My children and I stood in the shade of a tree that shielded us from the hot African sun while my husband, Kevin, talked with a man at the local market where we bought fruits and vegetables.
“Where are you from?” the vendor asked in English.
“America,” Kevin said. “How about you?”
“I’m from Syria,” he responded.
“I prayed for your country this morning!” Kevin blurted out.
Fearing for their lives, he and his family fled.
I cringed at my husband’s boldness, but the seller, Tarek, beamed and invited us to come see him again.
Tarek had been an engineer in Syria when police hijacked his car, took him out of the city, and deserted him. Then they threatened Tarek’s son. Fearing for their lives, he and his family fled. His wife and son were able to take refuge in a neighboring country, but Tarek ended up in our host country, totally separated from them. He started working at the small fruit stand while waiting to gain refugee status in order to be reunited with his family.
Tarek asked Kevin to help him with the paperwork and visa application for his eventual move. As they pored over the forms, Tarek asked Kevin, “What is this word ‘seek’? What does this mean?”
“‘Seek’ is to look for something, to want something,” Kevin said. Then with boldness from the Spirit, he continued, “Jesus talked about seeking and finding.” Tarek simply turned the conversation back to the paperwork.
Tarek kept Kevin at his stand longer and longer, asking endless questions about Jesus, Islam, and the Bible.
A few days later, however, Tarek asked Kevin to tell him what Jesus said about seeking. He wanted to understand.
“Jesus promised that when we seek Him, we will find Him,” Kevin explained.
Over the next few weeks, Tarek kept Kevin at his stand longer and longer, asking endless questions about Jesus, Islam, and the Bible.
“We should study the Bible together,” Kevin suggested one day. “I’ll see if I can get you one.”
Tarek’s face lit up, and his posture straightened. “Yes! Please.”
The decision to follow Jesus Christ posed many challenges.
When my husband gave him the Bible, Tarek thanked Kevin profusely. And that first night with his new Bible, he devoured a hundred pages of the Gospels.
“Pray for me, my sister,” Tarek said to me one day when our family had stopped by to see him. “Pray that I will follow Jesus. I want to tell Jesus that I love him. But…”
“What holds you back?” I asked with unusual nerve.
Tarek explained that he had grown up only knowing Islam—his family had always been Muslims. The decision to follow Jesus Christ posed many challenges.
Tarek was eventually granted refugee status in the country where he hoped to be reunited with his family, but red tape delayed his departure and sometimes caused him to fall into discouragement and despair.
“God is listening to your prayers!”
On one such day, Tarek pled, “Please pray. The people at the embassy don’t return my calls. I feel hopeless, like I will never get to see my family again.”
Right then, out loud, Kevin asked God for the embassy to call that very day.
A few hours later, Kevin heard from an elated Tarek. “They called! They never call, and then you prayed, and they called! This is a sign. God is listening to your prayers!”
We began to wonder what it would take for Tarek to enter the Kingdom of God. How many times would God have to reveal truth to him?
But when Kevin asked him if he was ready to follow Jesus, Tarek still hesitated.
Tarek called Kevin back with amazing news.
Only days later, Tarek’s deep disappointment over the wait for his visa returned, so he called Kevin to request prayer again. “I’m still waiting for the embassy to call me back,” Tarek explained. “I need to see my family.”
Kevin prayed in Jesus’s name.
We shouldn’t have been surprised when, a few hours later, Tarek called Kevin back with amazing news.
“I will follow Jesus forever.”
“Kevin, my brother,” Tarek began excitedly. “They called again! They told me that I will be able to leave in two weeks. You prayed, and this is the second sign.” And for the first time, Tarek announced his conviction, “I will follow Jesus forever. It is finished.”
Tarek left two weeks later.
Our goodbyes were hard, and our family misses Tarek every day. But he and Kevin email and chat several times a week.
Before hanging up from their most recent call, they praised God together for His Kingdom, for bringing the two of them together, and for their brotherhood in the fellowship of Jesus Christ. Tarek is grateful to be reunited with his family and eager to share his new faith in Jesus with them.
Pray:
- Pray that refuges like Tarek will find hope and rest in Jesus.
- Ask that Tarek would continue to grow in his faith.
- Praise God for reuniting Tarek with his family.
Everyone told Sanam that he should leave his wife. But God gave the young man a reason to stay.