Photo credit: Rodney Ballard
A Muslim man in Kamuli district, Eastern Uganda who became violent each time his wife and children tried to share the gospel with him, finally renounced Islam, after having visions of Jesus.
45-year-old Waiswa (other name withheld for his personal security), a father of nine children stopped attending prayers at a mosque in his home area when Jesus appeared to him in a vision, which led to his conversion to Christianity, his wife says.
“When I shared Christ’s love to my husband, he was so furious at me and responded by slapping and kicking, which injured my rib on the left side,” Namuwaya told Christian persecution watchdog Morning Star News in a report published February 27, 2020.
“I was taken for medication. But I continued praying and sharing Jesus with him. After two months Jesus appeared to my husband in a vision, which led to his conversion to the Christian faith. He then stopped attending the prayers at mosque,” she added.
Waiswa’s wife, Namuwaya, also a former Muslim, was the first to encounter the love of Jesus Christ when she attended a Church service in March 2019, after several sleepless nights of unexplained anxiety.
“As the church faithful were leaving, I shared with the pastor my troubled heart,” Namuwaya said. “He told me that it is only Isa [Jesus] who can heal a troubled heart, if only a person can put her trust in Him. The conviction was so strong that I could not resist. The pastor then prayed for my deliverance. After prayers, my heart was very peaceful.”
According to Morning Star News, she did not tell her Muslim husband or children about her faith in Christ for three months.
She explained, “I only continued praying for my family with the hope that Jesus will reveal Himself to them.”
After four months, Morning Star News reports that Namuwaya began telling her youngest five children, ages 5 to 12, about Christ’s atoning death and resurrection, and they accepted Christ as Lord and Savior a month later, she said.
Those children began sharing the message of Christ with the four older ones, ages 14 to 20, and by October 2019 all nine of her children had become Christians, she said.
It is then that she began sharing about Christ with her husband.
Family Now Facing Persecution
Morning Star News reports that the youngest child innocently told her grandfather, Waiswa’s father, that her father was attending church.
Waiswa told Morning Star News that his angry father summoned him to a meeting where mosque elders and clan leaders would determine his punishment for leaving Islam. Under sharia (Islamic law), apostasy is often punishable by death.
“I did not attend the meeting, but instead we sought refuge at the church, where we have been residing since December 2019,” Waiswa told Morning Star News.
Having fled his home and having lost his share of the family land, Waiswa is not sure where to go. His pastor is also in a quandary, after receiving threatening messages from Muslim villagers last week.
“On Feb. 20, I received some threatening messages that my church is going to be destroyed because of converting Muslims to Christians,” said the pastor, whose name is undisclosed for security reasons. “Some of my members have stopped attending the church for fear of their lives in a possible attack by the Muslims. Sending away the helpless family is not a good idea, but losing church members is also not good. We as a church are in a dilemma.”
“The responsibility for the education of Waiswa’s family is a big challenge to the church, as well as the fears which have now entered the church for housing Waiswa’s family,” the pastor said, according to Morning Star News. “We as a church need prayers for God’s protection for the church and the family of Waiswa, who are now landless.”
