Christian News | Heather Clark | March 21, 2020
An American evangelist recently preached the gospel of Jesus Christ on the streets of the Muslim nation of Brunei before being taken into police custody, questioned by the Ministry of Religious Affairs and mercifully allowed to leave the country. It is believed that this is the first time in the southeast Asian country’s history that Jesus has been proclaimed to the people as preaching Christianity publicly in Brunei is illegal and punishable up to five years in prison.
The evangelist, who asked to remain anonymous and will be referred to as Silas in this report, has traveled to a number of nations worldwide for the past six years to take the Good News to every creature regardless of whether doing so is legal or not — from the United Arab Emirates to Laos and Malaysia.
Last month, after conducting ministry in Australia following the bushfire devastation, Silas traveled to Indonesia to preach. While there, he felt the Lord leading him to go to Brunei, an Islamic country that he had only recently heard about.
Silas soon learned that the timing of his travels couldn’t have been better.
“The sense I had from the Holy Spirit was very strong,” he told Christian News Network. “So, I went there only to find out that the week after I arrived was their National Day.”
National Day is much like Independence Day in the United States and marks the country’s independence from England in 1984. It is one of the most widely-attended events of the year, with more than 26,000 estimated participants in 2020.
“In order for me to do open-air ministry, which is what I felt God wanted me to do while I was there, obviously there has be people around to do that,” Silas outlined. “[National Day] is one of the few times where masses of people actually come into the [capital] city.”
In the week leading up to National Day, Silas witnessed to local residents one-on-one and found them to be receptive.
“When I would go out and about, I was having wonderful conversations with the shuttle drivers from the hotel. At one point, I had a group of 10 teenage boys engaged with the gospel. I was able to share my testimony with them,” he recalled. “I was pretty surprised at just how open people were for a country under strict Islamic Sharia law. … People were very open and that gave me confidence.”
Thinking he was only a tourist, the staff at the hotel encouraged Silas to stay to experience National Day, a celebration where even the king is on the streets. Silas felt that God was telling him that such was the reason he was there, and so he agreed to stay.