Born to a Pakistani father and an English mother who was a Christian, Afsar Ahmed grew up with his father taking him out of primary school during the Easter and Christmas seasons so that he would not hear any messages connected with these Christian events.
His mother was forced to become a Muslim. Afsar’s mother prayed that one of her sons would become a Christian and witness to others in response to her being forced to convert by her husband.He recalls making a silver cross in secondary school, keeping it inside a handkerchief, and even carving a cross on the Gideon’s New Testament Bible, which he kept in his bedroom for reasons he cannot explain to this day.
Afsar remembers his father getting furious when he found the Bible in Afsar’s room, and he saw fear in his father’s eyes. He was ordered to throw it away. That particular event planted in him the seed of curiosity to learn more about Christianity, which his dear father seemed to have a personal enmity against and vehemently opposed.
Afsar also recalls saying the Lord’s Prayer as a way of thanking the God of the Bible for getting him out of trouble while he was in England.These events eventually took him to Canada when his family moved from England, where he met many Christians. At 15, he remembers badge-wearing Christians from Campus Crusade who shared the Gospel with him, telling him that he could have a personal relationship with God through Jesus.“I was shocked, because as a Muslim, I was always taught that Allah was unique and distant. He has no associates, he has no partners,” Afsar says.“When they shared the message of Jesus with me, I rejected it because I could not believe that somebody could have a personal relationship with God through Jesus
He could not accept that someone could have a personal relationship with God, so he rejected the message of the Bible. The idea was so revolutionary to him that he could not even begin to imagine that God loved him in that way.