A young couple who lived through the chaos of the Syrian civil war say they converted to Christianity after Jesus appeared to them in their dreams and prophesied about the birth of their daughter.

The Gospel Herald  is reporting on the dramatic story of Amir and Rasha (not their real names), a young married couple who fled their home in Homs, Syria, amid the five year-old Syrian war, and took refuge in a camp in Lebanon.

“Since 2012, we have been living in a tent,” Amir told Open Doors USA, an organization dedicated to serving persecuted Christians. “It is not an easy life. About a year ago my wife’s mother was killed by a sniper when she went out to have some fresh air. My wife’s brother was killed on his way home.”

Although they were once full of fear and anxiety, a miraculous encounter with Christ turned their lives around.

“About three months ago, I was given a vision of Jesus Christ,” Rasha said. “I was sleeping and all of a sudden I saw Jesus Christ in white. He said ‘I am Christ. You will have a beautiful daughter.’ I was eight months pregnant, and a month later we received our beautiful daughter.”

At about the same time, Jesus also appeared in a dream to her husband. “I saw Jesus Christ,” Amir said. “He was dressed in white. He said to me ‘I am your Savior. You will follow me.'”

Dreams are very significant to Muslims because they do not see themselves as being capable of communing with God in prayer the way Christians do. This is why Muslims will frequently ask God to give them guidance in their dreams, which is the way most expect to hear from Him.

This explains why the couple made an immediate – and very courageous – decision.

“We decided to follow Him. We named our baby Christina. We left our old Islamic customs,” Amir said.

It was far from an easy choice. The refugee camp they called home was predominantly Muslim which meant they were constantly under threat.

“Our clan is very big; we’re afraid now. They might kill us,” said Rasha, who still veils her head and dresses like a Muslim. “We now have no fixed place to live, we go from place to place.”

Amir added: “Our family knows we are Christians now. Becoming a Christian is, for them, the same as if I had destroyed the Kaaba in Saudi Arabia. It is because we walked in the darkness and are now in the light. I want to protect my family.”

Their newfound commitment to Christ has put the family’s future in peril, Amir says.

“I have no work in Lebanon. Our financial situation is bad. Now, because we are Christians, others don’t want to help us. The church is helping as much as is possible.”

But their faith remains strong. “The most important thing is that we know Jesus Christ as our Savior,” he adds. “He will save us. We regularly pray to the Lord, we freely worship Him, and He protects us. God is with us. God will resolve our situation.”

Thankfully, Rasha and Amir’s story is becoming more and more prevalent as Muslims become disenchanted with the strife in their homelands.

As the pastor of a Christian church in Lebanon explains, “We see a lot of new faces being baptized . . . People who give their lives to Jesus don’t do so because they want a food package. They come to church because they feel comforted. I heard people testify: ‘Thank God for the war in Syria; it brought us to Jesus.’”

However, the consequences for leaving Islam can be enormous for new believers – but with Christ, all things are possible.

“They have to leave their context and their families. They know that whoever leaves Islam should be killed. These wonderful new believers will become preachers all over the Middle East. God is waking up a sleeping church; a new nation of new believers is being born.”

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