The First Follower

“Lord God,” cried out Miriam, a Frontiers field worker. “I’m dying to see Muslims come to know and follow Jesus!”

Gazing out her kitchen window, she stopped washing dishes and rested her hands on the lip of the sink. She looked past her neighborhood’s skyline at the rugged mountain peaks in the distance. Under the blue spring sky, faint splashes of green colored their lower hillsides.

Miriam loved watching the seasons change in her host country. But what she most longed for was to see hearts open to Christ within the Muslim people group God had called her to.

After years of laboring in the country, Miriam and her teammates still hadn’t met a single person interested in the message of Jesus Christ. Moreover, there were dozens of other Muslim people groups in the region that remained untouched by the Gospel—with no believers, no churches, and no one reaching them for Christ.

“Lord, please let us see You move in the hearts of the people here,” Miriam prayed as she finished washing the dishes. She was desperate for a spiritual breakthrough.

After years of laboring in the country, Miriam and her teammates still hadn’t met a single person interested in the message of Jesus Christ.

Days later while shopping in the nearby open-air market, Miriam met a young vegetable seller named Aliya. After chatting for a while, Miriam offered to pray for her. Aliya immediately accepted.

“Please come back and visit me again,” Aliya said after Miriam prayed. Miriam promised she would and left thanking God for her new Muslim friend’s open heart.

The next time she visited Aliya’s vegetable stand, the Muslim woman invited Miriam to sit next to her on a small wooden bench. Soon they were sipping tea and chatting about their lives. In between serving customers, Aliya shared that her husband had separated from her. Her eyes filled with pain.

“God cares for you so much,” Miriam said. “Did you know that the Bible has a lot to say about God’s love? Would you like to read it together?”

Aliya’s eyes brightened, and she agreed to meet every day to read the Word together. Hearing this, Miriam nearly cried for joy. She had prayed with plenty of other women and invited them to study the Bible with her. But this was the first time that a local Muslim had ever responded with such interest.

The two women started meeting daily at Aliya’s vegetable stand to read the Word and talk about applying it to their daily lives. Aliya also shared more about her life and her near-constant fear, anxiety, and heartache.

Aliya had fallen in love and married young. But in their first years of marriage, she and her husband had drifted apart. Then one day he announced he was taking a job in a distant city—and moving there without her.

After a month of studying the Bible together, Aliya delivered some surprising news.

Miriam listened as her friend described how heartbroken and hopeless she felt. Then she grasped Aliya’s hands and asked God to heal her new friend’s pain. At the end of each Bible study, Miriam shared about Christ—her source of hope and confidence.

After a couple of weeks, Aliya shared that she felt peace and joy stirring inside her for the first time in her life. Her heart was being dramatically transformed as she took in God’s Word.

Then after a month of studying the Bible together, Aliya delivered some surprising news.

“I’ve been calling my husband and telling him stories of Jesus,” Aliya said. She shared that she felt confident God wanted her to reconcile with her husband. So she was moving to the city where he lived. Her few belongings were already packed.

“But before I leave, I want to become a follower of Jesus,” Aliya said. “I want Him to be my Lord and Savior. Will you baptize me, Miriam?”

The next day, Miriam and other women from her team gathered for the baptism of Aliya, the first known believer in a Muslim people group that once had no followers of Jesus Christ.

• Praise God for this new season of spiritual openness! Pray it will spread within Aliya’s own people group and to other groups in the region.
• Ask the Lord to help Aliya grow in understanding of the Word, love for Christ, and passion to share the Good News with others.
• As Aliya matures as a follower of Jesus, pray that her husband will also cry out for salvation and seek restoration for their marriage.
• Pray for new teams of workers to be trained and sent to the peoples and places that still have no believers, churches, or Gospel messengers in their midst.