Son of Hamas leader's conversion to Christ

"...we preach Christ crucified,.. to those of us called,...Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." Paul, Apostle to the Gentiles, 1 Cor. 1:23-25

In our day, where and when Christians are ready and willing to share the love of Christ with others, the the life changing power of the Gospel is still as effective as in the days of the early church!

The young man in this video, Mosab Hassan Yousef, is the son of a very well known Hamas leader on the west bank. Several years ago he was invited to hear a talk about Jesus. He had seen the torture inflicted by Hamas leaders on their followers, and while reading his Bible secretly read Jesus' call to love our enemies. The truth of God, which is weakness to the world, proved to be stronger than man's ways! This truth is seen in completeness in Christ crucified! Jospeh(his Christian name) Hassan Yousef has given his life to Christ! He knows that Jesus is the way to God the Father, and is praying for his family and friends to embrace the Lord Jesus as well.

Let's us pray and look for opportunities to share the life changing good news of our Savior with anyone whom he leads us to. All people have the right to know the love of God made manifest in our Lord Jesus, the Christ!

Let's pray for this young man to become a living witness to many people, and in a special way to his Muslim family and friends! May the Lord protect and strengthen him, in Jesus name we pray. Amen!

Missionary of Jesus’ Resurrection in Turkmenistan

A dear friend of ChristLife’s, Hana Simcikova – a young woman from Slovakia – wrote us an update on her missionary work in Turkmenistan. Her work is very inspiring. She first came across ChristLife during training Dave Nodar was doing in Eastern Europe during the 1990s. We met up with her in 2007 in Slovakia – and Pete also had the chance to interview her for a podcast on her missionary work.

Here is her letter:

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"'There is no need for you to be afraid. I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.
He is not here, for he has risen, as he said he would. Come and see the place where he lay, then go quickly and tell his disciples, "He has risen from the dead and now he is going ahead of you to Galilee; that is where you will see him." Look! I have told you.'
Filled with awe and great joy the women came quickly away from the tomb and ran to tell his disciples." (Mt 28)

Dear friends!

Almost a year ago I was writing to ask for your help with the Turkmenistan mission.

First of all, I want to say THANK YOU! Thanks so much to every one of you for your prayers, thoughts, financial support, emails, greetings, and every kind of support that helped us to serve in Turkmenistan last year. You have a special place in all that is going on in that country, and in the small Catholic community there.

The Catholic Church in Turkmenistan still lives underground.
During this mission we were able to meet many more native Turkmen people then during our first mission. We were blessed through those simple, mostly Islamic, people who were open to talking about God; they are so thirsty for His love and presence. We prayed together with them and they were touched by the Father's love through our Lord Jesus! Hope and peace changed their desperation. Their simple and joyful testimonies about Gods miracles strengthened our faith.

In two years, since our last mission, many things are still the same in Turkmenistan. There are still just two catholic priests for the whole country. However, there are many changes – much more people are coming every day, coming to hear about Jesus, seeking His love and help, ready to give Him their all. Mostly they are poor people who suffered a lot in their lives. When they come to Jesus they are blessed by His forgiveness, deep healing and new life in Him! We prayed over them almost every day and we led all the meetings for catechumens, youth and kids, which was so helpful for the priests. We also prepared simple evangelization training, where we taught them how to proclaim the Good News. We saw how the first small prayer group was born--just a few people who want to worship Jesus, and serve others by intercessory prayer.

The Priests also sent us to other places in Turkmenistan, where we spent some time with people sharing Gods love with them. More and more people were coming every day, hungry for His word which many of them heard for the first time in their lives. Their desire for more priests and missionaries in their towns didn't surprise us.

We could see the big gift of God that we have at home– daily Mass and Holy Communion especially.



I personally was especially touched by the warm-heartedness, kindness and hospitality of the poorest people in the village called Arzuw. They told us things like: "If I didn't meet you two years ago, today I would be addicted to heroine and I would also sell it as the rest of my family does." "We know, God has sent you to us – just for me!" – told with thankful heart.

