Wind in the House of Islam

With nearly 200,000 Muslims in Minnesota we pray God raises up more Christians to engage in authentic friendship with them.

Recently a group of 65 Christian leaders from across Minnesota met in a strategic gathering to exchange stories and information about how God is working through them to reach Muslims. The goal of this consultation was to develop a more comprehensive database about who is reaching Muslims where, how is that being done, and what more needs to be done.

Each of these leaders are actively engaged with Muslims, building authentic friendships, talking together about who Jesus is and finding ways to meet their practical needs. We shared stories about a Muslim father and his children being baptized as followers of Jesus, another report of a new believer (the only known one) among a middle-eastern people group here in Minnesota, and encouraging stories of Muslim elders reading and talking about the Bible with their Christian friends.

There are nearly 200,000 Muslims in Minnesota (10,000 or more in St. Cloud; 6,000+ in Rochester and Fargo; 4,000 in Sioux Falls and 1,600 or more in Mankato). As the planning team worked with Transform Minnesota to gather leaders at this consultation we identified more than 100 Christians leading ministry teams, which represents several hundred trained volunteers and supported missionaries directly engaged with Muslims somewhere in our state.

Many of us are familiar with reports of tens of thousands of Muslims turning to Jesus, drawn to him through miraculous dreams, reading the scriptures or by hearing the oral stories about Jesus. Even in the midst the present persecution I’ve heard testimonies of Muslims becoming disillusioned by the brutality of ISIS, alquida and the Taliban and turning to Jesus instead.

We want to see a movement of Muslim people in Minnesota coming to know Jesus as Messiah. Among the leaders at this consultation there were several Christians from Muslim backgrounds, but most were western-born and Christian-raised. Our vision at Transform Minnesota is that in 10 years if this consultation were to be repeated that the leaders convening this gathering will be new brothers and sisters in Christ, people who today call themselves Muslims but in the future will be missionaries to their own people.

Pray with us to make that vision a reality.

 

---