“I want my son to become an Adventist,” Abner confided to me in a hushed voice as he leaned forward in his chair. “Hammad is young and is not married. I want him to attend the Adventist school. It will be easy for him to change if he goes to the Adventist school.” He looked down and sighed, “I am too old to change. My wife is Muslim, my parents are Muslim, all of my brothers and sisters are Muslim. It would be too hard for me to change now. Already, some people in my village don’t like me. They think I follow the Bible. If I changed now, they would hate me. But my son . . .” a hopeful gleam shone from his eyes.
We met Abner soon after we came to this village. We had been going through a period of questioning and culture shock. We had prayed for God to re-affirm our call to these people. Just at the height of our struggle, Abner came to our home to visit. He told us an amazing story of how, in his early teen years, he was forced to quit school and become a soldier. Soon, he ended up at a refugee camp in a neighboring country. There he met some Americans who were followers of Jesus. “They loved me,” he smiled as he remembered. “They gave me food and clothes, and they gave me an education in a Christian school in the camp. They taught me about Jesus and the Bible. I went to church every week. I learned to read and write English, and I got a good education. Yes, they loved me!”

“What was the name of the church they belonged to?” we asked.

“The Seven-day Church,” Abner replied.

“Really? That is our church!” we exclaimed.
As the conversation continued, Abner shared that he had wanted to continue attending the church, but when he returned home, there were none near his home. “If there was a church, I would have attended!” he exclaimed.

We have become close friends with Abner, and he has opened his heart to us. One day, he commented that he felt Muslims and Christians believe many of the same things, but Muslims hold Mohammed as their prophet and Christians hold Jesus as theirs. “I guess we will find out who is right on the Day of Judgment,” he said. He has shared with us that he deeply desires to learn more about the Bible and Jesus. We have had many spiritual conversations, and we have shared a book about Jesus with him. He even came to the little house church group that meets in a nearby town. God used Abner’s desire to follow Jesus to confirm our call. Pray that our friendship with Abner will confirm Jesus’ call to him.

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