SPEAKER_01: This podcast is the Ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_01: For more information in our church, please visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: The first thing I wanted to ask you, you alluded to this last session about how you came to the Lord and you mentioned that it was through a vision.
SPEAKER_01: And I know that does happen quite a bit to Muslims, but for us Americans, that was that left us curious.
SPEAKER_01: So maybe you could just tell us a little bit more about how you came to the Lord and talk to us about that, the vision that your brother had.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: It's um interesting.
SPEAKER_00: Until I start telling Saeed's story, realizing he'd come pretty much come to know the Lord through a vision, and then I realized my story was the same.
SPEAKER_00: I and I've realized uh over the years when I've evangelized even in Iran uh when I would approach people and um we'd you know we'd approach them in the in the parks.
SPEAKER_00: And uh the reason I'm saying this is because it's so uh different when you hear that here, but it's so normal in the Middle East, visions and dreams as ways, you know, and God talks in I believe in Joel that in the last days people will come to know uh through visions and dreams, and it has happens so much in the Middle East, but it's interesting when I I grew up here, I did come to know the Lord through a vision, but really visions and dreams didn't do much throughout my life here.
SPEAKER_00: But when I went back to Iran, I had a question of uh what about the people who've never heard about the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: And one of the ways it was answered was this was we would appropri I would approach people and Side and I and we'd ask them, Do you know about Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: And they would uh bring out a secret cross that they were wearing.
SPEAKER_00: They would say, I know him, my child was dying.
SPEAKER_00: And for the first time I cried out to God and said, God help me.
SPEAKER_00: Because in Islam you say a ritualistic prayer, and for the first time they said, I spoke directly to God and said, God help me, and Jesus Christ appeared and said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_00: So there were so many testimonies like that, and my question was answered that um he God reaches whoever calls out to him, and he's not limited to Bibles and missionaries and whatever, but uh that's how the Lord met me.
SPEAKER_00: Um we didn't even know who Jesus was.
SPEAKER_00: I was a small child.
SPEAKER_00: I grew up in a Muslim family, and uh where when we were really small, we came to the US and at that time there was a war with Iran and Iraq, and my brother and I were twins.
SPEAKER_00: We said, Who is this God that allows this awful things to happen?
SPEAKER_00: Because we were in first and second grade, and we would go to school and our friends would die in front of us, bombs and missiles, and so we were in a war in in our city that was the war.
SPEAKER_00: And we were wondering who this God was, and we didn't know who Jesus was.
SPEAKER_00: And we came to the US, my brother had a vision, and he came running to me.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I saw Jesus, he's the God we're looking for.
SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, I don't understand how at age nine, you know, we through that his vision I believed, and we both gave our hearts to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But I don't understand how I kept it, but it was that vision, it was just that instant.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't um we were in such a closed family, Muslim family, that it just it took that vision for for us to come to know Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And we held on to it despite, as I mentioned, years of Bibles being taken from us and not allowing us to go to church and trying to debrawash us, but the Lord just kept that faith and in us and and it flo it flourished.
SPEAKER_01: That and we'll talk about this later on.
SPEAKER_01: We I want to spend some time later asking our questions about how to minister to Muslims and and from what I've been told, praying that the Lord would come to them and in dreams is we beside and I would pray that often for them.
SPEAKER_00: We would pray that the Lord would reach them through visions and dreams.
SPEAKER_00: And many times people would uh we would meet and we would minister to, that's how they would come to know the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You know, they would be uh they would see had seen a dream, and then when we shared Christ, they would say, Oh, I had this dream.
SPEAKER_00: It was just we would just ri uh uh we were just you know getting the harvest, but it was already ready through the dream and the vision.
SPEAKER_01: So it it it was the dream and your obedience, you know?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you know it goes hand in hand, but the Lord would prepare through visions and dreams.
SPEAKER_00: Um a girl, I mean there's so many testimony, but many times through a dream, they were open to the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: They saw something or through a vision, and either at through that dream or vision they would accept Christ or they would be open, and Sid and I would talk to them and they would say, Oh, that's what that dream was, you know.
SPEAKER_00: That, you know, and and so uh it the Lord used both, you know, them accepting Christ through the vision and dream and also using them to be open to the gospel through it, and for us to just give them the message and they were readily ready to accept it.
SPEAKER_01: One of the other things you alluded to this evening was being older when you got married, or it felt older for some folks.
SPEAKER_01: Twenty-seven feels very young, but um not in the Middle East culture.
unknown: Right.
SPEAKER_00: It's like eighteen.
SPEAKER_01: You're a spinster at that point.
SPEAKER_01: Um what in that waiting?
SPEAKER_01: I know that there are um quite a few women here, um, some of our students are here as well, and God puts that longing in them for a relationship.
SPEAKER_01: What what allowed you, what would you tell them in terms of waiting, since you waited longer than you wanted to?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I tell people, um Said was my first boyfriend, and and it's not because my family was a, you know, my family was actually very encouraging.
SPEAKER_00: At 18, they realized, you know, are you interested in boys?
SPEAKER_00: Like, and they i they were like, you need to date and go out, and uh they were not believers, but I just I I just felt even though I wasn't really trained, I didn't go to church to be told about purity and anything, but I was I had a strong prayer life, and um I just felt the Lord telling me to keep myself pure for my future husband, and um that even um it's not just about sexual purity.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of times our emotions, when we allow our emotions to be um, you know it takes a lot to get over a breakup.
SPEAKER_00: I have friends who are now in their 30s and uh they it doesn't mean they've had you know any sexual relationship, but even the breakup, the emotional breakup, is devastating.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord wanted me to keep my heart pure for that.
SPEAKER_00: And I thought, you know, maybe I will at 27, you know, I'd never I closed my heart and I I told the Lord I would only open it to the person he allowed me to open it to.
SPEAKER_00: And so my parents were really worried.
SPEAKER_00: They're like, she has not liked a guy, and she hasn't dated, and we've told her she can, and we've encouraged her, and um, I just want it for that right person and for the Lord to bring me all the way to Iran.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, I I would tell the Lord, I don't want, you know, in our culture it's really important to marry someone very high, highly educated or rich, or you know, someone with a status, and I would tell the Lord, I don't want anyone with money or education or status or anything.
