Taking Muslims out of the Toy box

by: Stefanie Parsons

She was the most mature and focused person I knew in high school. I looked up to her in Key Club as she was our student leader in our senior year. She had pictures of Boys II Men in her locker and was one of the first of us to get her own car, which her dad fixed up for her. I always wanted to be like her ever since we were in grade 4 when she would wear her long black hair tied up with a rainbow of colourful elastics.

That beautiful hair was covered in a tight head scarf during high school but it never really caused me to think about the differences between my friend and me. I knew she was a Muslim and she knew I was a Christian, that fact never complicated our friendship. I never shared my faith with her probably because I was not a strong Christian in high school and I didn’t want to make myself stand out for fear of rejection by anyone.

I was reminded of my friend during this past Missions Week here at EBC. Lisa Keller was the first guest speaker in Chapel on Monday, October 6 and the title of her message surprised me: “When there’s a Muslim in your toy box”.

As the Executive Assistant for Arab World Ministries in Canada, she has had many experiences working in missions among Muslims throughout Asia. In her message she explained that five years after the attacks of 9/11, the Western media and populace still focus on the Muslim religion instead of the person who happens to be Muslim.

“We treat Muslims like toys,” she said. “We analyze them but have no real relationship with them. We play with them and put them away.”

She encouraged us to pursue relationships with Muslims around us in our communities, saying that many Muslims today are questioning their faith and looking for a deeper connection to the divine.

Irshad Manji is one such Muslim. The outspoken Canadian author of The Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslim’s Call for Reform in Her Faith, admits on her website that she has thought about rejecting her faith on many occasions.

“There needs to be ‘feeders’ to administer the living water and give the bread of life (to these Muslims),” said Keller.

While listening to Lisa talk, I had to admit to myself that I often intellectualized the guilt away for not sharing my faith with my friend in high school. I realized that my friend was more passionate about her faith than I was about mine; I thought that I was an inadequate example of a Christian.

I currently have no friends who are of the Muslim faith, but with the encouragement of Lisa, I’m going to consciously make the effort to get to know at least one person who is a Muslim and I challenge my fellow EBC students to do the same.

We don’t need to look very far, so take these suggestions and pray for your future Muslim friend!
- Shop at Muslim stores and make friends with the owners
- Listen to the news with compassion and grieve for those in Iraq who are suffering.
- Visit Muslim student groups on local university campuses:
UofW Muslim Student Association
McMaster Muslim Student Association
- Attend multi-cultural festivals and visit mosques during their celebration activities
- Volunteer with programs that help new immigrants to Canada by teaching them English, etc.

The New Focus of the Church in China

by: Stefanie Parsons

The house church movement in China is ready to send missionaries west through all Asian countries until they reach Jerusalem according to a special visitor to Janice Anderson’s World Mission class on Friday, October 20.

“The Chinese have a vision to spread the Gospel westward,” said the missionary who is working to encourage the Chinese believers. “They feel it is their responsibility to take it to Jerusalem until Jesus comes back.”

Sharing many testimonies about the harsh repression of Chinese Christians under the Communist regime in China, he said because of this persecution they are uniquely equipped to spread the Gospel into Muslim countries between China and Israel. He admits that the leadership of the church is ready for more suffering, sighting the recent killing of a Chinese worker in Yemen last July when authorities discovered she was a professing Christian.

“The leaders (of the house churches) expect the majority of the missionaries they send out will die for the cause,” he said.

He estimates that nearly 100, 000 Christians are preparing to leave China with God’s saving message and predicts that this will be the next major move in Christianity. He also states that the Chinese believers can more easily move into countries which are considered closed such as Myanmar and Bhutan.

Although he told the audience in the classroom his name, he decided not to let it be published in The Voice for fear that it would be connected to believers in China. Even the name of the movement in China is changing its name to lower the profile of new missionaries who will be leaving for hostile countries.

“We can’t say too much,” he said. “The Chinese government knows about it and Muslim nations have asked China to ‘not send your missionaries to our countries’.”

He also said that the church in Canada and North America should prepare for suffering and that persecution is not far away. He stated that many issues in society today are going to separate the real Christians from the “chaff” and we must stand for our beliefs in the areas of homosexuality, political correctness and in dealing with people of other faiths.

“External pressures are coming and internal discipleship must be learned,” he warned.

“You are living in one of the most exciting times in history,” he said to the audience. “Don’t waste your life!”

If you would like to learn more about this exciting movement in the Chinese church pick up one of these books:

Back to Jerusalem by Brother Yun, Peter Xu Yongze, Enoch Wang with Paul Hattaway

Jesus in Beijing by David Aikman

China’s amazing history: 1421 - The Year China Discovered America by Gavin Menzies