A few days ago, I set out
with my Ugandan translator, Fred, to do door to door evangelism. On our
previous days of evangelism ministry, we went to four or five houses to share
the Gospel message. This day was different.
At our first house was a
young man sitting on the step that led up to his home. He greeted us with a
handshake, and I sat down next to him. Fred exchanged a few words with him and
then informed me that he was Muslim.
I began to share the Gospel
with him. I shared parts of my testimony, read Scriptures that God laid on my
heart, and prayed silently that the Holy Spirit would give him a revelation.
When I asked if he wanted to accept Christ, he said he couldn’t leave the
Muslim faith. When I asked him why, he said his siblings became Christians and
his father no longer considered them his children. He said he could not disobey
his father. I shared the passage from Matthew 10, “Anyone who loves his father
or mother more than me is not worthy of me,” and shared some more of my
personal testimony with him.
Eventually he started asking
me questions. He asked if I knew about other religions and if I thought they
were all false. He asked if Jesus was God. He asked how it was possible for
Mary to become pregnant as a virgin. After answering all his questions with the
words God gave me in the moment, he asked me a question. “So you’re saying if I
stay a Muslim, I won’t go to heaven, but I’ll go to hell?” I looked him in the
eyes and said, “Yes.” Again, I asked him if he wanted to accept Christ. He
stared into space for a moment, clearly in deep thought. After a few minutes of
silence, he said, “No. I worship Allah.”
At this point my eyes began
to fill up with tears. I looked at him and told him how much I cared about him,
how much God cared for him, and told him my heart was so burdened for him. My
heart has never broke for an unsaved person in the way it broke for this man.
He started to tell me about
the five Pillars of Islam – the rules he follows everyday. He asked if my
religion had rules. I told him about Christ’s command to love God and love your
neighbor as yourself. I explained to him that everything I am and everything I
do is based upon my love for God.
As we continued to dialogue,
Fred stopped me at one point and asked, “Do you think we should go to another
house? There are others who want to hear about Christ. Are we wasting our time?”
I told him that I wanted to keep talking to this man. Then the Muslim man said,
“There are others who want to hear your message. You shouldn’t stay here trying
to talk to me.” I looked at him and said, “I don’t care if 20 others would have
accepted Christ in the time I’ve spent talking with you. God cares about you.
He wants your life to be redeemed. You are worth my time.”
From the way the man was
asking questions and the way he was taking in my words, I felt a glimmer of
hope. After some more dialogue about heaven, I asked him what he was thinking,
praying that he had finally understood the truth. He thought for a moment
before speaking. He answered with these piercing words, “I choose to follow the
Muslim faith.”
No matter what I said, no
matter what verse I read, no matter what testimony I gave him from my life, no
matter how much I silently begged God to open up this man’s heart to the truth,
the man did not budge. Frustration oozed out of me. I was exhausted from
fighting for this man. I sat in silence, feeling defeated.
Then I heard the Lord say, “Not
today.” I was frustrated with God. Most of my teammates had come back from
ministry on previous days and had one or two Muslims accept Christ. Why could
this man not see the truth, after I had spoken to him for two hours straight??
At this point, Pastor called
me and said it was time to meet back at the church. As I was saying goodbye to
the Muslim man, I felt the Holy Spirit telling me to share one last word:
someone was going to cross paths with this man within a week’s time who was
going to share the Gospel message – he would have another chance to accept
Christ.
As I walked away, emotionally
and spiritually exhausted, all I could do was trust that God would show up in
this man’s life.
The next day of evangelism ministry
I told God that I did not want to talk to any Muslims. At the first
house we went to there was one young man who was genuinely interested in the
message I was sharing. As I was sharing, there was a man about 15 feet away who
was laughing and mocking me. I motioned for him to come over to us, and
surprisingly he did. I shared the Gospel message, shared part of my testimony,
and asked if they wanted to accept Christ. Both of them said “yes.” After we
prayed with them, Fred told me that the man who had been mocking me was a
Muslim. My jaw dropped in shock!
Within ten minutes time, God
used me to convert a Muslim and lead another man to Christ!
I was in awe of God as we
walked up to the next house. After I shared for five minutes with a young man
and woman who were sitting in the grass, they said they both wanted to accept
Christ. After we prayed with them, Fred talked to them in the Ugandan language
for several minutes. Then he looked at me and said, “Both of them were Muslims.”
All I could think and say
was, “God, you are so good!”
Once we left the house, Fred
said to me, “God wiped away your tears three times!”
