mDNA Elements

By Joshua Johnson

“I had a dream this week that I want to tell you about!” Sarah exclaimed when we visited her for the second time. Sarah is a widow with five children, and a war refugee. She fled Syria, went to a neighboring country and settled in a small village. Two months after she fled the war, we met her. We shared with her the story of Jesus calming the storm – praying that it would speak to her situation – on our first encounter. 

 

When we heard Sarah tell us she had a dream, we got excited. We had heard about Muslims having dreams of Jesus, but this was the first one we met first-hand. We sat down and she recounted her dream: “I was sitting in a circle on the floor with my family and I looked across the room. I saw Jesus. I knew it was Jesus because I was in a church or two in Syria. He had long dark hair, beautiful eyes, a beard, and he was holding his side. Jesus looked right at me and said, ‘I want what is rightfully mine.’ What do you think that means?” We had a pretty good idea what Jesus meant. It says in Revelation 5:9b that “with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.” They are rightfully His! 

 

But instead of telling her this, we asked, “have you ever heard of listening prayer?” Of course she hadn’t, so we explained that we would pray and ask Jesus to speak to her and tell her what he meant when he said, ‘I want what is rightfully mine.’ We prayed and stayed silent for a minute. We looked up and tears were streaming down Sarah’s face. We said, “Sarah, did you hear anything?” She said, “Yes. He said he wants to refresh and renew my heart.” Isn’t that just like Jesus to speak a strong word – ‘I want what is rightfully mine’ – and then follow it with tenderness that draws people in? 

 

A month later, after studying the Christmas story, Sarah said she wanted to follow Jesus. Why? Because she heard the angel say to the shepherd, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” (Luke 2:10)! Sarah said, “I thought Jesus was just for you Christians. Jesus is for all people? If He is, I love him. I want to follow him.”  

 

When we first met Sarah, we were living an hour away from her and a vast number of other Syrian refugees. We wanted to be in the place where God was moving. So we packed our things and we made their place of refuge our place. We moved into the neighborhood. We sat with Sarah a few times a week, all the while visiting new refugee families, searching for open and hungry people.

 

We knew we needed to identify with and live among the Muslim refugees we were working with. There is a power in presence that seeds the DNA for movement. Just as Jesus became flesh and moved into the neighborhood (John 1:14), so must we. 

 

God gave us the dream that within our lifetime, movements of Muslims following Jesus will sweep across the Arab world transforming it from within. 

 

We met hundreds and hundreds of Syrian Muslims. Some were open. Some had dreams of Jesus. Some were miraculously healed. We weren’t satisfied with a few people coming to Jesus. So we continued our pursuit while we discipled through new believers, so that they would be able to reach their own friends and family. 

 

At All Nations we define a disciple as someone who attempts to live in loving obedience to Jesus and His commands. We share stories of Jesus and help people obey Jesus’ 7 general commands – 1. Repent, Believe, and Receive the Holy Spirit, 2. Be Baptized, 3. Break Bread, 4. Love (God, Neighbors, Other Believers, Enemies), 5. Pray in the Name of Jesus, 6. Give Generously, and 7. Go and Make Disciples. This results in a holism that will enable the multiplication of disciples and the health of disciples.

 

One of the people we met over a year after we met Sarah was Abu Rashad. His entire family wanted to follow Jesus. Early on we shared the story of Jesus healing the paralytic that was lowered through the roof by his friends. After discussing how to obey God through the story, he said to us, “I want to study every other day. Please come!” He wanted to go deep with Jesus quickly, so we went home and prayed about visiting him more often. Three days later, while sitting in a Bible study with some other Muslim refugees, a woman came running in and interrupted the study saying, “Abu Rashad’s been shot. He’s been shot!” It took a moment, but we realized it was the same Abu Rashad that wanted to meet often to study Jesus. We were in shock.

 

Abu Rashad had gone to a local charity to register for some aid. Once he was in line, he heard a commotion in the office. He went to see what was happening and tried to break up the fight between the Director of the charity and an aid recipient. While breaking up the fight, the Director’s gun fired and hit Abu Rashad. He died instantly. His wife and his three-year-old son watched him bleed out.

 

We were afraid of retaliation. There were talks of Syrians rioting in the streets. Abu Rashad’s tribe was talking about killing the local charity Director’s brother. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. This is their centuries-old tradition. You take one of ours, we take one of yours. We prayed hard. 

 

And then we heard from Sarah. She called us and said, “You know, I’m part of Abu Rashad’s tribe. And I’ve been calling all the women telling them about what we’ve been studying. Jesus says we must love our enemies. So, I’ve called them to do what Jesus tells us to do and calm their husbands down.”

 

We mourned at the funeral with Abu Rashad’s wife and relatives. The week went by, and there were no riots. The streets were quiet. There was no retaliation. No eye for an eye. 

 

This is transformation. This is true worship of Jesus. A centuries-old tradition was turned on its head. All because Jesus is Lord and because, in His goodness, he whispered to a poor refugee widow, “I want to refresh and renew your heart.”

 

The emphasis on the lordship of Jesus enables communities to make decisions through the lens of Jesus. This transforms the worldview of a people group and impacts the values, behaviors, and culture of a people. Without this, movements will be only be surface-level.

 

Many Syrian refugees have decided to follow Jesus and they are now leading their own people to do the same. We hear a lot of bad news from the Middle East, but there is good news: through Christ, refugees are transforming their stories from avengers to forgivers, from lost to found, from hopeless to hopeful, from forgotten to loved. And this is only the beginning.