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Saved by a smile

5:55pm Sunday, 25th September 2011

Karen Barnes

The mission field is as close as your neighbour. This is the testimony of how God used the smile of one woman to change another’s life.

Yasmeen* is a young woman from a Muslim family, who immigrated to Australia with her husband and two children. They arrived in Sydney, where life as a Muslim woman soon became isolated. Yasmeen reflected, “It’s easy to be lonely in Australia when you don’t know anybody. No one talks to you.”

After many months of loneliness, one day, finally…someone smiled at Yasmeen. The lady who smiled passed by Yasmeen each day on the stairs in her unit block. One day Yasmeen’s young son was playing outdoors and fell and hurt his knee. The kind woman from the stairwell went over to help him. Out of gratitude, Yasmeen invited this smiling neighbour into her home for a cup of tea. That evening, when Yasmeen told her husband about the stranger’s kindness towards their son, he replied, “she must be different”.

Over a cup of tea, the kind stranger became a friend. Her name was Rebecca*. They started to share more cups of tea together and their friendship began to grow. One day, Rebecca asked if she could share with Yasmeen stories about Jesus. Yasmeen agreed, as she knew the Koran spoke of Jesus as a prophet. Over time, she began to wrestle with how Christianity could see Jesus as the Son of God.

One night, while Yasmeen was sleeping, she had a clear, bright vision in which she saw Christ and the overwhelming love and compassion that he was holding out to her. As soon as Yasmeen was alone in her home, she phoned Rebecca and asked her to come straight over. She shared with Rebecca what had happened; that morning Yasmeen became a Christian, as she prayed with Rebecca and Jesus became her Lord and Saviour. Rebecca, moved to tears, told Yasmeen that her church had been praying for her from the time that they had started passing each other on the stairs.

Today, Yasmeen continues to live by her faith. As it would be very dangerous and too risky for her to share her Christianity with her husband or children, she continues to dress, fast and pray five times a day, as a Muslims do. When Yasmeen prays and fasts, she does so for Christ. While her husband does not know that she is a Christian, he has noticed a difference in her – he now thinks of her as a better wife.

“There are many secret believers in Sydney. When you see a covered woman on the streets, please love us, smile at us and pray for is. We don’t know what we’re missing out on until someone tells us. The Holy Spirit can go where no one else can. So pray for us, love us and smile.”

After Yasmeen finished sharing her testimony, the question was asked – ‘why would a Muslim become a Christian when it holds a real danger and risk of losing so much’? The answer given sounded so simple, and yet left the room silenced.

“Because once they know the love of God, there’s no turning back.”

*Names in this story have been changed to protect the anonymity of those written about.