Joy-packed adventure. That’s the life Paige wanted. Yet distractions kept her from living with meaning and purpose. She grew up in the Church, yet struggled to understand the heart of God. She wanted to love her neighbors and share her faith, yet wrestled with insecurities. Then she discovered two things that put everything in place. Paige’s story will inspire and empower you with practical tips to lead a joy-filled life as an authentic Christian witness.
Joy-packed adventure. That’s the life Paige wanted. Yet distractions kept her from living with meaning and purpose. She grew up in the Church, yet struggled to understand the heart of God. She wanted to love her neighbors and share her faith, yet wrestled with insecurities. Then she discovered two things that put everything in place. Paige’s story will inspire and empower you with practical tips to lead a joy-filled life as an authentic Christian witness.
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FOLLOW AND ENGAGE WITH US:
Karen:
Have you ever held back from sharing your faith? Especially with people of other faiths and cultures? Welcome to the iHOPE Empowers podcast. This episode is from iHOPE Ministries, Blue Cord Series for women. I'm your host, Karen Bejjani. And here's a fresh dose of inspiration to embolden you, to share Jesus with women of other faiths and cultures.
Paige:
What keeps me from sharing is distraction. I'm very easily distracted, but what leads me to share is the quality of my relationship with Christ and when my relationship with the Lord is close, then I'm just more open to what He has for me and more intentional.
Karen:
Welcome back Blue Cord Ambassadors. We all know we're to love God and love our neighbors. So what does that look like practically? Today's guest asked herself that as she observed women of other faiths moving into her neighborhood. But before we dive into that, let me give you the backstory behind the name of this series. The Blue Cord. When I was a kid, most people in North America identified as Christian, and my neighbors were all Baptists or Methodists. And now our neighbors are from many faiths. In just my cul-de-sac alone, there are eight nations represented. We can all cross the suburbs to share Jesus. Yet most of us get stuck and hold back. Well, there's nothing new under the sun. The Israelites struggled too. God reveals in Numbers 15:37-41 that after another round of not doing what the Lord told them to do, He gave his people a reminder, a tassel with a chord of blue on the hem of their garments, rich with meaning and purpose. The blue cord is a symbol of God's divine commands that we serve a holy living God who left instructions for how to remember and trust Him. Inspired by this biblical blue cord, I pray that this episode will be a catalyst for you to go be His witness, right where you live. So let's get started! Today I've invited my friend, Paige. She's going to share her experience and learning to practically love and share her biblical faith with her neighbors from other faiths and cultures. So Paige, let's start by thinking about Jesus's words in Matthew 28:19, where He told us to go make disciples of all nations. That's the Great Commission. So Paige, what are your earliest thoughts about what that meant?
Paige:
When I was a child, I really thought God just called certain special people to be missionaries. And then He sent them off, and my vision was that they lived in huts and jungles and to watch out for alligators. And so they were special and that wasn't going to be me. I didn't see myself having that job. And truthfully didn't want that job.
Karen:
Yeah, who wants to go live in a hut in Africa! I had that exact same thought and I knew it must involve snakes as well. certainly snakes. So what was the catalyst that began to shift your thinking about that?
Paige:
Well, actually I knew from personal experience that some people in America shared their faith, as it turns out when I was eight, I was led to the Lord by a complete stranger. Even though I knew about the Lord and I had some really godly family members, I had never heard the actual gospel. So one day I had slept over with a girlfriend and we were taking a walk that Saturday morning in her neighborhood, and there was this car parked along the street that had the lights on. And I told her, I said, hey, we should go tell this family that their lights are on so the battery won't die on their car. And she's like, okay. And so we rang the doorbell and this lady opened the door and she was so nice. And she was so thankful that we had told her about the lights and she just happened to have these fresh baked cookies and juice and so she sat us at her dining table with her whiteboard and she told us the whole gospel. Well, I thought that was great because I really wanted all the pieces put together like that. So when she asked if we wanted to pray and receive Jesus, I did, I had no hesitation. And so it took me a few years to realize that she had that planned. She must've had her lights on and I was just so grateful that the Lord sent me there to be the person to hear the gospel.
Karen:
So then you were eight years old at that point. Did you think about sharing your faith with other people at that point or was that more of a journey?
