Rachel* found Jesus when she was brought to a secret house church in the Middle East.
She committed herself to prayer and reading the Bible each day. Within two years Rachel
and her husband became leaders of the church.
But Rachel understood that following Jesus in the Middle East carried risks. Christians are
often monitored by authorities who act to suppress religious minorities.
“Of course, the risks crossed my mind every once in a while,” Rachel said. “But I always
tempered that thought, remembering that God will protect us. I just wanted to worship God.
Nothing else mattered to me.”
To avoid monitoring, members of Rachel’s church would speak on public phones.
She also forbid her nine-year-old daughter from speaking about the church to her
classmates, in case their teachers overheard and reported it to authorities.
Image: Two Iranian women attending a discrete location in Isfahan, Middle East
Found and Taken
One day, while her husband was taking their daughter to school, Rachel heard an unfamiliar
knock on the door.
The secret police had uncovered her faith and had come to arrest her.
“They put me in solitary confinement and, all alone, I started to cry,” she remembered.
“I was thinking about my daughter and what would happen to her.”
Rachel was interrogated by police. Starved and with no contact to the outside world, she
wrestled with her faith.
Image: Two young women in chatting in the old Citadel of Amman.
“For days I didn’t talk to God,” Rachel said. “I was so disappointed in Him. But one night in a
dream, I heard John 1:10, ‘He was in the world, and though the world was made through
Him, but the world did not recognise Him.’
“When I had the dream, I started to pray again. I felt that God was going with me
everywhere I went.”
One month later, Rachel was released.
A Dedicated Faith
Image: Syrian Christians worshipping at a conference.
For believers in Middle East, living a dedicated faith can cost them everything. But for Rachel,
what she gained in Jesus was worth so much more.
“In prison I learned to trust God. Really trust God, on a deep level. I also changed as a mother.
I am even more passionate to teach my daughter about Christ and spend time reading
the Bible with her.
“My daughter saw how God worked in my life and how He helped us. She never had a vision
of Jesus, but this was a testimony for her.”
Through A Dedicated Faith, you can experience a day in the life of a Christian like Rachel in the Muslim world. Choose a day during Ramadan and fast, pray, gather and give to support the persecuted church in the Middle East.