I also met a woman at the market place, whom I had promised two years ago that I would come back. Her first reaction when she saw me at the same place was: "Ooooo – she came!" and invitation she invited us to visit her house. I could write a book about that meeting. Their clear eyes spoke about clear hearts, which we could also visit. In the family, everyone works from the sunrise to the late night. Love, respect and care are given to each other in all small situations, where members of that Islamic family speak so nice about each other, pray together and have God among them – it is a small (or big?) miracle in that nation.
We had a very nice time with the youth during retreats we prepared for them. Their testimonies among their friends and schoolmates bears fruit, and more and more youth came later to the meetings, to pray together, to hear Gods word, or just to play together.

We wouldn't have been able to do any of this without you!

When I was on the plane going into Turkmenistan, I saw a desert named Kara-Kum from above. It looked like a lot of small rivers, or water sources but they were empty and dry. I was thinking about the land, which is ready, rivers which are waiting for water, water which will bring the life to that land. And a prayer grew up in my heart – giving thanks to God and asking Him for living waters of His presence and love to flood this country.

I apologize I haven't updated you about our mission in Turkmenistan earlier. Thank God for these last months. They were full of challenges. I was working on my dissertation, our mission in Turkmenistan was very intense, coming back home I defended my PhD, and started my new job, so I can make some money, pay my loans, and go back to Turkmenistan as soon as possible.

Please, pray for Turkmenistan, pray for the priests. Pray for those, who are going to be baptized tonight; pray for more missionaries in that country; pray for us to be ready to give our time, money and all lives to that mission when Jesus calls us again. I hope that time will come soon!
Lord Jesus, we thank You for the free given gift of being a part of that mission, for every miracle of healing, deliverance and conversion. Thank You for your faithfulness, for your favor, and that we can come personally closer to You!

I wish you a blessed Easter. May your Easter season be filled with the grace and love of Our Risen Savior!

Hana Simcikova (in the black shirt in the above picture)
Slovakia

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Isn’t that an awesome testimony of how our Risen Lord is still using his Church to accomplish his great mission to save souls! If you would like to donate to Hana’s work or get on her update email list – please contact us

God is doing a mighty work among Muslims!

Muslims need to hear the good news of Jesus, our LORD and Savior!

Jesus wants all people to know the forgiveness of sins and the power of the Holy Spirit to give us new life in the loving embrace of God the Father! And the Holy Spirit is working among Muslim people in a very revolutionary way, to bring them to the knowledge of the love of God the Father through the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Son of God! It is a fact! One that we should pay attention to and pray for!

I am including two excellent articles that appeared within days of one another. Take the time to read and pray about both! The first is a letter from a Muslim journalist who was baptized by Pope Benedict at the Easter Vigil. The letter is courageous and inspiring. It should provoke us to an eagerness to share the love of Christ with our Muslim friends. The second article is by Chuck Colson, which highlights the significant numbers of Muslims who are converting to Christianity.

I would also encourage you to listen to ChristLife’s podcast with a Muslim convert to Christ, who shares some practical advice for sharing Christ with Muslims.

Magdi Allam’s conversion to Christ and the Catholic Church
Pope Benedict joyfully baptized seven people from five countries: Italy, Cameroon, China, the United States and Peru, during Saturday’s Easter Vigil Mass.

Among those being baptized was Magdi Allam, a well known journalist who is deputy director of Corriere della Sera, one of Italy’s largest and oldest newspapers. Allam who was originally from Egypt, has lived in Italy for almost 35 years. More significant for many is the fact that Mr. Allam converted from Islam.

Explaining what led the Pope to administer baptism to the journalist, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said, “For the Catholic Church, every person who asks to receive baptism after a deep personal search, a completely free choice and adequate preparation, has the right to receive it.”

The day Mr. Allam became a Catholic was the most beautiful day of his life, according to the Muslim journalist who received the sacraments of initiation by Benedict XVI at Saturday's Easter Vigil Mass. Here is a translation of Magdi Allam’s account of his conversion to Catholicism.

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Dear Friends,

I am particularly happy to share with you my immense joy for this Easter of Resurrection that has brought me the gift of the Christian faith. I gladly propose the letter that I sent to the director of the Corriere della Sera, Paolo Mieli, in which I tell the story of the interior journey that brought me to the choice of conversion to Catholicism. This is the complete version of the letter, which was published by the Corriere della Sera only in part.

