Heather is a poor widow who lived her entire life in the desert in a tent but has recently been given a small house by the government. Heather has settled into this house and is learning to cope but she misses her life in the tent. She has become a good friend and last month I brought a gas burner to Heather as hers had broken and she was very thankful. I told her our provision of the burner was from God’s love and that He loves all of us. We had a nice visit as we drank tea made on the new gas burner! I decided to show her the local dialect video we have of God providing for Hagar and Ishmael in the desert in order to show her His love and provision. She was engaged with the video, enjoyed it and was very positive about it. On a previous visit a long time ago, I told her the story of the Samaritan woman so I decided to show her the video clip of this story. She was also very engaged with the video and she was able to relate back to me part of the story. We discussed again His love for everyone and His knowledge of who the woman was. We talked about His miracles and so I decided to show her the video of Jesus raising Jairus’ daughter . After this video she asked where Jesus lives today (thinking that He was living on the earth now- it seemed as if she wanted to know where she could find Him).
It was really encouraging to hear her question and see her interest. We talked about how Jesus was born and then I showed her the story of Joseph and Mary and the angel’s visit to Mary. She also watched with much interest. This is a very simple and illiterate woman and I was very encouraged to see how she was engaged with the videos, understanding them and wanting to know more about the Messiah. I prayed for another opportunity to visit her and share.
Another opportunity came to visit Heather again. She made tea and her sister came over as well. During the visit, she said something about Jesus using Yesuu’ the Christian dialect, rather than Muslim dialect, name for Him. I was surprised since her people rarely use this name for Him. It made me feel that there was an opening to show her more videos about Him. So I showed her the clip from the Magdalena film about the women with bleeding coming to touch Jesus. She and her sister watched and listened eagerly. Heather really wanted to see who Jesus was on the video and I had to explain that it was just an actor and not really Him. But I was amazed at how she’s drawn to Him. Then we talked more about Jesus and His love for everyone and his power to heal. I felt a real openness on her part and so felt led to go ahead and show them the story of the trial, death and resurrection of Jesus. The Lord provided an opening to do this and they were able to watch these videos without interruption.
They were clearly moved as they watched the crucifixion story and with joy I showed them the resurrection clip. After this, I was able to share more about why Jesus died and she says she does believe this. I told her to call upon Jesus when she prays and she said that she has already been praying, using the name of Jesus. She commented that these are the best stories she’s ever heard and that she’d really love to have a phone to play them so she can watch them on her own. I’ve been very encouraged to see Heather’s interest in Jesus through these videos and I will continue to pray for opportunities to follow up and have more discussion together.