The other night (Thursday night, to be exact) I had a "first encounter". I was walking to the mall, a mere 1.1km away from the house, when a voice came out from the darkness saying "hello!". A Filipino man emerged from the darkness, chewing leaves, spitting red juice virtually everywhere. He had a jacket on and for some reason I could see his breath (it was 76 degrees out). He asked me if I was American in Sibuhano and I thought to myself "heck yeah, I get to practice!" So I answered back to him that yes, I was American. He asked me if I lived around here and I told him the name of our street, right around the corner. He asked me how long we had been here and I was able to tell him one month, but it was at point that I realized that he didn't even speak Cebuano, he was speaking something else, a tribal language of some sort. I asked him in Cebuano if he spoke English and he said a little. That made the conversation flow. After he asked me about my job in America (hahaha) I told him I worked here in the Philippines with churches, and I got to ask him if he was a Christian....no was the response, he was a Muslim. My heart both started to get really excited and really nervous at the same time. Excited because I was about to "do it" about to drop the Jesus-mic on this guy, and nervous because I have heard not very nice things about Muslims from some parts of the Philippines*. We started talking about converts to Islam, and I didn't know a one that he mentioned, some big name pastor from Manila apparently converted to Islam but I didn't know who he was talking about. He then asked me how my church calls me to prayer, and I got to respond with, well, it doesn't, Baptists typically believe that we are to be praying at all times, and that there is no set prayer time, our lives are supposed to be nothing but prayer. He told me that Islam was true, the Koran was all truth and the Bible was full of lies and that I needed to convert to Islam. I responded that my soul hungers and thirsts for nothing but Christ, and with Christ I have everything, no matter if I have "dili balay, dili pagkaon, dili tubig" (no house, no food, no water in bad Cebuano). Without Christ, I have absolutely nothing, and with Christ, I have "pulos" (Everything, still bad Cebuano). He told me that he wanted to look at the Koran together, as I mentioned something about it saying that everyone who does not follow the words of Jesus go to hell, and he would get me an English copy of the Koran so we could look at it. His name is Salah, please pray for him and our next few encounters, we exchanged phone numbers and hopefully we will be able to talk again!
The mosquitoes were AWFUL that night, being a little bit after 12 hours of straight rain. I might now have some sort of tropical disease, but probably not.
I know that was mostly stunted, rambling dialogue, but I really wanted to share this little event with you guys who read the stuff we put out and ask that you guys pray for Salah, he definitely wants to follow God, but he just doesn't know that we don't have to work for our salvation, that we can rest in the one who is not only the Prophet, but the Priest, and the King, and rest in what He has done for us, so that we don't have to try to present our filthy rags before the throne of God on the Last Day in hopes that they will be enough for Eternal Life. Pray that Salah comes to know that Jesus is more than just a prophet, He is the culmination and reason for everything we do.
Thanks.
*Recognizing that not every Muslim is "extremist" and out to kill every Christian they run into, some parts of Mindanao are not safe for Christians for that very reason.