Click here to read Part One.
The next day, we went to a mall with the hope of finding some women shopping. It was about lunch time and we met a girl in the restroom. One of my teammates asked her where would be a good place to have lunch. This girl seemed extremely friendly, so we started talking about the places we’ve visited and asked her where else would be good to go. Suddenly, she invited us to her house on Friday to have a meal with her family. For Muslims, Friday is an important day, like our Sunday. So we felt very honored to be invited and also very excited to visit a local family.
This girl has five siblings. Her younger sister is in college studying marine biology and we had many connections. She is pretty open-minded and taught me how to write the 26 Arabic letters.
During our conversation, we mentioned something about God and blessings and she suddenly asked, “So you girls are Christians right?” We said, “Yes!”
Then, she gave us some of her thoughts on her own religion. She said she did not like it when Muslims have to say the same payers over and over again. She believed in her own god and she just talked to or prayed to him in her mind. This is definitely out of norm in this culture. I told her that when Christians pray, we say what comes into our mind to God and we look to Him for answers to our questions or doubts. Sometimes we prayer walk and pray for specific places and the people. I told her it is a personal relationship with God.
It seemed like she did not want to believe in any religion because she thought all religions were corrupted. However, the good thing was her openness and willingness to learn more about new things and take in new information, which has been very different from most of the people we met here. This definitely gives us hope.
People here are known for their hospitality to guests. We had an abundant meal with our new friend’s family. After the meal, they took us to see their grandparents’ houses and farms.
We decided to meet up with the girls more in the hope of sharing and explaining more to them. I asked the younger sister if she could teach me some Arabic and we decided to meet up on Tuesday morning in a coffee shop.
We kept this family in our daily prayers and also prayed that we would be able to meet more people. Last night the weather was pretty nice and many families went out to a small park for picnics. We walked around in the park while searching for opportunities to talk to people.
Suddenly, we saw there were many girls sitting in a circle on the lawn. We greeted them and began to talk to them. It was a little bit awkward at first, but then we just started really good conversations with the girls. They told us it was actually their first time to talk to foreigners and they were also very excited and nervous.
We got to know that there were 10 siblings in this family and only two of them are boys, the rest are all girls. They told us their parents were not home for the moment and they just did whatever they wanted. They took off their scarfs and wore shorts at home and played with each other.
One girl was about to go to college and she wanted to study engineering which I told her was what I am studying. She said she wanted to study in America, but was very afraid because of the things she heard about the treatment of Muslims in the States.
I told her that I am a Christian and I would not treat her differently. Also, I told her that I would pray for her and pray for this beautiful country and the people here. She was very thankful for that. I asked for her information and we agreed to keep in touch.
After walking and talking for a while, we went back to the lawn for tea. Then the girls asked us to play some ball games with them. So we had a great time playing the ball and ended up sweating a lot!
Would you please keep the girls we’ve met in your payer?
Susie* is a recent believer from a closed country who came to faith through the BSM on her campus. She was commissioned as a Go Now missionary this summer and served in the Middle East.
*name has been changed
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