This month was a sad month. But before I’m ready to post about it, I would first like to share a really exciting story that happened last week at the community center. A friend of our team became a believer a few weeks ago, and since then we’ve been looking and praying for a community of local believers for him to be a part of.
A new person came to the center last week. He sat on the couch across from me and started speaking in English to someone else in the room. Taken aback by how fluent his English was, I started engaging him in conversation.
“Where did you learn English?” I asked.
“In ___, where I fled after leaving my home country. I lived there for six years,” He replied.
“How did you learn English? What did you do there for six years?”
“I studied theology. The school was in English.”
“Theology?” I asked, honestly shocked. “Why theology?”
“I was born an M, it was all I knew, and I wanted to know what I believed, and understand it more deeply. I didn’t want to just accept it blindly.”
Just then someone else jumped in, and began asking him what theology was, and then I got pulled into a different conversation for several minutes.
“I believe all things will rise again,” I heard him say.
Is this guy... what I think he is...?
Throughout the rest of the evening I learned that he lived with a couple from Iowa while he was studying theology.
A white couple from Iowa... have lived abroad for 35 years... they’ve gotta be...
Then, out of the blue he asked me:
“Is Christmas important to you?”
“Yes. Christmas is very important me.” I said, getting excited about where this was going. “Is Christmas important to you?”
“Yes,” he said solemnly, “Christmas is very important to me.”
He then proceeded to tell me that last year he was in his home country for Christmas, and he didn’t have anyone to celebrate with. He went to the mosque to pray, and he told me:
“I had to be very careful, because I didn’t want anyone to know.”
Oh my gosh, he’s an MBB! He’s totally an MBB!
So that was really exciting. And since he lived with workers for three years, he obviously knows the lingo. Afterwards he put his phone number on the community center list, and joined the WhatsApp group. I’m so excited for him to join the community here. He’s only been here for two weeks, and I know he will be an awesome person for my team to connect with.
(picture is from a coffee I ordered this month that took 20 minutes to make)