In a Single Generation

“No, don’t beat the thieves,” Sheikh Idriss said into the phone as I sat in his simple home on the edge of the village. “And don’t arrest them, either. Let them go and tell them to come to the civil court tomorrow morning.”

The thieves were two poor women. They’d been caught stealing corn from the sheikh’s fields. The normal response was to punish them with a beating.

For several weeks, Idriss and I had been studying the Bible together. Most recently, we’d read about forgiveness, and today, Idriss saw a chance to put Jesus’ teachings into practice.

“Jesus says to forgive them,” Idriss said to me after finishing the phone call. “I want to take these things we’re studying in the Word and teach them to my people.”

Idriss leads a Muslim tribe of almost 100,000 people. As a civil judge, he used to rule his court with an iron fist. Idriss still gives out firm judgments—but now he delivers them with kindness and mercy. When men and women come to him for counsel, he often presents them with a gift: a portion of God’s Word.

“Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”
— Matthew 13:8

While Idriss hasn’t yet declared Jesus as his Savior, God is drawing him closer to the Kingdom. And when he embraces Christ, many others will follow.

In the past few years, the Lord has given my teammates and me extraordinary opportunities to share the Word with dozens of other sheikhs in Idriss’ region. We meet with them regularly to study the Bible and discuss what it says about leadership, justice, righteousness, and peacemaking.

Some sheikhs have clearly declared Jesus as their Savior.

The decisions these leaders make impact hundreds of thousands of lives. As they apply biblical truths in their decision making, we’re seeing more opportunities for God to transform entire communities in a single generation. Muslim men and women in this region are becoming disciples of Christ, and the Lord is establishing them on the firm foundation of the Word.

This is the fruit of my team’s 20 years of labor. It hasn’t been easy, and my teammates and I are often overwhelmed by the task. But, praise God, we aren’t doing it alone. The Lord has sustained our ministry through the prayers and support of believers like you from all around the world.

And when we see leaders like Sheikh Idriss leading his people to the hope of Jesus Christ, we praise God for using each of our gifts to glorify His name and see many turn to Him!