Room 4
Room 4
Where prayer rugs are for Bible studies and ironing clothes!
My roommate had stopped the ritual prayer months ago. After wrestling with why God was allowing bad things to happen to her, she lost the desire and ability to do it. Instead, the prayer rug was used for ironing clothes and besides that was left untouched. Last week she decided that we should study the Bible and Quran everyday, and we began a daily study before we fell asleep each night. We laid the Islamic prayer rugs on the ground and sat them, Bibles in hand. We started with Genesis 1-3 as she didn’t want to stop, and she summarized the whole story, almost verbatim having remembered even small details. She understood it perfectly as if she had read it before. Then we picked up the Quran and she stumbled over every single word, not understanding a single thing being said. After asking me to define certain words as the Quran was written in such difficult English, and asking me to rephrase as even with the simpler words she didn’t get what it was saying, she eventually gave up only after a handful of verses. For her summary she could only think of one point since she didn’t understand what it was trying to say. “The Bible is so easy to understand,” she said. The juxtaposition was stark.
Another night, after reading the Bible she said she was tired and didn’t want to read Quran. Another night, we read only a few verses of Quran and she said “that’s enough for now. Astaghfirullah tooba (God forgive, I repent) the Quran is too difficult, we’ll eventually get through it.” Again, the contrast was blatant.
Another night she said she couldn’t touch the Quran as she was ceremonially unclean that day, but asked if it was permissible to touch the Bible. I said yes and we continued on our journey through Genesis.
Needless to say, our comparative study has been slowly evolving into just a Bible study as her joy and excitement with the Bible is contrasted with the great effort and difficulty of reading the Quran. Praise God she is in the Word daily- pray the Lord would transform her through His Word.
Pray for “Zahid” whose pursuit of God has led him to be labeled as “kaafir” (infidel, unbeliever) by others. “I like your religion,” he told me after asking if song and dance was a part of my belief system.
Starting my fourth semester (out of 8) on Monday. Praise God for all He is doing here and for bringing me to this place. Praise God for how He is working. After not finding a solid church community here in Peshawar, I came to the conclusion that perhaps it was time to build a new one, though I’m not sure what or how that would look. Praise God for this unexpected answer to prayer with a daily Bible study with my roommate and sudden demand for Books and deep spiritual conversations with my university friends. Thank God for His mercy to all peoples.
Thank you all for praying!
to become a financial Ministry partner with me click on the following link:
Where prayer rugs are for Bible studies and ironing clothes!
My roommate had stopped the ritual prayer months ago. After wrestling with why God was allowing bad things to happen to her, she lost the desire and ability to do it. Instead, the prayer rug was used for ironing clothes and besides that was left untouched. Last week she decided that we should study the Bible and Quran everyday, and we began a daily study before we fell asleep each night. We laid the Islamic prayer rugs on the ground and sat them, Bibles in hand. We started with Genesis 1-3 as she didn’t want to stop, and she summarized the whole story, almost verbatim having remembered even small details. She understood it perfectly as if she had read it before. Then we picked up the Quran and she stumbled over every single word, not understanding a single thing being said. After asking me to define certain words as the Quran was written in such difficult English, and asking me to rephrase as even with the simpler words she didn’t get what it was saying, she eventually gave up only after a handful of verses. For her summary she could only think of one point since she didn’t understand what it was trying to say. “The Bible is so easy to understand,” she said. The juxtaposition was stark.
Another night, after reading the Bible she said she was tired and didn’t want to read Quran. Another night, we read only a few verses of Quran and she said “that’s enough for now. Astaghfirullah tooba (God forgive, I repent) the Quran is too difficult, we’ll eventually get through it.” Again, the contrast was blatant.
Another night she said she couldn’t touch the Quran as she was ceremonially unclean that day, but asked if it was permissible to touch the Bible. I said yes and we continued on our journey through Genesis.
Needless to say, our comparative study has been slowly evolving into just a Bible study as her joy and excitement with the Bible is contrasted with the great effort and difficulty of reading the Quran. Praise God she is in the Word daily- pray the Lord would transform her through His Word.
Pray for “Zahid” whose pursuit of God has led him to be labeled as “kaafir” (infidel, unbeliever) by others. “I like your religion,” he told me after asking if song and dance was a part of my belief system.
Starting my fourth semester (out of 8) on Monday. Praise God for all He is doing here and for bringing me to this place. Praise God for how He is working. After not finding a solid church community here in Peshawar, I came to the conclusion that perhaps it was time to build a new one, though I’m not sure what or how that would look. Praise God for this unexpected answer to prayer with a daily Bible study with my roommate and sudden demand for Books and deep spiritual conversations with my university friends. Thank God for His mercy to all peoples.
Thank you all for praying!
to become a financial Ministry partner with me click on the following link:
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