SPEAKER_00: I want someone passionate for you.
SPEAKER_00: And I just wanted that as a as since I was small.
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, I didn't know what I was asking for.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't I didn't realize I would get married and then we'd be arrested.
SPEAKER_00: And I mean uh so I you know I thought, you know, someone who, you know, I don't have to beg to go to church.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't realize it would be this extreme, you know, this extreme uh passion for Christ, which has been amazing.
SPEAKER_00: It's really its answer to my prayers.
SPEAKER_00: And um, I just know uh it requires, I have friends who are in their 30s and they're not married, and um requires faith to wait.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it requires faith to believe that God has a plan for your life.
SPEAKER_00: It's you can be like Sarah and Abraham, where God had promised something, and because it didn't it wasn't happening in their timeline, they did something in the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, we know the Muslim world comes from Ishmael, and we're still dealing with that that mistake, you know, and um and that rivalry, and so they did something in the flesh, and they didn't wait for God's beautiful promise in Isaac.
SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, I know it's hard as a single girl, and I was tempted because uh it's just you know, I had to give that over to God, but it's hard realizing who am I gonna marry?
SPEAKER_00: Am I ever gonna marry?
SPEAKER_00: And how is my life gonna look like if I don't marry?
SPEAKER_00: And you know, you dream about getting married and having kids, but I had to give that to God.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, when I went to Iran, I knew for sure I would marry someone here in the US.
SPEAKER_00: Like, and so when I went to Iran, I said, okay, I'm gonna be a um like a uh what is it, maiden.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna be ever be married because I never thought I'd marry someone in Iran because I grew up here, I thought I couldn't connect to that culture, and I just thought I would just be a missionary all my life, I would never marry.
SPEAKER_00: I kind of gave that over to the Lord, but the Lord brought uh everything I'd prayed for all my life through Saeed and His love and passion for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And so I would say waiting, even though you get tested, there's moments of test where you could get God's second best or do something in the flesh, but God wants you to believe and have faith and until He gives you the right person and you know it when He does.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not gonna be a perfect person.
SPEAKER_00: We all have issues, and uh both me and Said of had our own issues, but it's gonna be the perfect person for you.
SPEAKER_00: And uh I just it's a message of purity.
SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad I didn't go through the so much dramas that I've seen my friends go through every breakup.
SPEAKER_00: And it's even though they're not they were never married, it was like a divorce, like every time, devastating.
SPEAKER_00: It would just throw them off off a you know spiral, and so it's it uh you know, I always share, I say, you know, um Said was my first love, he was my first everything, and I'm really glad you know it it it really blessed our marriage to to have waited and worth the wait.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah worth waiting on.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Well uh thinking back over the last year, uh you've talked about this, but what would you say uh just as a wife and mother, what's been the hardest part of the past year?
SPEAKER_00: Well, this this morning I talked about um enjoying infirmities and and distress, and part of my biggest distress has been seeing my kids in distress.
SPEAKER_00: Because when I'm in distress, I can take it to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: But when my kids are in distress, it's another level of distress, and knowing I can't do anything about it.
SPEAKER_00: Um it broke my heart when my daughter said on her birthday, Mommy, how many more birthdays?
SPEAKER_00: Because her sixth birthday, I said, Honey, this is gonna be the last.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna bring him home.
SPEAKER_00: And then for her seventh birthday, I couldn't say that anymore because I already said that on her sixth birthday, and I couldn't answer her.
SPEAKER_00: I had hoped sooner, but it just it uh break broke my heart.
SPEAKER_00: They're at an age where they miss they and they they that missing feeling is not like they're not babies anymore, comes that desperate, like I miss him.
SPEAKER_00: I miss him being here, I miss him praying with us and holding us.
SPEAKER_00: And I took him to the first day of school and I could just see in their eyes.
SPEAKER_00: I made a big happy day.
SPEAKER_00: I could see in their eyes they were looking at daddies like holding their kids and pictures and and it just broke my heart.
SPEAKER_00: They were just looking.
SPEAKER_00: I and I kept distracting them and holding them, and but they were looking at dads.
SPEAKER_00: They were looking at dads holding their kids, and I just, you know, the biggest, hardest part has for me as a mom has been the kids.
SPEAKER_00: It's been but I've I've learned, you know, um to take that to God.
SPEAKER_00: I've just been like, okay, this is breaking me as I spoke this morning.
SPEAKER_00: This is tearing me apart, and I'm gonna allow it, I'm gonna allow it to break me and take me to uh just get closer to God and just um just hide under his wings, you know, just it it's it's been one of the most breaking times has been when my kids have suffered.
SPEAKER_00: And my daughter has gone through a lot.
SPEAKER_00: She's older and um she's withdrawn from food, like nothing.
SPEAKER_00: She for a while nothing would just ex- I mean pizza, ice cream, like donut, anything, nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Food would she withdrew from food and she had a few times where she was just um throw throwing herself on the ground and yelling and screaming, I miss him, I'm I mean, just horrible, like um really uh I don't know how to explain it, um, when someone like high anxiety, high just um uh stress.
SPEAKER_00: I like the seeing her on the ground just yelling and screaming, I want daddy, I want daddy.
SPEAKER_00: It's just been painful.
SPEAKER_00: She's gone through a lot, and I've you know prayed over her and prayed for her, and um, seeing those has been the most difficult.
SPEAKER_00: And my son, too.
SPEAKER_00: I think I shared a video uh like a while back of him crying and saying, I love you, Jesus, bring daddy home.
SPEAKER_00: And one day he was uh we'd returned from a birthday and he brought some balloons home.
SPEAKER_00: They both brought some balloons home, and they were uh he was asking me how to write certain words.
SPEAKER_00: He can't he can't write sentences, but he can write letters, and and I said, What do you want me to, what do you want to write?
SPEAKER_00: And he started crying.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I want to write.
SPEAKER_00: He wanted to write on this card to attach to the balloon so it would go to heaven to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He wanted to write, I love you, Jesus, bring daddy home.
SPEAKER_00: And he was crying and telling me that, and I took a video of it just to show people the reality of of our family, really uh the day-to-day.
SPEAKER_01: So that's been the hardest part.
SPEAKER_01: What when you look back, what what have been some of the specific ways or even surprising ways that you've seen God provide?
