It has been an exciting summer for Dan. A student at The Citadel, Dan, whose last name is withheld here for security purposes, is studying in an Arab country to better learn the language while also serving as a summer missionary.
He is sharing his faith under uncertain circumstances in a culture that does not welcome the gospel.
Dan’s journey began with a curiosity to learn a foreign language as part of his plan to join the military after graduation. The summer before his junior year, he studied Arabic in the Middle East. Dan became what his Baptist Collegiate Ministries director Peter Hyatt called a “new creation” after some exciting changes began to happen in his life.
“Dan grew up in church and had knowledge of Christianity but never actually had a relationship with Jesus until the BCM Converge retreat earlier this year,” Hyatt said. “God transformed Dan’s life, and the evidence of the Holy Spirit in his life is real.”
“I began to realize that I had unfinished work with the Lord,” Dan said. “I always told people that I ‘got saved’ at age seven, but it didn’t become real until last winter.”
Dan began to tell his story to other students and decided to go back to the Middle East in June of this year as a summer missionary with the International Mission Board. Before he left, the BCM group gave him a blue Arabic translation of the Bible. A few weeks later, Dan sent this message to Hyatt: “I handed the blue book you gave me to my brand new brother tonight. The Boss is awesome.”
Dan gave the blue book to a friend he met in his destination country who “met my Dad [God] for the first time. He barely speaks English, and my Arabic is not that great. Fortunately, He [God] speaks both fluently.”
The new believer was a university student studying John Milton’s “Paradise Lost” when Dan first met him. Dan helped explain the Genesis account of creation to his new friend in order for the poem to make sense, and later showed him the rest of the story in a bilingual Bible. “He asked me to read more, and eventually he got it. He has the Book, and is committing it to memory,” Dan said.
Because of security concerns, Dan has to be careful about the messages he sends back home. He uses phrases like “Boss” and “Dad” to get his message across, while being careful not to reveal specifics in case his correspondences are being watched.
In another message to Hyatt, Dan described the conditions he is living in this summer: “My showers are freezing cold, my bed is hard, the weather is only getting hotter, I eat bizarre foods in the houses of strangers, drink coffee that tastes more like dirt, and I don’t think I’ve ever been more excited.” – SCBC