Seven Bengali Muslims Embrace Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior!!
Dear Friends & Prayer Warriors,
Thank you so much for keeping the ministry and missionaries of CTU in prayer before our awesome and most wonderful Lord Jesus! In these last two weeks we have seen seven commitments to follow Jesus among the Bengali Muslims to whom we have been reaching out. Six of those commitments were from the missionaries and their associates whom we support in Bangladesh, and one was from our Friday outreaches here in New York City. God is doing something tremendous in Bengali communities both in Bangladesh and around the world. Every week we see more and more Bengalis committing their lives to Jesus and choosing to be baptized.
Last Friday Mursheda spoke with a woman named Sajida Islam. She was sitting on the park bench, so Mursheda sat down next to her and struck up a conversation. She learned that Sajidah is fighting cancer and was also a COVID survivor. She had been in the hospital for two weeks and almost died. She explained that it was a miracle that she was still alive. Mursheda agreed but also told her that God had kept her alive for this moment so that she could hear the Gospel.
Mursheda proceeded to share the Gospel with Sajidah. She explained how Jesus had been filled with God’s Holy Spirit through which he healed many people and why it was that Jesus had to die. She explained how important it was that Sajidah accept Jesus as Lord and Savior in order to have eternal life. At the end of her story Mursheda asked Sajidah if she would be willing to accept Jesus as her personal savior and Sajidah said that she would. They proceeded to pray together and Sajidah committed her life to follow Jesus and to trust in his sacrifice for her sins.
The moment that they finished praying, Mursheda noticed that Sajidah froze up and had a surprised look on her face. Mursheda asked her if she was feeling OK. She said "Yes" but that she felt that something was happening within her. Mursheda explained that if she had been serious about committing her life to Jesus, then the Holy Spirit would come into her to give her eternal life. She explained that her life was going to change and that it would become different and better. At that, Sajidah smiled , excused herself and immediately left. Please continue to pray for Sajidah. Mursheda was unable to get her contact information because she doesn’t have a cell phone. However, she said that she often comes to Captain Tilly park. Please pray that we will be able to meet up with her again in our outreaches.
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In Bangladesh one of the pastors that volunteers with our ministry (Pastor Masum), has been working closely with one of the churches in Dhaka. Many of the Churches in Dhaka find themselves in situations where they are being prohibited from sharing their faith with Muslims because of the persecution they would face if they would do so. Some churches and denominations prohibit their own pastors from sharing their faith with Muslims as well.
One particular pastor who found himself in this situation, due to his own denomination’s restrictions, came up with an innovative way of bringing Muslims to the Lord. He would make friendships with Muslims in his neighborhood and invite those he thought were ready to come to his church and listen to him preach. In the past several months he had had four Muslims coming to his church on a regular basis. (Of course, no one in the congregation knows that these four men are Muslims.) Since the pastor was restrained from sharing the Gospel with them himself, he contacted Masum and invited him to attend the service 10 days ago with the express purpose of getting Masum to share Christ with them in a lunch he had set up with them after the service. He explained that since Masum was from a Muslim background himself it would be more appropriate and more effective to have Masum share with his friends.
When Masum attended the service and met with these four men later, they all accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior. Praise God! He is so good! They are all preparing for a private baptism now. Please pray for this process and for God’s protection over this pastor.
Besides these four men, Masum has also led two other people to the Lord, one being a rikshaw driver (a person who pulls a rikshaw) named Ashmot.
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I am also taking an engaged couple who are interested in Muslim ministry to an Ahmadiyya mosque in eastern Queens. After having trained one of the house churches I lead, this particular couple in their mid twenties wanted to accompany me on this mosque visit. While we were there we met two young men, one named Kamal. We were able to share the Gospel with Kamal and he expressed that it was the first time anyone had ever done so. (Ahmadiyyas a sect in Islam caught between the traditional Islamic beliefs and Christianity. They believe Jesus was crucified on the cross but that he didn’t die. Ahmadiyya’s believe that Jesus 'swooned' and later came back to life.)
The couple that accompanied me on this particular visit were very interested in continuing the visits. WE will be meeting with the Imama and Kamal again tonight. Please be praying for this.
Another man I met previously at this mosque is named Reza. You may remember that two weeks ago I asked you to pray for Reza and Alif. They both transitioned from Sunni Islam to Ahmadiyya. Please pray for them since they both seem to be sincerely seeking the truth.
Three others I would like to ask prayer for are Hussein (The Shiite that made a decision for Christ a while ago) , Mostafa (whom I meet with every week), and for Mohammed, a Muslim student that attends Hofstra University, whom I just started meeting with this last weekend. He heard the Gospel for the first time this last Saturday and was sincerely interested in our conversation. Although he initially said he wouldn’t want to follow Jesus over Mohammed and that he couldn’t believe in his sacrifice for our sins, he did admit that if God were to communicate to him clearly about Jesus’ sacrifice, he would have to comply. Please pray that God would do so.
A Mennonite missionary from Morocco who is a friend of ours, had given us a video interview of a Jihadi Muslim named Nasser al ‘Qahtani, who had made a commitment to Christ after God had showed him a vision of Christ on the Cross. I shared this video with Mohammed. (If you would like to see it you can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfgHhu9nVWs&t=2733s ) Mohammed also told me that he would like to meet with me again but that he needs a few weeks to watch the video and think about our conversation. So PLEASE PRAY for Mohammed. I really believe that God is working tremendously in his heart.
Thank you all so much for praying and for your financial support. If you sense God asking you to support CTU financially you can do so at www.ctunreached.com. We are a group of 5 full time missionaries (two in the US and three in Bangladesh) who are committed to brining Unreached People Groups to Jesus.
May God bless you all,
David Westmeier www.ctunreached.com