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As I write it’s Mother’s Day throughout the Arab world, which means it’s Mother’s Day in Gaza. I can’t even imagine the sorrow of tens of thousands of Muslim moms who’ve lost children, husbands, parents and precious nieces and nephews since the travesty of Oct. 7th. 

Surely the loss of life and livelihood devastates hope. It’s one thing to persist in pursuing a light at the end of the tunnel, but when the light has been all but snuffed out, how do you keep going?

There was another holiday in the Middle East this week: Nowruz, or Persian New Year. Although it predates Islam, with origins in Zoroastrianism, tons of Muslims enjoy this celebration of Spring. Of course this is a problem in “our way is the only way” cleric-run Iran! The Taliban frowns on it in Afghanistan too. 

In case you’ve not been reading Muslim Connect for over a year, a goldfish is one of the traditional symbols of Nowruz. I encourage you to buy one (If you buy a feeder fish, you’ll give it a longer life than it might otherwise have had!), name it Nowruz and each time you feed it, pray for Persians to find the abundant life Jesus died for them to enjoy.

Finally, as you probably know, we’re almost half way through Ramadan. Rather, Muslims worldwide are. This time of daily fasting and nightly feasting means so much to our Muslim cousins. 

In I Kings 8, Solomon prayed, as he dedicated the temple, that God would hear and answer the prayers of non-Jews directed toward that place. As Muslims up their prayer game during Ramadan, please join me in asking God to hear and answer their prayers for forgiveness and deliverance that “all the people of the earth will come to know and fear him.”

Can you indulge me a little trip down memory land for this edition of Muslim Connect? 

Many years ago, during a three month stint in Bangkok, I got a crazy fun opportunity to hop over to Indonesia with my boss, mentor and hero, Steve Hawthorne. We were scouting locations for future “Joshua Project” research teams in Medan and Banda Aceh. 

I remember chatting in our local host’s home our first evening in the country. The TV had been burbling along in the background, when suddenly it had our host’s full attention: His eyes were glued to the set where a sheik of some sort was making an announcement. He finished his speech and our host turned to us, “Now we eat!” The end of the day’s fast had been proclaimed. 

He took some tea and a bit of food, offered us the same, and I experienced my first ever iftar, the ceremonial fast breaking at the end of each day of Ramadan. It is, if I’m honest with you, one of my favorite parts of the whole event! 

A few years later while kicking around Frankfurt, Germany learning about Muslim immigrants there, some guys at a mosque invited us back in the evening for iftar. That’s an invitation I’ll very rarely pass on! 

We showed up, sat down and awaited the time when evening, and therefore fast breaking, would officially arrive. When it did, our hosts, channeling their ancient Beduin forebears, insisted we take the tea and dates first. So I, the dude with a half-drunk water bottle in my backpack, ate before the guys who’d not sipped since a long ago sunrise. Hospitality worth emulating. 

My favorite iftar so far occurred not long ago when some buds and I hosted a meal for our young, asylum-seeking friends in Catania, Sicily. With no money in their pockets and their moms, mosques and favorite Ramadan munchies far away over the sea, those guys could use some blessings. 

We borrowed tables and chairs, commandeered a little piazza, made soup, and bought fresh baked bread. We invited all our new friends and together we thanked God for the simple joys of good food, multi-colored friends and the hope of better times to come. 

Do you ever think how good it is that God loves people we can’t or maybe don’t? This morning I’m thankful that God loves deaf people. I’m acquainted with one or two deaf people, but close to none. 

When you look across the landscape of unengaged people groups (those who have no one living among them working to reproduce disciples), many are deaf communities in otherwise engaged peoples. The broader group might be massively underserved, but the deaf community within that group has no one telling the good news of Jesus. 

Mike Latsko, who heads up a cadre of people focused on seeing the remaining ~1600 unengaged people groups engaged, says, “5% of our list, that’s around 80 groups, are distinct deaf communities or peoples.” 

You probably know that deaf communities have legitimate cultural identity that endures after following Jesus. On the sadder side, they also experience isolation from their broader cultural context. 