Dear Director,
That which I am about to relate to you concerns my choice of religious faith and personal life in which I do not wish to involve in any way the Corriere della Sera, which it has been an honor to be a part of as deputy director “ad personam” since 2003. I write you thus as protagonist of the event, as private citizen.

Yesterday evening I converted to the Christian Catholic religion, renouncing my previous Islamic faith. Thus, I finally saw the light, by divine grace -- the healthy fruit of a long, matured gestation, lived in suffering and joy, together with intimate reflection and conscious and manifest expression. I am especially grateful to his holiness Pope Benedict XVI, who imparted the sacraments of Christian initiation to me, baptism, confirmation and Eucharist, in the Basilica of St. Peter’s during the course of the solemn celebration of the Easter Vigil. And I took the simplest and most explicit Christian name: “Cristiano.” Since yesterday evening therefore my name is Magdi Crisitano Allam.

For me it is the most beautiful day of [my] life. To acquire the gift of the Christian faith during the commemoration of Christ’s resurrection by the hand of the Holy Father is, for a believer, an incomparable and inestimable privilege. At almost 56 […], it is a historical, exceptional and unforgettable event, which marks a radical and definitive turn with respect to the past. The miracle of Christ’s resurrection reverberated through my soul, liberating it from the darkness in which the preaching of hatred and intolerance in the face of the “different,” uncritically condemned as “enemy,” were privileged over love and respect of “neighbor,” who is always, an in every case, “person”; thus, as my mind was freed from the obscurantism of an ideology that legitimates lies and deception, violent death that leads to murder and suicide, the blind submission to tyranny, I was able to adhere to the authentic religion of truth, of life and of freedom.

On my first Easter as a Christian I not only discovered Jesus, I discovered for the first time the face of the true and only God, who is the God of faith and reason. My conversion to Catholicism is the touching down of a gradual and profound interior meditation from which I could not pull myself away, given that for five years I have been confined to a life under guard, with permanent surveillance at home and a police escort for my every movement, because of death threats and death sentences from Islamic extremists and terrorists, both those in and outside of Italy.

I had to ask myself about the attitude of those who publicly declared fatwas, Islamic juridical verdicts, against me -- I who was a Muslim -- as an “enemy of Islam,” “hypocrite because he is a Coptic Christian who pretends to be a Muslim to do damage to Islam,” “liar and vilifier of Islam,” legitimating my death sentence in this way. I asked myself how it was possible that those who, like me, sincerely and boldly called for a “moderate Islam,” assuming the responsibility of exposing themselves in the first person in denouncing Islamic extremism and terrorism, ended up being sentenced to death in the name of Islam on the basis of the Quran. I was forced to see that, beyond the contingency of the phenomenon of Islamic extremism and terrorism that has appeared on a global level, the root of evil is inherent in an Islam that is physiologically violent and historically conflictive.

At the same time providence brought me to meet practicing Catholics of good will who, in virtue of their witness and friendship, gradually became a point of reference in regard to the certainty of truth and the solidity of values. [Here Mr. Allam sites many Catholics who were witnesses to him. See full article for their names.]

But undoubtedly the most extraordinary and important encounter in my decision to convert was that with Pope Benedict XVI, whom I admired and defended as a Muslim for his mastery in setting down the indissoluble link between faith and reason as a basis for authentic religion and human civilization, and to whom I fully adhere as a Christian to inspire me with new light in the fulfillment of the mission God has reserved for me.

Mine was a journey that began when at four years old, my mother Safeya -- a believing and practicing Muslim -- in the first in the series of “fortuitous events” that would prove to be not at all the product of chance but rather an integral part of a divine destiny to which all of us have been assigned -- entrusted me to the loving care of Sister Lavinia of the Comboni Missionary Sisters, convinced of the goodness of the education that would be imparted by the Catholic and Italian religious, who had come to Cairo, the city of my birth, to witness to their Christian faith through a work aimed at the common good. I thus began an experience of life in boarding school, followed by the Salesians of the Institute of Don Bosco in junior high and high school, which transmitted to me not only the science of knowledge but above all the awareness of values.

