Source: Operation Mobilization, January 19, 2018<\/p>\n
Suliman, a refugee from Iran, first came to Markus\u2019 church for Finnish classes. \u201cAfter a while, he comes to me with his broken English and with Google translator,\u201d Markus remembered. The translation app wasn\u2019t enough to communicate his request, though, so Suliman fetched his Iranian interpreter, also a member of the church. \u201cMarkus, I want to change my religion,\u201d he finally announced.<\/p>\n
Markus said, \u201cI thought this is not possible. With my experience that does not happen.\u201d Somewhat suspicious of Suliman\u2019s motives, Markus asked him what he knew about Christianity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know the Christmas,\u201d Suliman replied. \u201cWith the Christmas comes the Santa Claus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Realizing then that Suliman knew little about Christianity, Markus asked him what his family would think about him changing religions. \u201cI\u2019m an adult. I can change my religion if I want to,\u201d Suliman retorted.<\/p>\n
\u201cOK, I can teach you,\u201d Markus agreed. For almost six months, the two men met together to study Christianity. Soon, a few others joined. Although Suliman listened carefully, he rarely asked questions, and Markus sometimes wondered if he understood what was being said.<\/p>\n
Two months in, they took a break for Christmas. During that time, Suliman had a dream. \u201cIn my dream, I was crucified, then a voice said, \u2018It\u2019s not enough.\u2019 That happened again. Again the voice said, \u2018It\u2019s not enough.\u2019 That happened many times. What does that mean?\u201d he asked Markus.<\/p>\n
Having never interpreted a dream before, Markus needed some time to pray and process. Eventually he recognized that the dream dealt with the difference between legalism and faith. \u201cIn Islam you need to pray, you need to fast, but it\u2019s never enough,\u201d he explained. \u201cIf we bring our deeds to God, it\u2019s never enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Suliman\u2019s dream, \u201che was a different man\u2026I think that was what fully turned his heart to Christ,\u201d Markus said.<\/p>\n
\u00bb Read full story<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00bb Many from backgrounds like Suliman\u2019s are afraid of how their familiies might respond to their interest in Jesus. Read more in this story from Arab World Media<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Source: Operation Mobilization, January 19, 2018 Suliman, a refugee from Iran, first came to Markus\u2019 church for Finnish classes. \u201cAfter a while, he comes to me with his broken English and with Google translator,\u201d Markus remembered. The translation app wasn\u2019t enough to communicate his request, though, so Suliman fetched his Iranian interpreter, also a member … Continue reading FINLAND: I Want to Change My Religion<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-briefs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7736"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7737,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7736\/revisions\/7737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}