Rashid's School

“You may have to do most or all of the teaching this morning,” I warned Joel as we approached Rashid's school. “I got about four hours of sleep last night, and may fade quickly.” “We'll see what happens,” he replied unconcernedly.

Well, in Africa, one must always remain flexible...we arrived to find the Muslim teacher from grade six (where we'd taught the previous week) planning to have us speak to grade five instead. “Oh, but this is Leah's last opportunity to speak with the kids in grade six,” Joel pointed out. “What if she teaches grade six and you let me teach grade five?” The teacher readily agreed, and I shot Joel a dirty (sleepy) look and headed into grade six. This week the teacher stayed in the class to hear what I'd say: how intimidating!

Joel was right: it was my last chance to speak with these kids, so after a quick prayer I determined to go ahead and give them the gospel. We reviewed what we'd spoken about the week before, and discussed the need for sacrifice, and for Jesus' in particular, when the teacher broke off any further presentation by telling the kids to start asking their questions.

One of my favorite questions ended up being from a kid who raised his hand and asked “What is Mohammed?” “Lord, why this question?” my tired brain asked – when witnessing to Muslims, it is advisable to praise Jesus and the Bible rather than disparage the Koran or Mohammed. “It's a name,” I replied to my surprise, and we moved on to the next question, no one challenging my simple answer.

My favorite question of all, however, came from a boy who asked, “How do we get Jesus to collect our sins from us?” as the teacher hadn't allowed me to reach that point in my presentation. Although I didn't actually lead the kids to pray in the presence of their Muslim teacher, I did tell them that all we need to do is believe in Jesus' sacrifice, and I told them what they would need to pray if they wanted to accept Him as their Savior from hell.

The teacher interjected his own material from time to time...and always, God used it as a platform for further explaining His truth. For example, once the teacher told the kids that actually, there is very little difference between Islam and Christianity – “the only difference is that we pray five times a day in the mosque: that's all,” he asserted. “Your teacher is right that there are similarities,” I quickly said. “We both believe that there is one true God, and we both want to be acceptable in His sight. But there must be some difference, or we wouldn't have one thing called Islam and another called Christianity. What are those differences?” I explained how Christians also pray and fast and give, but how our motivation is completely different, because Jesus has already secured our way into heaven.

At the end the teacher asked his students to share what they'd learned. Another boy raised his hand and said, “I learned how we can have Jesus collect our sins.” Praise the Lord – that's what it's all about! Please pray for these Muslim students who have heard the truth, and for Joel as he continues to teach alone in the school in my absence.

Oh, by the way: Joel was able to share the Gospel in grade five, so praise God for splitting us up and multiplying our efforts! And praise God for being strong when we are weak. =)