In 2014, only because I was a Shi’a Muslim from Iran, the government in the UAE blocked my wages and seized my bank account. My family and I had already been living and working here for 10 years and I had never had an issue with the government or any person. I was really struggling to support my family financially and things had gotten so bad the stress was about to kill me. 15 days before Ramazan 2015 started, while I was sleeping a man in all white came to me in a dream and said that I was to start my fast on that day rather than waiting at the beginning of Ramazan, and I was to continue until he told me what to do next. Because dreams are very important to my people, I followed his directions and started my fast on that day.

I maintained my fast as I had been told to do in my dream, but nothing really happened until day 44. This happened to be a special time for Muslims that we call The Night of Power. This is believed to be the first time that Mohammad was revealed the Qor’an by Allah, and Muslims believe that their prayers on this night are more effective. That night while I was sleeping, the same man came to me again in a dream and said for me to get up and read several verses in the Qor’an. I went into the other room and as I read these verses, something happened to make the verses appear to me almost in 3-D. I thought it was because I had just woke up, so I went and washed my face and returned, but the words still seemed to jump off the pages to me. For the first time I saw that the Qor’an had many bad things that we as Muslims were told to do. As I read these verses over and over, I was sickened to realize that the Daesh (ISIS) was right. They really are doing what the Qor’an teaches!

I was unable to return to sleep after this realization, and this started me on a journey to find out who this man was who had been speaking to me in these dreams. Over the past 8 years my family had become very close friends with a Christian family, but they were in the US for a while so I couldn’t ask them a lot of questions. At my duty in Dubai I asked several of my Muslim colleagues if they had ever had a dream like that. Also with my search, I started to doubt if Islam was really good because of what all I was reading and understanding for the first time in the Qor’an.

About 3 months later, this same man came to me again in another dream, and told me to get a Christian Bible and to read the book named John. My friend in the US had given me a Bible printed in my own language many years back, so I went and retrieved it. I have never been more impacted by anything than how I was when I read John. How could one argue that Isa (Jesus) was not God’s son when God himself called Isa his son! Then, to read at the end of the book about Isa dying and His resurrection, and after all of that had been done, He said “Follow Me!” How could I not say that I would not follow Isa? I woke my wife up and told her what had been happening in my life. I told her then that I had no idea what the process was to become a Christian, but I knew that Isa was the real messenger of God and I must start to follow Him.

I went to a religious compound close to where I live where other religions are allowed to have churches, and started looking for a Christian to ask how I could become a Christian so that I could follow Christ too. While walking past one open gate, I saw that the doors to the church was open and in the very front of the church I saw someone that I recognized. I was so excited I walked up to the church door and called out for anyone that may be in the church. I dared not to walk inside because I was Muslim, and because Christians are not allowed inside a Shi’a mosque I assumed that Muslims are not allowed inside a Christian church.

An older man that was cleaning came to the door and asked if he could help me. I said “Yes” and then asked, “Who is the man in the front of the church?”

The man had a puzzled look as he looked around, then asked, “What man?”

I said, “The man that is there hanging on the wall and has what looks like blood on it.”

Then the man answered, “Why, that’s Jesus when he was on the cross! Why are you asking?”

Then I answered, “That is the man that has been coming to me in my dreams at night! He is why I am here. Can you tell me how it is that I can become a Christian?”

After I made the decision that I would be a Christ follower, everything in my life became better. One of the biggest things was that the bank called me and apologized for the inconvenience that my account had been locked. They were releasing all of the money back into the account, which now was 14 months of salary that I had not been able to touch!

Some bad things also happened, though. As I talked to my mother on the mobile, she started to notice that I was different in how I talked and how I responded to different situations. I had not told her that I had become a follower of Isa, but the change in my life was evident, even over the mobile. She finally asked me one day about what was going on with me and why had I changed so much? That’s when I told her that I had become a follower of Isa. There was a very long silence over the phone, and then she told me this, “S, if you ever come back to Iran they will kill you.” That was the last time that I have been able to speak to anyone in my family still in Iran.

My wife and daughters are so happy with how much my life has changed. They all are very interested in becoming Christians also, and my prayer is that we will all be able to be baptized together as a family!

As you pray today remember S and his family. Pray for others that are not as fortunate, that when they start to really seek Isa as something more than just a prophet they know no Christian to go and ask their questions to. Worldwide 88% of all Muslims does not even know of 1 Christian that they can go ask questions to. Pray that Christians will answer the call to take the Gospel to these who have yet had the privilege to hear for even the first time.