This story happened when I had just started the World Race in Kuala Lumpur. I was wondering what I should do to be involved and engaged with people in conversation that day. I was telling God, “Lord, I want to talk to people and share about Your love.”
I walked down one of the alleys in town and found an interesting shop that sold Turkish and Arabic sculptures on display. The sales associate approached me when I was checking out a table display, and we suddenly were in a conversation. He told me he is from a city in India that has the largest Muslim population. Intrigued about his country, I started to ask more. He shared about his life and his faith, but I didn’t have the opportunity to share my faith. And so I thought, “Maybe not today.”
He told me that his boss has another shop on the other side of the mall. I didn’t look for the other store and instead continued walking. And just before I walked out of the building, I saw the store that the guy was talking about. I wanted to pass it and walk out of the mall, but I felt I needed to check out the store. I was contemplating for some time.
Eventually, I went in.
I asked questions about what they sell and how it is made.
After answering my questions, the sales associate walked away.
“No one is interested in talking,” I thought to myself.
I walked around the store and stopped to go through their collections.
“Okay, I’m done God. Nobody talks anyway. I’m leaving now.” I said to God.
As I turned, and was about to leave the store, a guy offers some fabrics he sells, and starts talking about his store, and I began a conversation with three guys who work in the store. The owner offered me a seat and started talking about a glimpse of their life, their desires, and some of their searching in life.
We had a very interesting conversation.
One guy shared that he has never been satisfied, and he looks for his satisfaction from place to place, from girl to girl. He said he can’t trust anybody. Every time he has something, it’s just never enough. He told me he is searching to meet his perfect partner, but it never works out.
So I said to him, maybe he should embrace what is in front of him and be thankful for what he has.
Silence.
He was trying to process it.
And he began to nod his head, “Yeah, maybe you are right.”
“Do you have boyfriend?” He continued.
I have learned it’s not wise to say that I’m single when I’m meeting a random guy, so I said, “Yes.”
“How do you trust him, that he won’t go out with other girls?” He asked me.
“Because he always goes out with other girls,” his friend added laughing.
And then we were all laughing.
He stopped and waited for my response.
It seemed he was serious about his question.
Earlier in the morning, during morning devotion, Christie was talking about the unity of our team. She made a triangle shape with both her thumbs and index fingers, and showed it to us.
“It’s like this triangle; we are at the bottom of this triangle.” Pointing to both her thumbs.
“This is God.” Pointing to her both index fingers that stick together.
“Unity is important, but the most important thing is to look upon God, so that we are moving to the same direction. And we will be united because of God.”
That was not the first time I heard that analogy. My brother told me once about this analogy and talked about how the relationship will grow closer between you and your partner, because both are moving to the same direction. The closer you are to God, the closer you are with your partner.
And Christie’s analogy just came to me when the shop owner asked me, “How do you trust your boyfriend?”
I began to make a triangle with my thumbs and index fingers, and told him about the analogy. So I said, “I might not trust my partner, I might not trust myself, but I trust God, and I know God will never let me down.”
“So what do you both believe?” He asked.
As he asked the question, I suddenly thought, “Maybe I should tell him about Jesus.” I hesitated.
“Well,” I said, “We believe that we as humans will create disappointment, we can’t do everything right, there’s always something wrong in our lives, and that’s why we need God. We believe in Jesus. And He will not turn us down, because He is God.”
No response.
The three of them were listening.
“So yeah, that’s what I believe” I said, to break the silence.
“Hmmmm, I see. So you believe in God and not humans? I see. I see.” He was nodding his head again.
And we talked about some other things too, such as: food, cities, people, politics, and so on. I could sense that he was looking something that is able to give him peace and contentment in his life.
I asked to leave after a hour and a half conversation, because I realized that I might be late for a team meeting if I stayed any later. As I walked out, I was praying that the guy would meet Jesus personally in his life, and find complete peace and contentment in Jesus.
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