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Omar* (pseudonym used) opens the door to his apartment. He wears a black t-shirt with “Jesus” written in big white letters across his chest. On his back: “Jesus is my only true love”. It’s not a t-shirt one would expect to be worn by a Moroccan as all Moroccans are considered to be Muslim. But in most cities there are small groups of Moroccan Christians worshiping God in house churches. Omar is one of them.
Morocco is a country with between 5500 and 6000 known Moroccan Christians; they get together in secret in house churches. So, although a convert being so open about his faith is not what one would expect in this North African country, Omar is very open about his faith but, of course, he is cautious, as he knows Christians in the country are persecuted. On the Open Doors’ World Watch List that ranks where life for Christians is the hardest because of persecution, Morocco ranks 21.
Inside his apartment, he doesn’t make it a secret he is a Christian now. We see a cross, a shield with “We love because He first loved us” and several Bibles. Sitting on his blue sofa, he tells us about his journey as a newly converted Christian.
This 30-year-old man is a believer for 14 years now. “When I first became a believer, I thought I was the only one,” he says. That feeling is quite common in Morocco, where new believers are often totally on their own in the first period after their conversion.
Later he discovered that there are more converts like him in the country. “The first time when I met with a group of believers, I saw it as a great opportunity to grow. It was and is wonderful to praise God together with other Christians.”
But how does a Muslim convert to another faith? Raised as a Muslim, he went to the mosque daily with his father. He memorized many Quran verses. “At a certain moment I asked my father why God doesn’t like Christians and Jews. Why does He only love good Muslims?” The answer he got from his father was short and didn’t satisfy this young boy. “Don’t ask, just believe,” was the answer his father gave him. Not an answer that stops a teenager from asking.
It motivated him wanting to know more. Omar started his search on the internet where he was triggered by the phrase “God loves you” on one of the pages he visited:. “That made me curious. When searching in the cybercafé I read the passage For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life [John 3: 16, NIV]. That verse touched me. And that also was an answer to my question. God loves all the world.”
He was 16 years old when he made the decision to follow Jesus, to give himself to God who loves all the world. He kept his faith a secret for about one year. “I had created a fake Facebook account to talk about Jesus. My brother discovered that this account was mine and he told my father.”
That discovery had consequences. “My father and my family said they hated me and they kicked me out of the house, making me homeless.” The first night he slept outside, after that he moved to another city where he stayed for six months in a safe house. Open Doors support such places in Morocco and other North African countries. “I prayed to God to send me to a place to serve Him.”
After that period he went to another place and found a warm welcome in the house of a pastor of a house church. “There, it was as if I was adopted.” In that house he found a new family. The pastor motivated him to finish his school and to also have professional training. “I studied at the Audio Visual School. I learned how to create videos.”
Thanks to God, the relationship with his family was restored some 8 years after his conversion. It happened when his father was sent out of the family house all of a sudden because of a family issue. When that happened to him, Omar’s father saw what he had done with his son. “He called me, he asked forgiveness for all he had done. Our relationship is now very good.”
For Omar, knowing Jesus fully changed him. “I was confused before that, I didn’t know the truth. I was also a shy and fearful boy. Now God has given me big courage, for example to talk about Jesus. That doesn’t come from me, God is using me, He is doing that. God gave me the talents that I use in ministry. But the most important is knowing that I am loved by God. As a Muslim I didn’t have that feeling, I did my prayers in the Mosque, but had no inner relationship with God.” His smile underlines his words. “You know through what I do, I glorify His name, I feel His love when I talk about Him.”
And that is what the 30 year old Moroccan man does. For that, he uses the skills he learned during his audiovisual training. “I have my own channel on social media where I talk about Christian faith. It is an open channel, as far as I know the only such in Morocco.” He uses a pseudonym in that channel, but openly speaks about Christian faith.
Apologetics, testimonies, Bible teaching, worship songs, are all part of the channel. Each time he will talk about a different topic. “It is not about me, I am not on YouTube to show myself. Muslims have lots of questions. I show them answers, but show them also that there are Moroccan Christians, that there is a church in Morocco.” He does it in a respectful way, never criticizing Islam.” Like wearing the name of Jesus on his t-shirt, Omar doesn’t want to hide his faith. With that he is taking a big risk in his country. Also on social media, Omar openly speaks about Jesus. With conviction he says, “We Christians received the Light, we shouldn’t hide that in the dark!” On the other hand does he carefully prevent certain things in his channel. “I don’t talk about politics. This channel is about Jesus. I also don’t attack Islam, I talk about Jesus.”
