We are excited to share this from a friend to the ministry. We hope it will encourage you as it has encouraged us in many ways. First, by the work being done in the world to advance the gospel. Second, that this work is being blessed by God and third, that God still works through dreams and visions.
The author remains anonymous because missionary work in some Muslim countries is dangerous, as we have all become too aware. Prayers for this individual are appreciated.
My wonderful “morning off” at the Arab market…
After about a week of work I had a bit of a break in our normal routine so I thought I would go to the Arab Market. It is a wonderful place of sights and sounds and smells that are very foreign to me. We did have a team working there but I was not part of it that morning.
Somewhere in the midst of the market there was a storefront sign that had an Arabic word on it that I 
could not understand. I asked an older gentleman if he could speak Arabic and perhaps translate it for me. Although he was nice enough he didn’t seem very interested in helping me. It was a this point that a very well dressed woman came up to me, I am assuming she heard the question I asked because she said she could help me with the word I couldn’t understand. She was a Muslim woman from Iraq.
Her attire was western, her Arabic was excellent, she was by herself. We said a few introductory things to each other in Arabic, she asked me some typical questions…where are you from…what brings you to the market…In the course of our conversation I mentioned to her that I was a follower of Jesus…that was the last thing I said for about 40 minutes !
… she wanted to tell me a vision/dream that she had … this is a record of what she told me …
In her vision she left a dark area and headed toward a “light” hole through which she entered, the space she was now in was full of light. She said she realized it was a church with no benches and no people except for a woman in the front in some sort of posture that I couldn’t quite understand. The woman had light all around her and she had diamonds around her forehead and an olive branch in her hand. She recognized the woman in her vision as Mary… at this point she noticed there were now, in the room, six men standing on each side of one central man… She said she recognized the central man as Jesus, son of Mary…as she talked she kept asking me if I understood what she was saying and if I believed her… I said yes and I encouraged her to go on…she described the man in the middle as having a bright radiant light, his hair was draped across his face in “balls”, not really sure what she meant here…he had a long robe down to his ankles and carried a stick in his hand…she told me other details which I either didn’t fully understand or couldn’t remember…
she went on to say this Jesus had a message for her and for her daughter… first for her daughter Jesus handed her a burning calendar, when my Muslim friend reached out in the vision to take the burning calendar she said to her surprise it felt cold not hot…then for her Jesus had words to the effect that “her life would go well”…I asked her to explain what she thought these messages meant for her and her daughter…she went on to explain how she saw these words come true in both her daughter’s life and her’s… then she went back to her vision and concluded it’s description for me…she said it ended when she had to leave the room because the light became too bright and she had to leave…I encouraged her that not only did I believe what she was telling me of her vision but that it sounded somewhat familiar to me. I asked her if she had ever read The Injeel [New Testament in Arabic], she said she had read parts of it but that the Qur’an is what she read. I assured her that even her Qur’an spoke of The Injeel as “guidance” and “light” and that she should read it, especially I said the last book, the Revelation of Jesus, in view of her vision. She knew something of the last book because she started speaking of the end of all things, I tried to focus her by saying that the author of that book had a vision that was in some ways similar to hers. At this point it began to rain so we sought shelter under some awnings near the outskirts of the market, she became a bit uncomfortable for fear that some might hear our conversation. I said ok but I would like to give her a copy of The Injeel and a film about Jesus’s life in Arabic. I didn’t have one on me (…“day off”, remember) but I had some friends up the street that I could get one from, she said “ok” and told me where to meet her…I went to get the gift and returned to the spot…she was gone…I waited for a half hour or so but she was gone…I was quite disappointed but I took some solace in the fact that at least she knew where to get the information in the market that day…I took more solace in the fact that Jesus himself was already well at work on this young Muslim woman’s life ! …oh and by the way the meaning of that Arabic word that I had inquired about was “Thanks be to God”…how appropriate !
Please share your thoughts below. Do you think God still works through dreams and visions? Why or why not?
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