I have a friend called Elijah*, who used to be a Muslim but became a Christian after Jesus showed Himself to him in a prophetic vision. He know works with a missionary organisation and is spreading the Gospel in the Middle East. A couple of months back when he was visiting some churches in a South Asian city, a couple approached him when he was walking through a mall. They tried to convert him to Islam, but in 20 minutes time they became disciples of Jesus.

See, they told him that about six months earlier, they had been watching TV. As they zapped through the channels, they came to a Christian channel where Swedish pastor Stanley Sjöberg was preaching the Gospel. Since they were devout Muslims, they became upset, shut the TV down and went to bed.

The next morning, they told each other that they had had a strange dream. They soon discovered that it was exactly the same dream! Stanley Sjöberg had come to their house, they had let him in and he continued to preach about Jesus. As they protested, Stanley said “My friend Elijah will tell you more about Jesus”, and from nowhere they saw a Middle Eastern guy sitting next to Stanley. Stanley went on saying that they would meet him in a particular South Asian city, on one particular day at 5 PM.

They didn’t know what the dream meant and thought it was a bit freaky that they both dreamt it the same time, but after a bit if reasoning the wife said “Maybe Allah has given us this dream to find Elijah and convert him to Islam. Let’s go to that place – if we don’t find him we will just have a nice holiday.”

And as you know, they did find him, failed to convert him, and became Christians.

Elijah also told me about how he recently have come in contact with a man he knew at a young age. They were good friends but when Elijah was saved, the man didn’t want to have contact with him at all.

Just a couple of weeks ago, the man was taking a nap at his office, because he could. Then, a “beautiful man” appeared, urging him to leave the place immediately. He woke up, and even though he was confused he took his stuff and went out from the building. Right about then the building was attacked and exploded, turning his and other offices into ashes.

The man told Elijah this on an anonymous Christian chat on the internet. “Who do you think the beautiful man was?” “Jesus!” “Yeah, I expected you would say that, but honestly if you had been a Buddhist you would had said Buddha.”

“Look,” Elijah wrote, “Pray that you will meet this man again. Then ask for His name. I’m sure you will see that it’s Jesus.” The man thought it was a good idea, and two days later he wrote: “It’s Jesus! He appeared again and said that His name is Jesus!”

Elijah then led him to the Lord, whereas the man confessed that he once knew a Christian man, but he had stopped contacting him because if his faith. After giving some details about himself, Elijah realised that he was the man’s friend! They exchanged phone numbers, talked to each other and praised the Lord for reconciling them.

God is moving in the Middle East! Pray for more workers in the harvest fields!

*As you’ve probably guessed, due to the adventurous nature if this sorts of missionary work I need to keep stuff quite anonymous. Elijah is actually called something else.