Converting from Islam to Christianity in Morocco often leads to a form of persecution, but not always. “It depends a lot on your family, how strict are they in Islam, how open to other religions. Some families have no problem with someone converting. But in other cases the new-believers get a very negative response from their family.”
As he was hiding his faith for about a year, he knows many other converts in Morocco do the same. “It is no problem to first hide your faith for your family. It is more important that you work on your faith and your relationship with God. Then you will become a good witness of Jesus. Don’t attack Islam and after that complain that you are persecuted. I did that in the beginning, I started ‘fighting’ with people.”
This Moroccan Christian has some tips for Christians to continue to grow in their faith and relationship with Jesus. Growth, according to Omar, in the first place comes through the Bible. “You must have a close relationship with the Bible, read and study it every day. Second, you need a church. You grow in contact with the others, you need a space to live your faith, hear testimonies of other believers. The third thing needed, I believe, is obedience to His commandments. For example he orders us to talk about Him.”
Another thing that helped him and many other converts in Morocco and the rest of North Africa, are “conferences and training”. There he learned a lot but also came in touch with other Christians from other parts of the country. “There they helped me to know more about many Christian topics.” Often conferences and training are made possible with the support of Open Doors.
Omar is now in his fourth year of online theology studies at a seminary abroad. That institute is a partner of Open Doors and several students are financially supported in their studies, including Omar.
Besides being active online, Omar frequently travels to different isolated Christians all over the country. One can say he is a modern day Ananias - a man taking the risk of meeting with persons newly converted or even ‘only’ searching to know more about Jesus. “I give Bible study to new believers, I prepare them for baptism, for that reason I visit them. As I am seeing that God gives fruits on that work, I feel encouraged to continue with that ministry.”
Especially with persons who he doesn’t know yet, he is very cautious. First we chat on the socials, I try to find out if they are really interested. And for security reasons, I don’t go alone, I always go with someone. But until now, I didn’t find anyone who wasn’t really searching to know more.”
Also during those visits, he won’t talk negatively about his old religion. “No, I don’t do that, I also don’t compare Islam and Christianity. I always say to those I meet: don’t ask me about Islam, ask me about Jesus. I believe that when we talk about the Bible, about the living word of God, God will speak in the hearts of the people. That is what He did to me.” Not all persons he visits and invests time in become Christians. “A nice side effect is that I make a lot of friends. They all want to know more about Jesus, they feel safe to ask me. Frequently people do take the decision to follow Jesus. We’re now preparing four people for being baptized.”
He discovered that what in general brings people to Jesus, “is when they see that the teaching of Jesus is true, that it is about love, love for the other, love even for the enemy. I focus a lot on that love of God.”
It was that love that changed his own life. “I often share my testimony, how God did that. When I travel, sometimes the person lives so far away, that I need to stay the night over. Those long rides on the Moroccan roads give Omar time to pray in general and for the person(s) he is going to meet or just met. Most of the time I meet them in coffeeshops, a public place. Their home is not appropriate, because the sensitivity of the conversation.”
Recently he was surprised by what one of those searchers said. “When we were talking in a coffeeshop the young man mentioned that this mother and sister also wanted to become followers of Jesus. He said ‘so you have to come to my house and talk about Jesus’. I did, and the three converted that day!” Hearing that reminds of the stories in the book of Acts where the houses of several persons also were saved.
When possible he connects the persons he visits to a house church nearby. That also happened to the three of that one family who converted. “They are still doing well.” In case there is no one to hand the persons over to, he personally continues with those believers. “I don’t know how everyone is doing whom I visited in the past. But there are others who know and I am sure God will take care of them.”
His theological studies have helped him to, for example, plan better how he best can serve in ministry. “That is a real blessing for me. Before I started studying, I was afraid that it would be too academic, without attention for the spiritual side. I prayed to God that my studies would be a worship to Him.” He then laughs and adds, “I even read a book before I started ‘How to stay Christian in seminary’.”
The church in Morocco cannot be compared with a church in any of the Western countries. All Moroccan believers come together in house churches, not in church buildings. Per city there are often several house churches, sometimes even of different denominations. The number of people per church is only what fits in a normal living room.
Omar thinks that the biggest need of the Moroccan church right now is “to be open to each other”. “We try to create a good relationship between the different churches, so that they are more open to each other, without having ideas of the other or even judging the other. We are one church. When we really live that, God will do miracles in our midst. It makes me happy to see when churches invite each other to meet.”
He sees the current situation in Morocco as ‘open’. “We need to use this opportunity as Christians. We need to step out of the shadow, out of being underground.”
*Name changed for security. Image used is representative.
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