It is thanks to members of Catholic religious orders that I acquired a profoundly and essentially an ethical conception of life, in which the person created in the image and likeness of God is called to undertake a mission that inserts itself in the framework of a universal and eternal design directed toward the interior resurrection of individuals on this earth and the whole of humanity on the day of judgment, which is founded on faith in God and the primacy of values, which is based on the sense of individual responsibility and on the sense of duty toward the collective. It is in virtue of a Christian education and of the sharing of the experience of life with Catholic religious that I cultivated a profound faith in the transcendent dimension and also sought the certainty of truth in absolute and universal values.

There was a time when my mother’s loving presence and religious zeal brought me closer to Islam, which I occasionally practiced at a cultural level and in which I believed at a spiritual level according to an interpretation that at the time -- it was the 1970s -- summarily corresponded to a faith respectful of persons and tolerant toward the neighbor, in a context -- that of the Nasser regime -- in which the secular principle of the separation of the religious sphere and the secular sphere prevailed.

My father Muhammad was completely secular and agreed with the opinion of the majority of Egyptians who took the West as a model in regard to individual freedom, social customs and cultural and artistic fashions, even if the political totalitarianism of Nasser and the bellicose ideology of Pan-Arabism that aimed at the physical elimination of Israel unfortunately led to disaster for Egypt and opened the way to the resumption of Pan-Islamism, to the ascent of Islamic extremists to power and the explosion of globalized Islamic terrorism.
The long years at school allowed me to know Catholicism well and up close and the women and men who dedicated their life to serve God in the womb of the Church. Already then I read the Bible and the Gospels and I was especially fascinated by the human and divine figure of Jesus. I had a way to attend Holy Mass and it also happened, only once, that I went to the altar to receive communion. It was a gesture that evidently signaled my attraction to Christianity and my desire to feel a part of the Catholic religious community.
Then, on my arrival in Italy at the beginning of the 1970s between the rivers of student revolts and the difficulties of integration, I went through a period of atheism understood as a faith, which nevertheless was also founded on absolute and universal values. I was never indifferent to the presence of God even if only now I feel that the God of love, of faith and reason reconciles himself completely with the patrimony of values that are rooted in me.
Dear Director, you asked me whether I fear for my life, in the awareness that conversion to Christianity will certainly procure for me yet another, and much more grave, death sentence for apostasy. You are perfectly right. I know what I am headed for but I face my destiny with my head held high, standing upright and with the interior solidity of one who has the certainty of his faith. And I will be more so after the courageous and historical gesture of the Pope, who, as soon has he knew of my desire, immediately agreed to personally impart the Christian sacraments of initiation to me. His Holiness has sent an explicit and revolutionary message to a Church that until now has been too prudent in the conversion of Muslims, abstaining from proselytizing in majority Muslim countries and keeping quiet about the reality of converts in Christian countries. Out of fear. The fear of not being able to protect converts in the face of their being condemned to death for apostasy and fear of reprisals against Christians living in Islamic countries. Well, today Benedict XVI, with his witness, tells us that we must overcome fear and not be afraid to affirm the truth of Jesus even with Muslims.

For my part, I say that it is time to put an end to the abuse and the violence of Muslims who do not respect the freedom of religious choice. In Italy there are thousands of converts to Islam who live their new faith in peace. But there are also thousands of Muslim converts to Christianity who are forced to hide their faith out of fear of being assassinated by Islamic extremists who lurk among us. By one of those “fortuitous events” that evoke the discreet hand of the Lord, the first article that I wrote for the Corriere on Sept. 3, 2003 was entitled “The new Catacombs of Islamic Converts.” It was an investigation of recent Muslim converts to Christianity in Italy who decry their profound spiritual and human solitude in the face of absconding state institutions that do not protect them and the silence of the Church itself. Well, I hope that the Pope’s historical gesture and my testimony will lead to the conviction that the moment has come to leave the darkness of the catacombs and to publicly declare their desire to be fully themselves. If in Italy, in our home, the cradle of Catholicism, we are not prepared to guarantee complete religious freedom to everyone, how can we ever be credible when we denounce the violation of this freedom elsewhere in the world? I pray to God that on this special Easter he give the gift of the resurrection of the spirit to all the faithful in Christ who have until now been subjugated by fear. Happy Easter to everyone.

Dear friends, let us go forward on the way of truth, of life and of freedom with my best wishes for every success and good thing.

