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Convert shares Jesus’ love during Ramadan

Friends, for many Christian converts from Islam, knowing how to navigate Ramadan—a holy month of fasting, prayer, reflections and community observed by Muslims—often becomes a challenge. This year, Ramadan will be observed from April 12-May 11.

Before Naida* became a Christian, she celebrated Ramadan with her big, Muslim family. She visited neighbors and relatives and hosted many guests during the month. But after she came to faith in Jesus, she did not know what she should do about the traditions of Ramadan and other Muslim celebrations.

For several years, Naida didn’t celebrate Ramadan. Her Muslim relatives were already angry at her for her new beliefs, and when she stopped taking part in Ramadan, it made things even worse. Naida’s relatives stopped communicating with her, didn’t invite her to their homes and didn’t come to her house. It was considered a betrayal that she followed this “foreign God.”

Naida prayed and asked God for wisdom to know what to do. She read books and talked to her pastor. Finally, Naida felt that if she wanted to reach the hearts of her relatives, she had to respect their traditions and use them to build relationships with them.

So, Naida started to celebrate Ramadan again—but in a completely new way. She decided that some of the traditions could help her to rebuild relationships with her relatives. Now during Ramadan, Naida cooks and invites her Muslim family and neighbors to enjoy a meal after their fast. Even if they would usually refuse to come to her house, according to their traditions, they can’t refuse to come during Ramadan. They also have to accept her as a guest at Ramadan celebrations.

In this way, she showed respect for their religious feelings, traditions and values, which touched their hearts. At the same time, she is able to share the gospel.

Pray Naida can have even more meaningful conversations about Jesus with her Muslim family this month.

Pray Muslims would have dreams and visions of Jesus as they seek God during Ramadan.

During a time when Muslims are so intentional in seeking spiritual revelation, pray that followers of Jesus would be faithful to pray with Muslims and share the gospel with them in love.

Pray that followers of Jesus would be bold—wise but courageous, loving and truthful, as they share the gospel during Ramadan.

*Representative names and photos are sometimes used to protect identity.