The Gospel at God’s Speed

Coastal humidity mingling with desert heat blew in through the window of his family’s third-floor apartment as Mostafa* listened to a former Muslim on his laptop screen talk about Christ.

His parents and siblings were away, but the 19-year-old didn’t dare try to turn the laptop volume up when, outside, the noon call to prayer from a mosque loudspeaker drowned out the speaker on his screen. When the call to prayer ended, he heard the man on the Christian website saying Jesus had been with God before the creation of the world and, as the sacrificed Son of God risen from the dead, He had made salvation from sin possible.

Having secretly watched the online evangelist for months in this (undisclosed) city in North Africa, Mostafa no longer thought of him as an infidel. He had to admit the speaker made compelling arguments that Jesus was more than a prophet. And contrary to what he had been told, Christianity did not seem to have originated in the infidel West; in the same Maghreb Arabic that Mostafa spoke, the evangelist showed that word of Christ began and spread in Mediterranean countries and was preserved for centuries in the East before it ever reached the Americas.

Mostafa knew in an instant that from now on he could be estranged from his mother and his entire constellation of relatives and friends.

With the ancient aromas of couscous, cumin and simmering lamb wafting in from the kitchen, in an instant Mostafa knew that from now on he could be estranged from his mother and his entire constellation of relatives and friends; that was his first thought when he admitted to himself that he actually believed Jesus was the Christ. They would shun him – unless he could make them understand who Jesus is.

He called his best friend and, as the native missionary who runs the Christian broadcast relates it, within weeks he too decided to follow Jesus. Soon they connected with other underground believers.

“Without getting any training about how to share the salvation message with others, he started sharing God’s words with one of his friends, and his friend accepted Jesus as well,” the ministry leader said. “They got baptized on the same day, and they promised each other to bring more people to God’s kingdom.”

Through the webcast, gospel proclamation is growing in the region at unprecedented levels. It got more visits in one month than during all of 2017.

“During these last two months we had a great number of people visiting our website,” the ministry leader said. “All these visitors heard and watched the salvation message, and some of them accepted Jesus as their Savior. We also created a new house church.”

The Good News is advancing online, through traditional media and as it did in the first century – by word-of-mouth – through the efforts of such native missionaries. Please consider a gift today to enable people in great darkness to grasp eternal life in Christ.

*Name changed for security reasons