"I'm Muslim & we believe Jesus is alive!"

You must think I've twisted someone's words, but I promise you this was said in a conversation on campus with two Muslim student women.

Maria (far left) and I also took a tool called “perspective cards” and walked up to two young women sitting at the Starbucks on campus to initiate spiritual conversation. The purpose of Perspective is to ask the person surveyed to choose the cards that best represents what he/she believes about the following: Nature of God, Human Nature, Meaning and Purpose of Life, Identity of Jesus Christ,  & Source of Spiritual Truth.  

This step of faith led to a 2 hour conversation with Oraib, a Muslim student originally from Jordan, and Saeeda, the president of the Kean Muslim Student Association. Maria, being from Egypt, immediately related to them on a language level. And I connected with them, even more than we already were, after learning in the conversation that they both studied sign language! These new relationships support the importance of listening to others in the midst of evangelism.

For details of my conversation with Saeeda and Oraib, read below! :)

In using the tool called "Perspective", I presented the question "What do you believe about the identity of Jesus?" and laid out 5 different cards each with a title to apply to Chris.

The two women, part of the Muslim Student Association at Kean University, both chose the card that said "Good Spiritual Leader" and Saeeda "I think we believe he rose from the dead too, but that's not here." Her friend, Oraib, exclaimed "no we don't! What are you? Catholic?!" We all laughed and continued with the conversation assuming she was right in her correction.

Following this 2 hour conversation, we exchanged phone numbers and agreed to greet one another whenever we saw each other on campus. Since this conversation, I've seen Saeeda & Oraib multiple times on campus with nothing to do but talk! :) Whenever we see each other on campus, Oraib, who wears a hijab and has a sign name "scarfy" signs with me and chats a bit about Jesus.

 :) Just this week, following Easter Sunday, Oraib waved to me from across the cafeteria and introduced me and a student to her friend. (I was training the student in how to use the same tool I used to share the Gospel with Oraib two weeks earlier.) "Tabitha! I spoke to my mom and it turns out we do believe Jesus rose from the dead!" (My dad had told me earlier that week that indeed Muslims do believe Jesus is alive but I completely forgot to mention it until Oraib brought it up.) Immediately I responded "REALLY?! You believe that? Then why wasn't Mohammad raised too?" Her friend responded "I think it has something to do with how badly they wanted to crucify Him. Mohammad wasn't sought after like that." Simply desiring to build relationship, I replied "Hmmm... really? Well okay. Hey, I'm teaching my friend here how to do this survey with students on campus. It's the same one we did two weeks ago with your friend, Oraib. Think you wanna play?" The young woman looked hesitantly but my new friend, Oraib, whisked the cards from my hand and said "sure she does! Let's start! I'll help collect the cards when you are done!"

Oraib's friend finished the survey with me rather quickly, giving me all the answers a good Muslim would. When we concluded, Oraib handed me the cards she had collected that would represent what a Christian believes and  said "here's what Tabitha believes as a Christian"!!

Prayer Request:

Please continue to pray for my and Maria's relationships with Oraib & Saeeda to show them that God loves them and has a wonderful plan for their lives.