A little story from this past week (prayer needed)

Last Friday a taxi driver took me directly from my point of departure to my destination, and wouldn’t accept any payment. This time, when asked how we’d next meet, I was prepared to say “How about my office?” “Hassan” came by on Tuesday and renewed his proposals from the previous week, so I told him he’d need to talk to my African dad. We went over to Pastor Tirumbu’s office, where I made introductions: “Hassan, this is Pastor Tirumbu. Pastor, this is Hassan: he is a taxi driver who gave me a ride last week and wants to marry me.”

Pastor greeted Hassan cordially, and his first question was, “Are you a Muslim or a Christian?” He went on to describe the differences between how Christian and Muslim men treat their wives; to grill Hassan on his education and career (“How can you support my daughter on a taxi driver’s earnings? Do you know how expensive a white woman is to maintain?”); and to end with, “It’s not that I don’t love Muslims: we actually love Muslims deeply! It’s just that I can’t let my daughter marry one.”

“What he said is true,” I told Hassan as we left Pastor’s office. “We do care about Muslims, and we want them to go to heaven.” Then I told him what had recently been told me (isn’t God’s timing good?!): the Koran actually encourages people to read the Bible! We had a really great spiritual conversation which culminated in him taking my Bible.

He was back the next day, and this time Mr. Joe was present and took the lead in the conversation – describing the differences between the Koran and the Bible, establishing our guilt and how Jesus was the only One Who could take away our sins, and carefully outlining the costs related to becoming a Christian. At the very end, after Hassan had asked his questions, and made excellent comments such as, “Being clean on the inside is better than taking a bath!” Mr. Joe clarified, “I have to be Leah’s big brother and warn you that even if you became a Christian, she is off-limits: she came to Ghana to introduce men to Jesus Christ, not to marry them, so if you choose Christ, recognize that you are choosing Him, and not my little sister.”

Well, that didn’t deter Hassan at all, because yesterday he again dropped by for a visit! He told us that he remembered everything that had been shared the day before; that he felt all his questions were answered; and that he couldn’t sleep the previous night thinking through all the new information he’d received. Furthermore, he decided that he would involve his father in his thinking process, and that he would call a Christian friend to come over last night and read the Bible with him, since he struggles with reading English.

God is obviously at work in Hassan’s heart: please pray that he will clearly see the truth; that the conversations with his father would go well; that the Christian friend would truly be born again, and a support to Hassan at this time; and ultimately that Hassan would choose to give his life to Jesus Christ!

As always…thanks for your prayers. =)