A Muslim refugee who once believed the Koran was "God's final word" and Islam was "final religion eclipsing all preceding one" embraced Christianity on his deathbed - and was miraculously healed.
A ministry director working at a refugee camp in Turkey shared with Christian Aid Mission the story of a Muslim refugee from Raqqa, Syria. The man, in his 70's, was wary of foreign groups, as many people would come to take photos and videos of the refugees, but never provided any aid.
The director met the man at a site where refugees had erected about 100 makeshift tents. The refugee told him, "Everybody comes and takes a picture, makes a video, they register our name, but they never come back. You're one of them."
Two weeks later, the director returned the refugee camp - with food, clean water, and other relief items.
"He saw me with the boxes we brought for them, and he was crying," he said. "He came and he hugged me. He said, 'We really thank you, you are the only man during the last two years that kept his word.'"
A short time later, the ministry included a Bible in the aid, and for six months, the refugee talked with the director about Islam and Jesus Christ. The refugee adamantly defended his religion, telling ministry director that Islam is the "final religion eclipsing all preceding ones, and the Koran God's final word."
After some months, the refugee fell seriously ill and asked the director to pray for him. While lying on his deathbed on the tent floor, the refugee told him, "I don't know if I'm going to be alive tomorrow or not, but your message is always in my mind. I want to go to heaven, but I don't know how."
The director told him he had to accept Jesus Christ as Savior and God, and that He would forgive him and take him into the kingdom of heaven with Him.
"He started crying," the director said. "He said, 'I don't know if I can do that or not.' I said he could do it, and he called his brother, daughter and sons, and he said, 'I'm making a decision that I'm having Jesus Christ as God and Savior. I want you to come with me with that, believe it with me,' because in the Middle Eastern culture, whatever the fathers do, the rest of the family has to follow it."
The refugee repeated the director's prayer that Christ died on the cross for his sins, and he received Him as Savior and Lord.
Then, something miraculous happened.
"A week later, he became healthy," the director said. "So he's always teaching his family the Christian life."
The refugee's conversion experiences is just one of many to emerge from the Middle East, where Muslims, disillusioned by the atrocities perpetrated in the name of their religion, are coming to Christ in "unprecedented numbers", according to persecution watchdog Open Doors USA.
Many Muslims are drawn to Christian communities after hearing stories of miraculous healings, notes CAM. One ministry director shared a particularly heartwarming story, where a mother named Nivine brought her paralyzed, 2-year-old daughter to a meeting of one of the ministry teams for prayer.
Fearing he would offend the young mother, the area ministry leader warned her that they pray in the name of Jesus.
"Whatever it takes," Nivine replied, in tears. "Just make her better!"
"Our ministry leader said, 'When we pray, we pray to a living God,'" the ministry director said. "The team explained the gospel to her, and she accepted Christ. Nivine even started coming to the meetings along with her paralyzed daughter."
"About two weeks later, when Nivine was worshiping during a meeting with her daughter next to her, Nivine looked beside her at her daughter and saw the girl smiling," the director said. "Then she noticed that her hands were moving. Was this a dream? But her daughter continued to move. It was true - she was healed!"
He shared another story, where a Muslim named Amad heard about a place in his town where people pray and some are healed. The worsening skin disease of one of his children drove him to visit.
"In a moment of bravery, he brought his son to the meeting place, and the believers there prayed for him," the ministry director said. "The next day the child woke up with nothing on his skin! It was undeniably a miracle. The whole family has come to believe in the Lord, and they want to be baptized."