SPEAKER_00: Um He's one, my kids are doing amazingly well.
SPEAKER_00: I thought they would um he's been their dad.
SPEAKER_00: Said was such a big part of their spiritual growth.
SPEAKER_00: As a mom, I did the practical cleaning, cooking, and exhausted by afternoon, and Said would take over and and he would pray with them and do their bedtime routine and worship with them.
SPEAKER_00: And he really um invested spiritually in them a lot.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes I would get mad at him because I was strict, like they need to be in bed at eight, and he would start praying and worshiping with them at seven, and I'd come at eight, and they're running, walking around the house, like prayer walking around the house, and and it's like um, you know, sometimes I'd get distracted and come back at 9 and they're still praying.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, how can how can you pray for three?
SPEAKER_00: How can someone pray three hours with kids?
SPEAKER_00: Like, this is impossible.
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, you know, and and it's just um and now I look at it, I would get mad.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, they need to be at bed at eight, and you're still praying and worshiping with them.
SPEAKER_00: And he invested so much in them spiritually.
SPEAKER_00: Now I see like there's been times I've taken videos of them where I've been I'm working around the house and they're together, like now they're seven and five, but they're holding hands and praying.
SPEAKER_00: They're worship singing worship songs, and now I see all those times he was investing in them spiritually, and uh um, you know, seeing that has been a blessing, seeing that um how much it has really their faith has grown.
SPEAKER_00: It hasn't he's God has stepped in, provided as being their father.
SPEAKER_00: Uh they've grown in their faith.
SPEAKER_00: They've grown my daughter just sang a worship song in front of at the prayer vigil, um, what what Said would sing with them at night.
SPEAKER_00: And um he's provided in I shared this morning as my husband, it was devastating for me not to be able to call him and talk to him, and and he's I've been able to process things with God as my husband, and he's provided our every need, every need.
SPEAKER_00: I've you know, I used to stress about about the small financial things, and then now, you know, I'm it's um nothing can stress me out.
SPEAKER_00: He's he's I've really relied on him completely as everything, as as a father, as a husband, as a provider.
SPEAKER_00: He's not he's not failed me.
SPEAKER_00: And he's always provided in every way, emotionally, uh, spiritually, physically, everything.
SPEAKER_00: And he, you know, he's faithful.
SPEAKER_01: One of the things that came to my mind was just wondering what is it that you miss most about Saeed?
SPEAKER_01: I think it was funny at the prayer vigil when when Neil and I were my husband Neil's the pastor here, when we were praying together, he said, you know, Lord, there are a lot of women who wish to God that their husbands were in prison.
SPEAKER_01: It's like there are moments when we all have that fantasy about the freedom.
SPEAKER_01: But um but I what is it that with him being gone from you that you feel most that you miss most about him?
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm a morning person, he was a night person, which worked perfectly, but we only had a few out a time in the day where we could talk because I he didn't want to talk in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: He was just and I did I couldn't I was done after like seven or eight.
SPEAKER_00: And but um really I guess I compromised, but we would put the kids to bed.
SPEAKER_00: So mornings didn't really change much because I would be the one getting the kids up and all that, but then when the kids were in bed and um the not of course the routines, realizing wow, he did so much, like brushing their teeth and getting them ready and realizing wow, that was a you know, especially since I'm not a night person and for him to have done so much, I realized.
SPEAKER_00: And but um we would put the kids to bed and then we'd just hang out.
SPEAKER_00: And he was big on spending one-on-one time, and I'd be just like, honey, I'm just gonna go to bed.
SPEAKER_00: And he would no, let's talk, let's go out, you know, let's watch a movie, let's every night he wanted to make sure we had our time together.
SPEAKER_00: When the kids were in bed, we'd you know, either watch a movie or you know, um talk or whatever, or go work out, we'd go swimming or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: He'd wanted to do something, and um because that's when he was like had energy, and I was like, I wanted I wanted to sleep, but I missed that because I I put the you know, I put the kids to bed and it's empty.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember our conversations, we talk or things we would do, and it just it's it was it's been that's been the hardest part is night times where it's quiet and it's like oh he's not here and I can't pick up the phone, I can't talk to him, and um you know he's really my best friend, and I really um I know when you get married you you understand this, and you know, but um that person really you share everything with, not you don't necessarily share as much with your parents or your best friend.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of things you share with your spouse, and um and so it's just it was hard realizing it was like he's not there.
SPEAKER_00: The night times are are the most difficult.
SPEAKER_00: And then the celebrations.
SPEAKER_00: Um Father's Day, it w it was always a big deal.
SPEAKER_00: Christmas, he did, you know what I appreciated about him, and I've shared like a video of him making a cross with the kids.
SPEAKER_00: Um he really like put a lot of energy into like a Christian celebrations, like making sure the kids got it.
SPEAKER_00: Like Easter, we went and got wood, and he like we like nailed, made a cross, and they put their you know the hands in the he really at eight, and I'm like, what uh I mean there's the the video of one-year-old and a three-year-old, you're putting this much time into doing this big craft to explain to them about Easter and how people would lay their hands on the lamb and the lamb would take their their sin, and and I'm like, they're it's like going over their head, but he would just invest in them spiritually, and like Christmas he would do like do a big show of like the magi and all of that, and I was like I didn't understand.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, what uh what do a w the three-year-old or five-year-old, what did I understand?
SPEAKER_00: But he just um I it's hard facing um those uh events without him, you know, those are those are hard to I guess his his presence is missed.
SPEAKER_01: Well, and it it one of the reasons I wanted to ask that, I think it's easy to kind of um idealize what you're going through even and to think, oh look, she has such faith.
SPEAKER_01: This this seems to be um easier than it would be for me.
SPEAKER_01: And I think no, it's it's not.
SPEAKER_01: I mean it's th it's walking through those difficult times.
SPEAKER_01: But um one of the things I wanted to to spend a little time talking about, and I and I've you and I've talked about this a little bit, that in April of this year, Fort Bend County, which is this area here, was declared the most diverse county in the country.
SPEAKER_01: Not Manhattan, not Houston, this county we're in.
SPEAKER_01: And one of my concerns is that we brace for that diversity instead of strategizing how to reach them.
