I arrived on campus keen to get to know some Muslim students and talk about our faiths. None of my friends at school or university were Muslims. There weren’t any Muslims living in the rural towns I taught in after university. I had never really had conversations with Muslims before.

So I headed to the Islamic prayer rooms on campus and started asking the question “Why do you believe?” It is a really helpful way to start a conversation. Often, no one has asked them such a question before and it provides a good way to see what they value.

The Muslim girls I have met are very friendly and willing to talk about their faith. Many of them have lots of questions about Christianity because they don’t know many Christians. They are often surprised at the things I tell them about the gospel just as I am surprised by some of the things they tell me.  On my very first visit to they prayer room the girls spoke a lot about how you have to read the Quran in context and how people pick and choose bits to make it say whatever they want it to say. I thought to myself, “That sounds familiar”.

One of the challenges has been answering their questions.  It has been humbling to realise that I often don’t explain the truth clearly and can’t articulate what I know to be true. I often go away from conversations having to go back to the bible and think harder about how to explain what I believe. Another challenge I have found is moving past just comparing the differences between what we believe. I want them to see who Jesus is.

Please pray for me and other students as we seek to share the gospel with our Muslim friends and present them with the real Jesus.

Image credit: “IslamicGalleryBritishMuseum3” by LordHarris – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:IslamicGalleryBritishMuseum3.jpg. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IslamicGalleryBritishMuseum3.jpg#/media/File:IslamicGalleryBritishMuseum3.jpg