Seeds for the Hajj

“We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.” 1 Thessalonians 2:8, NIV.

We work with a Muslim people group in Southeast Asia. The day after Christmas is usually a great time to buy things at a discounted price in our city. Strangely enough, the day after Christmas proved to be a great day for seed sowing among our people!

We happened to be at the airport dropping off some guests. Amy* noticed a busload of our people leaving the airport. As we looked around we literally saw thousands of our people and buses and vans lined up and down the road to the airport. It was certainly the most that we had ever seen in one place at one time. 

As we were thinking about this, I remembered that this time of year is the time of pilgrimage for Muslims to the city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia called the Hajj. There were probably only about 200 people from our poor people group who had attained foreign sponsorship to go on this pilgrimage, but all of their families, extended families, friends and acquaintances had come to see them off from all around the country, including places to which we may never get to go.

After talking with some of them and witnessing to some others, we left for home. Fortunately, Amy was on the ball and said “Let’s go get all of the tracts that we have, and go give them out right now!”

What a great idea! We went back to our house, collected all of the tracts that we had (about 4,000), and distributed them all in about two hours. They were so eager to take them that we were pushed up against the car and almost knocked down a few times. Only one man refused to take the literature, but when he saw his friends taking them, he eventually took one, too.

Please pray that the Lord would use these evangelistic tracts that contain His word to convict and convert those who received them as well as those to whom they pass them.

*Names changed for security.

Pacific Rim is a region of the International Mission Board, SBC.