Editor’s Note: While IFA speaks the truth about Islam and Sharia, we have a heart for Muslims who are obviously lost. Here is an example of loving a Muslim while rejecting Islam.

The Lord arranged an unexpected divine appointment for me in mid-July as I was returning home from a work trip.

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I was beginning the second leg of my journey after making a connection in Minnesota when a pleasant young man sat beside me on the plane. We exchanged the usual greetings, and before long, our conversation began to deepen.

Having been married to a Middle Eastern man for 40 years, I recognized his Arabic nuances and background. He told me that he was originally from Egypt and had lived in Minnesota since he was a teenager, after immigrating to the United States with his parents.

As we talked, I shared part of my own testimony. I told him that I was born again in 2001 and began earnestly praying for my husband, Ali, who was Muslim, to come to know Jesus. In time, my husband left Islam and placed his faith in Christ (there is a whole story here).

That caught the young man’s attention.

He began asking questions about my husband’s conversion—and I was happy to share. With great joy, I told him what the Lord had done in our lives. God had answered my prayers and transformed our marriage through the saving power of Jesus.

He then asked what I had been doing on my trip. I explained that I work for a nonprofit organization. When he asked about our mission, I told him that we pray for America’s elected leaders and ask God to give them a biblical worldview and direct their decisions and actions accordingly.

Naturally, I asked about his work.

“I work for a nonprofit, too,” he replied.

“What do you do?” I asked.

“Well,” he said, “I’m sort of like a preacher.”

“You’re an imam!” I exclaimed.

I laughed with amazement as I considered how the Lord works. Of all the people who could have been seated beside me, God had placed an imam next to a Christian woman whose Muslim husband had come to faith in Jesus.

Our conversation continued, and he asked what my organization supports.

“We support a biblical worldview,” I said, “and we support Israel.”

His demeanor immediately changed.

He asked how I, as a Christian, could support Israel when, in his words, Israel was “killing babies in Gaza” and bombing churches. The conversation quickly became intense.

Through the healing and transformation God has brought about in my life and marriage, He has taught me to recognize emotionally charged claims and attempts to redirect a conversation through accusation. I knew that I needed to remain calm, discern what was happening, and respond with both truth and authority.

For the remainder of our two-hour flight to Dulles, we debated our beliefs and the questions surrounding Israel, Gaza, Islam, and Christianity. Although we strongly disagreed, I knew this encounter was about something even greater than politics or world events. It was about eternity.

At one point, I asked him a simple but vital question:

“Do you have a guarantee of where you will go when you die?”

He could not give me a definite answer.

I then had the joy of telling him that I do have that assurance—not because of my own goodness or anything I have accomplished, but because of what Jesus Christ accomplished for me on the cross.

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).

Our flight eventually landed, and our debate came to an end. I do not know how deeply my words affected him or what God may do in his heart from that point forward. But I believe with certainty that our meeting was no accident.

The Lord placed an imam beside a woman who could testify firsthand that Jesus still saves Muslims, answers prayer, restores marriages, and transforms lives.

My responsibility was not to win an argument. It was to speak the truth, testify to what Christ has done, and plant a seed. The outcome belongs to God.

That day, somewhere between Minnesota and Dulles, the Lord reminded me that every seat can become a mission field, every conversation can become a divine appointment, and every believer should be ready to give a reason for the hope that is within us.

Only God knows what will become of the seed planted on that flight. But I continue to pray that the young imam who sat beside me will one day discover the same assurance, freedom, and eternal life that can be found only in Jesus Christ.

Share your prayers for the Muslims deceived by Islam below.

(Amy Sabat is IFA’s National Director of Mobilization. Photo Credit: MuhtelIfane/Pexels)