Last Saturday, we went to our local friend's house. I have had the opportunity to visit her home 7 or 8 times now. Each time has been wonderful, and each time we've had some sort of spiritual conversation…always initiated by her! This time we arrived, ate lunch she had prepared, and then went to a nearby small store to buy ingredients for the food she wanted to teach us to make. She was very proud to show off to the shopkeeper the Arabic that we had learned. Then, we returned home to make the "flour" for a local breakfast dish. The dish consists of various grains and legumes, roasted and ground into a powder. We sat on her back porch for a couple of hours working, with the wonderful blessing of having her children playing peacefully inside the house (which is rare!). We cleaned each grain/legume, picking out stones, bugs, and dirt. Then we started a big outdoor gas stove and dry roasted each ingredient separately. Later, we would walk across town to have our half-full 5 gallon bucket ground up into a fine powder, to which oil could be added at any point to make the dish (in small quantities).
While sitting there cleaning and roasting the grains (which was a very surreal experience!), we got to chat with our friend, possibly the longest uninterrupted conversation I've had with her! We talked about many things. The highlight of the day though was the spiritual conversation we had with her. She began talking about a movie that she had seen, which she said really showed her how evil people can be. We asked some probing questions about what she thought about people being evil, and what the solution was. She explained her perspective, talking about prayer as the answer. She thinks that a person just needs to pray enough for God to make things better. She understands that it is not just the action of prayer that matters, but the heart of the person praying. She said that God can choose whether or not to accept someone's prayers...so you can never really know if you will make it to heaven. I got the opportunity to then share with her what I believe: that because people's hearts are completely wicked, we cannot even seek after God. We can't pray with the right heart. Nothing we can do is enough. So we have to pray to God through Jesus, trusting in His sacrifice to allow us to have a relationship with God. There must be a consequence for our sin…and Jesus has taken that upon Himself.
This was an incredible conversation to have! My friend still does not see her need for Jesus. She still thinks that prayer is the way to God…but she is beginning to see that it is not something she can do in her own power. Something I have learned from my conversations with her is that people coming to follow Christ here is a slow process…and that's ok. I do not feel any rush to try to get her to begin following Christ tomorrow…or even next week or next month. I trust that one day she will…but I know that it is a slow process. I cannot rush it but have to patiently share as God opens doors. He is working in her heart! He is causing her to ask amazing questions. She has been learning and hearing…not just since I arrived…but for several years. She has had other people already pouring into her. I am just one person among many to love her and speak truth to her. That's not necessarily the case with everyone here…most people have never heard. But my dear friend has. It breaks my heart to hear her honest reflections on her life and her family. I desperately want her to know her value and hope in Christ. Yet, I wait.... I wait and I trust that God's timing is perfect. He will work in her heart when and how He wants. Join me in pleading with our Heavenly Father for her sake...and for countless others like her in this place.