Refugees from many nations lived near Christine. She sensed the Lord wanted her to get involved. Yet she didn’t have time. Once retired, she volunteered and was quickly paired with a Muslim Afghani family. But there was a problem. None spoke English. Plus, the wife was pregnant and had never seen a doctor. What happened next deepened Christine’s faith. Her inspiring story will leave you seeking God and looking for surprising moments like it that can grow your faith too.
Refugees from many nations lived near Christine. She sensed the Lord wanted her to get involved. Yet she didn’t have time. Once retired, she volunteered and was quickly paired with a Muslim Afghani family. But there was a problem. None spoke English. Plus, the wife was pregnant and had never seen a doctor. What happened next deepened Christine’s faith. Her inspiring story will leave you seeking God and looking for surprising moments like it that can grow your faith too.
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Helpful Resources Referenced in this Episode:
o Book: “Muslims, 5 Biblical Essentials Every Christian Must Know and Do.” By Renod Bejjani. Find it wherever books are sold online.
o Bible.IS App – An App with the Bible in many languages
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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.
Christine:
It's just been a blessing to be around them. And I feel like my life is so much richer and my love for Christ has grown. As I see how they respond to the love that I showed them.
Karen:
Welcome, Blue Cord Ambassadors. You know, we all know we're love God and to love our neighbors. So how do we do that with intention? Well, today's guest wondered that exact thing herself, but before I introduce you, and before we dive in, let me give you some of the backstory behind the name of this series. The Blue Cord. When I was a kid, most people in North America identified as Christian. That meant my neighbors were all Baptist or Methodist. And now our neighbors are from many faiths and cultures. In fact, in my coulda - sac alone, there are eight nations represented. We can literally cross our suburbs and our streets to share the hope of Jesus. Yet we often get stuck and hold back. Now 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 asked them to do He gave His people a reminder, a tassel with a cord 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 serve Him and trust Him. Inspired by this biblical blue cord. I pray this Blue Cord Episode will be a catalyst for you to be His witness, right where you live. So let's get started. Today I've invited my friend, Christine, Christine, are you there?
Christine:
I'm here
Karen:
Great. Hello. She's going to share her experience in learning to intentionally love and share her biblical faith with her neighbors from other faiths and cultures. Christine, let's start by thinking about Jesus's words in Matthew 28:19 where He told us to go make disciples of all nations. So this is known as the Great Commission. What are your earliest thoughts about what that meant?
Christine:
Well, growing up in the Church, I remember missionaries coming often from around the world to share when the countries where they were serving. And I really remember one from Africa coming and at that point I stood up and said, oh, I want to be a missionary to Africa. So it was always, you went out to do the Great Commission. It wasn't something that really you thought about in your own local context with your neighbors and things. So it was many years that I didn't make it to Africa, but that just was the thought that you could only go out really to do that. Sharing with neighbors was not something that was talked about too much. Our churches didn't do it a whole lot. So we weren't encouraged to go out and do that. As far as I remember
Karen:
So what was the catalyst really that began to shift your thinking around sharing your faith here?
Christine:
It was a few years ago when I was hearing about refugees coming to the United States and a friend said to me, the mission field is coming to us, which really brought that whole Great Commission idea forward again, that we have this opportunity. So I got involved with World Relief after I retired. And from there started reaching out to the refugee people in our area.
Karen:
So for our listener who's listening right now who's wondering, okay. Tell me more about this. How did you find World Relief? How did you even think to go there with intention?
Christine:
I don't exactly remember what I did, however, I do remember thinking that I wanted to be involved with something. For some reason, I had heard about World Relief. So while I was still working, I tried to sign up to help be a volunteer, but I didn't have the time while I was working. So when we retired, that's, when again, I felt God prompted me to go back and pursue that. And so through World Relief, I became a good neighbor, which is you get paired with a family who has just come to the United States. And that's what happened. I was paired with an Afghan family of five.
Karen:
What was one of the things that most surprised you about the family that you were assigned with through that experience? What was most surprising?
