Egypt (MNN) — Sometimes Scripture speaks so specifically to our life circumstances that it feels like it was written just for us. For one refugee in Egypt, the story of a woman from 2,000 years ago so closely resembled her own that she immediately wanted to know more about Jesus.
On a recent trip to Egypt, Erik Ouimette of Uncharted Ministries heard some amazing updates from the team working among the refugee camps there.
Two miracles, two women, 2,000 years between
One of their church planners, *Rahman, shared the story of a Syrian woman named Fatima. During his meeting with this particular woman, he felt Spirit lead him to read Luke 8 to her. It was not a passage he used for sharing the Gospel to refugees, but he read it to her, anyway.
The end of this chapter tells the story of a woman who had a bleeding disorder for 12 years. She sees Jesus moving through the crowd in Capernaum. When she pushes through the crowd and touches his cloak, she is immediately healed.
(Stock photo obtained via Pexels)
At first, Rahman wasn’t sure why God wanted him to share this story with Fatima. But her reaction quickly filled in the blanks.
Ouimette says, “She immediately stands up, leaves this room and goes out to this line of people, grabs five of her friends from the refugee camp, brings them in and tells these women, in front of Rahman, ‘This man just told me a story from his holy book. And that story is my story, except he got the number of years wrong. The woman in the story was bleeding for twelve years. I have only been bleeding for eight years.’”
Rahman told Fatima that he would meet up with her again soon. And then he went on to meet with many other refugees.
“She bursts back into the room six hours later, and she says ‘Rahman, I have stopped bleeding. I have been bleeding for eight years. I have stopped bleeding. You must tell me more stories about this Jesus.’”
“I have stopped bleeding. You must tell me more stories about this Jesus.”
Our powerful God
Ouimette says they get to hear a lot of these miraculous stories taking place in the Middle East. To share these stories, especially to believers in the west, is vital for remembering just how powerful and good our God is.
“What an amazing God we serve that 2,000 years ago when Jesus had his cloak touched on his road to heal someone else […] this woman, in her moment of need, touches his cloak. And the Lord knew that 2,000 years later at a refugee camp in Egypt that this story would touch this woman in a moment of fragility, in a moment of vulnerability where she has no earthly power. She has no access to anything that would heal her.”
Photo by Salah Darwish on Unsplash.
Instead of medical intervention Fatima’s creator healed her through divine means. Now, Fatima is being discipled. The team on the ground hopes she will express her faith in Jesus, soon.
“These refugee areas are the lowest of the low in Egypt. They’re not great places. And for her to have this ailment all the sudden healed by the Lord—this changes, radically, her future. I know we like to think of that in a spiritual sense that a conversion does that, but this literally in a bodily sense, this also changed her life.
“I think the Lord takes great pleasure in the healing of ailments that point us not to ourselves, not to a doctor, but to him.”
Ask God to continue to minister to Fatima. Pray that she would choose to follow Jesus, and that her story would inspire others to learn more about Jesus.
Learn more about Uncharted Ministries, here.
*Name changed for Security purposes.
Header photo by Jens Aber on Unsplash.
