For me Jesus is life

Sarah uses her medical skills to make Jesus known in her Muslim majority country.

“I used to see myself sharing the gospel with a lot of people and they were coming to Christ. Those were the kind of dreams I had as a child,” Sarah said. 

Today, Sarah not only meets medical needs through her work as a pharmacist but also serves in youth ministry alongside her husband. “We both have a desire to reach our community and see the youths have a passion for reaching the majority faith around them,” she noted. 

In her Muslim majority country’s traditional churches, many believers are fearful of reaching out to the community or lack the knowledge about how to do it. “A lot of Christians here have never seen people sharing the gospel so they don’t know how to share. Also, they never really hear stories of people coming to Christ and there is a huge gap between the church and Muslim background believers,” she expressed. Sarah wants to see more believers have a burden to reach out to their Muslim neighbours, be exposed to believers from a Muslim Background and learn how to share God’s love with those who don’t know it. 

“For me Jesus is life, knowing him is everything and I want to make him known to others,” she said. 

Knowing Jesus 

Sarah, grew up in a traditional Christian home, part of a small body of believers in her country. She personally accepted Christ at the age of seven and was impressed by her mother’s strong faith and passion for evangelism. That influenced Sarah to be vocal about the gospel at her school, which caused her to lose a lot of friends. Once she got into her teenage years, she spent a lot of time with friends that negatively influenced her. Her personal and family problems caused her to drift away from God, until one day while reading Psalm 23, she cried out to God. “I asked him to reveal Himself to me, and after that, I saw my family’s problems lessen,” shared Sarah. 

Still, it was not until her father banned her from going anywhere except school and youth group at her church, that her faith in God took a fresh start. “You know when the light comes into darkness, you can’t stay the same. I was shocked to see people in the youth group living out their faith and God used that to transform my heart,” she noted.  

From then on, Sarah and some of her cousins grew in their faith together. By the time they got to university, their desire to know God grew into wanting to make Him known. “We started having Bible studies together, and, through understanding the Word of God, we wanted to do something for the kingdom of God,” she expressed. Sarah wanted to serve in youth ministry as she saw the need to give spiritual support to youths. “When I was a teenager, besides my mother, I didn’t have a spiritual mentor, so I want to give youths the options to have that. I also spent a lot of time discipling my younger sister one on one,” Sarah said.

Making Jesus known 

Sarah studied pharmaceutics at university as she saw it as a good way to help the community. While finishing her master’s degree, she heard about an opportunity to go on a short-term  mission trip to Africa and felt God was telling her to go. “I had to really trust that this was God’s will because I didn’t have the finances and my father wasn’t allowing me to go. I told God that if He wanted me to be there, I also needed the approval of my father as my pastor was already supportive,” she shared. Sarah shared her heart with her father and rejoiced when he gave her permission to go. Once the finances came through, Sarah knew this was indeed God’s will. 

She went to Africa when she finished her master’s degree and felt that it was a small part of her  personal and professional journey as God confirmed her calling to serve in her Muslim majority country. Sarah shared: “Going to Africa was about me learning to put my life on the altar for God daily. Following Jesus is worth it because He is the greatest treasure and He will never leave me.” 

When Sarah returned from Africa, she started teaching part-time at a university and continued serving in youth ministry. Though she had a desire to use her job as a pharmacist to share God’s love with others, she didn’t know it was something that could actually be done until she went to a medical conference where Christian medical professionals were sharing how they used their skills to serve in ministry. “This was a huge surprise to me, and God opened my eyes to see that I can do both together,” Sarah said.

Sarah was then introduced to a group of Christian medical professionals serving in her country  who were looking for someone with her skills. She felt nothing but peace and joy during  her interview and her dream of building God’s kingdom as a pharmacist became a reality. Sarah has since been working with the group since 2016, running various clinics housed at churches. From clinic days, to home visits, Sarah and her team have many opportunities to give medical assistance, provide health education and have spiritual conversations through the relationships they build. “A lot of the people we serve always expressed their trust for us because of our compassion and the way we run the clinic,” she shared. 

 

 

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