Christine :
The most surprising thing for me was that they did not speak English. I had expected them to come in and we'd be able to communicate and have conversations. And that was not the case. And on top of it, the wife was pregnant and had had no medical help. Hadn't seen a doctor. So I jumped right in and got her all set up with all of her medical care with her OBGYN and all of those things and having to get translators for that. I think the most surprising thing to me was that she spoke no English. She had had no education at all, even in her home country. So we had nowhere, to begin with, communication.
Karen:
So what did you learn from that experience?
Christine:
Wow. I learned that people all over the world are not like we are in the United States. The assumption for me was that they would come in and we would just all be the same. And while I knew that on one level, because I'd been to Africa and did some missionary work there, I was still just totally shocked that we are not all educated. Advantages that me as an American has, are not what people from other countries have necessarily
Karen:
Tell me some real examples of how you had some opportunities to allow the love of Christ to shine through you even though you could not speak the language?
Christine:
I just jumped right in when I found out that she was pregnant and I got her healthcare set up, I made all of her doctor's appointments. I drove her every week to whatever appointment she needed. And they, I think we're just so grateful that someone had come alongside them an American had come alongside them and taken care of these needs, that they had no way of knowing even where to begin. And on top of that, I would take them things. I know that they are very hospitable culture, so I would take them food. And by the same token, every time I went, I needed to set aside time, not thinking I'm going in for my hour and then I'm leaving. This is going to take two hours, three hours. As we play some games, I try to teach them some English, and food was always involved. We always had chai and then she would put out dates and nuts and candy. And we'd just sit, even though we didn't communicate very well, we would sit and just be together and try to understand what each other was saying.
Karen:
So as you're sharing that, Christina, what comes to my mind's eye is the sense of compassion and the love of Christ flowing through you toward her. And I wonder for you, if that just happened naturally, like to just pour out from you, or did you have to cultivate it and seek the Lord for that?
Christine:
For me it was more of a natural thing because Christ is in me I just knew that I needed to express this to them. And I wanted to. I wanted them to feel that they were loved and accepted here and especially her because I knew that in her culture, women are not seen in the same light that women here are. They will step into the background. They will be the servers they will not come and sit with you at the table and they walk behind you. I became very intentional to make sure she felt valued.
Karen:
And how did you know that she was receiving that?
Christine :
Just the ways that she would respond to me. We got to where we will laugh together. Just silly things that would happen. She would respond and she would have a smile on her face. That's another thing I noticed that most of the refugees I've come in contact with when you take a picture, they will not smile. And that's just their culture. They don't smile. And so just to see that light in her face, when I would engage her was so rewarding. And I have found that with the other Muslim women that I have contact with, and that I spend some time with that engaging them one-on-one and directly intentionally looking them in the eyes and smiling at them. They just light up.
Karen:
I'm just so curious. I know that you've been a blessing to them. How have they blessed you?
Christine :
They've blessed me by the acceptance and the love that they have shown me through their hospitality, through the love that their kids show me. They call me their American mom. They refer to my children as their sisters and brother. And seeing them become more acclimated to our culture. It's just a blessing to see them feel more comfortable with things that they're doing. And that's not all through me. They have gone out and sought some of that themselves, but it's just been a blessing to be around them. And I feel like my life is so much richer. And my love for Christ has grown as I see how they respond to the love that I show them.
Karen:
I get this picture in my mind's eye of just life-on-life discipleship. And I know as you've walked this path and this journey with them, you've had some opportunities as their English has grown to share the Gospel. And I'd love for you to share a story or two about what that looked like. Really practically.
Christine:
I remember one day I was in her kitchen with her and she was telling me it was hurting somewhere. She had a headache, she'd been to the doctor. And I looked at her and this was shortly after I had read Renod's book. And I thought I'd need to be intentional. I need to ask her if I can pray for her in Jesus' name. So I asked her that and as far as I understood, she understood. She said, yes. And so then quickly my mind went, do I close my eyes or do I keep my eyes open? How do I do this for her? So I decided I'd close my eyes. So I just prayed that God would heal her, that he would take away her headache. And I prayed in Jesus' name. Amen. When I opened my eyes, it was just so funny because she was just staring at me. What was that?
