Source: Frontiers, March 13, 2023
Murat’s overbearing parents never let him out of their sight. But he wouldn’t let that stop him from being baptized.
Murat glanced behind him as he hurried down the street of the unfamiliar seaside village.
It felt strange to walk alone, especially in a place he’d never been. Although he was an adult according to both Islam and his country, his parents still treated him like a child, refusing to let him leave the house unaccompanied. They were finally discussing the idea of letting him get a driver’s license so he could run errands, but Murat wasn’t very hopeful.
He wondered if they suspected that he had decided to follow Jesus. If they tracked his internet use, they might have been able to tell that he’d done research about Jesus since his early teens and had struck up a friendship over video chat with Stanley, a Frontiers field worker who lived in his city.
He’d been talking with Stanley for two years, studying the Injil and getting answers to his questions, but the two friends had never been able to meet. Every time he tried to leave his house, one of his parents insisted on going with him.
He’d never even managed to make it to a meeting of believers that Stanley had invited him to.
But today that would change. Distracted by the details of their vacation and outings with his younger siblings, Murat’s parents had left him alone at their hotel. It was Sunday morning, and he had at least a few hours to visit a church he’d noticed as they drove through the city.
When he reached the small building, dwarfed by the mosques in the area, Murat stopped and hesitated. A few families walked past him through the door. A young man around his age smiled over his shoulder before disappearing inside.
Taking a deep breath, Murat climbed the steps and entered too.