Jeff Adams

I just finished a great book. What made it really special is knowing the person who is the subject of the story. Once an Arafat Man is the story of Tass Saada, a former Fatah sniper and aide to Yasser Arafat. Born in a Palestinian refugee camp, this is the story of a young man who grew up with a heart fueled by hatred and bitterness, a young man who learned to kill while still a teenager.

Read the book for the story, but suffice it to say that Tass providentially wound up in Columbia, Missouri and from there to Kansas City. Through an amazing display of character and determination, Tass mastered the language and culture of his new home and became quite a well-known figure in the restaurant scene here in our city. Moving to Raytown, his son Ben started dating a young lady who was, and is, one of our youngest daughter’s best friends. This young lady would eventually become Ben’s wife, but not before she was able to point him to faith in Christ. On a totally separate, but parallel track, a close friend of Tass was sharing the Gospel with him. It wasn’t long before the entire family came to Christ, and the transformation has been amazing.

Ben is now worship leader at our sister church, Grace of Overland Park. Tass and his wife Karen went through a remarkable spiritual pilgrimage that has led them back to Tass’ birth land where God is using them in a remarkable way. Now this former sniper works side-by-side with Jews, Muslims and Christians. I couldn’t put the book down.

A couple of weeks ago I used Tass as an example of transformation. I’ll be mentioning him briefly again this next Sunday. You might want to put this book on your reading list. It is a tangible example of God’s power to change lives. There is no other explanation that makes sense.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 7th, 2008 at 9:32 pm and is filed under Ministry Musings, Purely Personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.