Frontiers field worker Jennie lives in a non-Arab, Muslim community. On her last visit to the U.S., she told me about her Muslim friend Nejma.

“Nejma is like a star,” she said. “She glows whenever we talk about Jesus and whenever we pray together.”

Nejma. My brow furrowed as the name keyed into the semi-dormant part of my brain that housed rarely-used Arabic vocabulary.

“You do know that ‘nejma’ is the Arabic word for star, don’t you?” I asked Jennie.

She didn’t. Muslims in her host country do not speak Arabic, and neither did Jennie. “But how fitting!” she exclaimed.

Once a week, Nejma travels an hour by bus and taxi to get to Jennie’s apartment for their language lesson.

Nejma comes from a loving family. Her father is a hardworking man and her mother is sincere and devout. They have three daughters, but they always wanted to a boy. For as long as Nejma could remember, her mother visited religious shrines regularly, begging God to give her a son.

Religious shrines are common throughout Nejma’s country. They are tombs of well-known men who achieved saint-like status during their lives. Their burial places serve as centers of spiritual power. Devotees come with offerings and tears, calling upon the merit of these righteous men for the answers to their prayers.

Nejma’s mother believes that her visits to shrines worked. Her fourth and last child was a boy. She credited her good fortune to the righteous merit of the saints in whose names she had prayed.

Jennie lives within walking distance to two of the region’s most prominent shrines. That’s why Nejma doesn’t mind her hour-long commute for their language lessons. After their language lessons, she goes to pray at one of the shrines. The weekly trek has become a spiritual pilgrimage for Nejma, and she’s hungry to understand more about God.

“Nejma is tenacious and eager and devoted to God,” Jennie observes. Together, they began incorporating Bible stories into their language lessons.

Once they read about the paralytic man whose four friends lowered him through the roof (Mark 2:1-12). Nejma marveled at how Jesus perceived the thoughts of the religious leaders who were challenging Him. “Who is it who can perceive my unspoken thoughts?” she wondered.

“I’m always surprised at how quickly she grasps Jesus’ teachings,” Jennie says. “She doesn’t hesitate to teach me what the story shows us about God, about humanity, and about what it means to obey Jesus.”

What’s more, Nejma is sharing the Bible stories with her mother, and her grandmother and sisters are hearing them, too.

Praise God, her weekly spiritual pilgrimages are filling her thirsty soul with the light of the Gospel.

“She literally glows when we talk about Jesus,” said Jennie. “I see her as the glowing star that is going to lead her whole family to Jesus!”

**This account comes from a long-term worker. Names have been changed for security.**

Original article: www.frontiersusa.org/blog/article/nejma-the-glowing-star