Paige:
It was more of a journey. In high school, I happened to sit by a girl on the bus and going to some event and she was sharing about her family life It was really poor. She had abuse in her family alcoholism. And so I befriended her and over the next month, I did share the Lord. And one day she prayed with me to receive Christ. And I can tell you, I was so elated. I was amazed. I was elated. I was happy for her. And that actually was the first time I thought, oh, I can share the gospel. Now it took me a long time to really incorporate that into my life though. I'm pretty shy really. And so not until like after college and I really got into bible studies and in the word, and I guess just understanding more the heart of God or being more open to that. That's when I started feeling like, oh, I should share. I got convicted that okay, If I really say, I love the Lord with all my heart and I'm going to love my neighbor as myself, how am I loving my neighbor? If I'm not sharing Jesus, the important thing I could ever share. Right? So I started being burdened for people in my own extended family and just praying about that. It was amazing. Honestly, over the years I would have a burden for someone and the Lord would give me an opportunity. For example, one time there was a person in my family, and my husband and I were both really burdened about this person. And then we had a trip coming up to see them. And I had a lot of people praying. We went and I had an amazing conversation with this person. The Lord brought scripture to mind and the person was really open. And we just had an amazing conversation. Even at one point, I felt like the Lord was speaking through me, which had never happened before. And my husband walked in with the kids cause they'd been swimming and he heard me talking about the gospel and he just turned back around so we wouldn't be interrupted. But the Lord was just really faithful in that. And over the years, I've probably shared with everyone in my extended family, who I felt didn't know the Lord, because the Lord was gracious to answer my prayers about that. And then I got burdened for my neighbors and I had an outreach event for my neighbors and then did a Bible study with the ones who wanted to come.
Karen:
So I'm imagining that whoever's listening to this right now has some questions they're like wondering what does that look like Paige? When you say the Lord put a burden on your heart for someone, what does that, like, what does that feel like? Or how did you know?
Paige:
Well, you just have it on your mind and in your heart and you have a real concern. And I mean, I couldn't get it out of my mind. Maybe would be a way to describe it. I just knew that these different people that I loved didn't know the Lord in different times. I just felt like, okay, now's the time. I don't know how I know, but I was praying for them. Partly if you're praying the Lord impresses upon you the time or a matter of urgency, let's say, and I don't know why. I don't know why it just does.
Karen:
So you're sensing this sense of urgency. And you're thinking about this person, and you have the sense of knowing that the Lord wants you to share the gospel at that point, or just begin to talk about spiritual things. Did you ever worry about what words you would say or, or how did you find the words?
Paige:
That is a great question and very true of me. I would say I'm not a bold person. I'm a little bit shy, and I really don't want people to get mad at me, or I don't want to damage the relationship. You know those thoughts go through my mind. I was fearful about it. But in this case, fear is good because it drives you to your knees. It drove me to my knees. I just had to pray about it and trust the Lord to help with the conversation because that's very hard for me. And He would, I had a different relative that I needed to talk to, and all of the sudden, we had this long trip we had to take together in the car and the conversation just came around. I don't even know the Lord just did it. And it worked. It was just from Him. And so I guess I would say to anybody who struggles with fear, the way that I do is just pray and let God do His thing. You know, be obedient and people aren't really so sensitive as you might think, especially if you're just sharing from your heart, something that's helped you. And they know that you care and love about them. You're not there to tell them that they're sinners or that something's wrong with them. It's more like, oh, I have this great relationship with the Lord, or He's done this great thing for me this week let me tell you because you love them. That's what it's about. And God loves them.
Karen:
Yeah. It all comes down to love. So, interestingly, I know that as you were starting to share with your family and you were thinking about what does this look like for me to love my neighbors too, I imagine about this time is when you started to notice, there were a lot of neighbors from other faiths that live near where you are. So how did you make that leap from sharing with family members who were kind of safe and in your circle of influence to step outside of that, to begin to share in your neighborhood too?