So what can be done to get Jesus people sharing with pre-Jesus people who are deaf? Well, since the “Shane learns Arabic” ship has most likely sailed, I’m probably not going to learn Arabic sign language either! Further, it’s often very difficult for the non-deaf to connect at a heart level with deaf people. 

Here are three encouraging signs: 
An alliance of Bible translation organizations called illumiNations includes 400 sign languages on their list of translations to be finished by 2033!

Door International is translating scripture into sign languages and also training deaf people to go two by two into deaf communities around the world to plant deaf churches! 80 of these teams have been sent so far. 

Finally, this simple, short, winsomevideo from the International Mission Board shows five things newbies like me need to know about Deaf Peoples.

As Ramadan begins this Monday, March 11th, please join me in praying for these ministries and the millions of deaf Muslims who’ll not hear the call to prayer nor that Jesus loves them. May someone show them soon. Please pray as well for faithful Muslim Connect reader Shelly who’s working on translating the Bible into Mexican Sign Language! Go Shelly!

Had any good dreams lately? I mean “while you’re asleep” dreams, not “I dream of world peace,” which is definitely a good dream! Ahead of our sharing the preaching duties at church last Sunday, my wife dreamed that I kept trying to dance with her during the sermon! Happily her righteous anger quickly dissipated once she woke up!

While we might speculate on the origin of hers, dream interpretation and dreams in general, are not big in my stream of Christianity, practical protestants that we are! 

Not so with all Christians and definitely not so with Muslims. In fact, according to Nile Green, dreams and their interpretations have been a part of Muslim culture since the beginning. 

Sunnis believe that the adhan [call to prayer] was not written or said by the Islamic prophet, Muhammad, but rather by one of his companions, Abdullah ibn Zayd, who reportedly had a vision in his dream in which the adhan was revealed to him by God.

In his book, Dreams and Visions: Is Jesus Awakening the Muslim World?, Tom Doyle talks about how dreams of Jesus have led many Muslims to faith. 

In this unverified Facebook report, Dr. Mike Licona shares news from an underground Christian ministry in Palestine saying Jesus recently appeared to about 200 men in their dreams in one night! 

I have a dear Muslim background friend who began to follow Jesus after the Lord showed up to him in a vision. I believe it happens. 

I also suspect, with some data and good reason, that it happens more during Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting that starts soon. And what if it happens more if we ask God for it? 

If you’re up for trying, join with our friends at Pray4Movement.org to pray for Muslims during this coming Ramadan. And because the Muslim Connect tribe is all about inviting everyone to the party, please consider how you might share the prayer vision with others. 

Have you ever sensed something was up with your body, then welcomed the clarity of a clear diagnosis, even if it wasn’t what you’d hoped for? You may have dealt with that in a very serious manner, but I’m being cheeky with the following:

I’ve been diagnosed, courtesy of Dr. Benedict Beckeld and his article, Islam and the West: Culturally and Theologically Divided, in Merion West: 

I am oikophobic and allophilic, and it’s probably terminal. 

To be clear: Dr. Beckeld is smarter than me, probably by an order of magnitude. But, even though he’s much better looking, he’s also very wordy. I didn’t make it to the end of his article! 

If you’ve even dabbled in Greek, you can parse the words, right? Oiko and phobic = you’re afraid of your house. Allo and philic = you love the other. In common usage, oikophobics aren’t actually afraid of their literal houses, but are given to criticism and rejection of their home culture. Allophilics have an inordinate love for “the other,” those outside their culture or homeland. 

As you might imagine, Dr. Beckeld uses these terms pejoratively, and, with others, tends to equate oikophobia with academia, the liberal elite and political correctness. 

Me? I’m going to print stickers and fridge magnets!! 

I’m kidding. Fridge magnets are expensive. 

Two things I think (seriously, for a moment): 

We should consider these words and their popular use a warning to mobilizers. I can give the impression that I only care about people if they’re non-white and worship Allah. It’s a peculiar risk for people who care about Muslims, immigrants and refugees. But the label shouldn’t stick. 

