This trip, for me, was about shattering expectations. So much about a trip to India is in opposition to my personality. I love India. I have a heart for India. I love the food. All those things go without saying. However, India is a place where there’s nothing but people, and you can’t swing an elbow without hitting two people. That was hard for me, but I thought, “We’re setting foot in a place where the name of Jesus probably has never been heard.”
Volunteers prayerwalk and search for Muslim men they can tell about Jesus at a mosque in India.We went into some mosques and I thought, “Maybe these people have heard about Isa (Jesus) from the Quran, but probably not much, and if they get to watch the “Jesus” film we gave them, it may be the first time they ever hear a bit of truth.” We gave some copies of the film to young people. We gave some to middle-age people. We gave some to older people, and I thought, “This guy’s probably 95 years old. He doesn’t have a VCD (video) player, but he’s probably going to find one, because they treasure this stuff.” They acted like we had given them gold.
In my perception, walking into a mosque to talk to the head honcho about Jesus was cutting-edge, front-line kind of scary stuff. Never during this experience was I scared. There were some moments when the crowds started pushing in, and these guys started talking really loud about what we just gave them, and I don’t know what they’re saying. Then we go into a masjid (mosque), and these guys don’t get more than an inch from us and they’re watching our every step. It was just a sense that, “OK, this is it. I’m not in control anymore. Anything can happen, I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’m here.”
Later, I asked one of the national believers, “How many times do you talk to people and they say, ‘Get out of my house. I don’t want to hear about Jesus.'”
He said, “Oh, never. We’re friends. They treat me well.”
I said, “Yeah, that’s been our experience, too.”
A Muslim man studies the Quran inside a mosque in India.Yesterday, we went to 11 places, and I don’t think I’ve ever been treated better by people I don’t know than here. This one guy made a comment, “You come here. We shake your hand. We ask you questions. In America, they don’t do that.”
I said, “You’re right. We don’t.” I don’t know if that guy’s ever been to America or not, but he knows how we are.
I just walked away from this trip realizing that nothing I had thought about Muslims was true at all.
One imam (mosque leader) I talked to asked me, “How many Muslims do you know in your country?”
I said, “Honestly, I don’t know any. I know many Hindus. I know many Indians; but to be honest with you, I don’t know any Muslims.”
He asked, “How many Muslims are in your town?”
I said, “I don’t know.” I realized that if you asked me to take you to the nearest Muslim’s house, I couldn’t do it – and I was ashamed.
*Name changed for security purposes. Irving is a minister at a Baptist church in South Carolina.