“I could write page after page of news reports that I continually receive concerning Muslims turning to Christ. From Uzbekhistan to North Vancouver there is something taking place that we have not seen before. . . . Many think this could be the start of a global harvest among Muslims that will see thousands of churches of new churches within Muslim lands.” These words from a newsletter made me once again stop and think about the spiritual harvesting that is going on throughout portions of the Muslim world. Sometimes the Lord orchestrates events to make us stop and ask, “What really is going on here?” Recently that happened to us on the campus of Bethany Bible College.

A few months ago students were challenged to see the billions of people that continue to remain in spiritual darkness without Christ. The chapel speaker, serving in a part of the world where Christian public witnessing is illegal, challenged the student body to go where the gospel has not been preached and sow the word of Christ so that people’s lives may be transformed and powerful churches planted. He came recruiting students to go to the Turkic world for Christ.

A few weeks later we had a visitor come to campus that had been a missionary to Morocco for many years. Through some miscommunication he thought he was going to be speaking in chapel that day. I had to inform him this was not to be the case but that we did welcome him to campus. As we entered the chapel for our regularly scheduled weekly service, we discovered that the speaker, who had been scheduled for months to speak that day, was nowhere to be found. I quickly turned to our well-prepared guest and asked if he would like to preach after all. He gladly agreed. With deep conviction he spoke on reaching the resistant with the love of Christ. Mid-way through the service our campus pastor, Rev. John Symonds, leaned over to me and whispered, “Don was God’s man for the hour.” He came challenging students to go to the Arabic world for Christ. Later, someone well-acquainted with the college told me that in the sixty-year history of the college there have been very few occasions when the scheduled chapel speaker had not arrived to speak due to non-weather related reasons.

As I look back on those speakers, coming from the Turkic and Arabic worlds, I cannot not help but wonder if God is challenging Bethany to become more strategically involved in the Islamic world. One of every four humans in the world is a Muslim. Many of the people who reside in the “10/40 Window” are of Turkic or Arabic origin. Muslims in the 10/40 Window represent the core of the Islamic religion.

My friend continued in his newsletter, “In this regard we would ask you once again to beseech the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers. . . . There is a harvest coming in today the likes of which we have not seen among Muslims. Now is the time to go and reap. At the same time we need to pray that this door will stay open. . . . It is first of all a spiritual battle that requires prayer and faith.”

The climax to these experiences came during Bethany’s International Missions Week. In the last service we were challenged by our speaker to see that we have been blessed with educational, material, family, and spiritual blessings in order to bless the nations. We have been blessed to bless the nations. As early as Genesis 11 and 12 we see God’s blessing given to Abraham, and by spiritual extension to all who accept Christ’s invitation to follow him. During that service the challenge was given to those in attendance to consider giving a portion of their lives to cross-cultural ministries, no matter what they were studying at Bethany to do in ministry. God was in that challenge as several students later shared that they were rethinking how to use their gifts, interests, and passions for pastoring, church planting, youth, music, and Christian education, in a setting outside North America.

What is God trying to say to students at Bethany and to Wesleyans in the Atlantic District? Is God doing a new work among present-day Muslims? Many Christian workers serving in the Islamic world believe deeply that there is an openness to the Gospel seldom seen in previous years. What will we do with this encouraging news?

God sometimes does move in mysterious ways to open our minds and hearts to truth to which He wants us to consider and respond. I believe that happened on the Bethany campus with the visit of our three speakers. Perhaps God wants to do that in your heart and mind today.