A team from the United States with an African translator, (today the SOM-NW Africa Director), came to my village. The team shared with the villagers that they were followers of Jesus Christ and desired to tell their story. My mother was there and did not speak French or English. Therefore, she did not understand. So she communicated that I, her son, would help her understand, and she gave the man my phone number. However, she would have never given them my number if she had known they were there to speak to me about Christ.

A Phone Call
Happily, the SOM Africa director called and said, “We want to meet you. Your mom gave us your number.”

I went and met them. They told me, “We are followers of Christ, and we are here to share about Jesus. We want your help because we are going to your village to share with others.”

I asked him, “Are you a Muslim or Christian?”

“I am a Christian,” he said.

I was shocked because that was the first time seeing someone from the Islamic Fulani tribe who had become a Christian. I said, “Are these guys Christian?”

“Yes, all of us are Christian. We want to go with you into the village to share about Christ.”

A Plan for Sabotage
I said, “No, I cannot do that. I am a Muslim. I will never go with Christian people.” After more discussion, I finally decided to go with them, but I was not going to listen to what they were saying about Christ. Instead, I went with them to destroy everything they planted in the village. Whenever they would say, “Jesus is the Son of God,” I would say, “They are lying. This is not true. Never listen to these guys because they are bad.” In Islam, we are taught that you are wrong if you are not Muslim.

Each time the team came and left, I returned to the villagers to say it was all a lie and not to believe them. I went with the team every time, not to help them but to destroy what they were doing. They invited me to join a mission team in his hometown for medical outreach. He said, “You are staying at the door to invite people for prayer and fellowship.”

Whenever someone came, I would tell them, “Hey, grab your stuff, and go back home, do not listen to their prayers. Don’t even say amen to them.”

A Door Opens
The SOM NW Africa director gave me a French Bible and encouraged me to begin reading it. I chose to compare the Bible with the Qur’an. In the Qur’an, we see that Jesus is a prophet; that’s what Islamic teachers tell us. But in the Qur’an, it’s different. There is a chapter called Maryam (Mary). It says in the Qur’an that God was with Jesus the day he was born, the day he was killed, and the day he was resurrected. When I realized the Qur’an says that, I was surprised.

The Qur’an also says Jesus is the Word of God, and He is the soul and Spirit of God. The Qur’an testifies that Jesus is the Son of God, but in our Muslim ways, if you say the Son of God, that statement will offend Muslims. They will say “No” and recite this Islamic prayer, which means that God never had a son, and he never had a wife.

Yet in the Qur’an, Jesus is even the writer, like the pen of God. So, in my mind, I was like, “Okay, if Jesus is the Son of God, is like the soul of God, then He is the Word of God. So, Jesus is true.” And I decided to go deeper in reading my Bible all the time.

A Dream and Encounter
One night, I had a dream that changed my life. I dreamed somebody came to our house and killed someone. I wanted to take my revenge, return to this family, and kill someone in their family. When I got to this home in my dream, there was a fire, and I was trapped in the middle. Then I saw a tiny opening as a way to run out. A black cow ran after me, and I fell into a well. The black cow was trying to get in the well, but I saw someone in white clothing say to the cow, “Stop. This one I am saving.” And He gave me His hand and pulled me out of the well, and I woke up.

I called a pastor to share the dream, and he began screaming, “Hallelujah, hallelujah. You met Jesus.”

I said, “You are crazy, I have this kind of dream, and you are saying, ‘Hallelujah, Jesus.’ That’s not Jesus.”

I called my parents and told them about the dream the following day. They took me to a Qur’anic teacher to be “washed,” but I did not have peace.

I then called the SOM NW Africa director to share my dream. He said, “Brother, that’s a dream of Jesus, and He is calling you. He wants to save you. Come with me to visit some friends and share your dream.”

I went to their house and told them about my dream. They said, “It’s Jesus.”

A Decision
I said, “Okay. If Jesus wants to save me, I will be a follower of Christ.”

I began reading more of the Bible. I saw between Jesus and Mohammad how Mohammad is the prophet of the Muslims and how he was doing Jihad and killing people. He was going from town to town, village to village, telling them about Islam, and if they accepted it and became Muslims, they were okay. But if they didn’t, he would kill them.

I saw Jesus in the Bible; He never did anything like that. He lavished others with grace and love. I decided to follow Christ and to get baptized.

I told my parents I had given my life to Jesus and was baptized, and they said, “You can’t eat in the same bowl or drink from the cup anymore.” (In our area of Africa, we eat from one big bowl as a family at mealtime. We have daily times of tea and share a cup to enjoy community and relationships.) Because of my family’s deep anger, this meant I had to leave and would not have fellowship with them.

A New Life
I went to live with the SOM NW Africa director. He and I traveled on his motorcycle, sharing about Christ everywhere we went. There are fourteen million people in our country in NW Africa, and 96 percent are Muslim. Sometimes as Christians, we will say we are suffering persecution. But the people that are suffering are the people who live outside of Christ, dying every day and going to hell.

I encourage you to pray for those people in Northwest Africa, living in villages with barely anything, but they want to be saved.