Wednesday Jan 27th
Thad, Ryan, and myself along with our ministry host decided to go into the big city about 30km away. Our goal was to research and plan a route for our team to visit the zoo there. Up until that point we had really relied on our wonderful ministry host to arrange transportation for us, whether that be public transport or through friends. As we don’t speak much of the local language this was super helpful. We had our goal and a plan in hand… little did we know that God was about to seriously intervene and change our lives, hearts, and thought processes.
We successfully navigated ourselves into the big city and right in front of the Zoo, Hooray for us! We were pretty excited at what we had accomplished on our own. We didn’t rely on our ministry host… too much… we thought were really on top of the world and in control. At least I felt that way. It’s funny how proud I can get over small things. God really has a graceful way of humbling me. After finding the zoo we decided to walk near the big Technical University, and look for a Mosque to visit. Our vision for this trip, and the vision of the leaders is for us to find the Man of Peace in each city, like Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 10. Beyond that my prayer leading up to the World Race was for us to be brought before leadership, and for the Holy Spirit to give us the words to speak, also found in Matthew 10. I shared this with my team right before we launched and several had also felt like this was something God had placed on their hearts as well.
Once we arrived at the Mosque we met a young man named Alif who was a student at the University. We told him that we were tourists just passing through, and that we would like to speak with someone in charge about watching a prayer service, and get more information on what it means to be a Muslim. He graciously introduced us to a man named Salim who is a prominent leader in the Mosque. The University across the street is the equivalent of MIT in the states, so all of the well educated and influential academic Muslims attend this Mosque. Salim works for a “foundation” that supports the Mosque. We found out later through some local contacts, that the foundation, and Mosque are home to a group of very devout and fundamental Muslims. The term that was used when describing it to me was extremist. I hesitate to acknowledge that in this blog, because of the negative connotation that can carry in the states.
We were given a brief tour of the Mosque, some do’s and don’ts and then we sat down with Salim, and we were invited to ask him questions about his faith, and his beliefs. He was very open about what “most” Muslims believed, and about what he believed personally. We learned that his name, Salim mean Peace!!! Talk about being blown away! I had the opportunity to form a relationship with him ask him questions, personal questions about his faith, and his family. We also learned that his mother had passed away a couple of weeks ago. We talked with him for about 30 mins, and then we were shown to an area where we could observe the prayer ceremony. One of five that happen daily. After watching the ceremony we were all so excited, and we decided that we needed to come back and talk with him again.
Thursday January 28th.
We felt like the women from the team would really enjoy, and benefit from visiting the Mosque as well. We told them about our experience with the Mosque, and meeting Salim and they were very excited to go. We all piled into a public bus, and headed back into the big city. After visiting the zoo in the morning we headed over to the Mosque for the afternoon prayer. Ryan called Salim, and set up a meeting time.
We met him right before the prayer was about to begin, and once again he gave a brief rundown of the do’s and don’t for the women, and we proceeded to observe the prayer. Women and Men pray separately in the Mosque men up front and women in the back. Most things in Muslim culture separate men and women. When Christians witness to Muslims we are encouraged for men to speak with men and women to speak with women. After watching the prayer I was worried that the women in our team would not be permitted to join us men in talking with Salim, but to my surprise he was very open to it. We were led inside of the Mosque and to a room/balcony overlooking the middle of the Mosque where men and women were still praying, and teaching the Quran.
We all sat in a circle, and this time Salim invited the women from our team to ask questions. After some basic questions, we began to ask him questions about his personal faith. We asked him if he had ever read the injeel (New Testament one of the Holy books Muslims are told to read in the Quran). He had never read it, so we handed him a copy of the injeel in his local language, and we was very grateful. Multiple times throughout our conversation we would open it up. He would thumb through it and read a little bit. We would ask him questions like “Did you know that the Prophet Jesus (Muslims say that Jesus was a Prophet) said that he was the way the truth and the life?” He would say “No” or “Yes I’ve heard something about that, where can I read more about that?”
Later in the conversation Thad asked Salim about how his family was doing with his mother’s death. He mentioned that he and his family was worried that she had not done enough good deeds in her life to make it to heaven, and that they were all doing extra in hopes that Allah would grant mercy on her. Thad was then able to share his testimony about how his father has passed away, how he dealt with it, and how Jesus brought healing, and peace into his life. At the end of the conversation Rosie asked Salim if we could pray for him. He excitedly said yes, bought asked if we could whisper.
It is so exciting to see how God is moving in this country. How he is going before our team, and starting a heart transformation in the people we encounter. How when we made a plan to visit the zoo, God had already planned for us to meet the man of peace, a man named Peace, in a Mosque! God created space for us to share the Gospel with him, Thad was able to share his testimony, and as Muslims were praying very loudly downstairs so that there God will hear them we were whispering upstairs to a God who always hears us! What a blessing to be a part of something so great! God is moving, and we are excited to be a bunch of nobody’s talking about a somebody!
