9 May 2005
The anticipation of opening the mail addressed to the SIM Somali Voice of New Life radio station (CNC) brings joy to our day. What story or interesting tidbit will emerge? With each letter the listeners write, they reveal the stories and conditions of the Somali culture.

For example, do you remember the story of Jesus turning some mockers into pigs and monkeys and saving the believers? One listener claimed, "The prophet Jesus is a prophet that God sent to his people; and after him there is another prophet we call Muhammad. Prophet Jesus did miracles. . . . It is said that once he cursed some Jews so that they were changed into pigs and monkeys. Those who believed him were saved, but some others were plagued." Don't waste your time looking in the Bible; the story doesn't exist! But where the Scriptures are absent or only minimally available, misinformation spreads easily.

One listener outside Som*alia wrote that he was completing a Bible correspondence course, but he refused contact with Christians in his area. "I do not believe that Christ's death on the cross was on my behalf, but sometimes I feel a heavy weight on my heart when I meet someone wearing a cross. I still have my own Islamic faith."

He continued: "Great pressure has been created in my heart, which I really think is to believe the Christ, and I am ready to believe under two conditions: if I am not compelled to go to church, and no one must know that I am Christian except the radio staff. I want to go back to Som*alia from where I have been gone for a long time. I am now very afraid to take this Bible. It would bring suspicion of myself."

At risk of death, another writer still wanted to contact a Christian. "There is a pressure from the family because the people among whom I am living have the Islamic religion, and it seems whoever is not satisfied with their religion is a bad person and must be killed. Help me connect with someone to help me live according to this [Christian] religion."

How could someone be joyful despite his extended prison sentence? This listener had been in jail more than 20 years in a major Arab city. "I am healthy and I am still in prison six months after my sentence ended. Someone in our office has not signed my letter until they take something (bribe) I don't have. Most of the Som*alis imprisoned here with me have left. On the other hand, I and the Christians here with me are fine. We are preparing to celebrate Christmas in a few days. Many of the prisoners and guards celebrate with us, whether or not they are Christians. In the past two years it has become normal for everyone here to celebrate Christmas and New Years."

Possibly as many as a half million Som*alis are scattered across the globe. Thanks to the wide coverage of broadcasts from SIM's Som*ali Voice of New Life (CNC) short-wave radio programs combined with e-mail, they continue to receive the light of the gospel.