My name is Ahmad, and I am a Shiite from Iraq. I left my country because of the war and embargo during Saddam Hussein’s regime. I could not go back because I would be killed by the regime. I lost all of my family members to war. My brothers were killed in the Iraq-Iran war, and my parents during the second Iraq war in 2003. I have lived in Jordan for the past 25 years.
Un día estaba caminando por la calle y en mi corazón estaba luchando. ¿Por qué me había pasado todo esto? ¿Por qué tuve que sufrir y perder a mi familia? ¿Por qué se retrasaron mis papeles de inmigración? Estaba murmurando para mí mismo. Mientras pasaba por delante de una iglesia, algo me detuvo y me instó a entrar. Nunca antes había estado en esa iglesia y me sentía incómodo. ¿Me echarían? Pero no pude resistir ese impulso, así que entré a la iglesia esa tarde.
No había estatuas ni cuadros en la iglesia, solo gente sentada escuchando a un predicador. Él estaba predicando en inglés y mi inglés no es bueno, así que me senté en silencio y traté de entender. El predicador pareció ver que yo no entendía, por lo que comenzó a decir los puntos principales en árabe. Realmente me gustó lo que dijo. Después de la oración, para mi sorpresa, vino directamente a mí y me dio la bienvenida. Fue tan amigable. Luego me invitó a almorzar con él y su familia. Insistió en que fuera con él, así que lo hice. Eso abrió la puerta para una amistad duradera.
I started asking the pastor questions. He was so understanding and answered my questions with love. I challenged him, but he was so calm and sure of what he believed. We started studying the Qur’an and the Bible. He had knowledge of both of them. We discussed everything–whether the Bible was corrupted, who Isa is, the Trinity, Isa’s death on the cross, family issues, the inspiration of the Qur’an and the Bible, the validity of the Hadith, and so on. I started seeing things in a different way. After four years of friendship and studies with the pastor, I accepted that the Bible is the Word of God and not corrupted. I saw Jesus differently even as the Qur’an says, “among those brought near [to Allah]” (Al-Imran 3:45), but I could not accept that He is God in flesh.
Recuerdo que una noche después de una larga discusión sobre quién es Jesús, mi amigo oró por mí y le pidió a Dios que me mostrara la verdad completa de quién es Él. Luego me dijo que Dios siempre revelará Su verdad a aquellos que estén buscando.
Early the next morning, I had a dream. In it, a Man in White was talking to me and asking me, “Why do you doubt who I am?”
I said, “Master who are You?”
Me respondió: “Yo soy el Camino, la Verdad y la Vida. Escuche a su amigo. Te está diciendo la verdad ".
I woke up at 5 a.m. with an overwhelming urge to call my pastor friend. “I believe!” I blurted out when he answered the phone.
“What do you believe?” he asked, sleepy and confused.
“I am telling you, I believe!” I nearly shouted. He could not understand what I meant. I repeated the same answer four times before I realized I hadn’t told him about my dream. “I saw Jesus in my dream!” I finally said. “I believe He is my God and Savior!” My friend was so happy for me, then he prayed with me on the phone, thanking Jesus for leading me to the full truth and encouraging me to submit my life fully to Jesus. During that prayer together, for the first time I prayed in the name of Jesus.
I do not know what would have happened if I had not listened to the voice of the Holy Spirit that day and entered that church, or if I had declined the pastor’s invitation to eat with his family. Now I can see how God led me through those four years of study to learn so much, and then to seal the truth in my heart with the dream. My life is not easy at all, but I can shout with the Apostle Paul, “For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day” (2 Tim. 1:12).
