It’s getting real. I feel so alive, like more alive than I have in a long time.
Real Talk
Being sick for 6 weeks really discouraged me; I began to question if the Lord still wanted me here on the field, or if it was His will that I return to the States early. Last week I was admitted to the hospital for 3 days and had to then return for two more days of IV antibiotics to fight the infection.
We worship a GOD WHO HEALS. Through all of the sickness though, doubt started creeping in.
I began to question the legitimacy of a truth I held so dearly to my heart. A truth that I cling to enough to tattoo it on my arm– “Jehovah Rapha” in Hebrew, which means the GOD WHO HEALS, a name for God from the Old Testament. It is the Gospel story. God heals us and redeems us. He heals our brokenness and forgives us!
FLASHBACK
On the way to get my tattoo in Kathmandu, my team leader, Denise and teammate, Bella asked me, “What do you want your prayer to be for your tattoo?”
I honestly had not thought about my tattoo having a prayer surrounding it. I realized what an awesome idea that was. So my prayer was and is that the tattoo would open doors to conversations to talk about Jesus and to give God glory.
And woah! It’s already been so cool to see how simply and gracefully it opens doors to strangers, and the conversation goes right to the Lord! People in Nepal, India, and even here in Oman first LOVE to guess the language that it is (since it’s written in Hebrew). In Nepal, they said it looks close to Nepali. And now here in Oman, people are also comparing it to Arabic. I’ve even ran into people from Israel a couple times now that instantly know what it says and love to chat about it!
He is a God who hears us and is faithful to answer our prayers. I’m so thankful. He’s redeemed my doubt and despair. He is mighty to save!
Stories From Muscat This Week
This past week, I separated from my team to stay in the city of Muscat and rest as they ventured into the mountains. It has been such a sweet time of rest physically and awakening spiritually. It’s just what I needed.
In my time of rest, my two squad leaders and I (and my best friend while she was in town), ventured out into the city. One night we went to the Mutrah Souq, and the next morning we visited the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque. There we encountered a hunger for truth that I had not experienced in a long time. The volunteers working at the mosque were eager to engage in deep, spiritual conversations with us.
We met one man when we entered into the main prayer hall. We will call him Khalid. He started diving right into Islam versus Christianity and was very EAGER to tell us exactly what was wrong with the Bible and our beliefs. We spoke freely with him and shared back and forth for a long while. He was impressed that we did not give up and had answers for his questions. He told us later that he is used to scaring Christians away after stumping them in their theology. But we held our ground, which lead to Khalid inviting us to dinner that night to continue the conversation.
At the end of the tour, the volunteers invite all the guests to come for tea or coffee and dates to discuss any questions the guests may have and to have an opportunity to share more of Islam.
After getting our delicious Omani coffee and dates, we sat and talked with Aisha (we will call her). She came from Somalia but had lived in Oman for many years. She was passionate about Islam and wanted to share her experiences with us. She was desperate for truth. We asked her many questions and shared with her our own experiences with Jesus. She of course believes that Jesus is just a highly regarded prophet, as it is stated in the Qu’ran. But it was beautiful, we prayed with her at the end. She dedicated so much time to talking with us, she neglected other guests, but she was enthralled with our conversation. At the end, she even generously gave us all a gift of frankincense (what a special gift around Christmas time)! 🙂
Please pray for the seed to be watered.
A Prayer For Truth
We then ran into our new friend, Khalid again who offered to take us back to our hotel! And thus, the friendship began! We had dinner that night and talked and debated. He is a very passionate Muslim, and our conversations were very spirited. He enjoys debating and bringing up many points about the Bible and Qu’ran.
At the end of the evening (many hours had passed eating and talking), I asked him if we could pray together. He explained the way in which all Muslims begin their prayers to Allah and demonstrated in English and Arabic.
I asked him, since we are both seeking truth and the one true God, if we could both pray and ask the Lord to reveal Himself to us however He wishes (through visions, dreams, or however His Spirit leads). Our faiths are brothers, since we both come from the line of Abraham and have the Old Testament prophets in common. So we agreed on praying to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Not to mention Jesus or Muhammed in our prayers, since that is where we differed.
He prayed first. Then I prayed.
It was actually one of the hardest prayers of my life because I was trying to be very careful to not say “Father” or “Jesus” in my prayer. Muslims are very adamantly against calling God, “Father”. It is very blatant in the Qu’ran to not refer to Allah in this way. There are several names for Allah, but “father” cannot be one.
We finished the prayers, both said “Amen” (which he kindly told us is an Arabic word).
That night, the two squad leaders, Jewel and Tamara, and I all had trouble sleeping. Jewel said she woke up almost every hour to the minute. And my spirit knew more than my physical body did as I laid awake most of the night. I subconsciously was praying nonstop for the Lord to reveal Himself to Khalid as he slept. I kept praying and pleading. I kept tossing and turning and praying more. It is quite funny because I did not even put it together in my mind until I got up the next day.
My spirit knew I needed to be interceding. I felt very confirmed when I heard the same thing happened to both Jewel and Tamara. All three of us had slept great all the nights before (and the nights after this night).
The Second Dinner
We met with our friend the next night again to continue more lively conversations and to push each other to the Truth. This time he had a few other friends that joined us, some highly educated, retired men that have great confidence in Islam.
We talked through the Gospels, and the biggest piece of disagreement of course being on whether or not Jesus died. For in the Qu’ran, it is written that Allah rescues Jesus and ascends him to Heaven before he is crucified. This is one topic that we have already talked about for hours.
The other super interesting fact about Islam that I did not know until now, is that they believe that Isa (Jesus in Arabic), actually prophesied about the coming of Muhammed and NOT the coming of the Holy Spirit, like in John 14,
They believe what Jesus is foretelling is the coming of the prophet Muhammed, not the Holy Spirit.
We talked much about the Holy Spirit and the realness of the Spirit in our lives. Our continued prayer is that Khalid will experience an act of the Holy Spirit and be confronted with the truth that the Spirit is so real. And if the Holy Spirit is here and dwelling among us and that also proving that Jesus was indeed talking about the Holy Spirit, and not about a prophet in the future.
A True Blessing
We have now met with Khalid three times. And he is a person of peace that we have already built such a sweet relationship with. He believes that Allah sent us to him, and we told him we believe also that God sent us to him.
Khalid then found out our budget restraints in the country and that we were looking for a place to stay when the rest of our team comes on Friday! So he urgently started talking through potential options of where we can stay and threw out so many ideas of buying tons of food for us in bulk so that we will not go without. He even said,”I will buy you 12 chickens”. He is so good to us and so kind. He doesn’t want us to worry about a thing.
Today, he messaged us (urgently) again and told us he found a place! So we will be moving into a place (which he is GRACIOUSLY paying for), when we asked how much (because of course we have some lodging budget money to contribute), and he said,”Do not ask. This is my gift to you.”
He talked a lot about generosity and believes too that all these riches on Earth are not our own but are gifts from God that we are to use to bless others. He is CERTAINLY a blessing and an angel to us. And he thinks we are the blessing to him! Quite amazing if you ask me.
We are continuing our relationship with Khalid and are excited to introduce the rest of our team to him!
Please pray for continued open conversations and for the Spirit to move in his life in a radical way. He is a very prominent, wealthy, retired business man with much influence in his family and the city of Muscat. Please pray for dreams and visions for him. Please pray that Jesus will become so clear to him.
And please pray for continued open doors to more relationships with people of peace that are eager for the truth!
