My congregation, Ashland Avenue Baptist Church, has been aggressively reaching out to, loving, serving, and sharing the gospel with international students for over a decade. We are so thankful for all of the people from around the world God brings to Lexington. We want to be good gospel stewards of the time they are living in our community. We have seen many people from all walks of life come to faith in Christ, including Muslim friends, and it is transformed our congregation for the good. Here is the baptism story of a recent Muslim convert. His name has been changed but the testimony was given at his baptism.
David E. Prince
My name is Emir*, and I’m from Central Asia. I was raised by a Muslim family, in a religion passed down from my ancestors to me. Islam was related to my family, my culture and my entire previous life.
By middle school, the community in which I used to live had taught me how to challenge to others’ theology by asking questions. Focusing on the identity of Jesus, I would say “Jesus worshiped God, so why do you worship Jesus?” or, “Jesus said ‘the Father is greater than I.’ How could he be God?” and the last thing left in my heart was ignorance.
As a sophomore at UK, I was befriended by an engineering student. Soon after he extended a helping hand, I found out he was a Christian. With incredulous concerns, I started questioning him as to the absolute truth, Jesus, and the Gospel. He didn’t react like others had; he did not waver in his witness, nor did he waver in his friendship with me. Far from it – he became even more engaged answering the questions he could respond to and sharing time with me through it. Even though he is a Christian, his zeal for God earned my understanding and respect. We quickly became best friends, signing up for events together. After one and half years of learning the origins of Christianity, I concluded that the case for Christianity was strong- that the Bible can be trusted. Then my friend challenged me to dig deeper into Christianity by studying. We even created a small group for discussing the Gospel and the Truth with each other.
Now I realized that the previous belief I had was from my parents and not from the truth itself. I began seeking Allah for help or was even confused if he was Jesus, by the end of my sophomore year. Finally, I have seen the vision sent by God and Holy Spirit. I found the only way to go into the eternal life was by Jesus. He is the gate for joy, peace and love. He is the only truth that I have always been seeking and am now willing to surrender to. My salvation can only happen by Jesus the Lord who paid for our sins through his death. It was there that I found Jesus. To follow him is worth giving up everything.
Today with the testimony in baptism, I am grateful that I became a Christian. Thanks for listening and allowing me to share this story. Thanks my brothers and sisters for helping me find Jesus. God bless you!
*Emir is a pseudonym. His real name was changed to protect his identity.
