He went from being persecuted by Muslims to fervently sharing the Gospel with everyone he could. Yacoub is a great example of a Christ follower who loves his enemies and is on fire for the Lord.
We are so grateful that Yacoub took the time to be interviewed for our blog. His story is a deeply motivating and inspiring one that all Christians can benefit from hearing!
What was it like to grow up in an Islamic country?
I was born into a Christian family in a highly populated Egyptian neighborhood that had a mosque, which meant lots of Muslims. As a child, it was scary to hear the five daily calls for prayer.
We had Muslim neighbors who lived next to us, and when the father of the family died my mother began to take care of the two boys to help the Muslim mother. My mother told me to consider them as my brothers. My older brother was already close friends with the oldest boy, whose name was Mohammad.
When I was seven years old, I noticed a change in Mohammad, who had become a young teenager. He began to grow his beard and wear a white robe, but what changed the most was how he treated me. Instead of friendly play, he was violent towards me, sometimes ordering me to buy him things, saying, “Take this money, you pig, and buy what I want. You are my slave.” I was too young to understand this change, but it scared me to watch him begin to act cruelly towards my mother.
One day, I was trailing behind my family as we were walking to church. A man asked me where I was going and I replied that we were going to church. He told me, “You infidels, one day we will burn the church with you in it.”
Less than a month later our church was burned to the ground with the priest and his family inside. The police came to our apartment building several times to find the man who did it, but everytime he escaped them. They would wake our family up late at night with huge weapons, which terrified me. The man’s words about burning our church down haunted me for many years.
We wanted to sell our home, but no Muslim would buy it from us. I was persecuted for my name, because it is a Christian name. My teachers would refuse to say my name and would verbally abuse me, treating me like an inferior creature.
I was fourteen years old when I finally made a decision to trust God, even in the midst of the persecution. I believed the loving relationship Jesus offered me was worth it.
How did you get involved with ministering to Muslims?
After I became a Christian, the Lord began to work on my heart. I had attended a seminar about how to share Christ with Muslims and I began praying for God to change my hatred into love.
As a young man, I traveled from city to city evangelizing to Muslims in the streets about Jesus. I knew I could be killed anyday, but I chose that if I was going to die, it would be because I was telling someone about Jesus rather than just because I have a Christian name.
I studied the Quran so I could understand where the Muslims’ aggression was coming from. The first Muslim I tried to share the gospel with was a close friend of mine; he refused to discuss anything religious with me and he stopped being my friend.
Instead of feeling anger, I felt pity for him which spurred me to continue sharing the good news with others. One day, I attended a book fair in Cairo, and while looking through the Christian section I met a Muslim young man asking about the Bible. We began to talk about Jesus and I got the opportunity to share the Jesus Film with him, after which he gave his heart to Christ!For several years, my church friends and I traveled to many Egyptian cities for street evangelism. In 2022, I came to the U.S., and I was so grateful to start serving with this ministry which is fully dedicated to serving Muslims.
Do you have any stories of God’s faithfulness that have stuck with you?
Around 2016, my friends and I were on a trip for street evangelism. At the end of one full day, we took a cab to return to our hotel and my friend talked to the taxi driver about Christ. After we all went up to our rooms and began praying, I felt the Lord telling me to go down to the lobby.
A security guard found me in the lobby and told me that the taxi driver had asked for our group’s information so he could report us to the police for being Christian preachers. This warning gave me and my team time to get our things together and escape to another city. We could have been imprisoned and tortured for days and even weeks.
God’s warning saved our lives that night, and this is just one of the ways I have seen His faithfulness in my life.
How have you seen God’s unfailing love at work in your life?
God has carried me and my wife through many dangerous and difficult situations. One time, my Muslim manager fired me from my job when my wife was getting ready to have our first child. We didn’t have any money to pay our rent or cover the medical fees for having a baby.
A friend that I had not spoken to in years called me up, saying he wanted to see me as soon as possible. He gifted us money that would cover all of our cost of living and medical bills for the next six months. It was truly a work of the Lord sending aid through a long lost friend.
If you could tell Christians one thing about sharing the gospel with Muslims, what would you tell them?
Please stop hiding your light. Give Muslims the opportunity to hear the good news and be set free from the bondage of Islam. And most importantly, do not be afraid to share Jesus with them.
What does the American church need to hear about their persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ?
Our persecuted brothers and sisters in Islamic countries need our prayers. Their daily life is not as safe as you imagine. One conversation is enough to end their life, and that conversation would be telling people about Jesus.
Christians in Arab countries are suffering every day but have no voice. They need you to tell Muslims about Christ because they cannot safely do that. Use what you have to share the Gospel and elevate the voices of the persecuted church.
Allow Yacoub’s words to dwell in your heart. Ask God to give you courage and zeal, just as Yacoub, to share His love with the lost world around you.
