Lost and Found

The first time Deema ever saw a Bible was in a dream. In the dream, she was holding the Word. As she read it, she felt full of hope and joy.

Then she dreamed she had closed the Bible, touched it to her forehead, and lightly kissed the cover as a sign of respect—just as she had always done with the Quran.

Days later, Deema consulted an Islamic teacher and asked him about the meaning of her dream. To her surprise, he told her, “It means there’s something good for you in the Bible.”

After hearing this, she went to the one Christian friend she had, a long-term Frontiers worker named Karen.

“God indeed has something good for you in the Bible,” Karen said after listening to Deema describe her dream and the Islamic teacher’s response. “It’s a message from the Messiah.”

Then Karen gave Deema a beautiful, hardbound copy of the gospel of Luke. Impressed by the gift, Deema thanked her profusely.

“I have to have this,” Malika said, tucking the book into her purse.

Running into her again a day later, Deema told Karen, “This book is wonderful! It’s exactly what I have needed to read!”

But when Karen met her a few days later, Deema seemed downcast. Having read the first nine chapters of Luke, she had set the book down on her desk at work. Her coworker Malika picked it up and flipped through some pages.

“I have to have this,” Malika said, tucking the book into her purse. Deema’s heart sagged with disappointment, but she couldn’t object. In a culture where possessions pass fluidly from person to person, it would have been unthinkable for her to withhold the book from her friend.

Malika took the gospel of Luke home. But then her brother saw it and insisted on having it.

When Malika told her friend that she no longer had the book, Deema started to cry. She felt certain she’d never get to finish reading it.

“The message in that book is a treasure,” Karen told Deema. “But that’s not the last copy.” Giving her two more hard-bound books, Karen suggested that Deema and Malika study the Word with her every week.

Since beginning their Bible study, both Deema and Malika have been excited to learn and share the Good News with others. Karen is equipping them to start more groups and invite other Muslim women to study the Word with them.

• Praise God for giving us His Word, which will never pass away (Matthew 24:35).
• Pray that Deema and Malika will grow to love Jesus Christ and will share the treasure of the Good News with friends and family.
• Pray for more Muslims to have access to the Bible and discover its power to bring life and transform communities.