Fresh dates, finger foods, and assorted juices had been set out on a plastic mat on the floor, ready for the fast to break. The six women around me chattered quietly as we waited to break the day-long Ramadan fast together.

“This is the first time that I’ve fasted like you, without water,” I whispered to my friend Zahra.

“Oh, that’s so good,” she said. “Fasting without water gives you lots of credit before God.”

“I don’t do it for credit,” I replied, smiling.

“Why do you do it?” she asked. Then her face brightened and she said, “Oh, you’re doing it for a diet, aren’t you?”

I suppressed a laugh, thinking of all the better ways I could go about losing weight.

“No, I fast to draw close to God. I do it so I can better hear from Him.”

On another evening, my friend Mounira invited me and one of my teammates over for coffee around 9:00 p.m. It was her birthday, and she’d made monkey bread and topped it with candles. We sang “Happy Birthday” as her son blew out the candles for her.

As we nibbled on monkey bread, Mounira told us how much she enjoys talking with us foreigners. “It’s as if you both understand me,” she said. “And you also read the holy books. I think you westerners have white hearts.” In colloquial Arabic, a person with a white heart is good and pure.

“Not all westerners have white hearts,” I responded. “But the two of us that you know are followers of Jesus Christ. Maybe you’re talking about the hearts of people who love the Gospel. The only way we can have white hearts is for God to them give to us.”

Coffee and meals with women like Zahra and Mounira are often full of laughter and chatter and holding children. Sometimes these visits give us the chance to quietly grieve with our friends, too.

One friend recently lost her brother. Then, just months later, her cousin too.

A local colleague told me how her family had come across a horrible accident on the road. They had to pull from the wreckage the body of a woman who didn’t survive.

“The driver of the other car had tried passing her when they shouldn’t have,” my colleague said, showing me a picture of the mangled car.

The Lord promises He is with us and that we need not fear.

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. (Isaiah 41:10)

But my Muslim friends still don’t know this promise of peace, hope, and strength. Pray they have open ears to hear the Gospel, seek after Jesus, and find Him.

• Pray that Zahra and other Muslims will desire to know and please the Lord in their fasting.
• Pray for Mounira to understand that only Christ can give her a pure heart—and pray she receives it with thanksgiving.
• Ask God to give Muslims soft hearts that receive the truth of the Gospel with joy.

**This account comes from a long-term worker. Names have been changed for security.**

Original article: https://www.frontiersusa.org/blog/article/diets-and-white-hearts