So today was a great day! I had a lot of work to do in the office here at AFCOE-Europe in the morning, but after lunch I had an appointment to meet with a Afghan man I met a couple weeks ago.
A couple of weeks ago I visited a mosque here in Frankfurt just out of curiosity, and to see if I could ask some questions about what they believed. There I ended up meeting this man who is from Afghanistan. He used to work with the American military in Afghanistan as a translator and project coordinator. He has been living here in Germany for quite some time though and is studying here. I asked him a few questions about Islam and what he believed, and he answered all my questions. After talking for about an hour I said that I had to go, and he asked if we could meet again to talk together about these subjects. He even invited me to maybe come some time to his house and eat with him and his family some traditional Afghan food.
Fast forward to today. Like I mentioned above, this afternoon I went and met with this man at the mosque. He went in and prayed, and I waited outside. Then He asked me if I wanted something to drink, so I said "yeah sure." So we went in a room attached to the mosque and there were a few other men there and they poured me a very small cup of water. It was kinda weird, but I drank the water. Then my friend turned to me and said that the water is from Mecca and that someone had brought it back from there. He also said that it is special water than can heal you if you are sick. It didn't taste like anything special to me, but anyways, after the small drink I walked with my friend and his 4 year old son to his friends house which wasn't far away.
We were graciously welcomed into this other mans home and we sat in the living room and I asked my friend questions about his faith, his family, Islam, and Afghanistan. It was quite a nice discussion. We were even able to talk about some stories from the Bible about Lot and Ishmael. This man though would make a great Christian. He is very dedicated to helping others. He even said that the way to love Allah (God) is to help people who need help.
After about an hour and forty-five minutes of talking I was about to leave, but then they told me that there was a supper prepared and that I was invited to eat with them. They also said it was a huge part of their culture to feed their guests. So I decided to stay and eat with them.
The food was traditional Afghan food. There was rice, some vegetables, salad, some chick peas, and Chicken. (I ate everything but the chicken of course). It was all very very tasty. And when we ate we sat on the floor and used our hands to eat with some Afghan flat bread. It was quite an interesting experience.
After eating I had to head back to the AFCOE House, but was left with the promise from my friend that we would meet again. I feel very welcome with these Afghan people. In some ways they could teach us something about hospitality.
So please pray for my friend and his family. He is married and has two sons. One of his sons is sick with some type of Virus in the hospital so please pray for him especially. Also pray that God will give me the words to speak with this man when we talk, and that I can also share my faith while I build a relationship with him.
Pray for Muslims around the world though. God didn't put 1.6 billion people on this world not to be reached with the Gospel of Jesus' love. So pray that God sends people to work with these wonderful and hospitable people around the globe.
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