From Wary Newcomers to Persons of Peace

The VOR office is a place where God’s glory can be seen daily, and  today is no exception. In Dari, a man sits wondering aloud, “What is God like? Who is God? Is He energy, is He light, what is He like? I have all these questions, and I keep asking God these questions. What can help me when I have anxiety, doubts, and fears? What do I do?” 

These questions aren’t new to VOR staff and volunteers. But to hear them uttered aloud, in a public setting, by a Muslim man, everyone in the room paused in our tasks and began silently praying for the Holy Spirit to open this man’s heart to His light.

VOR staff S, who was conversing with this Afghan man while his wife try out VOR’s Beginner English class, gently pulled out a Farsi Bible, opened to Psalm 37, and invited him to read. And he did– aloud. S shared afterwards, “At that moment, I just felt this psalm was a great example of how humans can talk to God and of God’s heart for people.” What if God himself told us what He is like? They continued reading passages from John 14, Matthew 15, Genesis 3. But it was not just the reading of Scripture that caught our attention, but the way this man engaged the word of God wholeheartedly. Others in the room observed, “Something in his voice made me want to cry.” “It feels like….he already believed.”

But first, rewind. We know that God’s love pursuit of this family began from before the foundation of the earth. For the VOR team, the journey began at least one year ago, with a different Muslim family of 6 who had received furniture from VOR but would not come any closer to this Christian organization.

To be continued.