It all started out fairly innocently. Our team must have
walked down the main street at least three times a day for the first three days
to get a good grasp of where everything we would need for the month would be.
The fourth day that we were in the town my teammate Sarah and I walked down the
main street as was normal. We mutually decided to stop at a small bakery near a
large intersection. We entered the bakery and there was a nice smell and a
large selection of baked goods, as was normal for a bakery in the states. There
were two Muslim ladies working there that looked like they might be about our
age. We could immediately see by their headgear that they were Muslim, and
because of the strict and full had coverings I thought that they might follow
their religion very seriously.
The first time we were at the bakery nothing really
happened. It was just a plain business transaction; we bought two muffins.
However, something was there and God was about to do his thing. We went back
the second day to the bakery. We stayed a little longer this time, maybe 10
minutes. The two girls were sisters, and didn’t speak and understand much
English, but they did read and write it well so this is how any conversation
took place. The elder sister did the baking and was 23 years old and married.
The younger sister served the customers/cashier. She was 20 years old and
recently married. Her name is Mary.
Now would be a good idea to point out the similarities in
Sarah and I’s personalities. We are both very outgoing and energetic people. We
love people, conversation, and Jesus. The third day we were there we bought a
coffee, one that has a pouch of mix and then you are suppose to add boiling
water. Instead of taking it and leaving, we used their hot water, prepared
them, and then sat in the bakery and drank them while talking to each other and
attempting to include Mary in the conversation. This completely surprised both
of the sisters and they looked at us strangely as no one does this. The bakery
wasn’t for customers to hang out at; it had no chairs, tables, or even heat.
The very chilly atmosphere of the bakery didn’t bother us
and we came back to the bakery almost every day, bring the rest of the team
whenever possible. Mary really warmed up to Sarah and me, especially Sarah.
Mary’s smile and laugh were contagious. Sarah soon even hugged Mary, which
brought their friendship to a new level as this is not common at all in Muslim
friendships. Mary’s birthday was on December 20th, and we were able
to surprise her with a birthday card and gift. She turned right around and
surprised us with a note and gift for my birthday. I sure was not expecting
that! It was soon that we were staying up to 45 minutes a morning at the bakery
and making a second quick trip right before they would close in the evening.
As the weeks quickly raced by, we tried to communicate Jesus
and the gospel to Mary, however, the language barrier was too great. We tried
to speak about God and what he could do, but we didn’t truly know what she was
absorbing. We expressed our desire to witness more clearly to Mary to our
contact, Cottonball, a few days before Christmas. He was in another city at the
time so he asked his wife, Mrs. Wagon to come with us to the bakery. Mrs.
Wagon, Sarah, and I took the bus to the bakery and ended up having our longest
visit there, just over an hour. Mrs. Wagon is almost fluent in Chinese so the
language barrier was no longer there.
That day we were able to learn a lot more about Mary and her
life. She and her husband are very poor. They live with the rest of their
family in a house in the city. They are all strict Muslim, as family tradition.
Mrs. Wagon was able to communicate more about Jesus and what we were doing in
the city. We invited her to have our Christmas Eve dinner with us at
Chuckelberry’s house. I would really love to write about how Marry was saved or
about how she came to enjoy Christmas Eve with us. Sadly, both of those things
did not happen. Mary’s grandfather was dying so she and her husband went to go
visit him during his last days. The last time we saw Mary was Christmas Eve.
Mrs. Wagon will continue to maintain this friendship both
for herself and for Sarah. Pray that Mary has an open heart and mind to receive
what she hears.
It’s super tough to work hard at a friendship and see the
person as the day you met them, but we trust that there was a seed planted
because of what God did through us!
