“Pastor Hesham, I cannot take it anymore. I want to be baptized,” Lateef, a refugee from the Middle East told me. “I feel crushed under the burden of my sins,” he added.
Lateef who is almost sixty is a devoted attendee at Salam Christian Fellowship. He has marked every chapter in his Bible with different colors, and avidly writes notes and questions while listening to every sermon.
Lateef left his extended family in the Middle East and in Chicagoland in order to follow Jesus. “I was a stranger among my people in the Middle East. I did not belong to any important clan there, and my last name in Arabic means stranger. No body accepted me. But I thank God for all what I went through, because my suffering brought me to this great country; USA. It lead me to Salam where I knew Jesus and found a family of faith,” he said. At Salam we learn the Word of God and see Jesus in the compassion and mercy we see from the pastor,” he concluded.
Lateef had been coming faithfully to Salam for a year, but he was encouraged when he saw people being baptized last November.
He kept talking about it, but did not ask for it.
Last month, he saw Jesus in a vision. His home was filled with light. He came to me the next day, and said: “I cannot sleep Pastor Hesham. I am sinful, and feel that my sins crushing me.”
After Lateef was baptized, he raised his head and thanked God adding: “Today I can sleep well. All my burdens are gone.”

What greater comfort could God offer than to announce that we are forgiven?
What would ease our soul’s pain, no matter what types of sin; no matter how many sins trouble us at any point in time , what would alleviate our hurting heart more than to hear God reiterate, “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. [1John 2: 2]
Can anything more effectively ease a troubled mind or relax a restless soul. Can anything more effectively comfort an anxious spirit than to see & to hear again that Jesus “who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”? [Romans 4: 25]
Yes, Jesus was raised to life the third day, as promised, as God his compassionate Father declared me; declared you, ‘Forgiven – freely forgiven; fully forgiven!’
“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith[b] into this grace in which we stand, and we[c] rejoice[d] in hope of the glory of God.” [Romans 5: 1-2]
Amen
Hesham Shehab
Note: The picture attached is taken at a previous baptism.

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While Chicagoans were celebrating the 180th Birthday of the City of Chicago, some Christians in the suburbs were attending the 10th Anniversary Celebration of Salam Christian Fellowship at the Community Center of Trinity Lutheran Church in Roselle, Illinois.
Approximately 80 people gathered on Saturday evening, March 4, to share a Middle Eastern meal (prepared by Salam’s ladies) and Christian fellowship, to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of a ministry which reaches out to refugees and immigrants from the Middle East, most of whom were raised, from the time they were children, to be Muslims.
The dinner was held in honor of those volunteers who helped Salam minister to new immigrants, and to thank Lutheran Church Charities (LCC) staff for their support in the social services that Salam offers to those Middle Easterners, and help them integrate in the American community.
Deaconess Dianna Bonfield represented LCC, while President Tim Hetzner was involved in rescue operation to help the victims of the tornado that hit Central Illinois last week.
Salam Christian Fellowship is a Word and Sacrament ministry that shares the Gospel of Jesus Christ with Muslim and Middle Eastern immigrants. Around forty people were baptized through the years.

Salam was founded 10 years ago by the Rev. Hesham Shehab, an LCMS Pastor originally from Beirut, Lebanon. Pastor Shehab immigrated to the United States in 2004 and then attended Concordia Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He was eventually Ordained by the Missouri Synod of the Lutheran Church.
At the dinner, a Syrian refugee, who came here about 16 months ago, told us how he came to the United States and prayed to find the truth about Allah and God. He shared his story about how he was led to Salam and Pastor Shehab and how he learned who Jesus really is. Today he works Uber full time, but gives many volunteer hours each week to help people who come to Salam, as a gratitude to the ministry that helped him first. He drives refugees to clinics and public departments and tells them about Jesus.

Art Ellingsen