For those of you who didn’t now, today was Mohammed’s Birthday.
Yesterday, the Eve of Mohammed’s birthday, myself and my wife and child, along with a coworker of ours, went to visit a good Muslim friend of mine in a county about an hour east of here. The county we visited has by far the highest percentage of Muslim Chinese in this whole region at nearly 97%!
We met my friend in front of the hotel where he used to work and first had lunch there. After lunch, we drove up onto a hill overlooking the town to visit an orphanage that I first visited in May of this year. The orphanage houses nearly 80 kids, all from this local region, and almost all without a mother and father.
After spending some time with the kids at the orphanage and meeting the director, we took off to visit my friend’s home up in the mountains outside of town. This region is full of mountains, but they are not uninhabited by any means. These mountains are covered top to bottom with farms, pastures for grazing sheep, goats, and cattle, and small villages. We drove for probably half an hour and climbed up onto one of the highest ridges before finally reaching my friend Abraham’s humble home.
We were then promptly served an ‘afternoon snack’ of vegetables, beef, fried chicken, and assorted fried breads (all Muslim style). We were also told that we would soon be going to visit the local mosque with them where we would eat again! They said that tomorrow was Mohammed’s birthday and that there would be tons of people from all around the local area.
There was quite a crowd all right! And we were the center of attention. Mohammed probably wouldn’t have been happy with all these Muslims smiling and waving at the 3 of us foreigners wandering in escorted by a local Muslim friend and his family.
We were taken up to sit down and eat beside the local Ahong (Chinese for Imam, or the Muslim Pastor). We were truly received well by all we met. Most had never seen a foreigner before and they (especially the younger generation)loved to just stand and stare at us!
As we sat there and discussed how interesting of a situation we had managed to get ourselves in, we also thought about how we could possibly share Jesus with these people. It wasn’t quite the atmosphere where we could freely just stand up and start preaching, but we did get to testify at least that we indeed were Christians who believed in Jesus Christ.
The best thing about the whole situation is that we were received in grace and as friends. The community to some extent, even if it doesn’t realize it, is opening itself up to the influence of Jesus Christ. Please join us in praying for that whole region of Chinese Muslims … pray that the blinders would fall from their eyes and that Jesus would be seen as the King, high and lifted up above all things!
