A Burning Desire to Evangelize Muslims

In 2011, Hanafi’s father sent him to another village to attend a secular school. Hanafi met a Christian girl there who was planning to marry a pastor. Annoyed by the girl’s plans, Hanafi made it his goal to convert her to Islam.

Instead of converting her, however, Hanafi found himself being invited to a church service, where he could observe Christianity for himself.

The next Sunday, Hanafi visited a church near his house, thinking it was where the girl attended. After discovering that he was at the wrong church, he decided to stay anyway. He was shocked by what he heard: The pastor shared a message about how Jesus can appear to people in dreams.

“I felt like somebody came and told the pastor my dream,” he said. Unnerved by the experience, Hanafi vowed to never attend church again.

But, still feeling confused and conflicted, the following Sunday Hanafi decided to return. As the weeks passed, he became ever more intrigued by Jesus Christ. A year later, 18-year-old Hanafi decided to return home and tell his father that he had become a Christian.

Hanafi’s father was incensed by the news. He quickly called Hanafi’s 15 siblings and other family members to a meeting and told them, “[Hanafi] is no longer a part of the family.”

His father’s words were very painful but not surprising. “My pastor prepared me,” Hanafi said. “He told me many people will persecute me, and I asked him, ‘Even my dad?’ He said, ‘Even him; get ready. It can happen.’”

When Hanafi’s father realized that his son would not renounce his faith in Christ, he made plans to send him to Nigeria again. Hanafi, worried about what might happen to him, asked God to rescue him from his circumstances.

Read the full story, along with others focused on persecuted Christians in Africa, in the January 2023 edition of The Voice of the Martyrs magazine.