Paige:
Well, It was interesting. One of my kids shared with us that she had a call to go to Egypt as a missionary, and she was seven and we were doing homeschool geography and I said, that's Egypt. And she said, oh yeah, that's where I'm going. Just very matter of factly. Which was very surprising to us, my husband and I, and she's never deviated from that. But when she was about 10, a real good friend of ours had this conference coming to their church and it was called a Gospel for Muslims conference. So we thought, oh, we'll take Hannah and we'll go to this conference. I personally didn't know any Muslims. Now I would say, I didn't have any animosity. Some people I knew probably did maybe worse. I was just indifferent. I was so indifferent. Those people are here. That's fine. I don't really care. And I just was indifferent. I had my whole other life going, but we went to this conference and, oh, my, it opened my eyes. I learned something about Islam. And I learned about their culture and really just learned that these are people that God loves. He made them, He loves them. And these women or men, but especially women are just like me and they need Jesus. And so it totally changed my thinking. And I began praying earnestly for a Muslim friend. And so within six months, the Lord answered that prayer. We were at a church with a group of homeschool moms and kids. We had finished and we were outside the kids were playing and this car drives up and this woman has a hijab on and her two little kids and she gets out of the car and I walked over to meet her and see what her question was and her first statement was I had to stop. And I could tell, by the way, she said it, it was definitely a Holy Spirit thing. And we were talking and I just knew she was going to be my friend. There was this feeling, I don't know. And she had it too. She's like, oh, you need to come to my home. And I did. And we've been friends ever since. So then I fell in love with her, her culture. I was able to share the Gospel and have multiple times. She's not a believer yet, but I'm still praying, but she is a dear person. And I was able to help her with some things. And she was a blessing for us because she helped my daughter who wants to go to Egypt, learn Arabic. So that was a double blessing, but I fell in love with her culture. She's from Yemen. And so in the grocery store, I started looking for women with hijabs and kind of shyly asking them questions. Oh, how do you cook eggplant or whatever, right? And so I just got involved with the people and liked them. And I think also with my friend from Yemen, I would go to the Mosque with her to break the Ramadan fast. And I got to visit with lots of people and talk about being a believer because they were surprised I was there. So those were great conversations. So I wanted more something else. And my kids were getting older. So one day I heard a speaker talking about his refugee ministry and it just sounded so fascinating. So I went up afterward and I said, Hey, I would like to volunteer with you guys. And so I've been doing that. And that is really kind of opened the door for a lot more, I guess, focused ministry and just friendship. Even we deliver food and by delivering food to refugees who need it, that lets you help them. It lets you get into their home. And they're so hospitable, you'll drink tea and more tea and more tea and you get to hear their stories. And, usually, we share a bible story while we're there, but we always ask them their needs and how we can pray for them and we offer to pray in Jesus' name. And the Lord is so faithful to answer these prayers and they know it, they see it and they see our love for them. I think that as believers, we underestimate how the love of Christ just really comes through us because we're around other Christians. It seems normal, but I can tell you how many of these women just look at me like you're so kind, why are you different? You know, they don't see it's Jesus but they don't know that, but they see the difference. So I've been doing that and we have teas for women. Like they love teas. So we'll have a ladies tea and invite various women and we usually have a devotion and we share, we ask them questions like what's a blessing that you've had this year, or what do you think about prayer? And that gives them a chance to share and it gives us a chance to share so that they hear the gospel that way.
Karen:
So Paige, as I'm hearing you share the stories about how the Lord has answered your prayer. And this is an overarching theme I've heard you share now throughout our whole conversation is the role that your prayers have played in first, just praying that the Lord would put a woman of another faith in your path. And the next thing you know, she is, those opportunities just arrived right there in front of you. But you said something early on you have an opportunity to share the gospel with her. Now I often hear from everyday Christians, you know, I've grown up in Church and I've heard it said that I need to share the Gospel, but what is that practically? Like, what does that really look like when the rubber meets the road when I'm engaging with someone of another faith? And I know Paige that you've learned some things about that, and I'd love for you to share your thoughts and what you've learned about sharing the Gospel.
Paige:
Well, as believers, we all really do know the Gospel. I think that you just want to maybe practice that at home in a very simple terms. Like with someone like my friend from Yemen, I started off by just asking her questions about her faith and how does she understand God? What did she think about getting to heaven? You know, people love sharing what they believe and that also lets them know that you care and it lets you know, what they really do think because, so just because someone is a quote-unquote Muslim or a quote, unquote, even Christian there's various beliefs within that, right? I mean, I don't even have a specific thing that I always say, I just listen and go with the conversation. But if they say, oh, I think if I can do enough good things, then I can go to heaven. And then I can say more what we believe that, oh, that is so interesting and we always want to do good things, but I know I could never do enough good things to get to heaven. And I share what our faith teaches us about how Jesus died for our sins. And then we can have peace and we don't have to worry about that ever again. And about the relationship. So you just kind of go through letting them talk and then maybe just saying, oh, well that's interesting. We believe this. And it was a lot of fun. I mean, my friend, she would say something like, do you fast? We fast. We can find commonalities there.
