Born into a religion you cannot convert to or from, Farah* met Jesus when searching for answers. Now others in her close-knit Druze community are getting to know him too.
"When I came home to tell my community about Christ it took me 10 years of persecution. Of everything you can think of," Farah says. "The way they treated us for expressing our faith – the community I grew up with in war time in Lebanon – was very hard.
"Now 30 people, all Druze background believers, meet for church in our home."
People like Farah, who have converted from this small and secretive religion, need our prayers. But first we need to understand where they are coming from.
What is Druze?
A relatively unknown religion in the UK, it's estimated that over one million people worldwide are Druze, the majority of whom live in Lebanon and Syria. The religion originates from Shia Islam, and started in Egypt in 1019.
The Druze faith incorporates elements of Islam, Judaism and Christianity, as well as other beliefs. The teachings of philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle and Socrates also feed into the religion, which was founded by Hamza ibn-'Ali ibn-Ahmad.
Druze believe in one God, who is a mind, not a person. This God created the whole world, but will not interfere with his creation until the end of time. Druze cannot have a relationship with their God, but they can meet with him through high-level meditation. They also believe in Jesus; that he was a prophet who taught us to be good humans. Moses' father-in-law, Jethro of Midian, is their chief prophet and revered as the spiritual founder of Druze.
Reincarnation is a strong element of the Druze faith, which is why people cannot convert to the religion. It is believed that every one of us had the opportunity to do so in a former life. Proselytism and conversion officially ended in 1043, just 24 years after the religion began.
As a minority religion in every country where they live, Druze have frequently suffered persecution. They live in very closed communities and much of what they believe and do is hidden from the outside world.
Farah's story
Having fled war in Lebanon, Farah was living in Eastern Europe with her husband and two daughters when she began searching for meaning – and God.
"It was not an easy life... There was always war and we had to flee," she says. "About 15 years ago I began an internal search asking: 'Who is God? What does he want us to do? Where is God?' I had so many questions that the God I believed in couldn't answer. So I went to the books, but I couldn't find the answers that I wanted – and I saw that I was not permitted to ask the questions to God."
In her search for answers, Farah turned to Islam but found no solace. Her husband, meanwhile, had begun to read the Bible. Farah began to read it too, and prayed to Jesus.
"When I called God to look over me, Jesus came to me. That's how I got the conviction that Jesus is God. I made a very deep cry for God to look down on us, and Jesus came. From there I started believing," she says.
"A very clear voice said that we had come home to be witnesses to Jesus in our community, to my family in Lebanon. In the beginning, they did not know what 'follower of Christ' meant. They didn't understand that I was following another God, they understood that I was leaving them to belong to another community. So I said, 'no, I am Druze, I am going to stay here.'"
Converting to Christianity is considered a betrayal by Farah's family and community, and so they identify themselves as 'Druze believing in Christ'.
"We stayed, we did not run," she says. "It took 10 years of persecution. Some people just stopped talking to us. We showed them love. We showed them what Jesus had done in our lives. Sometimes without talking, just the way we acted with them. They saw we were something different.
"It was not easy at the beginning – they had so many ideas of who we were. But we kept on in our community and we were very close to people whenever they needed us. We lived Christ, and after 13 years they came to accept us."
Now, people from the community come to Farah and her husband's house, often asking for prayer. "Even though they're still Druze, they believe in Christ in their own way," she says.
"Today, my husband and I pastor a church in our community that includes over 30 Lebanese and Syrian Druze who are living out the biblical teachings and are witnessing Christ. They gave their lives to Christ and were baptised. That's a major step in our community – letting everyone know that you follow Jesus.
"I have been rewarded so plentifully from God."
What can we pray for?
Pray for Farah and her heart for Druze believers to meet Jesus, in her community and beyond. Pray that her story would encourage other believers struggling to share Christ in the midst of persecution.
Pray for Druze followers of Christ living in Lebanon and Syria, that they would be encouraged, strengthened and guided by the Holy Spirit.
Pray for peace in Syria. Pray that the Muslim, Druze and Christian communities that have so suffered in the country over the past five years would be able to thrive there once more.
Pray for Christian converts across the Middle East and North Africa. Pray that God would protect them, strengthen them, use them, and lead them to others with whom they can share fellowship.
Pray for more understanding of the Druze community. Pray that there would be an increased openness amongst the Druze to the person of Jesus as more than a prophet, and pray for people willing to share the gospel amongst this small, often persecuted, group.
*Name has been changed to protect identity
