How a dream in Brunei changed one woman’s life

When Sheila heard someone call her ‘my child’ in her dreams, she knew it could only be one Person.

Sheila* is a foreign-born Chrisitan who lives in Brunei, a small, Islamic monarchy in southeast Asia, ranked No. 48 on Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List.

Sheila didn’t grow up in a Christian home. For most of her life, she never believed in any God or gods. But for some reason, she began to notice a large mural of Jesus painted on the walls of a church she’d pass by on her walk to school.

Every day, she’d slow her pace the moment she saw Jesus’ face.

Eventually, she was so enamored by the mural that she took out a piece of paper and sketched Jesus’ face.

And then, when she was 12 years old, she had a vivid dream of a man in white. “In my dream,” Sheila remembers, “I heard a voice call me ‘my child,’ and I thought, ‘who would call me that?’ But when I turned around and looked at the man [in white], I knew He was Jesus.

“He put his arms around my shoulders,” Sheila continues, “and I remember having a conversation with him. He showed me the family home I grew up in, and then He said something so peculiar. He said, ‘I will save them, too.’ I had no idea what that meant. I was only 12.”
When she woke up, Sheila rummaged through her things to find the drawing she had made of Jesus … and was amazed that it truly was the same person she had seen in her dream.

Sheila began attending church and after some consideration, at the age of 17 she was baptized.

The night before she was to be baptized, she had another dream where she saw a dove. “This time, I felt like the dove brought me out of the earth,” Sheila says. “I was in outer space, and I saw the earth in front of me. Then I heard a voice saying, ‘You do not belong to this earth; I will bring you home to paradise.’ During this time, I didn’t know much about the Holy Spirit, but that’s what God showed me [then].”

Year after year, Sheila grew in her faith in the Lord. With every decision she made, she believed He had a plan for her life. Even after her marriage ended in a heartbreaking divorce because her husband didn’t share her faith and was unfaithful to her, Sheila continued to believe that God had a purpose for her life.

Now, Sheila has lived in Brunei for 27 years and has continuously served the people in the church she attends. “I realized there are many women who are struggling in their marriages, and I believe that God has placed me here to help women build strong marriages and strong relationships with their loved ones,” she explains.

Despite the tragic end to her own marriage, Sheila believes in a God who redeems.

When Open Doors local partners met Sheila recently, she asked for prayers saying: “Please continue to pray for me as I make the choice to forgive my ex-husband for all his wrongdoings every day. It really is a daily choice.”

Open Doors partners are looking into more opportunities to fellowship with Sheila and disciple her so that she can continue to stand firm in her faith in Jesus—even in a place where following Jesus can be extremely difficult.