Tony had met with Husain, a young Muslim man in a region with some of the hardest spiritual ground in the world, several times. But the younger man always seemed to have questions and excuses why he couldn’t follow Jesus. Dissatisfied with Islam, Husain had contacted a Christian television network […]
From Facebook to Faithful
Ding. Bintou reached for her phone to check the Facebook message alert. The profile icon showed an unfamiliar smiling woman in a colorful hijab. She clicked to open her inbox. Her hand flew to cover her mouth as she read the note from a woman named Hadje. “I saw your […]
Divine Appointments
I stood at the kitchen table next to my wife as we picked nits from our daughters’ hair with fine-toothed combs. I had already spent hours removing the bugs from my wife’s hair. It was not one of my best days, and not just because of the lice. Earlier in […]
Peacemaking
People brushed past me and my friend Sanjay as we made our way down a famous old street in our city, swallowed up in the waves of pedestrians, rickshaws, and cars. We carried on a casual conversation, speaking over the calls of vendors competing to attract customers. A huge mosque […]
20 Years Teaching TCKs
It’s been exactly two decades since I arrived in Africa to teach a third grader and a first grader for a field worker family. Twenty years! It doesn’t seem like it’s been that long, but on the other hand, both of those kids are now married with families of their […]
Serving Alongside Muslims in Jesus’ Name
I hugged my neighbor Nargis as I entered her home. The fading scent of the morning’s pre-fast meal lingered in the air, spicy and comforting. “Happy Ramadan,” I greeted her. “Happy Ramadan to you as well,” she responded, drawing me into the house. Usually, she offers me a cup of […]
Babies Bring Ministry Opportunities
My wife and I found out that we were expecting our first child three months before arriving on the field. We weren’t sure how the arrival of our little one would impact our ministry, but we feared it would force us to take a temporary step back in connecting with […]
Baptized on Vacation
Murat glanced behind him as he hurried down the street of the unfamiliar seaside village. It felt strange to walk alone, especially in a place he’d never been. Although he was an adult according to both Islam and his country, his parents still treated him like a child, refusing to […]
Becoming True Brothers
Parviz found a place to sit in the small apartment full of unfamiliar faces. The room smelled of foreign food instead of the aromatic spices he was used to, and the scent made him feel even more out of place. His younger brother, Karim, had been coming to this group […]
An Orphan No Longer
Massin clenched his hands together as the car rounded a bend in the dirt road and the familiar, white-washed walls of an orphanage came into view. He hadn’t set foot in the public children’s home since leaving its stifling confines a year before. As they reached the end of the […]