Stories from our field
Uzbek team often interacts with Muslims
Our Uzbek team conducts dozens of chat conversations every week, mostly with Muslims. Our team leader, Piet Dekker (not his real name) talks about the wonderful interaction they have with these people. But also about how difficult it can be if contact is broken and you don’t know how someone is doing.
For example, there is an Uzbek Muslim woman with whom there was very good contact. Piet explains: “She did the entire Bible Basics course. She had so many questions about religion, but kept shouting loudly that she was a Muslim.
I have patiently answered all her questions. She shared that her life is difficult, her parents left her with her uncle when she was about ten years old, and she has never heard from them since. I offered to pray for her with my wife. She was so grateful!”
Lost contact
“Eventually this woman wanted to receive a Bible. Via a network I was able to arrange for a Christian to leave it with her. She was very grateful. However, after a week or two, the contact suddenly stopped. Her Telegram account was closed. She stopped responding to email. What was going on? Has a family member found out she has a Bible and forced her to cut off all contact? Or did this come from herself?
My heart breaks when I think of her. Pray that she may come to Jesus and contact Christians!”
A surprised young man
A young man asks, “What is the difference between this religion and other religions?”
Piet”s answer to him: “The main difference is that in all religions you have to do many good things in order to go to heaven. But it never becomes clear how many good things are enough. Only by believing in Jesus Christ are all your sins washed away, because He suffered and died and thus took on all our sins. If we accept this, we know for sure that we can go to heaven.” The young man replies: “I am very surprised at your answer, I did not know this. I have a lot of conscious and unconscious sins. If I have another religion, what must I do to accept your religion?”
Piet says: “Of course I answered that calmly. Only God knows how he is now. That’s the internet. You come alongside and usually never see each other again.”
An encouragement
An Uzbek Christian woman writes to the team:
“Good day! Every time I go on Facebook, I check your site. Thank you for sharing the Word of God with Muslims! May God bless you and fill you with His wisdom and grace! I need information about the Quran, so I decided to turn to you. All my nearest and dearest and relatives are Muslim.”
Piet: “I advised her to get the book Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus by Nabeel Qureshi. She responded so happily to this, she said: “I heard about this book years ago, but I couldn’t remember the title, this is exactly what I need!”
What encouragement to continue spreading the good news!