Karen:
So wonderful.
Christine:
You know, we went on from there. And then when Christmas came around, I knew that they didn't really understand. They thought of Christmas as Santa Claus and all of that. I found the Bible.is App with every single language. It just blew me away that something like that existed. So I found it in her language and I thought, well, we'll go through the book of Luke in her language. And I loved the gospels on that website because they have them acted out. And so there's something visual to watch as she's listening. And I was just so blown away when she, you could see she was intently watching. And when something would happen, like Mary and the baby, you could hear her go ahh like, oh yes, I see this. But the other interesting thing that happened when we were doing this, we only got through the first three chapters. And every single time that I would put it on the strangest things would happen. People would come to the door, the son decided to bring his little remote control car and he was driving it over the keyboard of the computer. And those things have never happened before. And when we tried to listen to the fourth chapter, her neighbors came over and then their little boy knocked over, accidentally all of the food and the chai. And so it just, these things would happen that as we were watching, it was like, we weren't supposed to watch this.
Karen:
Yeah, something wanted to keep you from watching that. I love how you use these resources, Bible.is is a free app you can download and share and you got some tips from the book, Muslims Five Biblical Essentials that gave you some ideas. And so, even though you couldn't speak the same language, you were able to plug into some resources so that you could share the gospel with her without you being able to speak the language well.
Christine:
Exactly. It was such a help. This was like two years into our friendship, me being with them. And I looked so long for resources and so it was just wonderful when I found you and Renod and the information that you had to share. It was so helpful.
Karen:
Now, since you started and you began to befriend this Afghan family, and really now you are like a member of the family, and you've got an extended family now and an Afghani daughter, I know that that's opened doors for you to meet other refugee families as well.
Christine:
Oh, yes, it has. It's been wonderful they've included us in some of their barbecues and they actually have another one planned in a couple of weeks and we've been invited and they've already told me they're inviting some of their Afghan friends to come and join in. Another thing that happened with all of this is through World Relief I met a mother and her two daughters who had just been in the states for five days. They needed someone to go help them and so I went over and helped them do some things. So recently they've asked me to help drive one of the daughters to our local airport for her job. And last week, as we were going to the airport, she was telling me about her husband who was still in the East and not able to get over here because of COVID. And so, as we were driving along, I thought, all right, I'm going to ask her if I can pray in Jesus' name. And as we're driving down the freeway, I asked her and she said, yes. And so we just prayed that God would lift those barriers and that her husband would be able to join her soon in Jesus' name. Amen. And she thanked me for that prayer. She speaks very good English, and I'm excited about further opportunities I will have with her and her sister to be able to share about Jesus and just have those types of discussions.
Karen:
I love it you are practicing all of the fundamentals for sharing your faith across cultures. Number one, you are showing love through words, actions, and deeds letting the love of Christ just flow right through you in the context of an authentic relationship. And then next you were looking for opportunities to pray together in Jesus's name. And that's something that anyone can do anywhere by just, just asking. And then I love how you shared the gospel through the Bible, through that Bible.is App. And that another one kind of, this is inherent that as you share these things, you can tell you're getting clues that you might be engaging with some persons of peace. And that just means someone God might be wooing to himself because as you're offering up the opportunity to pray together in Jesus's name, when that person says, yes, they might be a person of peace. And so that's amazing. So I'm just so curious when you look back over the last couple of years and all the way that God has been using you as an instrument in His hands to declare His glory among the nations that are living right here. Just think about yourself just a couple of years ago. Could you ever imagine yourself doing the things that you're doing today?
Christine:
Not at all, not at all. It amazes me how God has put these things in my path and I have the time and I'm taking the time and tithing my time to serve Him and to follow those things that He wants me to do.
