Earthquake Loss and Eternal Gain

In our last email we mentioned about the young Afghan man who raised his hand and came forward to receive Jesus without fear from people. He is an amazing guy. His name is "M," 23 years of age. I was amazed with his story every time he spoke to me. It seems like he is very spiritual boy.


"M" Testimony: My father was always telling me to pray. Early in the morning, it became my habit to go out of the house to clean myself before praying by washing my face, hands and feet. One Friday morning, I came out to wash myself for prayer. When I was just ready to open the faucet, the earthquake came. Everything I could see was shaking. I could not move where I was standing. I trembled with fear. I saw everything was falling down and I saw the earth was opened and all houses came down and were swallowed by the earth. Everything came down, with not one stone above another. All was dust on the surface. I cried and cried and tried to dig the earth to find my family inside. But I lost them. I could not find them. I never saw anybody survive in the place where I lived. I was all alone and helpless. I just cried and cried like crazy.


I asked him, "Where did it happen? M... said "It happened in Bam. Many countries came to help us. They dug the earth and also found my family's bodies. They showed me their pictures. They buried all the dead together. I lost my family and relatives in the Bam earthquake.


I went to Afghanistan. Some of my relatives lived there. They thought I was crazy and thought it was better for me to have a wife. But this did not solve my problem. I wanted to find my life. I came back to Bam and it looked so different. Many new houses and buildings were constructed.


So I decided to leave and I came to Athens." "When I came to Athens, the first thing that touched me was the cross on top of the Greek Church. There was a strange feeling for me. I became interested about it to know Christianity. I came to the Persian Fellowship two times and did not come back again.


Then I had a dream about the Lord, and came back to this place and asked for a Bible, but my two uncles strictly forbade me from coming to this Fellowship again. But my uncles were not able to stop my heart's desire to know about Christianity. For two years I have been reading that Bible you gave me. I came to know Jesus through the Bible. Last Monday, I saw that dream again. In that same dream a man told me that I must be born again. For three days I tried to find you but I could not."


And I asked him, "What will happen if your two uncles find out that you became a believer in Jesus?" M... answered me (speaking of the Judgment Day), "In that day, my uncles cannot save me." "In the place where I live with some friends and two uncles when they saw me reading the Bible, they spoke badly to me, but what pains me is when they speak bad words about Jesus. So, I stopped reading the Bible and waited for them to sleep. When they were sleeping I woke up and read the Bible with the small flashlight."


I showed him a postal envelope that we had received just this past week at Helping Hands. It had his name on the return address. Inside was an evangelistic booklet with the boxes checked about wanting more information and wanting to accept Jesus.


M... said, "I sent it to the address I found on the evangelistic booklet a month ago. I found that booklet from a friend's house and sent it back with the answers. I was touched with his situation and asked my friend to give him a space to stay with him. Pray for this young Afghan man named "M"... for his growth and that God would keep him for Himself.