SPEAKER_01: And so one of the things that I think we've got a former Muslim sitting right here with us to talk a little bit about how to effectively reach the Muslims that we we come across.
SPEAKER_01: And and we come across a variety of very Western women and men who are Muslims and very you know, very strict, conservative, covered who won't look men in the face.
SPEAKER_01: Um one of the things I wanted to ask you before we get to how to reach them, if you could kind of say the what are some basic Muslim Beliefs like about salvation, about heaven, just a few that come to your mind.
SPEAKER_00: Well, um, salvation, Muhammad said, the prophet of Islam, and I have a former Muslim here too, and you can help me.
SPEAKER_00: I was a young child uh when I accepted Christ, so I wasn't that much into Islam.
SPEAKER_00: Said was, so I learned a lot from him.
SPEAKER_00: Um he was a very strong Muslim, and he was being recruited actually by extremists because he was so strong and um a branch of Hezbollah.
SPEAKER_00: And so um Muhammad didn't know if he was gonna go to heaven or hell.
SPEAKER_00: He says that.
SPEAKER_00: And uh in Islam there's assurance of heav uh heaven only through either works, with works you don't know if it's gonna outweigh the good, it's gonna outweigh the bad, and uh but it's through um dying in a holy war, jihad, or killing an infidel.
SPEAKER_00: That's assurance of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And they they believe Jesus was one of the prophets, like you know, there was like Adam and Eve and Abraham and Jesus, and then the final prophet who said the final words was Muhammad.
SPEAKER_00: So when you go back to Christianity, you've chosen a lesser religion.
SPEAKER_00: The complete religion is Muhammad, and they they don't they say it's it's um blasphemy saying God had a child, um calling Jesus the Son of God, and they they think you've made a you've made a prophet into a God, you've made you idol.
SPEAKER_00: So uh they're really in their essence trying to defend God, and um you know the the you know um the covering, um, you know, if you look at the Muslim culture, it goes back to the time where they had to have the covering for the heat.
SPEAKER_00: And so Muhammad tells them what to wear, but it's really they it's related to that if if a if a male that's not your husband or your brother sees part of your hair, you go to hell.
SPEAKER_00: So that's why some of them are religiously covered.
SPEAKER_00: Some Muslims have become more moderate and they they pick and choose, as we Christians do.
SPEAKER_00: Say, ah, this is too violent for me.
SPEAKER_00: This is they may they've made this beautiful religion of what they want to believe.
SPEAKER_00: Um but really Islam in its essence has the good and it has really um uh radical and and uh violent parts as well.
SPEAKER_00: So but a lot of Muslims have chosen to take the good, the more uh moderate side of it.
SPEAKER_00: But um it's it's basically like any religion.
SPEAKER_00: They're trying to get heaven through works.
SPEAKER_00: It's like Mormonism, it's like, you know, um people ask me how to reach Christ, how to reach Muslims for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I really think we have the answer to all the religions.
SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, I I used to read so many books about reaching Muslims for Christ, but I realize it's the same.
SPEAKER_00: I've been able to reach Mormons, I've been able to reach people who've created their own religion, atheists.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's ultimately the same answer, is that you're trying to get God through works, but he wants a relationship.
SPEAKER_00: And um and really addressing, not arguing over the different religions, but talking about relationship, which no none of these religions offer.
SPEAKER_00: They don't promise eternal life, they don't promise relationship with God and salvation.
SPEAKER_01: So what would you say that the Muslim culture in general values like is it hospitality, is it things that that mean a lot to that culture?
SPEAKER_00: She's saying they say one coffee, she's an ex-Muslim too.
SPEAKER_00: I just met her tonight.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, I think she's the second Turkish Muslim convert, I know.
SPEAKER_00: The people in Turkey have been very, very hard close to the gospel, but I know that's changing.
SPEAKER_00: Um but you know, uh I would say um hospitality is one of them.
SPEAKER_00: Um but um you know the Middle Eastern culture is a warm culture.
SPEAKER_00: You you they they don't know you that well, but they invite you to their house.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you've encountered it here, but um they immediately want to invite you to their house, they want to treat you to dinner, they want to, you know, uh sit down with you and um um they care about you know uh relationship.
SPEAKER_00: They want to really break through this bubble, uh, which as I'm in the American culture we've created some a bubble that you know they get very they get personal fast and sometimes it's too much for our culture, but um, they're a very warm culture.
SPEAKER_00: Well and I think that's that's an interesting uh thing just because I think our culture is so individualistic and we value that and we value a fast-paced life, and we um the doorbell rings and we view it as an eruption as a I have to tell you they love interruptions, they love and the women, you know, even the ones with the covering, you go to their house, they take it off because you're a woman, and they open up and you talk to them, they open up.
SPEAKER_00: They have a very hard life as women in the Muslim religion.
SPEAKER_00: It's very difficult.
SPEAKER_00: Uh there's a lot of pretty crazy teachings.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, women are property, the man can treat them however way, and it's there's a lot of horrific teachings.
SPEAKER_00: And so when you you walk into you um and Middle Easterns love interruptions.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, when I got married to Saeed, people, his relatives would just show up from different cities and stay for like days and weeks, and I'd be like, this needs to be in my schedule.
SPEAKER_00: When people come over, they need to like, we need to plan this out.
SPEAKER_00: They can't just knock on the door in their in our house for like, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but they they they don't get offended even when you do that to them, like you know, just walk and knock at their door and sit and have dinner with them, and they don't really have the same same thing, but they love it when they feel like you're comfortable enough to just knock at their door and sit down, they start opening up, especially the woman.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I want to encourage you because as women, they um they become open.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when there's a man, they don't want to look at the man.
SPEAKER_00: It's like for some of them it's sin to even look eye to eye to a man, they have the covering, but with when you're you go to their house and they're a woman and their husbands are at work, they take off their covering, they're comfortable with you, they they you see another layer, you see their human part.
SPEAKER_00: And so I would I would you know and try to um it's easy in a way that it's easy to get into their houses.
SPEAKER_00: They love to invite you in.
SPEAKER_00: So even just approaching them and hi, what's your name?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I would love to, maybe our kids can play, or they would immediately invite you for coffee or tea or you know, something like that, and they would just take off their covering and be open to you.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the great way and and um of building relationship with them.
