Kareem looked up just in time to see a beautiful woman, Dessi, step onto the dance floor of the Dubai nightclub where he worked as a popular disc jockey. “Go and talk to her,” a voice seemed to say. Startled, he averted his gaze, but every time she danced past him, the voice repeated, “Go and talk to her.”
By the end of the evening, Kareem had worked up the courage to introduce himself. As the two began dating, he made a fascinating discovery: Dessi’s parents were Sabbath-keepers. “I was shocked,” he says. “All my life, I went to church on Sunday. I had never heard of any Christian who went to church on Saturday.”
All went well for some time, but when relationship difficulties arose, the couple broke up. The voice in Kareem’s head wouldn’t leave him alone. “Pick up the phone and call Dessi!” Kareem ignored the voice for a week before he finally called Dessi to apologize. They worked out their differences and started over, and it wasn’t long before they married.
That’s when Kareem met Dessi’s dad for the first time, and Kareem’s spiritual journey took a giant leap forward. He had grown up in a traditional Christian home in Lebanon but had left it behind. Now the Lord was calling him back. God would use Kareem’s new father-in-law’s exuberant faith and the resources you helped Amazing Facts create to reach the disc jockey’s heart. The result would be beyond anything Kareem would have ever expected.
Hooked by the Truth
Dessi’s father enthusiastically shared his faith with Kareem, who listened respectfully but never brought up questions. “Because of my upbringing, I had a respect for God deep down in my heart,” Kareem shares, “but I was far from Him.”
Then one day, Kareem’s father-in-law mailed the couple an Amazing Facts DVD set, The Most Amazing Prophecies, presented by Pastor Doug Batchelor. Kareem tossed it in a drawer and forgot about it. Two weeks passed before the couple decided they had better watch the programs in case Dessi’s dad asked them about it.
In the first video, Pastor Doug explained the prophecy of Daniel chapter 2. “I was amazed,” says Kareem. “For sixteen years, I had attended church but had never heard about Daniel 2. I had never seen anyone using the Bible, talking about the Bible, and bringing evidence from the Bible as Pastor Doug did. I was hooked.”
Kareem began watching Amazing Facts DVDs every day, despite struggling with a long-term addiction. One day, as he listened to Pastor Doug, Kareem heard the Holy Spirit in his head again. “Are you listening to this?”
“I am,” he replied.
“If you are willing, I will deliver you.”
“I am willing,” Kareem responded. Instantly, his addiction was gone. Smiling, he shares, “God just took it away from me. That was my conversion. I wasn’t looking for God. He was looking for me. What I love about God is that He came and reached me where I was. He did not wait for me to come to Him. He came to save me.”
Becoming God’s Servant
Kareem began eagerly searching for biblical truth. He learned about the Sabbath, the Second Coming, God’s health message, and more. “Everything was new to me,” he states. “But I knew this was the truth because it was very clear from the Word of God. There was nothing that I could doubt because everything was coming from God. The dots were connecting perfectly.”
Kareem’s father-in-law then encouraged him to do Bible studies on the Amazing Facts website. “I did the Storacle lessons,” says Kareem. “There was no pastor that ever gave me Bible studies. It was me, Pastor Doug, and the Holy Spirit.”
Shortly after Kareem’s baptism, God called him to be a pastor. Satan tried to block Kareem’s education, but God faithfully cared for him and his wife in every need. Today, Kareem pastors a church in the Middle East. His wife, Dessi—the girl he had met in the nightclub—serves faithfully alongside him.
“I am God’s servant,” says Kareem. “I am pastoring a church. I cannot thank Amazing Facts enough. God used this ministry to take me out of darkness and into His marvelous light. I think about it all the time. If I ever saw Pastor Doug, I would give him the biggest hug in the world because he is faithfully spreading the message. My hope, my prayer, is that God would use me in the same way, to bring many people to the foot of the cross.”
Thank you for helping us reach people from the Middle East to Siberia—and everywhere in between! Your generosity is making an eternal impact!