We started the Ancient Prophet’s study this week and it’s already drawing fire, so I guess it working!
Suffian went on Thursday afternoon with a portable DVD player, the Prophet’s DVD, and his Bible to the house of two friends. Here tribes are very important. The connection one has with his tribe or those from his village is life long and close to being as strong as an immediate family. So Suffian is from a village of 200 people. Few people stay in Suffian’s village (or villages like it) since there is no work there. Once a boy grows up he moves out to find work. The families in these villages often have 10 kids or more. As a result, these mountain villages are like population factories for the cities. Many of them never learn to read well or read at all. Suffian is the exception. So, Suffian held the Bible study with two young men living in our city from his village. They called a couple other and by the end of it, he had shared the story of Adam and the protoevangelium (first promise of the Messiah) with eight.
This caused no small stir in our city. One of the young men at the Bible study works with Suffian on a construction crew of more than 30 men. Yesterday, Saturday, the word had spread like wild fire that Suffian was a Christian and was trying to convert people. They laughed and said, “Come see the Christian!”. All day they blasted Suffian with questions. “Why do you worship the cross? Why do you think Jesus was God’s Son? Why don’t you believe in the prophet Mohammed? etc) Suffian boss advised him to shutup before some killed him. Suffian informed him that he couldn’t be scared shut by threats of death. So, seems like the prophets study is working.
Morad found an open audience with two young men from the south of our country named Abd Allah (They both have the same name). At least once a week we go out and witness to people in parks. This is how Morad explains to me the normal conversation between him and person x:
M- Pretty day.
X- Yep.
(Other pleasantries exchanged)
M- So are you a Muslim?
X- Of course! Aren’t you?
M- No, I’m a Christian.
X- So you aren’t North African?
M- Yes I am.
X- That’s impossible. We don’t have any Christians here.
M- Sure you do. There’s a bunch of us.
X- So your mom and dad were Christians?
M- No. They were Muslims.
X- Why did you become a Christian?
M- I’d love to tell you why…
From there Morad shares the gospel starting with Adam. He has started a few Ancient Prophets Bible studies that way. This is a big prayer request. So many North Africans don’t even know there are Christian in their country and neither have the ever heard the gospel. We have much work to do.