Magdi Allam

'They Want Jesus Instead' - Why Muslims Convert

In church yesterday, as you celebrated Easter, did you notice anything or anyone unusual?
In churches all over the world, there were millions of people celebrating the resurrection of Christ, who were not there just a few years ago because they were worshipping in a mosque instead.

It is thrilling evidence that God is doing a mighty work among Muslims.

According to the website Islam Watch, in Russia, some two million ethnic Muslims converted to Christianity last year. Ten thousand French Muslims converted, as did 35,000 Turkish Muslims. In India, approximately 10,000 people abandoned Islam for Christianity.

In his book Epicenter, author Joel Rosenberg details amazing stories of Muslims converting to Christianity. In Algeria, the birthplace of St. Augustine, more than 80,000 Muslims have turned to Christ in recent years. This, despite the stiff opposition from Islamic clerics who have passed laws banning evangelism.

In Morocco, newspaper articles openly worry that 25,000 to 40,000 Muslims have become followers of Christ in recent years.

The stories are even more amazing in the heart of the Middle East. In 1996, the Egyptian Bible Society sold just 3,000 video copies of the JESUS film. In the year 2000, they sold an incredible 600,000 copies.

In Sudan, as many as five million Muslims have accepted Christ since the early 1990s, despite horrific persecution of Christians by the Sudanese government. What is behind the mass conversions? According to a Sudanese evangelical leader, "People have seen real Islam, and they want Jesus instead."

In Iraq, "More than 5,000 Muslim converts to Christianity have been identified since the end of major combat operations," says Islam Watch. And just a few days ago, the first-ever Roman Catholic church was consecrated in Qatar, a Sunni Muslim state where the Wahhabi brand of Islam is practiced. This was the first time Christians in Qatar have been allowed to practice their faith openly. Ten thousand people attended the opening mass.

These conversions have not escaped the notice of Islamic leaders. In 2001, Sheik Ahmad Al Qatanni, a leading Saudi cleric, delivered the disturbing news on Al-Jazeera: Every day, he said, "16,000 Muslims convert to Christianity . . . every year, that is six million Muslims becoming Christians . . . A tragedy has happened." It is possible the sheik was inflating high numbers to incite a reaction against Christianity. But clearly, something is happening.

How thrilling to learn that so many Muslims have been set free from the chains of their sins˜just as you and I have˜by the power of Christ's blood! We must pray for these new brothers and sisters; many are being violently persecuted for their new-found faith.
These millions of conversions give us one more reason to rejoice this Easter season. Yes, we may be in a great clash of civilizations; battling Islamic-extremists who threaten to kill us. And the future may at times look bleak. But never despair: God is on His throne, bringing people into His kingdom from the very heart of Islam.

In Closing:

At this time when we rejoice in our Lord’s victory over sin and death, may we pray for the Muslim people and ask the Holy Spirit to give us opportunities to share the good news of our Lord’s mercy and grace with them!

"Lord Jesus, we praise and thank you for your cross and resurrection. We thank you that you are the Savior of the world. We pray for our Muslim friends to come to know the love of the Father and life changing power of your Holy Spirit as they turn to you to receive grace and mercy that you freely give to all who ask. And we thank you for the joy of allowing us to know you and make you known to all! Amen, Alleluia!"

An Easter Message

A friend of ChristLife's, Lilian Schmid from Australia, sent the following testimony to me about her background as a Lebanese Christian - and how we as Christians should be more united - especially at Easter as we celebrate together Jesus Christ's resurrection. Inspiring!

I was born in Beirut, at the age of 13 the civil war of Lebanon broke in 1975. Our shelter was the small living room where many of our neighbours and relatives use to gather to feel safe and protection. Young high school Christian students left their school, Christian students left their universities to join the Christian Militia to fight Muslims. It was a nasty war, I won’t go in details because I hate politics. I didn’t have a happy teen age years, war affected everything, I remember my father use to travel under the bombs, to feed a family of 4, my mother, myself the eldest, my sister and my brother. My parents were always under stress and fear but what kept us going was faith. Being Christian Lebanese means our culture is based on our religion. So in Lebanon we have 2 cultures the Christian and the Muslim Cultures.

I was lucky because our school was not far from home. Finishing high school, money was an issue during the war and many like me didn’t have the chance to go to uni but to start working at early age to earn money to take their burden off their parents. So I was lucky to start work experience at Beirut Ryad Bank in Beirut CBD at the age of 17. I’ve grown up in a very restrictive Catholic Lebanese family; also Lebanese parents are very protective over their children.

