“I need to talk to her,” Ahmed* said. But Ahmed, a follower of Jesus, knew that speaking to his father’s second wife about the gospel wouldn’t be easy, and the tension between his mother and stepmother was thick. But Ahmed believed in the transformative power of prayer. He began to pray for an opportunity to share the healing power of Jesus with her, trusting that God would open the door in His time.
God answered Ahmed’s prayers in a surprising way.
Kamal*, Ahmed’s half-brother, son of his step-mother, came to visit and stayed for three days. During their time together, Ahmed shared the story of Jesus with Kamal—about His love, His forgiveness, and the hope He offers. Slowly, over those three days, Kamal’s heart began to open. By the end of their time together, Kamal accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior.
“We were lost in Islam,” Kamal confessed, his eyes wide with understanding. “But I see that Christians are forgiven by Christ, and because of that, they forgive and love others. It’s like something I’ve never seen before.”
As Ahmed watched, Kamal’s heart was transformed. The new faith that had taken root in his life began to reshape his perspective. Though Ahmed had feared how his stepmother would respond to the gospel, he felt a glimmer of hope in Kamal’s newfound faith. “I’ll share with her,” Kamal promised. “We have to help our mothers love each other through Christ.”
“If you knew all of this, why didn’t you come to us sooner?”
Ahmed gave Kamal a projector system loaded with the JESUS Film and other gospel media in their native language. For an entire week, Kamal showed the JESUS Film to over a hundred people each night in the IDP* camp where his mother lived. People gathered eagerly, watching in silence as the story of Jesus unfolded before their eyes.
After a week, Kamal’s mother asked him to call their other brother Abdo*, who was also a believer. “Please, call him,” she requested, her voice urgent. “I need to speak with both of you about what I’ve seen.”
When they all met, her question was simple, yet piercing: “If you knew all of this, why didn’t you come to us sooner?” Then, with deep sincerity, she looked at Kamal and Abdo and said, “I want to become a Christian. What can I do to be accepted by Jesus as His daughter?”
Tears filled their eyes as they stood in the presence of such raw humility. Abdo, overcome with emotion, gently reassured her. “All you need to do is accept Him.” He invited her to pray but, to his surprise, she had already done it! So Abdo reassured her that Jesus has unimaginable love for her. He encouraged her to ask Him to help her in everything she was facing.
A month later, something remarkable happened. She came to visit Ahmed and his mother—the woman she had despised for years. To everyone’s astonishment, Ahmed’s stepmother approached his mother with an open heart, asking for forgiveness for the deep bitterness and hatred that had poisoned their relationship for so long.
And then, the miracle: the two women, once enemies, embraced and wept as they forgave each other. They spoke of Jesus, of His grace, and of His ability to heal even the most broken relationships. Ahmed, standing there, could hardly believe his eyes. “It was like they were students in a theological school,” Ahmed said in awe, “though neither of them had ever been to school.”
As he watched his mother and stepmother, once divided by years of pain, now united in their love for Jesus and each other, Ahmed knew that the power of the gospel had done what nothing else could: it had healed hearts and brought restoration to a broken family.
Do you want to share the miracle of forgiveness with the world? Our equipment helps people like Ahmed, Kamal, and Abdo share the healing power of the Gospel with those who need to hear it most.
You can give to help equip a missionary with these tools, or you can get equipment that will multiply your impact on the mission field.
*Names have been changed to protect the identity of these workers.
**An Internally Displaced Person (IDP) is a person who has been “forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes […] to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized border,” according to the UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights.
