On Wednesday, October 29, 2014 9:14 PM, Dan Wooding <woodingdan@gmail.com> wrote:
Sudan-born Pastor has a heart for 'Ministry to Muslims'ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: assistnews@aol.com Tuesday, October 28, 2014 Sudan-born Pastor has a heart for 'Ministry to Muslims' He desires to show Muslims a better way to come to God, through the love of Jesus Christ using book fairs, debates, and friendly conversations  By Michael Ireland Special Correspondent, ASSIST News Service ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA (ANS) -- Born and raised in Sudan, Pastor George Saieg is all too familiar with Islam. Now the founder and director of Ministry to Muslims, his lifelong experiences with Islam have given him a burden to reach Muslims with the truth of the Gospel.
While it's estimated that some 2 million Sudanese Christians have been killed for their faith, Saieg was able to attend Bible study meetings with an American missions organization and there discovered the truth. Inspired to tell other Sudanese people about his life-changing discovery, Saieg sprang into action, participating in Christian book fairs and working with various ministries. But like many immigrants, his ministry took a sharp turn when he moved to America in 1996. Distracted with his new-found freedoms, he neglected God's charge to spread the good news. But God revived Saieg's passion in 2001, with a vision. While Saieg stood in a shopping center parking lot in Southern California, he envisioned a tent overflowing with Muslims that needed to hear the truth. Saieg immediately asked the parking lot owner for some space to hold a book fair. The man granted his request and went a step further -- he provided a location for an Arabic Christian bookstore. Just a few weeks later, 9/11 occurred, calling Saieg to expose Islam's deceptive teachings and mobilize American Christians to action. Soon after, he began ACP and hasn't stopped speaking in churches and conferences all across the US. In 2006, George was ordained as a pastor by Calvary Chapel Anaheim. "My parents were born in Sudan, but our background originally we are Syrian. My grandfather moved to Sudan because the Turkish they were persecuting Christians in Syria and they run away as young guys, him and his brothers actually it was their dad, they ran to Sudan in early 1900s. And that's where my parents were born, and I was born myself. It is a great place to be in Sudan at that time. But even now the majority of Sudanese people are very loving kind people," Saieg told Wooding. Asked about the prevalence of persecution in Sudan, Saieg said: "I experienced it (in a limited way) but I cannot say the majority of the country is like that, or the majority of the Islamic world is like that. The majority of them are very loving people. They are loving because they don't reflect Islam. If they want to follow Islam correctly they cannot be loving, friendly people to Christians because the Quran clearly, again and again, it says don't take the Christian and Jews as friends. But I grew up in Sudan and had very nice friends. The majority of my friends were Muslims. I grew up as a Catholic and in 1987 accepted Christ as Lord and Savior through SIM -- Sudan Interior Mission,(now known as Serving In Mission)." Saieg said he was required to study Islam in public schools, but there was a period of time where they were allowed as Christians to go on Wednesday nights to Christian centers to learn about Christianity. "My oldest brother accepted Christ, and his life changed completely. As a result, my parents said they wanted to know what church he goes to, 'we have to go to that church.' A few months later, there was a revival meeting and during that revival meeting my parents gave their lives to the Lord, my other brother gave his life to the Lord, my sister gave her life to the Lord, and so did I. The pastor who was leading the revival started the first day talking about Heaven on the last day he ended talking about Hell. That's when I accepted Christ." Saieg said: "I was very young, I was 12 years old, but the change being brought to my life by accepting Christ to recognize by accepting Christ's work on the cross that I'm saved, I have a guarantee that if I die I'm going to heaven, what awesome news that it was to me! I felt challenged to take this message to my Muslim friends. As I studied in Islamic schools, even prior to that, I knew exactly that Muslims have no assurance of salvation. I studied that in Islamic religion class, even if I was able in a period of time to skip religious class, the Islamic class still they inserted Islam in every course in the Arabic language, in the history, everywhere they can, they will insert Islam to us. But I knew literally from the Quran that Muhammad has no assurance of salvation, not even Muhammad. They are hoping by good works, they believe every good deed erases ten bad deeds, but if you ask Muslim how do you feel about it, still they are not happy." Saieg continued: "Even though they do good work, it is not guaranteed, because the Muslims know deep inside they are not doing good. I have a Muslim friend, he came to Christ, who said Islam believes or teach that there's on the right-hand shoulder, an angel always next to you writing your good deeds, and on your left shoulder there's an angel writing your bad deeds. He says 'I always knew that the angel on the left-hand side, he's working overtime because he was doing a lot more bad deeds than good deeds.' But they're hoping that when they get older they will do less sin then and they will do better, and God will accept them. But yes Islam teaches if you die in jihad, which is holy war -- not a struggle against sin, as there's no concept of sin in Islam -- and I can talk about that. "But the idea of Jihad is not Islamic faith. Jihad is a struggle against other nations fighting by the sword. (A Muslim) should always struggle inside if you should spend your money in supporting holy war, or if you should struggle about should I raise my kids for myself or I send them to die in Jihad? That's the kind of struggle we're talking about. But the word itself, it's mentioned in the bible when Paul said 'I fought the good fight,' but not in the concept of Islam -- it does not mean against sin at all. I can show you the Ten Commandments from the Quran, but I can show you in the Quran that Allah orders Muslim to break the Ten Commandments. Like from adultery, killing, lying, all these commandments are being ordered to be broken even by Muhammad himself. It's very, very sad that there's no concept of sin in Islam." Saieg said it is a dream for many Sudanese people to come to California, "but I really did not pursue to go after it, but the Lord gave me an opportunity to win a green card by lottery, and it was a great opportunity to come here. I was hoping to go to school, and I was even thinking sometimes that maybe I may again go back to Sudan, I was not really sure if I was going to live here or not. But God has a plan for me, it was just an awesome plan to see God brought all these Muslims to this great country where freely we can reach out to them with the Gospel of Jesus Christ!" Saieg agreed he could have just settled for 'the American Dream' and forgotten his calling to reach out to Muslims. "Actually, for a period of time, I was caught into that and I was working longer hours to pay more bills. But until a month or two before September 11, I was in an Arabic market in Anaheim California and I saw all these Muslims around me. I looked across the street and I saw this big empty parking lot and I started imagining a big book fair, a tent and Muslims coming to hear about Jesus. Right away, I went across the street and I asked who's the owner of this land and they told me it was a doctor next door. I went there, and I found out he's a Christian. "He allowed me to use the land for Christian book fairs the same way we do it in Sudan and he also offered me an office for an Arabic Christian bookstore in the heart of 'little Arabia' in Anaheim. It's called the Arabic Christian Education Center, and God started using that just right after September 11. Two months later, all these American Christians started being attracted by the title 'Arabic Christian' and they are confused, 'what's the difference between Arab and Muslims?' They thought all Arabs are Muslims. But praise God, from there it became a weekly outreach to Islamic centers."
