One day my husband, Shawn, and his cousin were led to go pray for some people at a popular public place. Shawn saw a man with very large hearing aids and asked if he could pray for him. The man was reluctant to let them pray; but his Hindu friend said, “He’s a nice guy. Let him pray.”
After praying several times for his hearing, there was no noticeable difference. However, his demeanor began to soften. Once he had softened, Shawn was able to tell him a little bit about Jesus.
Months later, we saw this same man. This time, he was excited to see Shawn, and even asked him to pray for him! He began telling us all about his home country. He and his family are from a predominantly Muslim country in Asia.
It would begin a friendship that God would bless in many ways. For Christmas that year, we gave our Muslim friend a Bible in his native language. His son moved to town the next day and moved in with him. The son immediately started reading that Bible and told his dad he wanted to ask us some questions.
When we met him, he clutched his chest and said that he “had many questions about the faith” for us. He said he had previously studied 3 different religions, and that as soon as he started reading that Bible, he knew it was the truth.
We met him just 3 weeks after giving his dad the Bible. And, 3 weeks after that, he was baptized at our former church. He’s now attending a Christian church and telling other Muslims about Jesus. He’s adamant that Christians be water baptized. He said that, after he came up from the water, he saw his “old man” floating there.
Since he was baptized, his mother has become a Christian and his formerly-agnostic sibling now wants to get baptized. The open door here led to us building a rapport with other Muslims who are all acquainted through the man we gave the Bible to. We visit them and pray with them.
We once delivered treat bags full of dates to them, along with gospel tracts about Jesus and the Quran. We trust that God is watering the seeds that we have planted, and we know that He will be faithful to bring the increase.
“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.” 1 Corinthians 3:6 NKJV