SPEAKER_01: I I was thinking about a quote I read one time that said that the blood of Muslim women is on our skirts because it's us women that can reach Muslim women.
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, because a man can't do it, they're they're completely close to the to uh the men.
SPEAKER_00: They can't look at them, they can't talk to him, they can't uh take off their covering in front of them.
SPEAKER_00: Um so and you know, I read somewhere, I don't know if it's I've read somewhere that the women are the ones that are carrying Islam to through their generations.
SPEAKER_00: So the men are not the women are the ones that are are are really in st and Saeed is it was the same with Saeed, his mom was the one that was instilling, like put ingraining Islam into the children.
SPEAKER_00: And so when you have the wife, when you have you know the wife, you have the children.
SPEAKER_01: It I I just it's interesting that the very thing that we're nervous about doing, which is engaging them, is the very thing that they would be the most open to.
SPEAKER_00: Because we think about our culture, we think if someone approached me, I would freak out, but they love it.
SPEAKER_00: You know, a lot of these refugees or people that come here, they feel isolated because Americans don't invite them to their house, they don't go to their house, and a lot of them they get depressed and sad because people are just not walking to their house.
SPEAKER_00: And whereas you think they're used to.
SPEAKER_00: Like they're used to.
SPEAKER_00: They're used to people just barging in and visiting them, and they they feel like they feel isolated, they feel alone, um, but they love it.
SPEAKER_00: But we are wanting to be respectful.
SPEAKER_00: We're we don't want to just knock at someone's door and just go in or just walk up to them.
SPEAKER_00: They're they're longing for that, walking up to them and saying, let's have tea together.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just have tea together.
SPEAKER_00: They're longing for that.
SPEAKER_00: You talk to any refugee, anyone who's come from the Middle East here, they long for that person who wants to just hang out with them.
SPEAKER_01: So we just need to hang out with them.
SPEAKER_00: I I'm thinking about Don't be don't be discouraged by their cover, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I was when I was in New York, a cab driver um was taking me to the hotel, and he was a very strong Muslim.
SPEAKER_00: And our my first reaction, I mean, he was teaching at the mosque, he was um praying five times a day, he was bragging about how he thought he was he I he knew I was from Iran and he thought I'm a Muslim, and then eventually he found out I was a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: But he was, you know, but he was bragging about what what a strong he could say these the verses like beautifully, but you know, I I had two choices, and I was praying as we were speaking, I was praying for him, Lord, what is it?
SPEAKER_00: You know, he's such a strong Muslim, and he seems so close.
SPEAKER_00: And we see these women with coverings, we're like, oh, they're close.
SPEAKER_00: But what the Lord gave me to say to him that just broke him was I said, It's beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: What you're doing is beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: Whereas before before I would want to argue, like, why are you even praying five times a day and this Islam has this problem and that problem?
SPEAKER_00: I said, It's beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: It reminded me of that um religious leader who invited Peter to his house, and they all accepted.
SPEAKER_00: He was religiously following God.
SPEAKER_00: I I, you know, I told the driver, I said, It's beautiful what you're doing.
SPEAKER_00: It shows you love God.
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, Yes, I love God, I love God.
SPEAKER_00: I said, That's beautiful that you love God so much that you pray five times a day, you do these rituals, you teach at the mosque.
SPEAKER_00: I said, That's beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: I see your love for God.
SPEAKER_00: And he was excited that I could, I wasn't turned off by it.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, But God is looking for he loves you so much, and he's so proud of you for wanting pursuing him like this and doing all the religious work, but he's looking for a relationship.
SPEAKER_00: And he just his heart dropped, and I could see it reached him.
SPEAKER_00: He said, He loves you so much, he is so proud of you for pursuing him through your religious acts, but he he wants more than that.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to be in a relationship with you, and he had kids, and I explained, you know, you have children, you don't want them doing good works for you around the house, but never sitting down talking to you.
SPEAKER_00: He said, God wants to have a relationship with you, and that's possible through Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And he was silent.
SPEAKER_00: We didn't argue about religion, who's what's the better religion, what does Islam say, what does Christianity say?
SPEAKER_00: We talked about relationship, and it was a different level of talking.
SPEAKER_00: We weren't arguing about religion anymore.
SPEAKER_00: You know, if I would have brought up Christian religion, it was like, oh, but Muhammad says this, but Chris, you know, how could Jesus be the Son of God?
SPEAKER_00: I I talked about a relationship, and it reached his heart.
SPEAKER_00: And so we shouldn't be turned off.
SPEAKER_00: The reason these women are going through the heat with these coverings is because they love God.
SPEAKER_00: That's the God they know, and they love him so much, they're willing to wear that covering, be looked at, be you know, maybe judged.
SPEAKER_00: Um they're willing to endure that um because they love him.
SPEAKER_00: And when you tell them that, when you get to talk to him and say, I see your love for God, instead of being turned off by the religion, seeing their love for God behind it and telling them that, it opens them up for a conversation with you and say, I see your love for God.
SPEAKER_00: But do you know he's pursuing you?
SPEAKER_00: Do you know he gave his life for you?
SPEAKER_00: That he you would be in a relationship with him, and it just breaks their heart.
SPEAKER_00: Um in Iran we'd share with people God loves you and they would cry.
SPEAKER_00: They'd never heard that before.
SPEAKER_01: Is it true that there's not the word for love and what what is it?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Allah Allah, the God of Islam, has 99 names, none of it is love.
SPEAKER_00: The idea of God loving, he's a very you know judgmental and harsh God, and the idea of God loving them is radical, is is revolutionary for them.
SPEAKER_00: And many times we just say, God loves you, and they would cry.
SPEAKER_01: I I was just thinking about in New Testament times, which was the Middle East, um, that was one of the ways that Christians were so noticed was the way they loved each other, and it and the same thing is true.
SPEAKER_00: It's interesting, that's the God of cr Christianity is uh and that's how uh when I met, I would meet Iranian um, I think I shared this morning, I when I was in Geneva sharing in front of the UN, a lot of Iranian human rights uh advocates would come up to me and say, you know, I I don't know if I'm religious anymore, I don't know if I'm Muslim anymore, but um I think I'm agnostic, but we heard from prisoners that were released with your husband that were in the same cell as your husband, they said there was so much peace, and and they said, we can just tell that Christianity is a religion of love, which is not taught in in Islam.