Saieg said that Dearborn, Michigan, where he also works, is a small city, and 33 percent of the city population are Muslims, around 35,000 Muslims live there, and that Los Angeles County has the largest population of Muslims in the United states: 20 percent of the 9,000,000 Muslims who live in the US live in Los Angeles County. Saieg said there are many, many denominations in Islam. Even the Sunnis are divided into different groups inside of them, but the two main denominations are Shia Muslims and Sunni Muslims. "Even the Shia are divided inside. The main difference is the Shia believe that the successor after Muhammad will be a relative of Muhammad, which is Ali, and he became the fourth successor, they think that he should be the first successor. Sunni Muslims believe that the successor should be the most knowledgeable Muslim at that time, he was the first to follow Muhammad and his name was Abu Bakr. They wanted him to become the successor." Saieg agreed that the average American is terrified to dialog with a Muslim, thinking 'the guy's going to get out a knife and stab him or something.' He explained: "I want to make sure that first of all we separate Muslims from Islam. A lot of people make mistakes including this mistake -- including our government -- that they are going after individuals and they're saying these individuals are the bad people Islam is a good religion. That's not true. The problem is the teaching of Islam, the teaching of the Quran. These individuals (are dangerous) as long as the political side of Islam is a policy to control the world. As long as from the political side we're going against or after individuals, we are just cutting branches. We are not getting to the root of it because the root is Islam itself the teaching of the Quran -- that's what leads people to do what they're doing. But from the other side, we need to make sure as we're talking about to Muslims we need to make sure that we clarify that we love the Muslims, but we do not like and love the actions that they do, some of them, which is very few number." He said many Americans are converting to Islam every year because they've been deceived what Islam really is. "We do have to emphasize the teachings of Islam and the problems. But we do need to look at Muslims themselves as victims of this religion First of all we need to love the Muslims. We need to pray for them. Second of all, it's not an option -- we are commanded to go and make disciples from all nations -- including the Muslim people. God brought them to this country where we have the freedom to preach. More than 90 percent of the Muslims in America, they are not terrorists. They are not people really following Islam. They came here for freedom and we know they can be free; the only way they can be free indeed is through Jesus Christ. We do need to love them, we need to reach out to them with the Love of Christ. But maybe there's also a different kind of fear, not of violence, but fear of not knowing how to respond to their arguments because we don't know what they believe. Saieg said that sadly, as a church today we are not equipped in defending the Christian faith. "It's very important, in First Peter 3:15 it says 'be ready to give an answer to give a defense about the Bible about the hope that we have in Jesus.' Clearly, we are asked – ordered -- in the bible to study, to be ready to stand and fight for the gospel -- not physically -- but spiritually, that we need to know how to prove, to give evidence for the Trinity, to give evidence of the Crucifixion, to give evidence for the accuracy of the Bible. That's very important for us as Christians to be equipped in how to defend the Christian faith. Speaking of the current conflict with ISIS (Islamic State), Saieg says that even without al-Qaida's Osama Bin Laden being alive, there will always be another radical Muslim leader on the scene. "I think the only way we can win this war, it is by going after the heart of the Muslims and showing them the love of Christ and preaching the gospel. "We need to remember our war is not a physical war, it's a spiritual warfare. The 'god of this world has blinded the eyes of the non-believers.' The god of this world, his name is Satan. In the Bible his name is the 'father of all liars.' And in the Quran, chapter 3 verse 54, it says Satan is the best of all deceivers," he said. Saieg concluded: "They (Muslims) are a victim of this god. The only way they can be set free is for us to preach the Gospel to the Muslim people. We do weekly outreach on Fridays. We would love to have you come and join us to out there and preach the Gospel to Muslims, that God loves them so much He wants to see them come joining us in Heaven one day." To contact George Saieg email director@ministrytomuslims.com. To learn more about George and his heart to reach Muslims visit his blog www.georgesaieg.com You may also call him at 714-391-0463. To hear the entire interview, please go to: Note: I would like to thank Robin Frost for transcribing this interview.  See all ASSIST News articles at www.assistnews.net
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