Jul 7
Dear all our prayers partners,
I write again to thank you for your continued prayers. As I have always shared, God has showed favour to us, but I know it is also because of your prayers and the love you have showed to us continuously.
As I have shared with some of you before that there is a Muslim crusade going on in the next door mosque (which is only 20 Meters away from our house.) It is very loud and disruptive, especially in the evenings, but thankfully they at least finish by 6.30pm. What is worse is that these friends don’t read the Quran and explain as we Christians do, but all they say are terrible abuses to Christians, they read bible verses and misquote them. I thank God that He has given us all the grace to remain peaceful without being offended. He revealed to me the truth that they are not saved, so I can’t expect them to behave like those who know Christ. Therefore we should not be surprised that they behave as they do.
Recently, some of their leaders came and visited us (this included their invited guest speaker), again with lots of questions and insults. They also alleged that we Christians go on TV and speak abusive words against Muslims. In the house were Grace, Martin, Brian, and myself. Each one of us were praying for God’s guidance, and we were all listening attentively to them. Grace offered them all a cup of tea, which they took. This was the first thing to remind us that God was in control as for them to take tea in our house was not common practice for them; Muslims of that class would not normally take tea in our house as they think we eat bad things and we are dirty (pagans).
Although they had come with other intentions to argue and point fingers at us as bad people as mentioned above, we did not go their way. Firstly, I admitted that I have heard these people who abuse them on TV and I agreed that it is not a good way of sharing the Gospel. And I went ahead and repented on behalf of those people, and just in any case we the locals have done things in the manner that makes them feel we look at them as our enemies, then they should forgive us. I then read them the Bible and the verse on the second greatest commandment Jesus gave ‘’ Love your neighbour as you love yourself’’. I told them that the Bible tell us that we are neighbours who should love each other, and not see them as our enemies. (I reminded them that as a gesture towards this I had not pressed charges against them in the past when i easily could have after the case in police turned against them.) In addition I told them that as local people we have our shared enemies; these are the poverty, sickness, illiteracy, and many other common problems that we face as a community. I suggested that we should join our efforts together to fight those issues instead of fighting each other. I said that that is the reason when we do developmental things we don’t choose only those who go to church, but we do them to all people. This took them by surprise; they all thought we are different as Christians. They had never heard anyone tell them that. Actually their invited guests revealed the reason they were called, they told us that Muslims in this community think we treat them as our enemies and a threat to their religion. And they told us that they are going to tell their hosts that the impression they get from us is so different from what they have been told.
Well, we did not know where the above would lead us to, but after we had prayed we trusted that God is with us and we are safe. The conversation went on, and we ended and they promised to come back. We assumed that this meant that they intended to come back with more opposition and attacks.
To my surprise, yesterday (Tuesday) when I got home, some elders and key leaders of the Mosque and from the family of the people who put me in jail over Muslim converted were waiting for me. Their guest speakers did not come this time.
These men started their talk. It was the opposite of what we had expected. They all started repenting and apologising to me of what had happened to me and our church youths. And they said this while shedding tears. To you who are not Africans, know that African men don’t cry, so if you see an African (especially elder and high in position) crying, you know it is serious and genuine.
That is what happened.
They told me the reasons why they have come to repent, and below are the shocking reasons they gave.
1. Their guest speakers went to them and told them that they had never met such humble Christians. They said this because I repented before them, and shared what I have mentioned in paragraph 4.
2. Also, last Thursday, some widows that we have supported stormed the man’s place (the one who put me in jail). They demanded that the man had to become their donor. (we have been doing development in the community, including goats giving to widows and orphaned children.) There has been a rumour in the community that we are stopping to do this to Muslims, and the widows went mad. In their anger, they told the man that all Muslims widows are returning all their goats to me, and so he was man to replace all goats, do training and all the other things that we do in the community. The man was shocked.
3. On Friday after the prayer there was almost a big fight in the Mosque; this was over the support Christians had given to the mosque. Several Christians including myself and members of my church have donated building materials to the mosque next door in the past. On Friday last week there was a discussing that they destroy the water tank Jenga (A Christian NGO Grace and I are co-founders and still offer our services to) has done on the Mosque, and also to burn a carpet one of my church member has given to them. Others did not agree with this idea, including one of their top Imams, they said that if they did that, they should also destroy the roof, and the walls which we contributed to. It almost turned into a big fight between Muslims members of the same mosque.
4. One of the man’s sons went to him in tears. He owns a taxi my church and other churches and Christian NGOs around have used. One of the pastors had made a joke on what his father did to me putting me in jail. So he was very embarrassed of the father’s action. He told him to stop or else he was going to leave the home and go somewhere else.
5. Finally there is one of the relatives of the man (that had put me in jail). In the past I have given him a loan that he had paid back. This time I don’t know whether he really wanted a loan or he was just to defend me, but he went to him demanding that he gives him a loan of three million shillings. And he said that the reason he went to him was because he has been told that I am moving away from Mooni because this man and others did not want me, so he can’t get a loan from me. All these attacks made the man and others involved feel bad of their actions.
So for all these reasons they started feeling that it is a spiritual attack against them. They have had demonic attacks as well as many other problems. They even think that maybe my church has prayed and we are involved in causing the trouble that t hey are experiencing. So with all this going on, they are now approaching us before the calamity they are in can grow bigger.
There have been many situations where we could have (and sometimes wanted to) fight back both vocally and physically. When times were particularly tough, it was hard to love these people and not to be tempted and fight in the way the world would and show them that we were not weak. But somehow, by the Grace of God we were able to step back and trust that God would be faithful and that He would intervene. The Bible is full of references that encourage us to that the Battle belongs to the Lord and when we fully rely on him he will always come through for us. These pages are a testimony to that. Not only did we not have to fight back- but he chose the elders, the widows and even their own leaders and children to do it for us!
All in all I am not only writing this to let you know how through Christ we are victorious, but I just wanted all Christians to know that prayer works, and especially that in choosing not to fight back, but letting it all to God, he will raise others to fight for you.
I hope this also helps to build your faith in case you have attacks similar or different to ours, to know that God is still in charge if we give it all to Him. This may not be the end of the fight with Muslims in this community, but it is a great sign to us as a church that we should not give up doing good, and that we should not fight evil by evil, but rather to move forward with courage, trusting that he is there for us.
God bless you and keep praying for our neighbours and for our courage and strength to continue serving the Lord.
And please pass this to others who pray and yet I have not managed to send it to them.
In Jesus’ name.
Pastor Vincent
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