There we were in language class, when Manal, my Muslim language helper, halted the lesson.

“I need to read about all of Jesus’ life,” she said out of the blue.

Startled, I looked up from the list of new vocabulary words she was teaching me. I asked Manal to tell me more.

“You and I read about Joseph’s life story here in class,” she said, “and I’ve shared it with my family. They loved it! But I want to check a few details with you—I want to make sure I’ve got all those brothers’ names right.”

My jaw dropped. The Muslims I knew didn’t talk about the Bible at home. They’d been told that it had been corrupted and shouldn’t even be touched.

Manal continued, “I’m a Muslim, and Islam is the purest faith in the world. But throughout my whole life, I’ve never learned about Jesus! People have always told me that Jesus isn’t ours and that His followers are bad. But what you and I have read about Jesus is good and true. I see now that there’s no fault in Him! I won’t have any peace until I read about His entire life, until I can answer anyone who opposes Him.”

Manal went on to perfectly recite the story of the woman at the well from John 4. My jaw dropped even further at this point. I asked Manal where on earth she had learned it.

“My friend gave me a piece of paper with the story on it,” she replied casually. She had read the paper until she knew the passage by heart. Then she shared the story with her family—just like she had done with everything else she read about Jesus.

Already Manal knew that the peace she was discovering—the gift of Jesus Christ Himself—wasn’t just hers to keep, but hers to share.

“But this is what I can’t understand,” Manal said. “Jesus says that He can give the Samaritan woman water that is better than Jacob’s water. Why would Jesus say that? Was He jealous of Jacob? Was He trying to pick a fight? How can Jesus give her water so she will never thirst?”

Manal stopped just long enough to catch her breath, then said, “These questions have been burning in my heart. I’m certain I won’t have any peace until I know all about Jesus.”

Manal had seen the way my teammates and I lived. She’d heard us speaking—striving for fluency in her own language. She’d listened to the way we honored other people and how we talked about Jesus Christ using words that were meaningful to her. That’s what had caught her attention and got her thinking, Why wouldn’t Jesus be for us Muslims, too?

It couldn’t be any clearer that this was the Father’s hand working in Manal’s life.

Now Manal and I are reading through all of Jesus Christ’s life. She is also studying Jesus’ teachings from the Sermon on the Mount at home with her family. Already I’m seeing the fruit of obedience to Christ in her life.

This is exactly what we’ve prayed for since the beginning of our work in Manal’s village—a place that once had no witness for Jesus Christ. May she be among the first to follow Christ, and may she bring her family and many others with her!