SPEAKER_00: So they're drawn by that love.
SPEAKER_00: They're drawn when they see a supernatural love in the body of Christ, and they see this love of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And so, um, and I mean simple words like God loves you, He's pursuing you, He wants a relationship with you, and just not even arguing over religion, just talking about that amazing love that God has for humanity.
SPEAKER_00: It breaks them because they're being so religious because they love God.
SPEAKER_00: They don't know Paul didn't know any better.
SPEAKER_00: Said didn't know any better.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when I met Saeed, uh, he had a c radical conversion, he was being recruited by um Basij, which in Iran is a it's a is a um branch of Hezbollah to be some kind of a you know, someone attacking Israel and stuff.
SPEAKER_00: And he didn't know any better.
SPEAKER_00: He thought he was serving God.
SPEAKER_00: And when I met him, he was not afraid to speak to the radicals.
SPEAKER_00: And he was not discouraged to speak to the radicals about Christ, because he said, I know how they think.
SPEAKER_00: They're thinking they're serving God.
SPEAKER_00: And the uh I think I shared this morning, the first time I was arrested, I had a gun pointed to my head and said, If you uh say you're Muslim, you're free.
SPEAKER_00: If you say you're Christian, we will kill you.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord just gave Saeed and I faith to stand up for our faith, and the interrogator was shocked to hear Saeed had become at a at an older age, he said, You're brainwashed, you were in the US, you became a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: But um, but Saeed loved on that interrogator.
SPEAKER_00: The interrogator was angry, he was gonna, he said, You're done.
SPEAKER_00: But he he took Saeed aside and talked to him, and he came back, and Saeed wasn't intimidated by that.
SPEAKER_00: The interrogator came back crying, asking for a Bible.
SPEAKER_00: So he would always say, you know, I was always scared of the radical, and he would say, No, they don't know any better.
SPEAKER_00: They're trying to serve that God.
SPEAKER_00: And so don't be intimidated by the coverings.
SPEAKER_00: They're trying to serve the God they know, but they love God, and you can approach it that way.
SPEAKER_00: That we see your love for God, that's why you're doing this.
SPEAKER_01: It's it's a lot of what you said this morning when you said you stood before the UN and you had that moment of feeling foolish.
SPEAKER_01: And I I was just what popped to my mind was uh many of you have probably seen it, that clip of um, you know, the um the magician's pen and teller, and someone came up after one of their shows to Penn and and gave them a Bible and was real nervous and sweating, and and Penn said I was I was actually glad he did.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, how much do you have to hate somebody to believe that Jesus is the only way and not tell them?
SPEAKER_01: And so risking being foolish, risking looking foolish is is um important.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you'll have an answer to this, but I'm curious what your thoughts are.
SPEAKER_01: One of the things I've noticed with a lot of our uh my daughters in high school and a many, many, many of her friends are Muslim.
SPEAKER_01: And what I've noticed is that they have a lot of the exterior um actions.
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, when they come to our house, we're always sure about, you know, when we order pizza, we don't order pepperoni and those kind of things.
SPEAKER_01: Um but that usually um seems to be the extent of it in some ways.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of a have to for them right now.
SPEAKER_01: W is there something that you would say to encourage our students who and and I think many of of us women probably have the same experience with people.
SPEAKER_01: You're sitting in world geography, what do you you know, what's the approach?
SPEAKER_00: You see, um Saeed's mom was prayed for so much because she had the full covering and she would Saeed's friends, uh they didn't a lot of them didn't even know he, you know, she was her her, I mean Saeed was this radical Christian, and here is this woman that was with him and they they didn't know it was his mom, but a lot of people by just seeing that covering, a lot of the Christians that were with Saeed would pray for her.
SPEAKER_00: And so I would say prayer.
SPEAKER_00: You see someone with covering, pray for their families, pray for dreams and visions, just pray.
SPEAKER_00: The power of prayer, we talked about that tonight, is amazing.
SPEAKER_00: And then um not being intimidated by them, you know, uh before we can share Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I guess you said you have to hate some someone so much not to share, before you can get to a point where you're just it's flowing out of you, it's not awkward to share him, it's just coming out easy, is first when you you have to be intimate with him.
SPEAKER_00: So before going out, you need to sit at his feet, you need to be intimate with Christ, passionate, and then when you are that way, like what Muslims don't uh turn me, like I don't get I don't see that wall anymore because I know I know how empty they are.
SPEAKER_00: I know they're going through trials of marriage, they're going through trial trials of life without God.
SPEAKER_00: I know they're devastated.
SPEAKER_00: I know it I see behind the wall, and I tell them and they cry.
SPEAKER_00: You know how how can they function?
SPEAKER_00: I met a family today.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if she's here, they lost the daughter, and she was such a powerful testimony to me today, and I have the owl I'm gonna put on my car, but um I don't see her.
SPEAKER_00: Desiree, are you here?
SPEAKER_00: Where are you?
SPEAKER_00: There she is.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, there she is.
SPEAKER_00: Uh how does someone cope without God?
SPEAKER_00: All of us have our own trials.
SPEAKER_00: These Muslim women, these families, they don't have a perfect life.
SPEAKER_00: They have financial stress, they have marriage stress, they have every kind of stress, but they don't have Christ to deal with.
SPEAKER_00: As I mean, this amazing woman, she lost her daughter and she's shining and glowing, and she's able to she's able to be here.
SPEAKER_00: She's able, it's not, it's five months.
SPEAKER_00: And she's able to function and share Christ with people.
SPEAKER_00: And um be we have that.
SPEAKER_00: I have a husband who's in prison and I can function, I can have joy and peace, but they don't have that.
SPEAKER_00: So when you experience Christ in such a deep, deep, intimate way, you know they're missing out.
SPEAKER_00: So it's easy to approach them.
SPEAKER_00: But when you're unsure about it, you're like, maybe they have it all together.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: When you're unsure, you can't share.
SPEAKER_00: But when you fall into the arms of Jesus, when you ex taste him, when you experience him, when you just inhale him and you see how amazing he is, then it just flows out of you.
SPEAKER_00: Sharing the gospel is not this intense sweating, like, oh, how am I gonna?
