“Pastor, can you help me?”
Those were the last words that Pastor Umar Melinde, a former Muslim turned pastor/evangelist, heard before he felt the sting of acid striking his face. Then another bucket on his back. He screamed and ran back towards the church for help as his assailants cried out, “Allah Akbar! Allah Akbar!”
I was able to sit down with Pastor Melinde in Tel Hashomer hospital recently. He is here in Israel recovering from this attack that was intended to take his life. It wasn’t the first time Muslims have tried to kill him.
“I take the gospel to the Muslim community because I was born a Muslim. Most of the ministers in our congregation are ex-Muslims. Our issue is not hating Islam, but speaking the truth.” Pastor Melinde is known for challenging Muslims to public debates. He himself was brought to faith by a bold preacher reaching out to Muslims.
Twenty years ago Umar heard a man preaching out of the Koran and the Bible. He told the people that Yeshua is more glorious than Mohamed. Umar was convicted by the message but he was afraid to change because of so much pressure in Muslim homes never to leave Islam.
That night Umar had a dream where his hands and legs were tied with chains and he was hanging over the Lake of Fire.“The pain was from everywhere. And then, a man stood on my right hand outside the fire. He was shining—I could not see his face. He said, ‘Islam is leading you to this torture. Be born again and you shall survive.’”
This same dream came to Umar a number of times. He had been taught in Islam when you have a bad dream, you are to pray a specific prayer against it. “I was running to Allah to help me avoid this bad dream.” However each time he went back to sleep, the dream returned. Allah could not help him.
The dream continued to return. “I heard a preacher saying I can pray in the name of Yeshua and something will happen. This time I did not pray the Muslim prayer against bad dreams. This time I knelt down and I said, ‘God if you are there and you are the one who wants me to be born again, I pray that this dream does not come back tonight.’ That night I slept like a baby.”Umar, despite his bandaged face, laughs out loud with joy and says, “The dream did not come back!”
The next morning just happened to be Easter Sunday. He went to church even though if he was discovered this would cause an outrage within his family. “I gave my life to Yeshua and was born-again.” (Picture: Several Christian leaders came to visit Pastor Mulinde in the hostpital in the days after his attack.)
Umar sought discipleship as he was hungry to grow in his new faith. He went to Bible school and was ordained for ministry. He began to serve as an evangelist. They would hold mass meetings with tens of thousands of people would come to stadiums to hear him preach the gospel. After much success in evangelistic work, he birthed a church in Kampala, the largest city in Uganda.
The Attack
From the time that Pastor Umar became a follower of the Messiah, he faced heavy criticism. Islam does not allow for conversion and in some countries leaving Islam for Christianity is punishable by death. Just like the pastor in Iran who is facing the death sentence for leaving Islam, Umar was a marked man.
Many times the Muslims have tried to attack and kill PastorMulinde, but without success. When he ministers publicly he always has a security team with him. However on this occasion, he was in a place where he felt completely safe—his own church.
On December 23rd they saw 300 people receive Yeshua. Pastor Umar felt they should throw a huge party for these 300 because, as he explained it to me, “The Bible says that when one confesses there is a celebration in heaven.”
On Christmas Eve he was at his church helping with the preparations for the party. “I went to my car to drive home. It was late…about 10PM. As I was opening the door to my car, somebody pretended as if he wanted my help. ‘Pastor can you help me?’”
“My mind wanted to help the man, but my heart refused.”
He had a check in his spirit that something wasn’t right. He quickly opened his car door. At that point the man threw a bucket of acid on him, burning half his face. Had he turned toward the man to help him, the terrorist would have been able to throw the acid upon him directly, and the damage would have been far worse, possibly blinding or even killing him. He was driving a large four-wheel drive and thus the doors are higher than a normal sized vehicle. Because of this, when by sheer instinct, he was able to open the large door,his body was protected from much of the acid. “It could have finished me,” pastor Mulinde lamented, “I could have been worse than what I am.” However a second attacker threw acid on him as they both yelled praise to Allah.
Pastor Umar ran back towards the church screaming. They rushed him to the hospital. After several days it became clear he would need medical attention beyond the capabilities in Uganda. He wanted to come to Israel because he knew the medical care would be much better. However because there is no Israeli embassy in Uganda, he could not quickly get a visa. The other option was traveling to Nairobi, Kenya where there is an embassy—but that would take four days. (Picture: Pastor Umar, days aftert he attack)
He turned to a Jewish group he had befriended in the US. They paid for him to travel to Israel and receive medical attention at our Tel Hashomer Hospital, where I met him.
Umar believes there are three reasons that the Muslims targeted him:
- Because he left Islam and became a believer in Yeshua.
- Because he preaches the good news of Yeshua to Muslims—with great success.
- Because he boldly challenges the people of Uganda to support Israel.
“I teach my congregation to support Israel. There is a lot biased information against Israel. For instance, if there is a rocket from Gaza to Israel, that is not news. An [Israeli] school is bombed—that is not news. But when Israel seeks to defend herself—that is very big news,” opines Pastor Mulinde. “It is as if somebody is sitting somewhere and approves the death of the Jews, but if the Jews want to do anything to defend themselves, everyone is against it. We are Christians and must tell the people the truth about Israel.”
“I once read in the news that Israel was a racist nation,” he continued. “It is not true! I came to Israel in 2008. You have to understand that because I was born into a Muslim family I hated Israel for no good reason. I could not tell you where Israel was on a map, but I hated them. So when I came here, our first taxi driver was an Arab. I saw that the workers in the hotel were Arabs. I saw that the Arabs were free in Tel Aviv and free in Jerusalem. This is different from I had been taught about Israel.”
Pastor Mulinde assumed that Israeli Arabs were battered and abused—like prisoners within the Jewish nation. He had no idea that we have Arabs serving in the Knesset (Parliament) as well as police officers and judges all over the country.
I was deeply impressed by the boldness and authority in which he spoke to me. It was not what I expected when I met him. He looks like a mummy with his entire face bandaged and one eye surgically closed for its own protection. Thanks to Israeli doctors, they are expecting him to receive his full sight in that eye.
I asked him point blank if he plans to change or tone down his support for Israel or efforts to reach the Muslims. “I cannot quit because of this. I will continue doing the work of the Lord. This was not the first attack—the other attacks were not successful.” He then quoted John 16:2, ‘The time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God.’
Pastor Mulinde says that his attack has become a national issue in Uganda because it was a clear terrorist attack. He believes God will use this for His kingdom. “Whenever [the news] reports they say, ‘This is because he converted from Islam and he is preaching in support of Israel.’ Somebody will be touched by this.” The report of the attack is simply news, but that fact that he converted speaks volumes to other Muslims who are afraid to leave Islam. He reminds me of Paul who said that his chains “actually served to advance the gospel.”
I am looking forward to visiting Pastor Mulinde’s church in Kampala in the future and bringing the word of the Lord from Jerusalem to these ex-Muslim believers who love us so much. Please keep this family in your prayers.
His wife Evelyn, an accomplished gospel singer in Uganda, is with him here in Israel. She is able to stay at the Hospital hotel and be with her husband. They have six children in Uganda.
http://messiahsmandate.org/blog/316-former-muslim-pastor-attacked-by-extremists.html
