OMS Outreach May - August 2016 | Page 14

Listening to Angels Jim Hogrefe Associate Director for Church Multiplication Paulina,* an OMS Every Community for Christ worker in Europe, has been discipling Miriam* for about a year. Miriam, a former Muslim, accepted Jesus as her Savior in 2014, along with her husband Abdul.* Through the discipleship, Paulina encouraged Miriam to tell her family in North Africa about her faith in Christ. Abdul discouraged her from doing that because of the potential ramifications. Miriam was also afraid to follow through. However, Paulina continued to encourage her to share the transformational truth with her family. One night, while Miriam slept, she had a dream. In her dream, she saw a man dressed in white coming toward her. She asked him, “Who are you?” He said, “I am an angel with a message for you.” She asked, “What is the message?” The angel responded, saying, “Be courageous and speak out. Be courageous and speak out.” After this, the angel turned and disappeared. Miriam said that when the angel disappeared, she woke up, confused about the dream. The next time Paulina and Miriam met, Paulina again encouraged Miriam to call her family and tell them about her faith in Christ. Miriam then said, “Now I understand the meaning of the dream. The angel from God told me I had to speak out, and you are telling me I need to speak out, so I MUST tell my family about my faith in Christ.” When she told Abdul about her decision, he was concerned, but she insisted she had to do it. Not long after that, she called her family in North Africa and told them about her faith in Jesus. Her family shared that someone in the family was sick, so Miriam prayed for him. In a later call, Miriam’s family shared that the relative she had prayed for was healed. Her family said to her, “Miriam, you must come and visit us because your God is stronger than our god!” Miriam then said to Paulina, “You have to go with me to visit my family. I can’t do this alone.” Paulina asked her OMS mentor, Roger, “What should I do?” Roger answered, “Paulina, you need to go with her. The Lord has opened a door of opportunity for you and Miriam, and you need to walk through it together. She depends on you.” In September 2015, Miriam and Paulina traveled to North Africa. During their visit, Miriam shared the Gospel with her family, and one of her sisters accepted Jesus as her Savior. Before Miriam and Paulina returned home, Miriam’s family said to her, “Please come back and visit us again soon.” Miriam plans to visit her family again later this year. Please pray for the Lord to open more doors as she continues to share her faith in Jesus with her family and friends in North Africa. 14