Way back at the start of month 9 and Team Fortress and “no host” months, I asked the Lord to be around Muslims. I wanted to better understand the Islamic religion and culture so that I could better relate to them the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Month 9 and 10 brought no Muslims (except for one nice man who amused to be Muslim but was now a Christian).
But, Month 11 is a COMPLETELY different story.
It was our first day living on the beach in Albania, and my teammate Emily’s birthday, so we were all out enjoying the waves and the sun. Emily and Elle were walking down the beach, chatting, when a man heard their English and frantically waved them over to his friend. This friend had lived in America for 10 years and loves American people. He now owns a resort/restaurant/bar/spa on the waterfront. The girls told him it was Emily’s birthday and he invited our team to dinner “at the best table, on him” at his hotel.
We had no idea what we were in for.
Dressed in the best clothes we could manage after living out of a backpack for 10 months, we timidly stepped into his dining room promptly at 7pm. Our new friend was nowhere in sight but we were seated at a lovely table in a covered outdoor seating area. Servers swarmed around us like busy bees- bringing water (still and with gas!), bottles of champagne, offering baskets of the best flatbread I’ve ever had, beautiful salads, and asking what we wanted for our dinner. Startled and (very) confused, we ordered pastas and risottos.
A few minutes later, we were enjoying a great meal, and when we finished, we rushed to the water to take some pictures of the lovely sunset. We told the servers we would return to pay the bill, but when we got back to the table, no piece of paper was lying there. Instead, huge, beautiful trays of dessert and fruit were there awaiting us!!
Finally, our friend showed up and we thanked him for such a beautiful meal. Instead of allowing us to pay (or sneak out the door to relive the bounty we had just recieved), he asked us to stay and talk with him.
And thus, our purpose for the month was born.
We found out that he was Muslim, observing Ramadan. So over the past few days, we have been returning to the hotel every day to sit with him, his family, or his guests as they break fast at sundown. Often we talk into the wee hours of the night, mutually learning from and challenging the other’s faith. We have had conversations about the purpose of prayer, our personal relationships with God, works vs. faith, what religion and God thinks about drinking/sexual relations, and more.
In 1 Corinthians 9:22, Paul says that “I have become all things to all people that by all means, I might save some”. Spurred on with that intention, my team chose to fast with our Muslim friends on the last day of Ramadan. From around 3am until after 8pm, we fasted from food, water, impure thoughts, and immoral influences. We spent the day worshipping the Lord, talking to Jesus, reading our Bibles, listening to sermons, and engaging in fellowship with one another.
Fasting time for a Muslim looks like hours of private time, with required prayers at specific times. But fasting for a Christian looks like praying to loose the bonds of unrighteousness in men, edifiying the glory of the Lord, asking for big answers to intercessory prayers, and not using the time to cover our heads in ashes in seeking attention or pity- read Isaiah 58 for the specific references. We don’t fast to fulfill religious rites or make people think we are good Christians. It is solely for our personal relationship with God the Father, who cherished us, God the Son, who saved us, and God the Spirit who lives in us to benefit us.
The day was difficult, and by the evening I thought my head would explode from dehydration. However, for the joy in solidarity that it brought to my Muslim friends and the door it opened to allow me to share my love for Jesus, it was all worth it (+ also for filling my stomach at the end with the amazing homemade dishes: kime, goat, byrek, and baklava, just to name a few!).
Eid Course 1: feta, olives, some dish of breaded mince beef and spices, bisteak, and chips. On the table was also salad, tatziki, dates, bread, and antipasti.
Eid course 2: Goat, rice pilaf, and byrek.
Homemade baklava that I unashamedly ate multiple pieces of.
