Uganda

Adam’s light skin and Arabic features immediately give him away as a Somali in his adopted country of Uganda. When his students at the missionary training school meet him, the first words that come to mind are “terrorist” and “spy.” But Adam relishes the opportunity to upend their stereotypes by sharing how he became a new creation in Christ after several decades as a practicing Muslim. On the Run At age 17, after his father had been killed by the Somali Islamist group al-Shabab, Adam joined the nearly 2 million other Somalis who have fled the violence in their homeland to live elsewhere. He moved to Uganda, where he had relatives among the 40,000 Somali refugees already living there. Reflecting on his experiences, he realized, “Somalis are not suffering at the hands of the people we hate, but we are suffering at the hands of the people we love.” If the Islamic faith had motivated al-Shabab to kill his father, Adam didn’t want anything to do with it. He began searching for something else, and he didn’t keep his thoughts to himself. He sought out Somali Christians online and even watched the JESUS film with a group of friends. While

Cecelia’s Costly Choice Cecilia was still grieving her husband’s death when Habib Kabunda started visiting her small village in Uganda. Although he was a Muslim and she was a Christian, Habib had been a friend of Cecilia’s husband. So when he proposed marriage, Cecilia’s tribe voted that she should marry him, and Cecilia accepted. Her children needed a father, and she had no means of supporting her family. After their marriage, which required Cecilia to convert to Islam, Habib moved into Cecilia’s mud-walled house, where they had children together and eventually became a family of nine. Habib worked, Cecilia managed the household and life seemed to return to normal. As the years passed, however, Cecilia became increasingly uneasy with her adopted Islamic faith. She felt empty and depressed, and the words of the clerics at the mosque meant nothing to her. Recognizing that the problem was spiritual, she knew she had a decision to make. “I realized I had to stop right there and return to Christ,” she said. Cecilia left the mosque and returned to church, even though she and Habib often fought about it. Her Christian faith became more central to her life, and she knew she would