Last month was an interesting month for the two of us. We were separated due to Manistry/Womanistry month in Malaysia. We really loved our ministries and were excited to share how our months were going when we saw each other half way through the month. We had a weekend to spend together to get some quality time in and just relax. We were in Penang and every night we did something different. We would go out to eat at “hawkers”, go see a movie, or just get Dominoes pizza and stay in. Our last night we had a bit of an adventure and this is the story….
It started out as a trip to the mall and war memorial park. The mall was nice and we had a little taste of home at TGI Friday’s. After walking around for a few minutes we left to go see the war memorial. When our Uber pulled up to the gate we discovered it was closed. We called the number on the sign to find out that it had been closed for maintenance. So we had our Uber take us to a temple on the shoreline instead. It was a nice little temple that had a footprint in the rock believed by some to be the footprint of admiral Sam Po of China, or a monkey, or Bigfoot. No one really knows.
After spending some time there we decided to just start walking and see what we could see. After a few minutes of walking we realized there wasn’t much to see in that part of town. We found a mosque down the road and decided to stop there and try and find somewhere for an Uber to take us. As we were waiting in the parking lot a van drove up…
The window rolled down and a man asked us if we were ok. We told him we were fine and that we had just stopped there to rest a moment. He asked if we wanted to come in with him. We asked if that would be ok since our knees and Bethany’s hair were not covered. He said there was an area that we could stand in and be fine, so we went ahead and followed him in. After he got done praying he came out and asked us if we had any questions. I asked a general question about prayer and he answered it.
Now, something to keep in mind is that evangelizing is illegal in Malaysia unless you and the other party consent to a spiritual conversation,
so when our new friend asked if we had any questions about Islam we knew this was an opportunity.
He invited us to coffee and to take us back to our hotel afterwards. We agreed and off we went with our new friend. We sat and talked for over two hours about what we believed. He explained his beliefs on various topics and we would respond with ours. It was interesting to see how a lot of his beliefs were similar to ours…and all it would take would be a change of perspective of Who Jesus was to turn his world upside down. We had such a good time talking to him and we shared the gospel three or four times throughout our conversation.
He asked us to contemplate what he said to us, and we asked him to do the same. On the way home, he said, “When I saw you both on the side of the road, you didn’t look American to me. You looked different, there is something about you that is different.”
JESUS.
That’s what is different, and He is coming for you! We loved being interrupted on our date. We both desire our marriage to be a ministry, and Papa is allowing us to do that if we just stop and let Him.
Pray for our friend that he sees who Jesus is. Our prayer is that Jesus speaks to him and shows our friend the He IS God.