Secondly, we must be critical of our own cultures, particularly in ways that will render them better. If doing that in biblical ways gets us labeled oikophobic and allophilic, so it goes. 

Finally, is it possible that Jesus by reaching out to Samaritans and sinners, not playing nicely with religious leaders and saying his kingdom was “not of this world” could have been allophonic and oikophobic? He was called worse! 

PS: If you’ve got 30 seconds, please hop over to Denison Forum and comment on the article I had published there today! I’d be big time grateful! Thank you. 

Did you watch the Super Bowl last Sunday? Over 200 million of us tuned in for at least part of it! That’s the most ever, including increased numbers of Hispanic viewers via Univision and more women than ever (via Taylor Swift?!). There was even a simulcast from Bikini Bottom, courtesy of Nickelodeon, which, due an internet issue, my buds and I enjoyed for a bit! 

If you did watch, maybe you saw the He Gets Us Foot-washing commercial. What did you think? Feel? What, if anything, did it stir in you? (I’d love to hear.)

You can guess what I thought, right? I loved it!! 

First off, it’s a counter-message to an idea which seems to be growing that Christians are best at not liking stuff: Sin, bad people, political opposition, whatever. Too many of us are too often pigeon-holed as haters and identified by what we’re against. But it’s what we’re for that really rocks: The fullness of the kingdom of God in our hearts, down the street and all over this beautiful world!

Secondly, the commercial reminds us of an aspect of Jesus that probably doesn’t get as much air time as it should: He came to serve. Similarly, Christians might not get reminded as often as would be good for us that essential to our calling is loving and serving people we wouldn’t naturally love and serve. 

Finally, a Muslim woman, sitting in the lawn chair of my Indiana youth, gets her feet washed. Yes. Yes. Yes. Those of us claiming the gift of life Jesus offers (and reading this silly email) can surely agree: Part of the way we (at least some of us) steward that gift of life is by demonstrating it through service to Muslims. Amen!

Now the hard part: Actually living out and living up to Jesus’s example! You grab a towel. I’ll go fill up a dish pan.

PS: Both the wash-ers and wash-ees have bare feet in the ad! Thoughts on that? 

One of the lasting joys of my life is that I was taught how to read. It didn’t necessarily have to have happened. And further, I was taught to enjoy books and live now in a day and age in which books are readily available. What a gift. 

I read something this past week that touched my heart and imagination and would like to share it with you:

Diaspora means scattering and fragmentation, exile and loss. It means being displaced and in search of a place that could be made home. For Israel it means life among the Gentiles. Danger and threat surround diaspora life. Diaspora life is life crowded with self-questioning and questions for God concerning the anger, hatred, and violence visited upon a people.

They also remember loss— of land and place, of life and hope, and even for some of faith. Yet diaspora is also power, the power of a conviction to survive and the power of a confession to never yield to the forces that would destroy them.*

Not every Muslim you meet is part of the diaspora, but many are. And a healthy measure of those probably live in some or all of the reality mentioned above. Jesus is there with them. At the right time, may he use us to extend empathy, welcome and life. 

*Acts: A Theological Commentary on the Bible, by Willie James Jennings

I’m preaching about community this weekend. You know that weird, biblically mandated, annoyingly invasive, warm and beautiful tenant of Christianity that says we really need to do the Jesus things together. 

My wife, who’s scary smart, observed that Muslims are known for community. Indeed they are. The global community of Muslims is called the Ummah, and it feels like there’s a linkage among Muslims that’s deeper than the global connections among Christians. 

Of course for both of us there are lines in the (shifting) sands the crowds say mustn’t be overstepped. Just ask the Ahmadiyyas or Alistair Begg. 

What is it that holds Muslims together? I’m probably in error wondering if the motives are sickly or sinister. “We rule less of the world than we used to, so we’d better stick together.” Or worse, “We need to stick together so we can take over the world.” Maybe it’s the submission nature of Islam, maybe it’s the result of a more thorough integration of religion and life. 

