The fire of faith burns bright in Bosnia

Murat and Amina were in urgent need of assistance when they arrived at an aid warehouse run by Operation Mobilisation (OM) in Bosnia. Amina’s husband was desperately sick and they had no means or money to heat their home.

The OM Bosnia workers quickly added Amina and her neighbour Murat to their list of addresses for their firewood distribution project and visited them soon after. Having supplied the valuable fuel, the OM workers prayed for Amina, her husband and Murat, and left them with some Christian literature to read.

That was back in 2005 and over the following years, as the OM team distributed copies of scripture on the streets of the town nearby, they often saw Murat. He however had little interest in what they were doing. On one occasion though, he accepted a Gospel tract and to the team’s delight, he rang them a few months later.

They were even more overjoyed when they heard this man from an Islamic background ask if he could join their Christian prayer meetings. Over the next weeks, Murat became a regular attender at church and made a decision to accept Jesus as his Lord and Saviour.

His journey to faith in Christ involved numerous personal traumas and loss. After being abandoned by his wife and with his health deteriorating, he remembered the love the Christian missionaries had shown to Amina and her sick husband years before. He also recalled how the prayers the Christians said then were all answered and his neighbour’s life had improved dramatically.

Those realisations were enough to spur Murat into contacting the OM team and today he and his new Christian wife lead a Bible study group in their home. Murat can also be found distributing portions of scripture on Bosnia’s streets.

“Most of my fellow citizens have never seen an open Bible—even less owned one. Yet they look for answers and hope, often turning to other spiritual forces,” he shared.

“They need God. God’s Word is powerful; it changed my life!”