 |
Looper Newsletter
October 2009
Dear Loopers, in the Loop with us in Prayer and Partnership, praise the Lord!
We ask for prayer for Kaoula and Makram, a Tunisian couple I met with Thursday, yesterday. How do you share with Muslims, people ask me? Here's one attempt.
I invited myself for tea, a key hospitality avenue among Muslims.
I parked my car next to a car that had its tires slashed and hoped for the best. Went up 2 floors. Inside was quite cute.
The scene: Bunnies, giraffes, bears and stuffed animals were everywhere. I asked Kaoula, Are these stuffed animals for the baby coming in 3 weeks? No, We just like the design. The TV was blasting the entire time. When I didn't tell stories, they gazed at the TV. So I Knew what to do. Tell stories.
I introduced myself as a Hanifi servant and follower of Jesus, Isa al Masich, (Jesus the Messiah). Hanifi means "true to the Faith of Abraham." Why do you follow Isa? They asked, Why not Mohammed, he is the last prophet. My response: I'm Hanifi. In the Eastern world, you can often answer obliquely, like politicians do.
Their next big question was this: Do you slit the throats of animals when you kill them? Makram said, The French use a bullet to butcher animals. Such meat is not halal, so it isn't purified by throat slitting. I said that I can't say that I eat meat from slit throated animals, "But you can be my teacher and show me how."
This was so cool. I affirmed that I COULD be a learner of slitting throats for halal, and thus showing that his beliefs had my interest. (Don't get shocked, everybody.) But my response was that there are no sacrifices without blood and the pouring out of blood. They loved that truth. I thought to myself, "I don't want to learn this stuff of slitting throats."
Kaoula wanted to sit around the corner in the kitchen, but I asked if it would be OK for her to join us. She asked to meet with Evey. Kaoula wanted to know what meats I eat... Lamb, chicken, venison, I suggested. She asked, do you eat pork? I admitted to bacon, bacon being the same word in French. She snickered a bit.
Did you do Ramadan, I asked? Makram said, Do you know the 5 pillars of Islam? After reciting the 5, I said that one pillar is the Confession. I explained how many people confess their religion but don't live a life that is Hanifi before Allah. This was my shocker. I couldn't believe the result: Open jaws, open drop down shock. They said this was curiously true.
I told the story of a Muslim boy who rescued our team in the Sahara Desert when we were lost. Did you have GPS, Makram asked? No, it was before that. He said a Muslim saved us, but she said, no, it was Allah who sent the boy. This let me explain how the boy brought Muslims into my heart. Now we understand, they both said.
I recounted how my students in Ghana led me personally to a life of Hanifi, following Jesus, the Messiah, when I taught math and physics in that land. "Now we know," they said, very, very warmly.
I asked them, "How am I doing?" Good, they smiled. To this I asked to pray for their new baby coming soon, in the name of the Hanifi One, Jesus, who is faithful to bless them and their baby.
Big question from Makram, "What are you doing here in France?" I'm teaching the ways of Hanifi to people who don't understand culture and the way of Isa. Then I told the story of our Hanifi group of Jesus followers in Paris and of the Hanifi man who wouldn't let his wife out of his bedroom, and locked her in. But he changed, because his wife was also Hanifi, and should be trusted to have a life of freedom in the house and outside the house. They were shocked at the freedom of the Hanifi.
Greatest blessings to you and please pray.
Don and Evey Heckman...
Other links:
|
|
|
