Bolivia | Jesus Appears to a Terrorist’s Son
I saw a man standing behind you, all dressed in white. He looked at me with love and forgiveness. No one has ever looked at me this way. I want to know this man.
When Felipe*, a surgeon from Bolivia, went to the Middle East to serve for a few months, he was put in charge of a small hospital in a refugee camp. His first night there, a young man named Ahmad* was brought in crying and shaking. There wasn’t anything medically wrong, so Felipe just prayed for him. Eventually, Ahmad fell asleep.
I saw a man standing behind you, all dressed in white. He looked at me with love and forgiveness. No one has ever looked at me this way. I want to know this man
This became a nightly occurrence for months. Ahmad would come to the hospital in a state of panic every evening, and Felipe would pray over him for hours until he calmed down and fell asleep. The local people told Felipe to be careful with Ahmad because he was the son of a terrorist. Terrorists from this village would force their 11- or 12-year-old sons to kill Christians to practice the “family trade” and this had happened to Ahmad when he was younger. The locals told Felipe, “He seems to be in pain and tormented, but he’s getting what he deserves. Leave him alone.” But Felipe would not stop praying.
The night before Felipe returned to Bolivia, he was again praying for Ahmad. Ahmad stopped crying and pointed behind Felipe, trying to explain something. Felipe wanted to know what Ahmad had seen, so he asked a translator to come explain.
Through the translator, Ahmad said, “All these months, I’ve had voices in my head telling me I can never be forgiven for what I’ve done. I should just kill myself, and they will eat my bones once I’m in hell. But every time I came here and you prayed, the voices got silent. Then I could sleep. That’s why I wanted to come every night. But tonight, as you prayed, I saw a man standing behind you, all dressed in white. He looked at me with love and forgiveness. No one has ever looked at me this way. I want to know this man.”
Felipe knew it was Jesus, but since his translator was a Muslim who wouldn’t translate the gospel, he simply told Ahmad, “I know this man. This man loves you. He can forgive you. Trust this man.”
When Felipe returned home he didn’t forget Ahmad. He connected with Reflejo, one of Novo’s Global Partners, which sends missionaries from Latin America to the hardest-to-access countries around the world. Reflejo helped Felipe move back to the Middle East permanently. Now he can learn the language and share the gospel with Ahmad and many others like him.
*names changed
