From doubt to faith in Somalia

“Somali people, they are coming to Christ like never before,” says Noor Hassan, a listener and friend of TWR.

NAIROBI, Kenya – Noor Hassan’s family business brought the internet to Somalia.
The internet and TWR brought Hassan to Christ, and now he and his wife are using social media to share Jesus with their people. They are seeing fruit. 

“Somali people, they are coming to Christ like never before,” Hassan said. 

Hassan was one of four people who came to the headquarters of TWR Kenya in Nairobi on a sunny June day to tell their stories of how TWR programs brought them to faith or developed their faith in Christ. 

For Hassan, 52, growing up in Somalia’s capital city of Mogadishu, his Islamic faith was the only faith he knew. But as he reached his high school years, he said, his country’s ongoing civil war left him disillusioned. 

“I witnessed people with whom I had grown together, some of them killed, some of them maimed,” Hassan said. “The people whom I trusted were encouraging people to fight. That was the first time I questioned my faith.” 

In 1995, he went to work for a communications company owned by his clan. Five years later, Hassan said, their company brought the internet to Somalia. Through the web, he started to meet people from other faiths for the first time. He didn’t know English then, he said, but was still able to communicate.

He became curious about the Christians he came across, Hassan said. He liked their culture and their behavior. What he learned by communicating with Christians online didn’t match what he had been taught. 

In time, Hassan came across TWR programs. He especially liked the Somali translation of Thru the Bible, he said, because the systematic teaching matched the systematic way in which Islam is taught. 

“And, thank God, I received the Lord in 2003,” Hassan said. “God has come to me through Trans World Radio.” 

Because of his conversion, Hassan is estranged from his family, he said. However, he was reconciled with his father before his father died. 

Since then, Hassan and his wife have relocated to Nairobi, but they have not forgotten the Somali people. The Somalis love social media, he said. So he and his wife set up a social media ministry called New Creation, reaching out on Instagram, TikTok and other platforms. “At least every month we see one of them come to faith. And that’s the fruit of Trans World Radio.” 

With many Somalis coming to Christ, a priority now is discipleship, Hassan said. 

“These new believers, they come to Christ, they are young, and ... we become like their parents,” he said. “They share their problems with us. Some of them, they just escaped their families.” 

One of Hassan’s goals is to record the entire Bible in the Somali language. Although an audio Bible is available in Somali, Hassan said it was recorded by people who were disguising their voices. Thus, the sound isn’t clear. Hassan doesn’t need to disguise his voice, he said, because people already know him through social media. 

Hassan isn’t afraid of repercussions, he said, but he doesn’t take unnecessary chances. He doesn’t meet with Somalis at home, but in public places. 

Image: (middle, right) Noor Hassan, seen at the TWR Kenya office in Nairobi, grew up in Somalia and came to faith in Christ by listening to TWR programs.