SPEAKER_00: But you know, I would say to to you, the high s you know, you uh you going to high school or seeing someone at the grocery store, I would say see them, pray with the pray for them, go to Jesus, taste Jesus, experience Jesus in a deeper way, and then it will flow out of you.
SPEAKER_00: It shouldn't be something uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00: Then it just flows out of you.
SPEAKER_00: It just comes.
SPEAKER_00: When you connect to the vine, the fruit comes.
SPEAKER_00: And so, and they see it.
SPEAKER_00: They say, Why are you so different?
SPEAKER_00: Why is your family so different?
SPEAKER_00: I you know, I come to your house and your parents are different.
SPEAKER_00: There's a love.
SPEAKER_00: I've so many people have ex I that I know have accepted Christ because they they've seen a healthy marriage.
SPEAKER_00: And it Muslims don't have that.
SPEAKER_00: And so they see the difference and they you know they they're they're drawn by it.
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, um, pray.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't know how to approach them, pray, and the Lord will give you as you pray and you draw close to God, then He will give you the words, and maybe before you even speak.
SPEAKER_00: They've had a dream.
SPEAKER_00: You pray that the Lord would reveal Himself through dreams and visions, and then you go speak, and they've already have met Jesus through a vision and dream and are ready to accept Him.
SPEAKER_01: Is there something that we as Western Christians do that most hurts our witness, specifically to Muslims?
SPEAKER_00: To break the bubble.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think it's just our bubble.
SPEAKER_00: They're afraid to um because we have a bubble, um they're not able to connect.
SPEAKER_00: Um being unho inhospitable.
SPEAKER_00: I mean that's not yeah, not being there's uh Middle Eastern people are warm cultures, so when they see cold, and we're trying to be respectful, but for them it's cold.
SPEAKER_00: Um but really there's nothing much you can do to offend them.
SPEAKER_00: Um they would they love you being yourself and really connecting with them as a human level and being open, and that's where they see Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I, you know, I had issues with my teenager, and this is what God has done.
SPEAKER_00: And instead of showing your life as perfect, I have had marriage issues, and this is how the Lord has healed my marriage, and this is what you know, and so being real with them because they're looking for real, and they become real, they're warm culture, they will open up things to you you never thought they would share.
SPEAKER_00: But they're you have to be real with them.
SPEAKER_00: Um they just yeah, I can't it it's Said and I when we minister, it was shocking for me how much people shared.
SPEAKER_00: They just they're open, they're just real, and um, you know, they're a warm culture, they just share with you everything.
SPEAKER_01: Well, it just makes me think what you spoke about this morning that we have to lay down our own agenda for our lives, and not just for our lives, but for our day.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, sometimes when I go to the grocery store, I'm like, I got this much time, and I got this many things to get, and then I gotta get home, and I miss these moments of in our life.
SPEAKER_00: Said and I were traveling inside of Iran, and I mean it's it was one of our best trips.
SPEAKER_00: It was like ten day ten days, ten cities, and we had like a hundred bucks.
SPEAKER_00: And every every day someone would invite us to their house, and we'd have lunch and dinner, and I mean the Lord provided, and uh, I don't want to go into the detail, but it was amazing.
SPEAKER_00: But we were heading to another city, we had to be there a certain time to be able to make the this deadline.
SPEAKER_00: And this Turkish guy, it was funny, he was from a Turkish village.
SPEAKER_00: Um, we were going to the north part of Iran when there's Turkish and then Kurdish, and then we were coming back around.
SPEAKER_00: And he was from a Turkish village and he spoke Turkish.
SPEAKER_00: He spoke minimal farsi, our language.
SPEAKER_00: But uh we later found out we passed by him and we see this 18-year-old, 17, 18-year-old village guy, and we had to go to the city and for we were like, we have to pick him up.
SPEAKER_00: And it's funny, in the I mean, I'm not supposed to say this, but in the freeway we backed up.
SPEAKER_00: And Madison, don't listen to that.
SPEAKER_00: He ran away.
SPEAKER_00: He thought that he saw a truck coming, he said, he we threw his bag and he ran, and he said, and and we got him, and he said, I thought you were gonna get into a big accident, it was gonna all be on me, and I was you're gonna blame me for all of this.
SPEAKER_00: And we got we got in the car, and he was this from this small village, and we could barely communicate far seat with him, but we picked him up, we had to um you know maneuver around our agenda because we were supposed to just go straight to that city, but we picked him up and we had all these CDs, we knew which regions we were gonna go, so we had Jesus films in Turkish language and Kurdish language and all these languages.
SPEAKER_00: And long story short, we asked him, Did do you know who Jesus is?
SPEAKER_00: And he said, No, he's not in my village.
SPEAKER_00: And we're like, okay.
SPEAKER_00: But uh long story short, we gave him a um uh Jesus film.
SPEAKER_00: He couldn't read or write, um, but we gave him a Jesus film in Turkish language, and his village had one person with like a TV or DVD player.
SPEAKER_00: He was crying, up jumping up and down with joy when we gave him that CD, and he invited the whole village and they watched the Jesus film in their own language.
SPEAKER_00: So that one person opportunity had the whole village watching this video about Jesus, this Jesus film in Turkish language.
SPEAKER_00: And so exactly opportunities like that, and uh, you know, sometimes it was just handing Jesus films, and the Lord has, I mean, I know it's an older movie, but uh God has done wonders through Jesus film and and and uh things like that.
SPEAKER_00: But that's that's sometimes you stop and you pick some I've in Boise there's a lot of uh Muslim refugees, and a lot of times I have had, you know, our our schedule is so full.
SPEAKER_00: I have to be I have to drop the kids off, then I have to do this.
SPEAKER_00: But I've stopped.
SPEAKER_00: I said, okay, I won't get all these errands done.
SPEAKER_00: And I picked up these women, Muslim women, and taken them to their house.
SPEAKER_00: They were walking, they've been dragging like groceries, and I've been able to share Christ with them.
SPEAKER_00: Um I've led many, many Muslim women to Christ in Boise.
SPEAKER_00: We had a Bible study, and um for them there were Afghanis, Iraqis, and Iranians, but you know, it was just those car rides, giving giving them a car ride or um you know, helping them with their grocery or something like that.
