Monthly Archives: October 2025

I’m writing this afternoon from the colossal IAH airport in Houston! Our family, some church friends and I are en route to a week of medical outreach, earthquake rebuilding and elderly care. We’ve been resourced on our way by the kind and generous gifts of many Muslim Connect readers. For this I’m very grateful. 

The dozen of us are joined in the gate area by at least two other mission teams (judging by the folks with matching Christian t-shirts!) and a couple of LDS missionaries (judging by the name tags that say “Elder Braden” and “Elder Jayden”) 

I’m confident we’re all doing God-ordained, helpful work (Well, maybe not Braden and Jayden!). But get this: If there are 20 of us on this flight, that puts the missionary to Guatemala resident ratio at roughly one to a million! If you’ve been around the mobilization world for a while, you’ll remember that was for a time the ratio of any workers among all Muslims globally. Of course there are additional scads of full time workers in Guatemala, as well as a vibrant healthy church. 

I believe with all my heart that God calls who he wants where he wants to do what he wants done. 

That said, we need more laborers to the Muslim world where the ratios are not so hopeful. Tons more! Maybe some Guatemalans! In fact, I’ll miss two of the favorite medicos from the place we’re going because they’re off in the Middle East scouting long term opportunities! May God connect them and use them as a vanguard of growing numbers of workers from Central America. And may some from somewhere find God leading them to the remaining 1500 unengaged peoples who still wait for the first ambassadors to arrive. 

As God brings us to mind, I’d value your prayers for God’s success for our group, for good health and good attitudes. 

Have you ever wracked your brain for the next thing to say, the next question to ask? You know, you’re trying to impress a young lady or guy. Or maybe, “If I asked the right insightful question right now, I will kill this interview!”

If you love Muslims, want them to find life in Jesus and have been nurturing some good friendships, you might find yourself thinking, “There’s a helpful, spiritual conversation waiting to happen with this friend, if I could just figure out how to turn the corner.”

For starters: That’s a good thing to keep wondering about. It’s possible to plateau in friendship and fail to ever get to an invitation to meet Jesus. 

For seconds: I’ve never been good at this. While you’re looking for experts to learn from, I’ll share some ideas and things I’ve tried.

1. Ask your friend, “How can I pray for you?” Then do so.
   If you stick around long enough in someone’s life, there will be days when they’re sad, hurt, broken or confused. Jesus seemed happy to minister to people like that, so we’re on good ground asking a friend if we can ask Jesus to help them. When Jesus comes through (and I know he doesn’t always do so just as we’d like), your friend will likely be more open.
2. Question the Quran
   You can use the Quran to deepen the conversation. One, emphasize and discuss the overlap between it and the Bible. Or, if your tastes tend toward the polemic, you can kick around some of the challenges found in the Quran. For instance, “The Quran affirms the inspiration, authority, and preservation of the New Testament Gospels; yet the Quran also contradicts the Gospels on major theological and historical points. Therefore, the Quran cannot be reliable.”
3. Ask if you can tell a story Jesus told.
   Many Muslims are from cultures with a blend of values that incline them to like stories and make them loathe to tell a friend no! Plus, after one or two, you’ll remember and they’ll discover the guy told some amazing stories. Here are a couple dozen to get you started. 

I’m writing this week from a very happy place. While God has been exceedingly kind allowing me to live in a very beautiful setting with an amazing family, our community is way low on the diversity scale.

This week, however, I’m participating in a gathering of the Global Alliance for Church Multiplication (GACX). It is so cool! The crowd is made up of “Implementers,” those who are actually involved in church planting efforts in the U.S. and around the world. The other category is “Accelerators,” those who are resourcing and cheering on the implementers. 

If I hadn’t already told you I was present here, I’d say this looks a little bit like Heaven must. 

For example: 
I had lunch yesterday with a Bengali grandpa who’s recently moved from Bangladesh to NYC. He drives for Uber and fills his days sharing Jesus with the 200,000 Bengalis there. 

A younger Bengali man shared his vision for 10% of his homeland following Jesus by 2042. (To save you a trip to Chatgpt: 20% of the population of Bangladesh is nearly 18 million people!) 

A guy from northeast Africa drives for 11 hours across Ethiopia to train pastors who travel six hours to the venue. . . by horse! 

An Indian researcher shared with me (in the only language that I know) that he speaks seven languages! A decent estimate says he could chat with 30% of the planet’s population! 

A guy from northwest Africa got booted from his country’s special forces when his conversion became known. Threats and persecution compelled him to the U.S. where he now leads a ministry for Muslim background believers. 

And so many Americans are here who’ve lived abroad for years, who raise money from family and friends to simply put bread on their tables. 

I have been surrounded by saints. I’ve heard so many encouraging stories of God’s good work around the globe. Take courage: We live in hopeful days. God’s promises are coming to pass.