The Other School

One of the reasons we knew it would be a challenge for Rashid to make a decision for Christ is that he lives in the heart of a strongly Islamic community…and actually lives on the grounds of an Islamic school! God has been helping Rashid to grow in confidence, however, so that he is now accompanying us for hospital visitation and evangelism. He recently told Joel and me that because of his connections with the school where he lives, he could arrange for us to have a weekly class section to speak on Christianity…if we were interested, of course. ;)

Last week we had our first session. The Muslim teacher was very gracious in asking the students to put away their books and listen attentively to all we would say. “I will quiz you later on what they taught,” he warned them (“I’m sure you will,” I thought). “You know that we have different religions – Islam, Christianity, traditionalism – and they are here to tell you something about Christianity.” Then he left, and we quickly changed our lesson plan based on his introduction, asking the class how they would define religion, and suggesting that religion is man’s attempt to get back to God. From there we went on to why we are separated from God (sin), how many sins it takes to separate us from God (one – that’s all Adam committed after all his many good deeds in order to be cut off from God), and the fact that when we stand in judgment before God, we stand alone: we can’t tell Him, “But my parents said” or “But my teacher said.” Because our eternal destiny is, well, eternal, and because we can’t go back to earth after death if we realize we’ve made a wrong choice, it is imperative that we carefully examine all of the options for ourselves and make sure we are following God’s truth.

Please pray for Joel and me as we return this week: may God give us the right words and illustrations to use, and open many hearts in this Islamic school to His saving truth. May God also protect Rashid as he’s taken this bold step.