When her 6-year-old boy fell deathly ill, Mariama had little faith that the doctor in her poor Southeast Asian community could save him. The child was delirious with fever. He needed something more powerful than the doctor’s medicine. So the distraught mother decided to take him to a traditional healer.
But that would cost a month’s salary, and she and her husband didn’t have much.
Twice a week, Mariama met with Frontiers worker Lisa for prayer and conversation. She decided to ask Lisa for help to pay the healer to cast out her son’s illness.
“My son’s so sick,” Mariama explained to Lisa. “I want to take him to the healer to ward off the evil that has caused his fever.”
Lisa commended Mariama for wanting to do everything she could to help her son. “But before you try going to the healer,” Lisa asked, “why don’t we first see what happens if we ask Jesus to heal him?”
Mariama agreed. Lisa’s prayers always left her feeling peaceful. Mariama had even seen improvements in her marriage after Lisa prayed for her and her husband.
Days after Mariama asked Jesus to heal her son, he recovered. The boy later described how Jesus had come and held him when he was sick.
After seeing Jesus’ power to heal, Mariama began studying the Bible with Lisa. Soon after, she declared Christ as her Savior and committed to following Him with all her heart. With encouragement from Lisa, she began sharing the Gospel with others and reading the Bible to her children. The two women loved meeting together, and they spent hours praying for Mariama’s entire family to know Christ and receive His gift of eternal life.
As Jesus transformed Mariama, her husband, Rahman, noticed she had more joy and peace. He started reading the Bible with Mariama and within weeks, he began following Jesus too.
Mariama’s father, Habib, watched all this with interest. He enjoyed listening to the Bible stories his daughter read to her family. But Habib insisted he’d always be a Muslim and would never follow another way. Mariama continued sharing the Gospel with her father. And every day, she and her husband prayed for Habib to know Christ.
They prayed for 13 years—until Habib could no longer deny the truth of the Gospel. He surrendered his life to the Savior and embraced the joy of eternal life.
Just like his daughter and son-in-law, Habib’s life was transformed by Christ. So drastic were the changes in Habib’s life that 10 more family members also believed in Jesus. Mariama and Rahman discipled them all.
The last family member to accept the Gospel was Mariama’s elderly grandfather, a respected Muslim elder in the community. But as he lay on his deathbed surrounded by his family of believers, he put his faith in Christ, too. Full of calm joy, he breathed his last words, “Jesus is here to pick me up.”
As news of his deathbed profession spread, other Muslim families in the community asked Mariama and her relatives for Bibles. Groups of Muslims started gathering to read God’s Word together. The number of new believers continues to multiply in Mariama’s community as men and women encounter Christ’s power to heal and save.
- Praise God for introducing Mariama’s entire family to healing and salvation through Jesus Christ.
- Pray that many more Muslims will gather to read the Bible and believe.
- Pray that entire households in Muslim communities will love and serve Jesus Christ.
This account comes from a long-term worker. Names have been changed for security.
Original article: https://www.frontiersusa.org/blog/vision-for-the-family
