After roughly two days of travel across three countries in a
bus
without AC, we finally arrived at our destination in Dar Es Salaam,
Tanzania. We get
off the bus and we’re greeted by the typical scam of
people offering to take our bags and then expecting us to pay them a
ridiculous amount of money. At this point, you just have to take a
deep breath and walk in grace. Every con artist in the area is drawn
to us because of our skin color and everyone knows that if you’re
white, you’re loaded. Oh yeah…Grace, sorry.
So I’m sitting down eating and I see a man with an
obvious limp. He
has papers in his hand and is initiating conversation with as many
people as he can. He slowly makes it over to me in obvious pain. He
tells me he suffers from a disease that eats away at his joints and
bones. He then shows me the paper in his hand and explains to me that
it is his medical papers. He needs a substantial amount of money to
have much needed surgery on his hip. So I ask him his name and then
introduce myself. He tells me his name is Muhammad and that he’s
muslim. I ask to look at his medical documents to see if the name on
the form matches up with his, and of it course it doesn’t. Oh well, no
worries, just grace. I start to ask him questions about the muslim
religion and at the same time used teachings from the Koran to share
Jesus with Him. It was the typical religious debate, until he asked me
for money. That’s when I offered to pray for him instead. I explained
to Muhammad that it would be Jesus that would heal him and Jesus was
the only mediator between God and man. I kind of put Jesus on the spot
with a few people looking on in anticipation. I mean…it wouldn’t be
me that healed him. You might think I could mess up Jesus’ reputation
with this guy if he isn’t healed. Maybe, but God doesn’t ask us to
worry, he asks us to be courageous and faithful. So I made sure to
share with Muhammad the good news about the Kingdom of Heaven
and made
it even more clear that healing and salvation came only through Jesus.
Muhammad walked to me in obvious pain and walked away, not only pain
free, but also with a new found relationship with Christ. He accepted
Christ right after he was healed and I introduced him to a pastor at
the local church.
While talking with Muhammad, I was told a certain
man wanted to speak
with the leader of the group. I’ve come to understand that usually
means someone wants something. This man was apart of a local church
and was dressed really sharp. He begin to ask me a lot of questions
and at the same time explained to me the corruption of the government.
He was telling me how it is practically impossible to change things in
Tanzania.
So I tried encouraging him that he was able to make a
difference and that God expected us to be good stewards of what we’re
given. I explained that God wants us to be faithful in the little
things before he trusts us with the bigger things. I gave him
practical things he could do in his community, but unfortunately he
was more focused on the problem rather than the solution. This whole
time, Muhammad is sitting with us listening. He just kept smiling at
every word, it was probably because of his new found joy in Christ.
While we’re sitting down, a deaf man walks up to the table and hands a
note to the well dressed church member. The guy shrugs him off and
rudely waves his hands to let it be known that he didn’t want him in
our presence. I asked the well dress church member what the guy needed
and told him I would be happy to pray for him. Sadly the man told me
he was a deaf marijuana smoker that wanted money and then asked me if
I pray for those people. Hmmmm…..that’s when I understood what Jesus
was feeling when he rebuked the Pharisees. I began to assertively
explain to the guy that’s exactly who we pray for.
Grace. God has shown me grace, so that I may be
graceful.
Unfortunately, Pharisees don’t know they’re Pharisees. I know I could
very easily be in that deaf man’s spot if it weren’t for the Grace of
God.