Working in a bank at the age of 17 gave me confidence to meet bank managers, CEO, customers and know at early age how to interact with business people. But the only thing I had to keep to myself is my religion identity, because Beirut CBD was a city on fire at the time. The first week my mother use to travel with me and in the afternoon I may find someone coming to the Christian area who would give me a lift.

Prayers always were on my lips traveling everyday from the Christian area to the Muslim area to work. Many other Lebanese did the same. I worked only 6 moths in Beirut CBD and I did ask for a transfer but the problem they need more people in the city then other branches, because Muslim employees occupied the branches in the Muslim area and the Christian employees occupied the branches in the Christian areas.

I had always a cross around my neck but it was always hidden and once I am in the Christian area I would pull it out.

M parents suggested that I start finding work close to home due to the war situation and they were scared if I would be trapped one day in the other area. It was an adventure at the time and I couldn’t believe that I did it. So what kept me going? And who protected me? It was JESUS. MY FAITH WAS SO STRONG. THAT’S WHY NOW; NOTHING MATTERS TO ME BECAUSE I HAVE FAITH IN HIM WHO KEPT ME ALIVE DURING THE WAR.

I decided to go back to college and study Accounting. So I took evening classes and I was teaching languages in the morning in a Catholic School near by. I met wonderful teachers through my teaching years and we use to share our faith and because it is one Christian community, we all know each other and what we believe. Sometimes Catholics picks on Orthodox or vies versa but we never hated each other.

IN FACT ALL CHRISTIANS IN LEBANON STOOD WITH EACH OTHER (PROTESTANT, CATHOLIC, ORTHODOX) AGAINST THE MUSLIMS. HERE IN THE WEST WE PICK ON EACH OTHER AND WE JUDGE EACH OTHER. WHEN YOU FACE DANGER, YOU FORGET WHAT YOUR DENOMINATION IS, YOU ONLY THINK, THAT YOU ARE A CHRISTIAN AND YOU HAVE TO DEFEND YOUR FAITH.

I HAVE SEEN PEOPLE BEEN KILLED AT THE FRONT OF MY EYES, I HAVE FAMILY MEMBERS WHO DIED TO DEFEND OUR EXISTENCE AS CHRISTIANS IN LEBANON AND YET, I FEEL VERY SHOCKED HERE IN AUSTRALIA TO SEE PEOPLE BECOMING AGGRESSIVE AND JEALOUS FROM EACH OTHER AND THEY WANT TO GRAB EACH OTHER’S TITLE OR POSITION AND THEY SAY:” GOD WANTS ME TO DO THIS AND THAT”

I SAY TO THIS PEOPLE GROW UP. WHAT WE DO AS CHRISTIAN IS WE DO GOD’S WILL; IT IS HIS WILL NOT OURS AND IF WE DO ANY MINISTRY, IT IS HIS MINISTRY.

Unfortunately, Lebanese People who were born in Australian don’t know exactly how much Lebanese in Lebanon suffered. And yes we are very educated and we have very intellectual people who achieved PhDs, Master, and degrees, even the war hit their homes and their parents died either from cancer of bombs or stress, or poverty.

I came to Australian in 1991, I studied hard to achieve something I couldn’t achieve in Lebanon, I was lucky to come here and I thank my God for Australia, it is a great nation, be grateful guys.

To start with 1992 I worked as a machine operator at Sydney Institute of Technology and then from 1994 to 1996 I became a Second Officer in Charge in the Payroll Section. I always shared my love of the Lord and how he saved us to come to Australia.

In 1995 I met my wonderful husband Bjorn and through him I learned not to hate other religions but to love them and pray for them. I have lots of experience in the workplace and I know people from executive to cleaners and to me they are the same. Jesus loves us all the same, and he died for us all.

Maybe the cleaner one day will have a higher place in heaven and the executive will be the last. So be humble and let the light of Christ shine on you and then It will shine on others as well.

Brothers and sisters at this time of Easter let us look and feel the suffering of Christ and remember that He died because He loved us. So let’s love one another and put our hate aside

HAPPY EASTER TO YOU ALL!

