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In Islamic thought, the world is divided into two camps: “Dar al-Harb,” the house of war, and “Dar al-Islam,” the house of submission. When Islam is dominant, Christians and other non-Muslims live under a special tax and are subject to a number of other restrictions and legal prejudices.
"You have no idea how incredible it was for me to actually SEE one of my contacts."
—OM Diana
But to Muslims, the worst enemies are apostates, “kafirs.” They can be killed in the streets by mobs. In countries with sharia law, they can even be put to death. Tanzania is not one of those nations, but it is on the “World Watch List,” the top 50 nations in the world in which persecution is the most severe for Christians. This all makes Joss Matto’s story that much more remarkable. Everyone in his family was Muslim, but God was reaching out to Joss.
“Every time I would go to sleep there was a voice that kept coming to me about Jesus.”
When he brought a Bible to work to read, he was fired. His home was taken over and sold while he was away on a job search. He returned to find his wife living in a mud shack. In despair, he was about to end his life when he saw (on a borrowed phone) what a friend had been reading. It was our GodLife.com site. “That’s when I found in the message what I really needed,” he said. He also found a mentor. Online Missionary Diana says his first email to her was a request for prayer about the house and the money from the sale of the house. He had indicated he prayed to receive Jesus, so she prayed for him about his house situation.
In the next day or two, she received an email back from Joss saying that he now knew Jesus was real because her prayer was answered: the man who had stolen the house money called him and said he would pay.
When one of Joss’ Muslim friends came to visit him, Joss led him to Jesus. That was just the beginning of great things to come. But more troubles were coming, too: his father and uncles conspired to kill him, while his aunt warned him and gave him enough money to flee.
In a new town, he was framed and put in prison. He prayed for release and was told he had a visitor. A woman unknown to him arranged for his release, and once he was free he started going door-to-door to tell people about Jesus. Diana says he led over 20 to Christ the first day. So he wrote Diana to ask about starting a new believers’ class using GodLife materials.
Today, Joss’ class has outgrown a local school. Diana’s help has gone far beyond release from jail and email study of several books of the Bible in preparation for his class. She arranged for the delivery of 50 Swahili Bibles through Voice of the Martyrs. A foreign missionary led him out into the bush where the Bibles were. Telling him it was “from Diana,” she also gave him $500 U.S. With part of the money, he bought soap and supplies and returned to the prison to give them to the other inmates. Their behavior changed so much after he told them about Jesus, that the officials gave him a letter inviting him to go to any prison in the country.
You can see a video about Joss on our YouTube page: http://goo.gl/J173l7
Joss’ and Diana’s story shows just how strategic this ministry can be! Thanks for your part in making it possible! |
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