 23 children, she decided to ask doctors if some procedure could be done to prevent further births. After an extensive examination, they diagnosed her with hyper-ovulation and advised her against taking birth control pills since that would likely cause her health problems. 

Mariam says she has no regrets, and considers having children a blessing from God. The only thing that upsets her is seeing her children grow up without a father; most do not even know what he looks like. The only role he took in raising them had been naming them—and that often by phone.

Still, she doesn't feel sorry for herself.  She has dedicated her life to loving and caring for her children, providing for them as best she can with whatever is available. Food proves of course the largest expense for the family, who live crowded together in four ramshackle buildings. They wear old, tattered clothes and often go barefoot.

"Do you know who Mariam was?" Pastor Mustafa asked.

"Yes" she answered. "She was the virgin mother of Prophet Jesus." [Muslims know Jesus’ mother as Mariam or Maryam, and consider her—the only woman mentioned by name in the Koran—to be one of the most important women to have ever lived—Ed.]

"Why was Jesus born of the virgin Maryam?" he asked her. She had no answer.

The pastor went on to tell her how Jesus, Son of the Most High God, was the only person ever to have been born, and to have lived, without sin.

“All others, including you and me, have sin throughout our lives,” he explained.

“And with sin, we cannot go to heaven. A sinful man cannot bear or remove the sin of others. But Jesus, a sinless man, took away the sin of all humanity by His crucifixion on the cross of Calvary. He died and rose from the dead. Jesus redeemed us by His death on the cross. If we believe in Him, we will get salvation.”

Mariam and the children listened carefully. Pastor Mustafa gave them a sample gospel of St. Luke and urged them to read it. He then prayed for them, and they all sat quietly and seemed to be receiving. While none were open to making decisions to follow Jesus, he feels certain the seed of God’s Word has been sown in their hearts.

Before leaving, he gave them a donation to help with maintaining the family. Please pray that the seed planted by Pastor Mustafa takes root and grows by the Holy Spirit, and that Maryam and all her children come to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  

Please also pray for the new underground ALG church started very near Maryam’s home in Uganda. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if this ‘village within a family’ finds themselves there soon!

____________________________
* Pastor Mustafa oversees approximately 40 underground Assembly of Loving God (ALG) house churches all across Africa. You can read more about his powerful but dangerous ministry in these earlier posts: New African church under threat from Islamic extremists and NEW LIFE: from Islam, and from death itself.  
**  An African newspaper ran a story on Miriam several years ago, as did Reuters last year.