November 2021

To Help you Pray this month for your Local Mosque Community. 

I was raised in a Muslim family in Morocco, but over the years I began to feel more and more detached from my faith. As a teenager, I began to have doubts, but I certainly did not express this openly. 

This all came to a head one afternoon in a local internet café. 

I would often spend time there, whether for school or just to check my e-mail. I really appreciated the owners. They were not only friendly, but they allowed me to work on their computers free of charge if I was doing schoolwork. There was only one problem - they were atheists. 

Their apostasy was widely known in the community and because of this, many of my friends took opportunities to vandalize the internet café, even periodically loading viruses onto the computers. But I saw them differently. I really appreciated the two owners. 

One day as I was studying, a Muslim woman barged into the café and began screaming at the owners, telling them that they were worthless because they had left Islam. They began dialoguing with this woman, asking her questions about prophet Mohammed. They asked her if she had read of the many awful things the prophet had done in his lifetime, actions well documented in official Islamic history and even in the Qur’an itself. The woman ignored their sincere questions and continued speaking over top of them. 

But I was not ignoring these questions. I was shocked at what I heard, and during the conversation going on beside me, I began searching on the internet to see if these scandalous claims against my prophet were true. To my disbelief, I found out that they were. 

My doubts increased to a point where I felt I needed to express what was going on in my heart with someone. Life had ceased to have meaning for me, because apparently everything I knew was false. There was no Truth. There was no God. I had a friend who, unlike me, was not doubting his faith, but who was not one to judge. I knew my friend would keep my secrets to himself. When I confided in him, he told me that he had another friend named Mark who I should talk to - an English teacher from North America. Although my friend was not interested in Christianity, he thought I would have some things in common with this ex-pat. 

The first time I met Mark, nothing special happened during our meeting. But that night I had a dream that would change the course of my life. 

In my dream, I was in a pitch-dark warehouse. Amid the darkness was a spotlight aimed at the floor. When I ran towards it, it would shift locations so that I could never catch up to it. It felt so real that when I woke up, I was angry with Mark because I was convinced that he had put something in my food the night before to drug me. On his next visit, Mark assured me he did no such thing, but to put me at ease, he encouraged me to not eat or drink anything this time if I was so nervous. I didn’t eat or drink anything. 

That night I had the same dream, as vivid as ever. Only this time someone else was in the dream with me. Instead of chasing the light, I was now transfixed on this man. I tried to see his face, but no matter how hard I tried, the man would turn away. Finally, however, the man did turn to face me. In Arabic, the man looked at me and said “Follow me and do what I say. This road will not be easy for you, but I will always be with you. I will continue to put people around you that will support you as you walk through the good times and the bad.” 

This time I realized that this dream had nothing to do with drugs, and everything to do with Jesus. After more conversations with Mark and through meeting other Moroccan believers, I gave my life to Christ and began attending a house church where I was baptized. 

Fast forward 8 years, I now live in Montreal with my wife and son. I have been attending a local church on and off over the last few years.  

While I have been a believer for 8 years, I have not regularly been to church and because of this I haven't had many brothers and sisters to encourage me in my faith. After I came to the Lord, I married my childhood friend. Although my wife gradually left Islam, and no longer identifies as a Muslim, she has no interest in the gospel. If Islam is false, she reasons, then all religions must be false. She does not want to attend church with me and insists that we raise our child without any religious influence. In addition to this, I have never shared my faith with my family. Among other fears, I am scared that this news would quite literally kill my father who is currently unwell. 

A friend of mine recently connected me with an Algerian brother, a mature Christian, who has gone through many of the same challenges as me. Two weeks ago, the three of us got together at a café. We had a great time discussing what it means to follow Christ and how to encourage my dear unbelieving wife. 

Prayer Points: 

• According to the 2016 census there are 103,000 Canadians of Moroccan descent, 86,000 living in Quebec, 77,000 living in Montreal (75% of Moroccans in Canada live in Montreal). Please pray for God to reveal Himself to each one of them. 
• Pray for Christian organizations, like AIM (African Inland Mission) ministering to North Africans in Montreal.  
• For the Lord to open the spiritual eyes of my wife so that like me, she can come to know Jesus as her Lord and Savior and we can raise our son in the ways of the Lord.