Karen:
How this is whole experience grown your faith, as you've learned to share your faith, how has that grown your faith?
Christine :
How has it grown my faith? I just believe that He can do anything that He wants to do and sees to do and needs to do. God has that amazing power. And I just trust Him totally to direct and to heal and that's where my hope is being with these Afghan women and families. I just know the hope of our future after we are gone, is in Him.
Karen:
Anything else for the listener who is thinking right now and just contemplating getting involved, tithing her time with a refugee organization, any word of wisdom, or anything else that you want to share from your heart?
Christine :
Oh, I would just encourage anyone to first off, look for Muslim women out there. When you see a woman in a hijab, don't be afraid of her. Many of them feel very isolated and alone and meet her where she's at. Look at her in the eyes. Now that we can take our masks off here in California, give her a smile, ask her how she is, say hello. And I think you will be so rewarded with a smile back. You will just be surprised at the response that you get. They feel very isolated, and then try to find ways to if there's women in your neighborhood that are refugees, just reach out and invite them over for tea. Just spend time with them and pray about all of that. That God will lead you to those people. Those women who need that, my heart is really for the women. And I think that we Christian women have a great opportunity to share with them and let them see the love of Christ shine through us as we work to accept them and help them feel part of our culture
Karen:
You know as you were sharing, I was just imagining okay, Christine, you've inspired me to go knock on my neighbor's door and invite them for tea. And yet I feel resistance. How exactly would you do that? What would you say? What would you do to prepare? What would that even look like?
Christine:
I would say, invite them over and let God lead you. But there are many things that you can talk about with her. They love talking about their family, ask them about their children, ask them about their family back in the country that they've come from. Ask them, what are their favorite foods? What American foods have they had, you could even ask them what Mosques do they go to just engage them where they're at. As far as food, can't go wrong with chai and then put out nuts and fruits and even just a bowl of whole fruits, apples, and pears with a knife and let them take what they want. They will accept anything that you put out there because that's their culture. They love spending time with people. They love having a conversation over food, and it's not as overwhelming as we think it is in our minds. We build this thing up to where it's just so scary and it's not at all. You know, you just have a few little tricks and you can do it
Karen:
Such sage advice. All right. So, Christina, I have one last question for our time together today, and that is, as you set out and befriended a refugee family, and along the way, you got the courage and the confidence and the skill to share your faith across those boundaries. How has that whole journey emboldened you to share your faith with everyone now?
Christine:
Oh, it, it really has a few weeks ago. We had some people over and I remembered, Renod saying about, you have these little questions that you ask, or you throw in a statement. You ask a question, get them to talk. And then you throw in something about your faith. And so we had these people over and they were all talking and they said to me like, what do you do all day while you're retired? And I said, well, I get up in the morning and I have my Bible Study. And then I just went on and I was waiting to see if any of them would pick up on my Bible study comment. None of them did. And that's okay. But I had the courage to do that and not feel like, oh, do I say this? Do I not say this? I just figured that God was working there at the time that they would respond. And it's not that time yet.
Karen:
Well, I love it because what that did was you identified yourself as a Jesus follower. Now that opens up opportunities later in the context of that relationship for further spiritual conversations because they know that you're a Jesus follower. Well, Christine, thank you for joining me here today. I'm so grateful that we have this opportunity for you to share the things that you've been learning about, being intentional about sharing your faith, especially across religious and cultural divides. So friend, as we close our time together today, I want to just leave you my Blue Cord Ambassador friend 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 heard from Christine today that you want to begin to put into practice for yourself? Whether it is that you begin to pray for those divine appointments on a regular basis just as soon as you walk out the door or that it's time for you to go knock on the door of your neighbor of another faith and invite them over for tea, whatever that is identify. One thing that you heard from Christine today that you want to put into practice this week, and then share that with a friend and invite your friend to listen to the podcast and pick out one thing too and share that together. And then from that point forward, encourage one another on this journey. As you learn to get bold about not hiding your faith but sharing your faith. Thanks so much. I'll talk to you again soon. 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.