– A Word from One of Our Smugglers –

Editor’s Note: Distributing Bibles in Islamic nations is not a trivial task or without danger. Over the past two decades, we have freed hundreds of our smugglers from capture and have buried over a thousand involved in distributing or receiving Bibles. In America, we are blessed to casually sit in a favorite chair and read the words of God that He has preserved for every generation. But in the Islamic world, possessing a Bible can be a death sentence. They are not offered like tracts on the street corners of free countries. Our people carefully determine the sincerity of the person to whom they witness before offering them a Bible. Once given, that person reads it covertly, carefully concealing it from their family members. They must find hiding places for their Bible in their home or outside under a rock or buried in the ground. The articles we prepare for you come from our smugglers and are the testimonies of those whom you, by your donations to our Smugglers ministry, have helped them bring to Christ. Here is a recent example.

Many times, I’m blamed for giving away the Word of God so quickly because that is a dangerous thing to do. But I can’t forget how I was before reading the Bible. I longed for answers to my questions until I learned salvation and accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. Therefore, when I look into the eyes of our people and see bitterness, sadness, and loss, I remember that I was in the same place. I feel we are victims of darkness and poverty in everything. The only thing I can do is to offer the living Word of God, the Rich Word of God, the hope found only in Divine Truth, to revive these souls for whom Christ died. Here is the story of one such man

A 43-year-old man was born in a typical Islamic family, where he learned about his religion through his family’s daily and traditional practice of obligatory prayer, fasting during Ramadan, and faithfulness in going to the mosque. Later, he learned not to question what he had learned but to preserve the five pillars of Islam in his daily life. As he grew older, he felt he had failed to implement all the religious rituals and laws. Still, he was surprised that he didn’t feel remorse or have a guilty conscience. When he finished his university degree, he couldn’t find any job except to become a teacher of Middle School Religious Education in a public school.

When he started teaching, he was trying to present the curriculum without any personal study. Still, when the students began asking questions, he noticed that his knowledge of religion was insufficient, especially when a student asked him about the difference between congregational prayer and private prayer and why we pray. He had no answer except to say that prayer is a religious obligation, and he continued to recommend they ask their imam in the mosque. Many of these questions that his students were asking made him begin the journey of questioning why he is a Muslim. His deep-rooted fear of punishment in this world and the hereafter made him wonder if his search for the truth of God and Islam was from Satan.

 One day, he was reading a verse from the Quran about Issa (Jesus), which said, “Christ and those who believe in him will be right until the resurrection day.” This led him to question, “If Christ’s teachings are true until the day of resurrection, then why do those who believe in Christ have to deny him and believe in Islam, and why do Muslims not become Christians?” He knew he could not seek answers from any religious leader, so he tried to find Quranic interpretations of this verse. However, they were not convincing because most of them ignored the verse in the Quran and said that the Bible is distorted. With these questions growing in his mind, he felt he couldn’t continue teaching, so he resigned. He planned to investigate how he could get a Bible.

 At that point in his search, our merciful Father opened the door for him to meet with one of our church members who was acquainted with him. Our church members began to build a bridge of friendship and trust to open the subject of the true God with him. When God opens the door, no one can close it, and that’s what happened with this teacher. Our church member built the bridge with him according to our plan. The teacher was ready to listen, so when our church member later brought him to meet with me, he was like a dry land, ready to absorb the living Word of God. When I asked him if he would like to read the Bible, he told me that he had been waiting for this moment for over ten years. He took the Bible, started to read it, and faithfully attended our house church meetings. Before long, he publicly declared, “This book is the True Word of God and has no confusion; it’s clear and very understandable.” Soon, he came to the knowledge of salvation and accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal Savior; later on, he brought his family with him, and the Lord blessed us to see his wife and three children accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, too.

Note: In 2023, because of your donations, we were able to print, bind, and distribute 43,660 Bibles in seven Muslim countries. We lost four of our faithful pastors and one pastor’s wife. This was one of our smallest number of Bibles delivered in more than a decade and our smallest number of fallen preachers, primarily due to natural disasters. We hope to see our best year in 2024.

You can help by donating to smugglers fund below!