One of God’s dear gifts to me over the years is connection to the Perspectives Course. In it I’ve been exposed the best Christians and congregations in a bunch of different denominations. As a result, I have reasons to appreciate many collections of believers with whom I likely disagree on several secondary issues. I feel a sense of community with a broad swath of Christendom. 

I don’t want to be arrogant here, but can we have more of that for us? Less sniping off people who disagree on secondary things and more, “That woman way over there, she’s got some weird ways of worship, but she’s my sister. She loves Jesus!” 

Maybe we could learn a thing or two from the, admittedly idealized, “Ummah over everything” approach of our Muslim cousins. 

If you prayed for my meetings last weekend, thank you! God heard and answered. We have fresh energy and direction to see Jesus people among the remaining unengaged people groups. 

As our church prepares to dive into Acts this Spring, my wife and I are searching for good ways to communicate the geography of Luke’s volume two. The Holy Spirit is the main character, but geography plays an important support role. If you’ve got ideas, I’d love to hear them. 

Clear data and information, like the geographical setting for Acts, helps us get beyond the sound bytes, first impressions and, let’s be honest, false assumptions that sometimes pepper our brains. 

Migration continues to be a challenging global reality. And if you live in the US, the deeper we descend into this election cycle, the more likely we are to hear true, mistaken and sensational claims about immigration. 

The following links come courtesy of the Dimitrov Research Center at the Continental Theological Seminary in Belgium. Their occasional email can’t come often enough for me. 

The Migration Policy Institute provides an interactive map of data on immigration to and emigration from every country based on the country of origin for immigrants and the destination country for emigrants.

. . . an interactive map of data on refugees and asylum seekers from every country based on country of origin and destination country.

. . .an interactive map of data on the net number of migrants for every country for the years 1950 to 2020 shown in five-year increments.

A snapshot of the totalnumber of people identifying as religious, as Christians, and as Muslims in each country. . .through an interactive map.

Finally, here’s a tool to help you explore unengaged peoples in areas where you have interest or burden. I’m on my way to Phoenix today to gather with the folks spearheading that website and broader effort. We’re asking God to show us how the number of unengaged peoples might be dropped to zero by the end of 2025. I’d deeply value your prayers for that meeting. (If you’re willing, shoot me a note to let me know you’re praying. Thank you.) 

A friend and I tried something this past week and I think it worked. 

Many of the people we do life with are thinking deeply about the grievous situation in the Middle East. What if we could help them with some background, practical guidance and maybe renewed hope for God’s purposes?

My friend Joseph and I hosted an event last Sunday night called, “Thinking Biblically about the Israel/Hamas War.” We gave people a bit of the biblical, historical and socio-politcal background that has led to the current situation. We built empathy for both Jews and Muslims. And finally, we all engaged in some powerful prayer. 

The agenda was pretty simple:

1. Welcome and opening prayer.
2. A ten minute video overviewing the history of the plot of land now called Israel.
3. A quick dive into the biblical history of the sons of Ishmael and the sons of Isaac. 
4. A healthy amount of time for question and response. 
5. Fifteen minutes of prayer

Components that made the effort succeed:

1. The people at my church are inclined toward graciousness.
2. We solicited written questions ahead of time. We requested them from the front on Sunday morning and by text blast. We also invited questions from the floor at the event. 
3. Video: We think the video is pretty balanced. Your view may vary, but the more objective it is, the better. 
4. We had tea and cookies! 
5. The X factor: My bud, Joseph. He has a good handle on the Old Testament, he’s lived in Israel, has been there several additional times and he wants abundant life for Jews and Muslims. You could probably personally fill the role I played, “The guy who knows a little bit about Muslims.” The “Joseph” part might be a tougher. Is there someone local who fits the bill? If not, bring him in to do it. 

This is a timely step. If we had the ability we’d resolve this war, wouldn’t we? Since we don’t, let’s take the opportunity to help and inspire the people of God to pray and take action. 

(If you’ve done something similar recently, I’d love to hear about it. Thanks.)