A pastor in Syria is speaking out to note that, despite the tragic mass exodus of Christians in the Middle East, there’s a sizable number of Muslims and religious minorities in the region who are converting to the Christian faith.
A man identified only as “Pastor Simon” told humanitarian group Open Doors USA that he feels God has called him to remain in Syria, despite the ongoing dangers that Christians face there.
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And while he and his family have been forced to move due to violence, he continues to work to help those in need.
“God is moving and doing great things around us,” he told the organization.
Many of the Christians living in his city have fled, dwindling from 900 at the start of the crisis to 310 today. More specifically, the number of evangelical families decreased from 25 to just three, according to Open Doors USA.
Despite that negative development, Pastor Simon said that he has seen scores of people from Islamic and Druze backgrounds embrace the Bible.
“In the past years, we were able to baptize many people from a Druze background. Some of them were elders in their religion, they were baptized in their religious clothes,” he said. “Also, some believers from a Muslim background were baptized.”
With the help of Open Doors USA, Pastor Simon said he’s able to provide food and resources to help those in need. In the end, he said he feels a responsibility and burden to remain in Syria to help newly minted Christian converts.
“When I see the number of people coming to know the Lord, this puts a pressure on me,” he said. “I know that if I were to leave, no one would stay to serve these people. I pray to God: ‘If we leave, Lord, send someone else.'”
The preacher also offered up some inspirational words — and a powerful reminder — for anyone in the midst of struggles.
“God is in control, He controls everything. Sometimes he does this from behind a curtain; we don’t see Him working,” he said. “Time will come when we will understand that He was always there. What the Lord did in the past six years, he saved hundreds of thousands of Muslims in different countries.”
He continued, “Before the war, we only saw some believers from a Muslim background. God is moving and doing great things around us, many are being saved.”
Faithwire has extensively reported on the purported increase of individuals in the Middle East who are converting to Christianity. Ex-Muslim converts have claimed that Jesus has appeared to them in dreams and led them to embrace the Bible — a story that we’ve told time and again.