Seth was born and raised in a squalid refugee camp in the Middle East. During school breaks, he would study the Qur’an and came to love Islam.  He felt that Allah had called him to be an Imam someday. (Imam is an Arabic word for a leader that must be followed since Allah (God) appoints him; it has important origins in Islamic tradition) His father, who was a radical leader in an Islamic fundamentalist group, taught him his strict views on what it meant to be a Muslim. Seth’s father would go on for days propagating hatred for Israel and America.

After years of his father’s indoctrination of hatred and four years of studies, Seth officially became an Imam.  Part of his training took place in the camp of an Islamic fundamentalist organization his father belonged to for some time. Seth remembers having to sleep with 500 other young men in small rooms. If one person moved, they all felt it.

In certain Islamic traditions, an Imam “is the perfect example of everything” and that was what Seth had become. Part of his passion was to kill Jews and Americans and he was sworn to the destruction of Israel.

But a whisper of change came during Seth’s daily prayers. He began to question if this Islamic ideology was from Allah or God at all. “Why are we killing people for God?”

He befriended a young Christian man who invited him to a meeting. Seth went to the meeting with the purpose of converting this young man to Islam. A Christian evangelist spoke at this gathering and he was given a Bible, which he threw on the ground. Seth became defensive, and fervently tried convincing the people there to become Muslims.

As hard as he tried, he could not get the evangelist’s message of love and forgiveness out of his mind. Seth went back a second time to hear more of what the evangelist had to say, and eventually surrendered his life to the Lord.

Seth immediately paid a price for his newfound faith as his family kept him locked up in his room trying to get him to recant it. He would not and fled back to his new homeland to escape the persecution. Over the last five years or more, he has not seen his family or friends knowing they would kill him if they found him. Leaving Islam is worthy of death to Muslims.

To help satisfy his appetite for knowing more about this Jesus, Seth left the country and spent time with a Christian organization.  There he received Discipleship training. Seth met a group of Messianic Jews and told them his story. Upon telling them about his incredible transformation, they gathered around him on their knees and washed his feet.

Upon returning home and going through immigration, Seth had to fill out a form and state his occupation. He filled it in as “Injil”, which indicates that he is a Christian evangelist. The immigration officer looked at it, saw Seth’s Muslim name on the form and asked “How can this be?”  Religious identity is very important in the Middle East, and to the immigration officer, Seth was an enigma.

Having been arrested and jailed four times for sharing the Gospel on the streets has not stopped Seth. Each time he has boldly shared that very same Gospel with the police and investigators, on his case, and continues sharing wherever he goes.

Please pray for Seth as he boldly seeks to do what God has prepared him to do.

A Ministry to Persecuted Christians