Sayeed’s Story

**This is a personal website and reflects my thoughts and convictions. It does not represent any official position held by Youth With A Mission.**

Marti and I have a friend whom we love dearly; she lives in a majority-Muslim nation and regularly sends us stories about what the Holy Spirit is doing.  Most of us read the disturbing stories about terrorism, tyranny and corruption in that part of the world, but there is a lot of very good news.  Here is some:

This month, I had the privilege of traveling to Djibouti, a 99% Muslim nation in the Horn of Africa. I went to teach on a Discipleship Training School, the students were all Muslim Background Believers. One of the students was Sayeed from Somalia. He was born and raised in a very strict form of Islam. He was sent to Quranic schools and had the whole Quran memorized by the time he was 8 years old. Around that time, his family moved to Kenya as Somali Refugees.

He continued his schooling in Kenya and one day, in his early twenties, he was on his way home from his studies when he heard a debate on the streets of Nairobi. The debate was between a pastor and a Muslim Leader. As he was passing, he heard one phrase;

“Muhammad is dead but Jesus is alive – which prophet would you follow?”

This question hit his heart like an arrow. He stopped and listened to the debate for about 30 minutes. When he got home that night, he spent hours researching Jesus on youtube and became convinced that Jesus was the way, the truth and the life. He decided to follow Him that very day. He didn’t know who to talk to about his new faith so he chose to go to a fellow Somali Quranic teacher and share with him. He said to the teacher; “I have a very important secret, if I tell you, do you promise not to tell anyone? ” The Quranic teacher said yes, I will keep your secret. Sayeed told him that he had become a follower of Jesus and to his amazement the Quranic teacher said;

“I have been wanting to follow him also for about three years!!!” They committed that day to pursue Jesus together.

Through a long series of events, their families back home found out and the leaders of their Somali clan found out about their faith and came to find them to either bring them back to Islam or to kill them. Sayeed was captured and tortured several times and each time was able to escape his captors. In the meantime, they persecuted his siblings and even killed his mother because he had brought shame on the clan by following Christ. Sayeed’s latest escape brought him safely to Djibouti and into the arms of the DTS where I was teaching. We spent the week together, sharing stories, crying together, praying for one another and putting our trust in the Father for Sayeed’s future. He wants to eventually be a pastor to his own people back in Somalia. Wow.

Please pray for Sayeed, his protection, his journey with Jesus and his eventual returning home to bring others to know Christ. He is only 27 years old and has already lived several lifetimes. He is our brother – lets lift him up to the Lord and believe that God will use him mightily for the future of his nation.

with you for the Kingdom in the Muslim World,

Martha.