Imagine fearing an attack from your own family because of five words: “I believe in Jesus Christ.” For many sons and daughters in the Muslim world, the psychological pressure and physical danger from fathers, mothers, and siblings very nearly causes newly converted Christians to renounce their faith and remain united with their family and their family’s religion. Safe Houses, like the 16+ locations Help The Persecuted provides throughout the Middle East, are sanctuaries of healing and hope.
What are Safe Houses
These secure, private homes and apartment buildings are stocked with critical supplies that men, women and families on the run need—having left everything behind in their haste to flee danger. Yet, these immediate needs are only the beginning.
Some need medical care upon arrival. And often, lying beneath the needs we can see from the outside are psychological scars and emotional trauma that need God’s healing hand. Our team and local partners serving at the Safe Houses come alongside the residents to disciple them and help connect them to the services they need.
Help The Persecuted’s Safe Houses provide a sacred space where layers of hurt, pain, sin, grief, injury and fear can be peeled back and ministered to by Jesus and the Body of Christ.
Our sister, Jalila has recently fled her home when she began receiving threats from her parents and sister. She is staying with us in our Safe House. This is her story:
Jalila’s Recurring Dreams
Jalila worked as an English teacher in a public school. She became friends with a Christian colleague there and they began having discussions about the differences between Christianity and Islam.
These discussions changed nothing in Jalila’s heart until she had a dream where a man extended his hand to her saying, “Call me in the time of distress.” She had this dream several times and began wondering who this man was. Then, she had a dream and saw the same man in a church offering her something to drink. And, in another dream, she saw a dead man wrapped in linen and as she approached, he rose from death.
Jalila told a close friend about her dreams, and her friend invited her to church. She attended the church a few times but became afraid and stopped going.
Still, she kept having dreams and hearing verses that she found out later were from the Bible. Verses like: “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” (John 1:3, NIV). These verses came to her when she couldn’t get a Bible or even download a Bible app because her parents began censoring her phone. The verses she was hearing helped her grow in her relationship with God, so she prayed that her parents too would know the real God and gain His joy and peace.
Beaten and Threatened by Family
One day, her sister saw Jalila in a dream wearing a cross necklace. The next morning, she beat Jalila and forced her to say Muslim prayers to prove that she still followed Islam.
In the following year, her parents noticed something changing in her life and forced her to fast during Ramadan and pray. Jalila performed these rituals while praying to the God she had known through her dreams. She received an audio Bible and listened intently. At the same time, she was connected through friends to a church in Sweden who allowed her to listen to their Bible study meetings online.
The suspicions of Jalila’s parents continued to grow. Recently, they interrogated her and harassed her intensely about the number of suitors who had proposed to her—all Muslim men— whom she had rejected. As they began to watch her even more closely, they began threatening her and warning her about staying true to Islam. Jalila became afraid for her safety and fled her home. She was introduced to Help The Persecuted and is now hidden, living in one of our Safe Houses.
Jalila Finds Refuge in our Safe House
Our Safe House is designed to not only offer secure shelter, but to prepare persecuted believers for their future. Our team has offered Jalila the ability to learn new skills that will allow her to work and earn a living. Additionally, the team continues to encourage her and disciple her, giving her a firm foundation to build on once she leaves the Safe House.
With your support and God’s blessing, we opened six Safe Houses in 2021, and we now have a goal of opening even more Safe Houses this year. Your prayers and support allows us to use our Safe Houses to Rescue, Restore, and Rebuild the lives of persecuted Christians who are in extreme danger.