Muslim mom berates Christian pastor—then has a dream about Jesus!

The numbers are in, and we rejoice at the impact of the SGA-sponsored Immanuel’s Child outreach across the former Soviet Union. By God’s grace and faithful provision through your faithful partnership—more than 55,600 children were reached with 

  • Christmas gifts, 
  • Star of Bethlehem ornaments signed by SGA supporters, 
  • and the life-changing Gospel! 

In addition to the children, more than 26,200 adults were also reached.

Denis and his grandmother at the Immanuel's Child celebration.
Denis and his grandmother at the Immanuel’s Child celebration.

In northern Ukraine’s Chernihiv region, Pastor Piotr’s church held seven Immanuel’s Child outreaches from December 22 through 27 for children, youth, and adults. As he reports, about 1,200 came to the Christmas events, and most of them were unbelieving families . . . 

“These people were able to hear from God’s Word and learned more about the true meaning of Christmas. Currently, many children who live in the neighborhood come to our Sunday school, which was in turn a fruit of Summer Bible Camp ministry we held last year.

The children took part in the Christmas celebrations with songs, poems, and greeting all who came. Denis is a 10-year-old boy whose grandmother Svetlana is a retired lawyer. Because of the war, she came to our church for humanitarian aid. When we needed volunteers for help with aid distribution, Svetlana was one of the first to respond to the call     

Denis’ father and mother did not want Denis to come to Sunday school at first, but eventually they allowed Svetlana to bring him. It was his first Christmas in the church, and he was very pleased to get his first Bible—the first Bible the family has ever had!”

In Azerbaijan, Pastor Khafis reported even more opened doors . . . 

“One Muslim woman did not want to communicate with us because we are Christians, and she did not want her child to come to the church. Anyway, the boy somehow managed to come to Immanuel’s Child with other children. 

We had a Christmas drama, poems, and songs that we had been preparing for a month. We learned that the boy came without his mother knowing about it, which we didn’t know. At the end of the service when we were giving out gifts, I saw the boy’s mother approaching me. She demanded to know where her child was, saying, ‘You are a Christian, and you want my son to become a Christian?’ I tried to tell her that we did not know the boy came by himself and without her permission. Eventually, she took her son, grabbed a gift and went off.           

Immanuel's Child celebration in Azerbaijan.
Immanuel’s Child celebration in Azerbaijan.

Three days later, I was driving by some women on the street and pulled over to offer a ride to one of our neighbors. 

Then I saw the same Muslim woman, and surprisingly she came up to apologize for her behavior. As it turned out, she had a dream in which she said that ‘The Prophet Jesus came to her’ and gave her the same kind of gift that we would give to the children during the IC outreach. And in that dream as she opened the gift, all the bad things in her life—resentment, offences, worries—all went away.

When she told her neighbors about this dream, they told her that it would be right for her to come and apologize, because ‘those people sow good seeds,’ and so she did! This shows the living nature of our Lord Jesus, who said in Matthew 5 to . . . Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you. I praise the Lord for providing gifts in bags with Stars, and pray for that woman so that she will find faith in Jesus. I am grateful to you for the gifts, and I thank God for you. May He bless you and be with us all!”

We praise and thank God for these wonderful testimonies! Please join us in praying that many will come to saving faith in the days ahead. 

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