One of the highlights of outreach for me was a conversation Kali, Thea, and I got to have with some of the girls from the university at a coffee shop one afternoon. We met three girls, Moona, Fatiha, and Asmaa, at a local coffee shop one day. We talked for a while, and then one of them randomly asked if we could tell her about Christianity and what we believe about God and Jesus! We got to share that most of our interaction with God is rooted in relationship. We believe that He loves us so much and wants to speak to us and live every day with us in a friendship relationship. Then we got to share the entire gospel with them, from what Jesus did on the cross, to personal testimonies of what that had meant for each of us. There was no spirit of argument the entire time. They were just curious with this insatiable curiosity and listening intently and asking more and more questions! One question broke my heart. Asmaa asked if all Christians believed Muslims were terrorists. I wanted to cry. I told her, “no, I am so sorry that we as Christians have falsely judged you as Muslims.” I told her that there are some people who want to blame war and violence on religion, but the truth is,terrorism is the result of man living without God. Kali said that she could feel the Holy Spirit falling as I repented for the judgment of Christians, and it was so powerful that she started to cry. Later in conversation, Asmaa asked us for specific Bible verses that meant a lot to us. We got to give her a French/ Arabic Bible with specific verses just for her! The Spirit of God was in that place that day and began a work in those three girls. The other two girls have Bibles as well. Pray that the power of the Word of God would speak truth and bring transformation to their lives!
For a while, I had this vision of going to the beggars who sat outside of the markets. I saw myself, not just going to them and giving them a hand-off and leaving them, but actually spending time with them, in relationship, and learning from them and being there on the mats with them. So, Mark, Micah, and I got to start doing that one day. We met these two men and one woman outside the souk. Before that, we prayed at almost every entrance of the souk for the kingdom to come and whatever we felt God’s dream was to do at each entrance. We gave fruit to the two men, and they loved it. They were surprised and thrilled when we asked them their names and even more thrilled when we asked if we could sit with them. We didn’t speak Arabic, and they didn’t speak English, but the Spirit was so strong there in that place, and I know that we didn’t have to speak the same language for them to understand the love of God. One man’s foot was hurt, and I felt like I should pray for him. He understood what I was doing, and both the men let me, Mark, and Micah pray for healing. I felt like I should lay hands on this man’s foot and pray for wholeness. Afterwards, they were so grateful, and you could tell something really life-giving had gone forth. At this point, we had attracted somewhat of a crowd. This one man came up to me, speaking English, and asked what we were doing. We told him we were praying in the name of Jesus. He told me I shouldn’t touch that man’s foot, or I would get some kind of disease. But I knew that this was the very opposition Jesus faced and that the kingdom of God was coming though me. As we explained what we were doing more to this guy and why we were doing it, he began to talk to the men in wheelchairs in Arabic. I think he was translating! How awesome for God to use this man, who was opposed to what we were doing, to actually bring the truth of what was going on and give understanding to these men! Mark, Micah, and I were getting more and more excited. People began to come up to us and say how they had never seen people just hanging out with these people and tell us how awesome that was. This one older lady named Farida came up to us and actually invited us for coffee. She said it was so cool how we were loving these guys and she wanted to spend time with us later that week! We left that place, full of the Holy Spirit, and so excited to see God working and what an attraction it is when God’s radical love takes action. Although we didn’t see healing right then and there, we knew that these men had experienced a piece of the kingdom of God and that God was drawing them out of his love for them to an understanding of who He is and his dreams for their lives! And that was more than enough!
