By Mark Ellis —
Jesus continues to reveal himself to Muslims throughout the Middle East – often in dreams and visions – in this case appearing nearly simultaneously in the dreams of two married refugees who fled from Syria.
Until the Syrian civil war, Amir* and Rasha* enjoyed a peaceful existence in the third largest city in Syria, Homs, which once had over 600,000 living there.
But their lives and their marriage were tested after Homs became an opposition stronghold and the Syrian government launched a fierce military onslaught against the city in 2011.
The siege left much of the city decimated and thousands dead. Amir and Rasha fled with thousands of others in 2012.
“Since 2012, we have been living in a tent,” Amir told Open Doors. “It is not an easy life. About a year ago my wife’s mother was killed by a sniper when she went out to have some fresh air. My wife’s brother was killed on his way home.”
But three months ago, something remarkable happened to Rasha in the middle of the night.
“I was sleeping and all of a sudden I saw Jesus Christ in white,” Rasha recounted. “He said ‘I am Christ. You will have a beautiful daughter.’
At the time, Rasha was eight months pregnant, and a month later they received a fine-looking, healthy daughter, according to Open Doors.
Amazingly, about the same time her husband Amir also had a dramatic, unforgettable dream. “I saw Jesus Christ,” he reported. “He was dressed in white. He said to me ‘I am your Savior. You will follow me.’”
After the dreams, Amir and Rasha surrendered to the lordship of Jesus Christ. “We decided to follow Him. We named our baby Christina. We left our old Islamic customs.”
They knew they would pay a price for following Jesus among their family and friends. Amir stopped going to the mosque, but Rasha still dresses as a Muslim woman with her head covered by a veil, according to Open Doors.
“Our clan is very big; we’re afraid now. They might kill us,” Rasha said.
Amir is ready to face opposition. “Our family knows we are Christians now. Becoming a Christian is, for them, the same as if I had destroyed the Kaaba in Saudi Arabia. It is because we walked in the darkness and are now in the light. I want to protect my family.”
Because of the risks, they felt they couldn’t continue living in a tent surrounded by other Muslim refugees. “We now have no fixed place to live, we go from place to place,” Rasha lamented.
In Homs, Amir once worked as a carpenter. “I have no work in Lebanon. Our financial situation is bad. Now, because we are Christians, others don’t want to help us. The church is helping as much as is possible.”
While they don’t know what the future will bring, they know where they have placed their trust. “The most important thing is that we know Jesus Christ as our Savior,” Amir said. “He will save us. We regularly pray to the Lord, we freely worship Him, and He protects us. God is with us. God will resolve our situation.”
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*names changed to protect identities
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