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Ministry Stories from Urbana
My job at Urbana was to pray for students with specific requests in a one-on-one setting. I was very surprised when one student who sat in front of me asked for prayer to understand who Jesus is. Sayid was a Muslim and he was at Urbana with his girlfriend who was a Christian. As I prayed, I had the clear idea that I should read John 17:3 to him. The verse is a strong statement that Jesus is God, which was exactly what he was wondering about. Sayid took out his Farsi Bible, which is read from the upper right, and started to show me verses that he struggled with because they seemed to show that Jesus was less important than God the Father. I showed Sayid a number of verses from the Gospel of John that revealed that Jesus is God. After about 40 minutes, he was out of verses. So I asked what was stopping him from praying for forgiveness. Sayid paused for a little while and then said that he was ready to pray. I suggested that he start and simply talk to God about his sin. Sayid prayed for forgiveness of his sins and told God that he loved him and that he was ready to receive God’s help to be changed in his pride and in other parts of his character! Needless to say, I was overjoyed! When Sayid sat down, I had no idea that I would be praying with someone to become a Christian, much less praying with a Muslim student..
~Martin Smith, Area Director, Downstate Illinois
My job at Urbana was to pray for students with specific requests in a one-on-one setting. I was very surprised when one student who sat in front of me asked for prayer to understand who Jesus is. Sayid was a Muslim and he was at Urbana with his girlfriend who was a Christian. As I prayed, I had the clear idea that I should read John 17:3 to him. The verse is a strong statement that Jesus is God, which was exactly what he was wondering about. Sayid took out his Farsi Bible, which is read from the upper right, and started to show me verses that he struggled with because they seemed to show that Jesus was less important than God the Father. I showed Sayid a number of verses from the Gospel of John that revealed that Jesus is God. After about 40 minutes, he was out of verses. So I asked what was stopping him from praying for forgiveness. Sayid paused for a little while and then said that he was ready to pray. I suggested that he start and simply talk to God about his sin. Sayid prayed for forgiveness of his sins and told God that he loved him and that he was ready to receive God’s help to be changed in his pride and in other parts of his character! Needless to say, I was overjoyed! When Sayid sat down, I had no idea that I would be praying with someone to become a Christian, much less praying with a Muslim student..
~Martin Smith, Area Director, Downstate Illinois