Esther (Persian Kingdom)
Many people tried to convince us not to hitch-hike, but we felt strongly to give it a try. I wouldn’t be lying if I say we didn’t wait 2 minutes when Solomon pulled over. He was on his way from the capital back to his home city. His English was not very good so our good old friend, Google Translate, served its purpose.
Solomon made it clear to us that he is gay and showed us a few pictures of his partner. Then he blasted away with his Farsi music. After a while he asked whether we would like to play some of our music, so Shadrach played “New wine” from Hillsong.
He invited us to take a shower at his house, before offering to show us the city. We didn’t have a plan of course, so we took up his offer and hoped for an opportunity to share more with him about this Man who can turn water into wine.
When we got to his house, his mother and sister, Esther, served us some delicious fruit and local tea. We noticed there was something different about Esther. She is 16 years old and through Google Translate we started to communicate. She wants to study medicine in the USA, but then return to her home country to help the people there.
I became very curious when I saw that she was wearing a cross around her neck, and asked her about it. She told me that she wanted to become a Christian, but that she had nothing to offer. I almost wanted to cry out: “that is exactly what the Gospel is about – not having anything to offer!” I asked her if she has read the Incil (bible) to which her answer was “no”, though she definitely wanted to.
She was translating our whole conversation to her parents and brother, who said that he has a Farsi Bible and showed it to us. The tension in the room became tangible. Their parents, who are devoted Muslims, made it clear that they didn’t like our conversation one bit.
But I dared to step out into the danger zone. After all, could I let an opportunity like this go to waste? I told her to ask God to show her the truth. She replied that she didn’t understand, since it is illegal to change their religion so the thought never crossed her mind.
I encouraged her to read the Bible, which she promised to do in their holiday time. She said that she already knew a lot about their prophet Mohammed. She now wanted to know more about Jesus!
That night after we went out to see the beautiful bridges in the city with Solomon and met some of his like-minded friends, I lay in bed thinking about the conversation that I had with Esther. What more could we do? She is so receptive and yearns to know Jesus. Clearly God is drawing her towards Himself.
As men, just communicating with Esther is “haram” (culturally not acceptable), let alone sharing the Gospel with her. And what she said about it being illegal for her to change her religion is true. In fact, according to the law of the country, if you forsake your religion, you are sentenced to death. There are certainly not easy answers for her situation, but our prayer is that she and her family will realize that there is One that came to give life in abundance. No, not an easy life, but a life worth living.
Pray with us that Esther and her family will find this life.
(Remember we use only fictitious names, for security reasons.)