month 7 was pivotal for me.
i’ve been trying to figure out how to put words to what last month meant to me and what it did for my heart, spirit, and soul. nothing seems to be the “right” thing to convey, so this is gonna be messy. hang with me.
going into month 7 and having ATL (ask the Lord) as our ministry, we knew that we would be in a predominantly muslim community. muslims tend to be very relational, so we would need to build relationships. street evangelism is very un-relational and was a no-go for this specific location. i’m honestly more of a relational person anyways, so this was exciting to me!
i love getting to know new people and experience new cultures, and even new religions. just learning about who people are, where they come from, how they live, and all the things about new people and new places just lights a fire within me.
little did i know to what extent that fire would be lit this month.
a little backstory: a week or so before i launched for the race, i downloaded quite a few books onto my kindle. these books were books that either i had wanted to read for awhile or had been recommended to me for the race specifically. among these books was one titled Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus by Nabeel Qureshi.
i had finished a book on the way to Novi Pazar (where we would be doing ATL for month 7) from Belgrade (where we had debrief between months 6 and 7), so i was needing a new one. i saw this book on my kindle and thought it might be interesting. (and what an understatement that would come to be!)
this book, Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus, is imperative to how my month would become pivotal.
the first few chapters were super dense and didn’t quite catch my attention, but i continued on because i had heard such amazing things about this book. once i finally got the plot of this book and past all of the historical and religious background, i got HOOKED.
i began learning all about the muslim religion, traditions, and culture through this book. i also learned so much about my own faith. i learned the similarities between islam and christianity, and also where they branched off and became two very different belief systems. it was absolutely fascinating to me.
so what is the big deal with this? why does this book matter? what is the big deal here?
God orchestrated such a time as this specific month for me to be interested in this book and devour every detail of it because He knew the people i was going to encounter. He knew i was going to make new friends that were muslims, devout muslims nonetheless.
on our last night of ministry, a bunch of plans had been made and fallen through and twisted and turned into loops. we finally had a set plan, and this was the plan that the Lord had made for us. it was His divine intervention that allowed this day to be so confusing and twisted with plans, but it was for His glory. just wait.
that morning during our morning worship, prayer, and devotional as a team, one of my teammates felt that God was telling her that i was going to share this book with someone that very day. i had sort of forgotten about this until we went to dinner (our plan that finally worked out) with our two best friends that we had made in this serbian town.
i sat next to one of our new friends, and we began having casual conversation. somehow we got on the topic of books. we talked about books that she liked to read, what genres she enjoyed, some of her favorites, things along those lines.
suddenly i felt the nudge of the Holy Spirit: this is the time, Maggie. speak about the book.
it came up so naturally and fluidly. i told my friend that i had just finished a book and it was so good! she asked the title, and i replied “Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus”. immediately she was very obviously intrigued. she began firing questions at me about it. what did i learn? what did i learn about the islam faith? what was surprising to me about muslims? what similarities did i see between christianity and islam? what were the differences? with her brows furrowed and eyes locked on me, turned in her chair facing me to give me all of her attention, she listened carefully to every word that left my mouth.
i never in my wildest dreams thought that i would be able to share the gospel of who Jesus Christ is through a book about a once-muslim man, but God is creative. we had the most pure conversation, listening carefully to one another, and talking honestly and boldly about our faiths.
evangelism is something that terrified me before the race. even after being on the race for months, it was something that still put my stomach in knots. until this night. evangelism can be something as simple as a conversation. it doesn’t have to be some formulated thing. it works well when a relationship is established.
this conversation that was had between my dear friend and i, did something amazing in my heart. there was such a switch in my spirit. i still can’t quite put my finger on it, but all i know is that a fire was burning in me when i was able to have this conversation, and every time i tell anyone about it, i almost get out of breath i get so excited and just awe-filled by the intentionality and faithfulness of our God.
the main difference that i felt for this time of evangelism was the fact that i had an understanding and factual information on where this sweet friend was coming from. i had studied up on her faith, on her culture, and her god. i could clearly put my finger on the amazing similarities, and also the striking differences. it was a time when the gentleness and kindness of the Father was shown through my words and what i was saying, and also getting to show off who HE is.
like i said, i’m still not able to put all the right words to what this month did for me and what it means for me, or even how it was such a big deal for me. but it was. i grew to know the Father on a deeper level and was used to show that in some really miraculous ways.
whether you know it or not, and whether you know the Father or not, He is pursuing you. He is chasing after you and wants you to know His heart for you. He loves you. He is jealous for you. give Him everything and He will give you abundantly more than you could ever dream of right back in return.
