When she moved to live in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2015, Becca did not know whether she would meet any unreached peoples. After all, didn’t everyone in the city have access to the gospel?
She discovered that there was a large population of Muslims who were ethnically Indian living in her neighborhood. As she made friends with the women, she discovered they were insulated from Christians but were open to her friendship. She developed relationships with them by visiting with them in their homes and inviting them to visit in hers. Muslim women are generally not hesitant to talk about their beliefs, and they are open to answering questions and having discussions about their religion. Becca met one woman, Miriam who became a very special friend.
Meet Miriam.
Here is an account of one of their visits, and how the Lord gave an opportunity that day to share the gospel.
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“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Psalm 119: 105
The entrance of the Word gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.” Psalms 119: 130
I thought about these verses after I visited Miriam again this week. She was full of chatter about her family and her new grandson. When I told her about the health challenges I’d had recently she got very sober. “Well, don’t let it disturb you too much, you know that our suffering is expiating our sins, so in the Day of Judgment you will have fewer sins to your account.”
Later she told me that she had been able to encourage a family who were moving further away from the mosque with this thought: “Every extra step you have to take to get to the mosque each day is more credit for good works in the Last Day. So it’s actually to your advantage to make this change.”
Credit and Debit.
That is the way she thinks about our lives, a patchwork of good deeds and bad deeds, a piling up of actions that tilt the balance more heavily in one direction or another till death, when we face the Judge who assigns us our sentence.
When I google the word “expiation” the sites that pop up are mostly Islamic. The idea of erasing your sins by various means, thus cancelling them out, is a major theme.
Except no one can actually pay for all their sins. So what you rely on is that after you have heard how much you still owe on your debt, God will feel merciful and just forgive the rest. Or most of it. You’ll suffer a little more after you die, till you’ve finished the debt and are released to get into paradise.
Finally I was able to get in a word.
My thoughts swirled so fast, what should I say?
“Miriam, your relationship to God is so different from mine. This sounds like everything you do is just in order to get more positive points on His balance sheet!”
“Oh, yes!” she said delightedly. As though by understanding it I would see what a beautiful system is was, so great to have it all figured out. Make your payments now and in the Last Day you will owe much, much less, see? That’s why we do these things like go to mosque.
"Don’t you go to church for the same reason?"
Belonging.
To help her understand, I used the analogy of a family. Children are simply born into a family, they don’t earn the right. Belonging is a fact. God is the Father, and I came into His family through putting my trust in Jesus Christ, who made the sacrifice that cleansed all my sins. Jesus is the Way, the Door, into the great household of God. When I was born again into God’s family, He put His Holy Spirit in me as He does in every believer, and now we normally love to be together. We love to enjoy family time, we’re not trying to buy our Father’s acceptance. And He did everything that was needed to satisfy the demands of His own justice.
She griped a bit, then said, “Oh, well, of course, we should all want to attend mosque because we love Allah, not just for credit. But that is not usually what we are thinking about.”
Miriam has to think about doing more good works to add to her account; no one else will do that for her. Every day, she has to think about how to “do good” and “be good” and “add good works.” What a burden to carry.
"Oh, glorious grace that took all my own burdens and laid them on Jesus, and filled me with opportunity to live and move and have my being in the fullness of doing what He loves to do with and through me!" -Becca
The Good News.
She can’t enter into what the Scriptures call “the glorious freedom of the children of God.” Freedom to think about my Father’s business, not about my own. Free to give heart and soul and strength and mind to participating in whatever He is doing, not in my own redemption.
I wouldn’t know any of this without the Bible. And through the light shed on my way by the Bible and the Spirit of God, I receive understanding and guidance and peace and joy. Meantime, when I left she hugged me tight and thanked me for coming. I will keep coming, sweet friend. I will come again and again, and not because it’s earning me anything, just because I love you.
It’s a treasure to have the Word of God. What a great, great blessing it has been to me all my life. Jesus, the Living Word, said this: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life. -John 8:12” -Becca
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Trust.
Becca trusts that one day Miriam and her whole family will put their faith in Jesus as their Savior and God. It is important to patiently persevere in witnessing to Muslims. By some calculations a Muslim usually needs to hear the gospel about 50 times before she will decide to follow Jesus. The process has been compared to that of a woman who goes into a store to look at a beautiful dress but doesn’t buy it because of the high price. Yet she continues to return to the shop to look at it again and again. One day she decides to buy it, having counted the cost. In the same way Muslims are evaluating what it will cost them if they become followers of Jesus. It is important to continue offering them His gift of eternal life and entrance into His family again and again.
Miriam has not yet become a believer, but now that Becca has moved away from Nairobi, another missionary continues to visit her and Becca stays in touch with her through WhatsApp messaging.
Pray.
Pray that Miriam and others like her will put their faith in Jesus as their Savior and God, and be welcomed into local churches.
Pray that more missionaries will befriend and share the gospel with East Africans of Indian background.
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About the Author: Becca and her husband Colin have lived in East Africa on and off since 1986, living among and sharing the gospel with four different Unreached People Groups. She now lives and works in Atlanta, GA serving among African immigrants and refugees through AIM’s Borderless initiative, while Colin serves as AIM’s US Director. They have three grown children and one granddaughter.