SPEAKER_00: And you said your husband said something today that my friend was just in tears, that the works of Jesus go before words.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of times we do a work, we do a kind act, and it opens up the the door for us to say to preach Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You know?
SPEAKER_01: So well I know that you probably each have your own set of questions, and I want to honor the time that we said we would be done.
SPEAKER_01: Um but so the last thing I wanted to ask you, and uh there's so many ways that we could intuit that we need to pray for you, but if uh tonight, what is something that kind of rises to the top that we want to make sure that we know we we want to pray for you?
SPEAKER_00: Um that um Said with re-release, I say I this week.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, I I want that.
SPEAKER_00: I really uh I'm tired and it's been a very long journey, but I say I say, Lord, you know I want him released soon, but I want it at your appointed time.
SPEAKER_00: Um Saeed had written w a small something to me early on that I I don't know if ever got on media, but he talked about a chick, and he was talking about how as a child he was fascinated by chickens, and and when they grew to the full potential, they come out these beautiful yellow, golden chickens that he would play with, but some of them he would they would break before um they before their time to hatch, and they would come this ugly, smelling, slimy, dead bird, and he he said in his letter, you know, he had in his little note, he said, I know you're trying so hard to get me out, but I don't want to come out a stinky chicken.
SPEAKER_00: I want to come out at God's appointed time, where it's a I'm a beautiful chick.
SPEAKER_00: And and so, and and so I know just that I know God has an appointed time.
SPEAKER_00: That and hearing that he's led so many people to Christ, it made sense to me that he was there for a purpose for people.
SPEAKER_00: So I say my prayer is always quickly because I'm I don't think there's much of me left anymore.
SPEAKER_00: I've just been um it's been hard.
SPEAKER_00: It's been a lonely road for me and the kids.
SPEAKER_00: The kids have been lost a mom and a dad, and um their whole life has changed, and so I say quickly, but I don't want to, if it means he's there one day longer and one more person comes to know Christ, then I'd rather have him stay that one day longer.
SPEAKER_00: Um, because you're changing someone's life for eternity.
SPEAKER_00: And if it means that I go before another I sp speak to another group, you know, I the Lord has been so good through this, uh, you know, speaking before the UN, speaking before 50 million Muslims, but speaking to group liberal uh human rights groups that would never ask a Christian to speak to them, and I've been able to speak to them about Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And so I I want it quickly, I guess, uh, but I want I also want it as a point of time.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to force it when it's not time, but I pray that that appoint of time is soon, I guess.
SPEAKER_00: I want the beautiful chick, but I want it to hatch now.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I don't want the ugly, I don't want the ugly dead bird, but I want it to be.
SPEAKER_01: None of us are gonna look at a carton of eggs the same ever ever again.
SPEAKER_01: And that's where, you know, I alluded to it in the prayer at the beginning to regard the patience of the Lord to be salvation, and I think as the Lord is patient in his release of Saeed, it is salvation.
SPEAKER_01: So we we will pray in agreement with that.
SPEAKER_00: And my kids, um, Rebecca and um Jacob have each dealt with this differently.
SPEAKER_00: Rebecca's really changed.
SPEAKER_00: She's had sleeping problems and eating problems and um and a lot of emotional stuff.
SPEAKER_00: And Jacob has had his own.
SPEAKER_00: He's kind of shut down.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't talk as much, and so it's just been they've dealt with it differently.
SPEAKER_00: So I just pray, I pray, prayer over them that this would just the Lord would just, you know, um take care of their emotions.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, many of us have heard your voice tonight.
SPEAKER_01: You have you have spoken to us, you have wooed us and called us to yourself in a new and fresh way.
SPEAKER_01: And God, it would be easy to walk out of here excited with the emotion of what has happened, with the honor of having this beautiful sister with us among us.
SPEAKER_01: But God, emotions will not carry us beyond tomorrow morning.
SPEAKER_01: So, Lord, would you show us specifically what we need to do tomorrow to be able to draw close to you, to be able to love you, to be able to believe and receive your love for us.
SPEAKER_01: God, would you make us women whose agenda is yours, whose hands are opened up, our fists are unclenched around our lives and our families and our three-foot circle that we live and move in?
SPEAKER_01: And you open our eyes to the world that you have brought to our neighborhoods, to our grocery stores, to our schools, to our places of work.
SPEAKER_01: You have brought the world to us, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Would you give us wisdom?
SPEAKER_01: Would you give us courage to risk looking foolish?
SPEAKER_01: God, would you show us the joy that comes from that obedience?
SPEAKER_01: We feel like we're having to lay something down, but Lord, you're you're saying, I have so much more to give you.
SPEAKER_01: You're satisfied with too little.
SPEAKER_01: Be satisfied with more.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I pray that our appetite for your word would grow.
SPEAKER_01: We I pray that we would fast, that we would pray that you would draw us continually, that that ache that we feel, that we try to fill with food or friendships or TV, that that ache and that longing that we fill, we would fill it with the word of God because that's what satisfies.
SPEAKER_01: Your living water is the only thing that allows us to never thirst again.
SPEAKER_01: So, Lord, we want to be filled with you and let the overflow of our lives be one that requires explanation to everyone around us, where we won't have to conjure up conversations.
SPEAKER_01: We'll be too busy trying to explain our joy and our love in the midst of our suffering.
SPEAKER_01: God, we want to hand you our suffering, and we we want to say that we receive it with pleasure, like Nagmay spoke this morning.
SPEAKER_01: God, we we each have a cup of suffering.
SPEAKER_01: Would you use it to your glory and would you show us that that will bring us the most joy in this world?
SPEAKER_01: We love you, and we are so honored that you have brought us together for such a time as this.
SPEAKER_01: Now, God, would you make us each Esters in our own world that we live in and move in?
SPEAKER_01: May our children in the next year come to us and say, Mommy, I don't know what happened, but this year you've been different, and I don't ever want you to go back.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, make us warrior women who move in this battle that you've given us.
SPEAKER_01: And thank you that you've given us everything that we need so that we will stand firm on ground that has already been won.
SPEAKER_01: We love you and we worship you, and we need you, and we thank you that you are all and in all, and because of you, everything is going to be made right in your time.
SPEAKER_01: And we pray these things in your name, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.