Why more missionaries are needed!

One of our missionary friends said the following:

“There is something that has bewildered me over the years here, after meeting so many Muslim people who have had a dream of Jesus. From the couple of dozen of people I’ve met who’ve had this dream, it usually goes something like this. A man they say looks like a prophet appears to them wearing a very bright robe, says something brief like “follow me” or simply just smiles at them. Sometimes they say he has a beard, sometimes not, but always a very shining face.

The thing that has puzzled me is why does this dream messenger not share the whole Gospel with them? Why not something like, “I am Jesus, the son of God, and I have come to forgive you of your sins if you will follow and obey Me”? It’s usually only a brief appearance and message. Why not the full download? It piques their curiosity as to who this mystery prophet might be and when we come along and share, they say, “I always wondered who that was!” or something similar. I remember meeting one guy who had this experience three times and he was very curious to know more about this bright being that kept appearing in his dreams.

Why doesn’t God cut us out as the middle men? Why does He wait for us to play our part? As I have pondered this, the verse comes to mind from 2 Corinthians 5:18: ‘All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.’ It seems that God was serious in giving us the ministry of reconciliation and leaving it in our hands. He doesn’t give that sacred task to angels, and not even to white-robed beings appearing in dreams. I guess God could appear to people and give them no choice but to believe. But He doesn’t. In our context, while he seems to make our job easier through these dreams, it’s still up to us to deliver the message of reconciliation. These redemption stories simply don’t unfold without us. What a privilege, both sober and exhilarating at the same time!” (Mike O’Quin – “somewhere overseas”)

With 1.6 billion Muslims world-wide and only 3,000 missionaries, we cannot expect the current resources to meet the demand of people who want to know more about Isa. A recent survey of a typical city in Turkey estimates only one believer per 11,000 residents (missionaries plus believers). This is like attending a stadium with 80,000 people and only 7 know Christ. The task is great, hence the call to the West to wake up, but great things are happening.

 

Missionaries now start with dreams

Mission agencies are now instructing their workers to BEGIN a conversation with a Muslim by asking if they have had any unusual dreams. Muslims who have such dreams or visions of Christ usually have had a Christian contact and are looking for spiritual answers, said one Assemblies of God missionary and anthropologist who has worked for 10 years in the Middle East and Northern Africa. “It all takes place in context    – dreams are one step, a link in the chain that leads to conversion. God is using people as well as the supernatural to draw people to Him.”