The woman’s voice on the phone sounded cautious but sincere:

“I am calling because seven of my friends and I watched your movie about Jesus.  We received the DVD some time ago as a gift but recently watched it together.  At the end of the movie, it showed us a prayer to ask Jesus to come into our hearts.  We all prayed.  We have come to know the Lord.  …Now what do we do?”

Our Cru staff member friend in the North African country who received this call could hardly believe his ears.   After a few more questions, they agreed to meet together so the eight women could begin to study the Bible and learn what it means to follow Jesus in a place where almost no one knows Him.   In their culture, even the idea of women going to meet strangers (especially strangers who are Christians) could mean big trouble.   Amazingly, the husbands of all of the women decided to come along too.   Now they have all met together for follow up several times – and one of the husbands has begun to follow Christ.   Praise the Lord!

As exciting as this story is, it’s not a completely isolated happening.  The Lord is repeatedly breaking through to reach people in the Middle East and surrounding regions.   In the news currently we tend to hear about so much evil and darkness covering this area.  But obviously the Light is not overcome by darkness and there is so much happening to reveal Jesus that we do not see.   It encourages me to keep praying and lifting up the people in these countries.

One other story very recently told to us by one of our field teams in this area described a well spoken man from an extremist background.   This man repeatedly saw Jesus in a dream and felt compelled to “bow to Him.”   Later this man told his story on a national TV Talk Show.    Literally there are dozens of other similar reports we have received from our staff friends in the region that we can not share here.

Thanks for all your prayers.   Any time you pray or support our work, you are a part of these amazing stories.

Oh, and if you want to see the movie that the women watched, you can find it here.