Story time

Hmm.. apparently I have another blog post entitled story time. I don't remember it, and I'm too excited to share a few short stories to figure out where it is. So there :P

Special note: names/places are not included for most of these events for the safety of those involved. All of the following events, nevertheless, are true.

There is a difference
Nepal has long been known as a Hindu kingdom. The monarchy has been ruled by a Hindu believer, and so the people recognized him as a god. In response, certain people prayed that Nepal would transform into a Christian nation.

As an answer to prayer, the king was overthrown, and now Nepal is run by a secular government. The backlash to this however, was the bombing of several Christian churches by Hindu radicals upset by the change in power.

One of the leaders of the bombing of a church was caught and thrown in prison. Soon, as there is often very little to do in that type of setting, the radical leader started attending the Christian fellowship that was offered at the prison. In time, he came to a point of saying how much of a difference there must be between the gods he believes in and the God this group believed in.

"I have been in prison over 8 months and the people whose friends I am responsible for murdering have visited me almost weekly. None of the people from my group have come to visit me," he had said. "Your God must be a good one."

I want to know it first
In a crowded van, she whispered to the driver because she didn't want anyone to hear. "I watched the video about Jesus," she said. "I believe him."

The driver nearly swerved from excitement, but maintained at least an external appearance of being calm. The girl continued, "I want to study the Bible, but I do not have one. Do you think you can get one for me?"

"Yes of course I can," the driver responded, hardly able to hide her joy.

"But I can not tell the others yet," the girl whispered.

The driver thought that this had to do with safety, so she nodded in agreement. The girl said, "I want to know all about Jesus first, before the rest of my tribe."

The driver found this to be funny, but did not express it. She gave the girl the Bible and soon after the rest of the tribe would also hear the story of Jesus and believe.

-----

Months later, the girl was attending university and the professor was talking about the story of Abraham. He was admitting that he did not know the story very well though, because he had never read the Bible. Another asked about the story of Adam and Eve. Again, the professor didn't know.

The girl raised her hand. In the middle of 600 students, the girl was allowed to share the story of God's people!!

Before I go..
I'll admit that there is much more, but I want to brag about someone right now. His name is Roger, and he's a behind-the-scenes kind of guy at the conference I just attended. After having prepared a majority of the meals and having been involved in cleanup, he even drove me and a couple others to the airport this morning. I heard him at one point praying for all of us: for our safety, for clarity in our decisions, and for divine appointments on our way home. He's so cool!

And sure enough, my first flight included sitting next to an older woman named شاهين. Blame wikipedia if that's misspelled. But it's pronounced Shaheen, and it means falcon. Quite beautiful.

She's from Pakistan, and we immediately got to talking (her initiation, not mine). I learned that even my own name is a great starting point for spiritual conversations with Muslims. After all, the Arabic version of my name refers to the writings and commands of various prophets. For instance, Mohammed has a sharia that people are to follow. The sharia is the "way" or "path" for living a good life.

She showed me some of her special texts that she carries with her all the time--prayers of Mohammed and a booklet with 1000 different ways to do good things to help you earn points in heaven. Shaheen tried to explain to me that she believes that Jesus was a prophet too, and that I most likely follow Jesus' sharia.

I explained to her that what I believe would not categorize Jesus as just a man or prophet. I simply stated that the Bible mentions more than once that Jesus is God.

"Oh no no no," she quickly retorted about my comment that Jesus died and rose again. "We believe that Allah had taken Jesus up before he even died on the cross." She said that another body was there in his place.

Ah-ha moment. I'm going to say now that I was not trying to convert this woman. And I wasn't about to argue with her. In the history of evangelists who argue or yell with the people who disagree with them, I have never seen a single disciple.

I did say that what I liked about Jesus' sharia is that we don't have to do good works to earn points for heaven. His death covers all the bad things we've done, and now we just try to live like He did.

"Very interesting," she commented.

We then both took naps.

My nap actually consisted of me praying hard core for Shaheen's eyes to see the truth of the holy book known as the Bible. She had even talked about how the Qu'ran points to the Bible, so I prayed (and am praying) that very soon she'll have a chance to read and see the truth of God's Word for herself. I also prayed for her to dream of Jesus, because I have come to understand how much Islam culture depends on dreams. The main prophet Mohammed was inspired through dreams and visions. Christians should bank on dreams more too, in my opinion, if they were to take seriously the story of Jesus' birth alone. Just saying.

The end of the trip also went well, as we talked about family and future plans. I felt the best way to honor Shaheen though, was to serve her as best as I could during our short trip together in little ways. I will continue to pray for her though, because our God answers prayer in mightier ways than we can imagine!