A Golden Opportunity

When my taxi jerked to a stop, the driver Diran swiveled to check on me in the backseat. “Are you okay?”

I nodded at Diran, who often drove my husband and me across town. “That was close.”

In front of us, two cars had crashed into each other and now blocked the road. As the passengers exited their vehicles, no one seemed to be injured, but their conversation quickly grew in volume as they tried to communicate in different dialects. Soon, they were all shouting, though no one seemed to be understood.

“Why didn’t God make us the same?”

Diran groaned. “I hope you’re not in a hurry. It looks like this might take a while.”

“It’s okay,” I replied. “These things happen.”

Diran huffed in the front seat. “But why do they happen? Why are there so many different peoples and languages? Why didn’t God make us the same?”

As he grumbled under his breath, I assumed he had asked the questions rhetorically. Still, my husband Nathan and I always encouraged each other to take every opportunity to invite our neighbors to read the Word with us.

I had to respond.

“There’s a story in the Bible about the origin of different languages. Would you like to read it with my husband sometime?”

To my surprise, Diran agreed without hesitation. Although we scheduled a time for him to stop by, I wondered if he would actually show up.

“This explains everything!”

A few days later, he arrived at our apartment just as he’d said. Nathan attempted to make small talk, but the chatty man we’d known in the taxi was now only interested in talking about the Bible.

Sitting at our small kitchen table, Nathan summarized the creation and flood accounts in Genesis as Diran sipped tea. Then they read about the Tower of Babel.

As soon as they finished the story, Diran slapped a hand on the table, rattling his empty cup. “This explains everything! It’s so clear. Why don’t more people know this?”

“You could tell them,” Nathan suggested. He challenged Diran to share what he’d learned with family and friends. Then they set up a time to read the Word together again the following week.

Nathan cannot wait to tell Diran about Jesus.

After Diran left, Nathan and I marveled at the wonderful way God works. Though many Muslims have declined in the past, asking locals if they’d like to read the Bible together is the golden question.

Many Muslims have huge misconceptions about the Bible, and there is no better way to clear those up than by diving directly into God’s Word. Studying one passage often leads to exploring several, eventually unfolding the greatest story ever told. Nathan can’t wait to tell Diran about Jesus.

Orar:

• Praise God for opportunities for Frontiers workers to speak openly about and share from the Bible. Ask Him to draw many Muslim men and women to Jesus through His Word.
• Ask the Lord to continue softening the hearts of Muslim men and women like Diran.
• Pray that God will open more doors for Frontiers teams to connect with locals in creative and personal ways.