A and B are missionaries that have been serving for several years as Horizons Staff in Cape Town, South Africa. For security reasons we cannot share their names. The following is wonderful ministry success story written from their perspective. When a seed is planted in a person’s life, you never know how or when God might use it!
October 2010: Lausanne Congress and the man at the Muslim shrines
The third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelisation was held in Cape Town. Cape Town 2010, as it is known, has been called the most representative gathering of Christian leaders in the 2000 year history of the Christian movement. It brought together four thousand Christian leaders from around the world, representing 198 countries. A was a member of the South African delegation as the national representative of the ministry among Muslims. Simply God!
After the conference, A and I showed some places of interest around the city to two foreign colleagues. We took them to a kramat, a shrine which honors a Muslim ‘holy man’. It consists of a tomb, often sheltered in a small building. Muslims, especially women, visit those shrines to make requests or to express their gratitude. A circle of twenty-seven kramats surrounds the Cape Peninsula. That circle, according to Islamic legends, protects it from the ‘evil eye’, which perhaps partly explains the fact that Cape Muslims are very approachable but very resistant to the Gospel. Near the door of a kramat, there is usually a box in which Folk Islam practitioners and tourists can put money. We ignored that box when we walked out. So the guardian of the kramat asked: “Why don’t you support my cause?”. “Because your cause persecutes Christians and even sometimes kills them!”, I answered. He got very angry and followed us to the car while insulting and cursing us. As I opened the car door, I turned to him and said: “Do not curse people who belong to the Lord God, your curses could boomerang on you!” In the car, as we drove off, we asked for divine protection and also prayed for that man.
November 2018: A random phone call from the police station
Early one morning, our telephone rang. The caller on the line was a friend of mine, who was the captain of a police station in downtown Cape Town. He told me that he needed my help urgently because there was a demon-possessed Muslim man in his office and he did not know what to do with him. Deliverance! Not my favorite ministry activity for obvious reasons! “Let me pray about it and I’ll call you back in thirty minutes”, I told him. I prayed with Nicole who encouraged me to pick up some co-workers from the Bridge Team before going to the city. Guess who was sitting in my friend’s office? Yes, you guessed it! Right away, I recognized the guardian of the kramat and learnt his name, Mr. X. Occult beliefs and practices were part of his daily routine but, according to him, he got the fright of his life when he saw the ‘evil eye’ creeping from under the door of the kramat and staring at him twice. He came to the police station to ask for protection against evil spirits, which the captain could not provide. We made it clear to Mr. X that only the Lord Jesus Christ could help him. After asking a few questions about the Only One who could fully satisfy his spiritual cravings in his life and for eternity, he decided to trust Him. Then, through prayers, we asked the Lord Jesus Christ, the difference-maker, to cleanse him from all unsavory inhabitants. Simply God!
Prayers for Mr. X
Mr. X desperately needs your prayers. He is now very sick, jobless as well as homeless and he is pressured into going back to Islam by his Muslim relatives. Mr. X is not the only convert from Islamic background finding himself caught in a precarious situation. Openly following the Lord Jesus Christ can have painful consequences, even in democratic countries like South Africa. These days apparently 245 million Christians in the world are persecuted simply for their faith.”
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