Karen:
I love this because what I hear you saying is that instead of feeling, you have to go boldly in and share some presentation that you've memorized and you shpeal this at someone you come in by asking curious open-ended questions first to find out what your friend is thinking and believing first. And at that point, then the conversation then naturally unfolds in a very natural way for you to begin to share your faith. Paige, I want to just point out there's a couple other things that you did that are really fabulous and very duplicatable. In addition to sharing the gospel, you also prayed with your friend in Jesus's name and you have looked for opportunities to love well, I know in words, actions and deeds, and I heard you say, you looked for opportunities to do bible studies together too. I think there's one other thing that you said that's probably implied. And that is that when you're engaging with a woman of another faith, and you're talking about what you believe as a Christian and she's leaning into that conversation and not running away from you, it could indicate that the Lord might be stirring and wooing her heart toward him too. And we like to call that looking for a person of peace,
Paige:
Right. And sometimes they do lean in and are interested and sometimes they are not so much, but there's a couple of things with that. First off, if they're not interested, that's okay because that's the Lord's job and the Holy Spirit's job, we are there just to be obedient and to share and plant seeds. You never know. You may even think they're not interested, but they may continue to think on it. And then the next person that comes along who is also kind and loving or whatever has something to say, they might be more open to that person because of you. You don't know, we have no idea. Some people are very interested, but it takes a long time, especially with someone from another culture too has their whole social and family and everything network through their faith. It's different for us here, but for them, their Islam, perhaps if I'm talking about a Muslim person, that's their whole everything. And it's not something that they're just gonna leave that and come to Christianity at the drop of a hat it's difficult. And so you want to love them through that process. You want to be patient for the process. There's a scripture that's always been on my heart in Thessalonians where Paul says that he made it a point, not just to share the gospel, but to share his life with them. And I think that we need to be willing to do that to a point like if you know someone and you care about them and you can tell the Lord is doing a work in their heart, you've just got to see it through and be willing to keep praying for that person for a little while. Does that make sense?
Karen:
Yeah. So for those women who are listening right now, who are thinking, this is great Paige, and yet you don't understand I'm busy at work. I have family obligations. I am so busy. Is it worth it to go out and develop new relationships and dip our toes out into this water that is very different than we're used to? What would you say?
Paige:
I would say that you probably have some discretionary time, even if it's just a little bit. Even if it's just praying for one person, honestly, I try to pray for five people most of the time. So I have five people I'm praying for and just see what the Lord does with those. It's not necessarily that you're going to spend so much time doing this huge ministry. Maybe it's just a next-door neighbor and you're going to spend time with that one person and you can do it naturally if it's your next-door neighbor, you can invite them over to something you're already doing. If you're life groups coming over on Sunday, maybe you will pray about it with your life group and you have your neighbor come and join you one time. I don't know about that, but I know that the Lord will bless the time that we have and he will give us assignments that we can manage because we don't want to neglect our families, but we also do want to prioritize the work that he has for us and I guess the other thing is you said, is it worth it? You have so much joy when you share, I can't even explain it. Like I leave talking to some of these women or I've been doing this preschool this last year. I just leave with a smile on my face and so much joy because you know, the Holy Spirit was there and you've loved on these people. It is a joy-packed adventure that the Lord has for us. And honestly, it's more fun than some of the other things that I get involved with and much more meaningful. So it's for the joy, you know, Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before Him and I feel that joy when I share.
Karen:
I can feel that joy from you right now, Paige, any last thoughts, just from the things that you have learned as you've stepped out into this space to share your faith across cultures and meet new people and do it with intention, anything else that's on your heart that you'd like to share?
Paige:
I would say that just be in prayer and be in the word. What keeps me from sharing is distraction. I'm very easily distracted, but what leads me to share is the quality of my relationship with Christ and when my relationship with the Lord is close then I'm just more open to what he has for me and more intentional. So just keep your walk with the Lord so firm and strong and all the rest will fall into place. And I would say pray for the lost, pray for the Lord to send you people, and just pray for those opportunities and to be bold. And He will do the rest.
Karen:
Absolutely. Amen! That's such sage advice. Paige, thank you so much for joining us today and just sharing your story. It's been so encouraging this common theme of seeking the Lord first, being in His Word, and praying it's the foundation from which it all begins. So as we close out our time together, my Blue Cord friend, I just want to leave you with one thing to think about and to talk about with your faith-filled friends this week and that is what's one thing that you learned from Paige today that you want to apply in your own life starting tomorrow morning. What is that one thing? Is it that it's time for you to lean in harder and seek after the Lord? Is it that you need to begin to read your Bible on a regular basis? Maybe it's that you need to be praying more mindful about your prayers. Maybe you're already doing all of those things, it's time for you to be specifically asking for the Lord to put a new person in your path so you can look for opportunities to declare His glory. Whatever that is, share that with a friend this week and invite her to think about what that one thing might be for her to until next week. Bye-bye.
Karen:
Thanks for listening to this podcast. A donor-supported series from iHOPE Ministries. For more bite-sized things to know and do to share your faith with intention, follow us on Instagram @ihopeministries then go to ihopeministries.org and sign up for our weekly e-newsletter. If you enjoyed today's episode, please rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts and subscribe wherever you listen, go review helps the show empower more everyday Christians with the courage, confidence, and know-how to share Jesus in our generation. See you next time.