Source: Dispatches from the Global Village, January 6, 2022
At age 19, Yassir Eric, living in Sudan, was a radicalized Muslim. He had memorized much of the Quran and was militant in his hatred of Christians—indeed, of anything that was not in conformity to the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood.
But then Yassir met a Coptic missionary at a hospital where Yassir was visiting his sick uncle in Sudan. The Coptic missionary had come to pray for a sick child. Yassir asked him why he had bothered to come since the child had little chance of living. Yassir was puzzled. Misled by extremist propaganda, he didn’t think Christians prayed or even believed in God. He watched as the Coptic missionary prayed and then to his astonishment, observed the young boy open his eyes and move his hands as life reappeared.
“In that day, the Lord opened my eyes,” Yassir recalled.
When Yassir’s family learned of his conversion, he was not just ousted—they held a funeral service and a symbolic burial ceremony. To be excluded in this case meant separation from a very large family: his grandfather had six wives and his 69 uncles each had four or five wives each. The entire family turned their back on him.
Yassir was arrested due to his conversion and spent seven weeks in prison. When he could finally visit a church, the people there were unwilling to welcome him because of his reputation and that of his family. Eventually, a Swedish missionary, like first-century Barnabas, welcomed him and over many months, discipled him in the Christian faith.
“What held you together during this time?” I asked Yassir. “As devastating as it was to be forced out of my home,” he noted, “I found strength in the Lord’s Prayer. God was not sitting outside, but he’s the one who came into time [and] space, and I could call him father.”
Five years later, Yassir moved to Kenya, where he studied at Daystar University and met his future wife. The two eventually moved to her home country of Germany, where he completed further studies and pastored a Lutheran church. Today he is part of the leadership of Communio Messianica, a global network of Christians converted from Islam, often referred to as MBBs or Muslim Background Believers.
Though it is hard to verify numbers, reports of growing communities of Christians in Muslim-majority countries surface frequently. Since there is no official registration of membership, Yassir noted, only through friendships and baptisms can even Christians in these countries track the growth.
Read A First-Century Story for the 21st. In it, Yassir proposes five reasons for the movement of MBBs in our world today.
See also another testimony, this one from a woman from a Muslim background. It’s called A Fifty-Year Solo Journey (Frontiers USA).