Some stories are so unexpected they sound like they belong in the pages of Acts.
Jamie Winship recently shared one of those stories during an appearance on The Deep End podcast with Taylor Welch.
The story began with a question.
Working in the Middle East amid decades of conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, Winship said he and his team were praying for a way to demonstrate that peace was possible.
Most people had already decided it wasn’t.
“Do you know how many people just say it’s not going to ever happen? It’ll just never happen. This is going to be war forever,” Winship said. “That’s called quitting.”
Then an idea came to him.
A church in Texas had invited him to speak at a men’s retreat. What if, he wondered, he brought five militant Palestinian Muslims from the West Bank with him?
Not moderates. Not casual observers.
Men deeply committed to Islam.
“We wanted the Saul of Tarsus types,” Winship said.
One of those men was Hassan.
According to Winship, Hassan had been imprisoned by Israel 13 times. Both of his brothers had been killed in the conflict. If anyone represented the bitterness and hostility that had fueled the region for generations, it was him.
Almost everyone rejected the idea.
The retreat leaders didn’t want the men there. The Palestinians initially said no. Israeli officials resisted allowing them to travel. American officials laughed at the proposal.
Yet one obstacle after another moved out of the way.
Eventually, the five Palestinians boarded a plane for the United States.
For many of them, it was their first time leaving their communities.
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Winship said some had never flown on an airplane. Some had never seen a large body of water. They arrived in America expecting constant scrutiny and interrogation.
Instead, they encountered something entirely different.
When they landed in Houston, Winship said they walked through the airport holding their identification cards above their heads, waiting for authorities to stop them.
No one did.
“They cried,” Winship recalled.
Then came the retreat.
The atmosphere was tense.
The Palestinian Muslims were spread throughout the bunkhouses rather than being housed together. Hundreds of Christian men filled the retreat grounds. Everyone wondered what would happen.
“The whole first night, everyone was afraid that someone was going to kill someone else,” Winship said.
Nothing happened.
The next morning, however, everything changed.
As Winship was speaking, Hassan suddenly stood up.
“I have something to say,” he announced.
He walked to the stage and addressed the crowd.
“Last night Jesus came to our bunk house,” Hassan said.
The room froze.
According to Winship, Hassan then described an encounter that had taken place during the night.
“Jesus came into my room into the dorm and he said to me that he wanted to give me a burden, a weight to carry,” Hassan said.
Hassan said he asked what that burden was.
“Jesus said, ‘I want you to carry back to your people. I want you to disband that group. I want you to go back and say we’re not fighting anymore. That we’re going to replace this with peace.’”
The declaration stunned the audience.
“This is the first night of the retreat,” Winship said.
Hassan didn’t stop there.
Standing before hundreds of witnesses, he publicly committed himself to obeying what he believed Jesus had told him.
“I want to stand up in front of all of you men and you hold me accountable to go back and do that,” he said.
According to Winship, the retreat continued to produce unexpected fruit.
“All five of those men came to faith very visibly in front of everybody else,” he said.
When the event ended, Hassan returned home.
Winship accompanied him as he met with members of his organization.
The message he delivered was direct.
“This place from now on will become the first place of prayer in our community because we are not fighting anymore,” Hassan said.
Then he explained why.
Winship said Hassan eventually earned a doctorate and became a leader promoting freedom and reconciliation in the Middle East.
Looking back, Winship sees the story as evidence that God is often working in places believers least expect.
For him, the lesson is simple.
People may look at generations of hatred and conclude that nothing will ever change.
God sees possibilities where everyone else sees impossibilities.
And sometimes that story begins with a militant Muslim standing in a Texas men’s retreat and saying seven words that nobody in the room expected to hear:
“Last night Jesus came to our bunk house.”
James Lasher, a seasoned writer and editor at Charisma Media, combines faith and storytelling with a journalism background from Otterbein University and ministry experience in Guatemala and at the LA Dream Center. A Marine Corps and Air Force veteran, he is the author of The Revelation of Jesus: A Common Man’s Commentary and a contributor to Charisma magazine. For interviews and media inquiries, please contact [email protected].