Lilian and her husband Bjorn work for a Christian group in Australia called Australian Marketplace Connections focused on helping Christians in the marketplace network and together build the Kingdom of God.

March 4 Life and Muslim Convert

Greetings from the backroom of ChristLife! I hope all that browse our blog and our Web site are encouraged in their faith in Jesus Christ and their commitment to share this wonderful gift to others!

Last week I had the great opportunity of going with some friends to the March for Life in Washington DC. A tremendous event that has drawn up to 200,000 people in previous years. Though headlines of secular news outlets say things like "thousands of anti-abortion protesters gathered in DC" or even worse "protesters on both sides of the abortion debate gathered in DC to mark the anniversary of Roe v. Wade" - considering there are usually about 10 pro-choice supporters to 100,000 pro-life supporters.

When we reached the Supreme Court I actually walked by two pro-choicers surrounded by a bunch of pro-lifers - engaging in "dialogue." Anyway, right as I walked past I noticed a team of network news walking over to interview the pro-choicers - to get "balanced coverage." That's unfortunate. But some perspective for myself kicks in - things could be much worse of course - we could be openly persecuted or killed for our beliefs if we were in other countries.

And beyond bad press coverage there were some really awesome things that happened during the March. The following 3 minute video from David Bereit of 40 days for Life gives a great "grassroots" view of the March and covers a really neat "sign" of hope for America - tremendous!!

And you may be wondering why the subject of this blog post includes the part about "Muslim Convert" - well that's because our most recent podcast includes a live clip of me and some friends from the Supreme Court at the March for Life - as well as a really exciting interview I had with Daniel Ali, a Muslim Convert to Jesus Christ and to the Catholic Church.

This was such a privilege! Daniel is a passionate layman and evangelist and author. He recently wrote a book about his conversion called Out of Islam: Free at Last. Here's the podcast with all this stuff in it. Click play below or listen in here.

Do you give up so easily on Jesus?

An incredible story from Iraq from the Catholic News Agency via Sherry W. at the Intentional Disciples blog.

"As Fr. Bautista continued speaking with us, he described the fascinating story of a young Muslim woman who was entering the Church under his guidance through the RCIA process. Her story was moving. While working with Americans, this woman, who must remain anonymous, was touched deeply when she realized that the U.S. medical personnel not only treated wounded Americans and Iraqi civilians, but also treated wounded enemy combatants, including one who was known for having killed U.S. Marines. As she put it, “This cannot happen with us.”

This dramatic extension of mercy even to enemy soldiers caused her to take the next cautious step. She asked Father Bautista to “tell me more about Jesus.” As Father described Jesus and his life in the Gospels, one thing stood out among the rest for the Muslim woman he called “Fatima” (not her real name) and that was how kindly Jesus had related to, as she put it, “the two Mary’s.” Fatima was moved to see how Jesus deeply loved Mary, his mother, who was sinless, but also how Jesus deeply loved Mary Magdalene, who was “a great sinner.” As these discussions continued, Fatima reached a point where she said to Father Bautista, “I want to become a Christian.”

Since Father Bautista sees himself as a chaplain for all troops, not just Catholics, he decided to introduce Fatima to other chaplains from Protestant and Orthodox backgrounds. After some time had passed, Fatima returned to Father Bautista and said, “I want to become a Catholic like you.” When Father asked her the reason for her decision, she said, “You were the only one who told me about the other Christians, so you left me free to decide for myself. That’s how I knew this was the right decision.”

As their catechetical lessons developed over time, Fatima’s family discovered her plan and was warned sternly by her father that if she continued on this path, she would be disowned by the entire family and would never have contact with them again. At this point, Father Bautista became concerned for Fatima’s well-being and cautioned her to look carefully at the consequences of her decision and to think seriously before continuing her path into the Church.

Fatima paused for a moment and then looking intently at Father Bautista asked, “Do you give up so easily on Jesus?” The question took Father aback for a moment, but then he thought, “This is incredible; this Muslim woman is already bearing witness to me about how important my own faith is!”

As he related it, this woman’s question had caused him to give greater thanks for his faith and for the great privilege of sharing Christ with others. Fatima is currently continuing the RCIA process with great courage and joy."

Amazing! Please pray for "Fatima" and all who journey toward Christ this Advent!