Youssef was the first Muslim I ever met. He did not fit my expectations for how a Muslim might act.
I met him on a short visit to his city in Morocco. As he gave me a tour of his hometown, Youssef described going to wild parties and joked about picking up women. He pointed out the beautiful women we passed and made inappropriate comments about them. Then he’d talk about his wife. This was not the picture of piety I expected from a religious man.
During lunch, the call to prayer sounded from a minaret near our restaurant. “I’ll be back,” Youssef said. “I must go to pray.”
He returned a few minutes later, joking with his buddy over something crass, seemingly unfazed by the spiritual exercise he had just participated in.
Youssef lives in a country where there isn’t a church on every corner.
Youssef isn’t all that different from other people I know back home. They do the religion thing on Sunday and then get on with life. It’s just part of what they do.
People like this are missing out on so much more. But back home, there’s a church on nearly every corner—and they might even show up in one on a regular basis. They still have a good chance of encountering the power of Jesus Christ to transform their lives.
But Youssef? His situation is different. He lives in a country where there isn’t a church on every corner—where a tangible witness for Jesus is hard to find. Hundreds of millions of Muslims like Youssef live in places where they have no access to a church or a Bible.
If Youssef is going to find Jesus in his town, it won’t be because he wandered into a church. It will be because someone sought him out intentionally. It will require someone to come into his life and showing him another way.
One day every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord (Romans 14:11). Before that day comes, Muslims need to hear the Good News. And for that to happen, they need witnesses for Jesus to go and live among them.
Someone still needs to move into these places and share Christ with people like my friend Youssef.
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