[CS-FSLUG] Muslim outreach success stories

[Tim Young]

One of the first things you will see if you try to find "evangelize 
Muslims" stories is that there are (and should be) very few of them.  If 
you look at most any of the mission organizations that work with Muslims 
and you will see that they shy way from terms like "convert" and 
"evangelize."  Those are terms that are looked upon very badly from the 
Muslim perspective.

I have three short stories from one organization I can share.
Gobal Recordings (globalrecordings.net) has the Gospel in over 5,800 
languages and dialects, in audio-tract form (cassette, CD, mp3).  Here 
are three shortened stories about some of those.

Working in a Muslim nation:
In one predominantly country where Christians are persecuted, there was 
a completely bizarre Christian outreach.  It turned out that there was a 
people-group minority within that country that was considered 
"Christian."  For generations these poor people, when they were born, 
had the word "Christian" put on their birth certificate.  They did not 
know Christ, they did not attend church, they did not have a 
relationship with the Lord.  They did claim to be Christians, but it was 
simply because they were supposed to do so legally.  They were 
considered Christian by the government, and therefore a persecuted 
people.  Global Recordings had a great outreach to those people.  Even 
though they were in a Muslim country, the people they were reaching out 
to were already "Christians", so the Muslims did not do anything to stop 
the outreach.  I do not remember the numbers, but it was a very 
effective outreach.

Working in a Muslim neighborhood (a not-so-good story):
My brother was working in England once, trying to do some testing on 
some of the recordings they had tried to distribute in the past with 
little success.  He went into a Muslim neighborhood and passed them out, 
saying he would be back with a questionnaire to see if they liked them.  
The next day, he came back through the neighborhood.  Some of them would 
not open their doors, but most yelled at him.  The best came when a few 
of them threw the cassettes at him.  My brother was able to play the 
cassettes to see where the people had stopped listening to them.  He 
found that the script was very "western" and went about it the wrong 
way.  After talking to a Muslim who had accepted the Lord, they came up 
with a different script that was called "Wise sayings."  It contained 
many proverbs from the scriptures, many of which they knew already (the 
Bible is considered a holy book, and many of the Biblical characters are 
known and respected).  Towards the end, they had a number of wise 
sayings from Jesus, one of which is, "I am the way, the truth and the 
life.  No man comes to the Father, except through me."  This new message 
really gripped the various people when he tried it out, and many people 
came afterwards to ask questions.
Standard Christian practices of evangelism do not work, but that does 
not mean God is not capable of softening their hearts.

Working outside of their comfort zone:
By far, the most effective place to meet with a Muslim is outside of his 
environment.  Campus Crusade, Navigators, and other college ministries 
are probably the most effective ministries to Muslims, simply because 
they target college students in neutral countries.  They also focus on 
"friendship Evangelism", which seems to be the most effective approach.  
Groups like the Crescent Project have a number of ministries towards 
Muslims in the USA.  The same brother I mentioned above recently was 
part of a very interesting outreach over the 4th of July in Washington 
DC.  The Islamic Society of North America had 45,000 Muslims gather at 
Washington DC on the 4th of July, 2009.  A number of Christian 
ministries used that opportunity to share the Gospel, passing out the 
Jesus Film, Bibles, tracts, and the Global Recordings materials.  
Handing out many of these things on their home turf usually results in 
them shunning the giver.  But while they were outside their comfort 
zone, they at least accepted the gifts.

It is not my personal ministry to work with Muslims.  So I do not have 
names of individuals who have accepted the Lord that I can share.  
Various family members of mine do.  And I have worked at organizations 
that had various staff who had been Muslims, but they had found a faith 
in Christ.  The work with the Muslims is definitely slower than when 
working with "seekers", but every mission for the Muslims that I have 
worked with has had their stories of success, both within closed 
countries, and within the borders of the USA.

Anyway, I guess these are not "easy to replicate" stories.  But they are 
stories.  I have a number of stories that I cannot relate, as I do not 
have permission to share them.  :(  But I have some other good ones.

    - Tim Young

Fred A. Miller wrote:
>
> Show me some good ones, Ed! I know of VERY LITTLE success! I'd like to 
> read them.
>
> Fred
>
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