Day 21: "Deano, share your testimony" ... Uh

My day started late again, up by 11am, out of my room by noon. It's almost like my body is adjusting to my LA hours - crazy. So Shane had originally talked about heading to the farm this morning, he helps the nationals run it, but Linds was running late with her errands and his belly was acting up, so it was postponed until tomorrow. Instead, his team leader from IMB, his Missionary Organization, called and asked Shane to meet him at the local mall to do some blitz evangelism. What's that you ask? It basically means you just talk to anyone whose willing to converse and share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them. Now I have had some experience with this back in the states, mostly during my collegiate and youth pastor years, but that was 7 years ago. Also, mind you, this is a predominantly Islamic country, some being radical, so I was not only intrigued to see this in action, but a little concerned. We met Greg at the mall, split into groups of 2 & set out to have intentional conversations.

Greg and I paired up and headed for a coffee/donut shop on the first floor - me in a coffee shop, shocking I know. I ordered some chocolate ice blended coffee goodness and Greg had his boring, i.e. black. Apparently he had been to this shop before and shared Christ with a few managers, but none of those were in. Today we met a new manager named Ado, a nice kid probably in his early 20's, who spoke broken English. I assumed Greg would do all the talking since clearly I spoke no Indo, I even brought a book to read in case I got bored. But Greg was having none of that, not 2 sentences in he leans to me and says, "Deano, in less than a minute can you tell Ado about the most important decision you've made in your life?" Uh, If you know me at all, I can't tell you about paint drying in less than a minute much less my testimony. So I started off, "well, I was in college, I was dating this girl, and well ... Is it ok to mention sex? Does that translate?" Yeah, this was a rough beginning. "Well she wanted to have sex and I was curious of course and the only reason I hadn't was because of God but I didn't know Him and so I didn't and then I wanted to but, uh where was I?" I got nervous, wondering if men with guns would jump out from behind the donut counter, or at the very least they might cut off my coffee supply. I mix up my words, am anything but articulate, and luckily Greg jumps in and translates to Bahasa (shortened term for their language). I nod and hope he is doing a better job with my words than my attempts.  And then Ado asks, "so you did not want to have sex ever because of Jesus?" Brilliant question, and the answer would be negative Ghost Rider, I sure did and still do, it was more about Him giving me strength to resist, but I knew I was not making much sense.

So I took a deep breath, thought for a moment, and said, "Ok, let me start over. Here's the skinny, I'm an idiot, I choose to sin, do it all the time, and am never gonna be perfect. God is perfect and perfectly clean, so He can't be in the presence of sin or it would make Him dirty, thus the problemo. If I want to chill with God, I'm dirty, He's clean, and I can't clean myself or get rid of my sin, what do I do? Enter Jesus, the answer, His life, death, and resurrection. Only through trusting Him and His death to kill/cleanse my sin, and His resurrection to give me new life, do I get to chill with God without making Him dirty. Ok Greg, translate." I think he spent the next 20 minutes translating my one minute testimony. Perhaps it was that Bahasa takes so many more words to paint simple concepts, perhaps it was that Greg was sharing his own version and only pretending to use my words, or perhaps he was having to use 5 times as many words to translate my slangy vernacular. Regardless, Ado understood. Ado said, "that's true, I agree, I was raised Christian" ... what? After all that talking and translating, in a mall full of people, in a country that's 85% Muslim, the one guy we speak to already considers himself a Christian. What are the odds? Hilarious. Well, at least I know I won't be gunned down or worse, have my drink confiscated today.

We arrived back at the house, Linds was cooking for the small dinner party they were hosting tonight, and I jumped in the shower for a quick cleanse. By the time I got out, Shane had taken over the cooking, one of his hobbies and passions, and everything was smelling d-lish. The other 3 westerners/guests arrived and we had a great time chowing down, talking about the states, and playing with Judson.

After their guests had left, I booked my tickets from KL to Phuket and secured a hostel through the 16th while watching what else but American Idol! So to clarify, I leave on the 4th for Singapore, the 6th to Kuala Lumpur, and the 10th to Phuket ... beyond that, I have yet to decide. Ok, perhaps the farm will be on the docket for tomorrow and you can hear all about it, but for now I must hit the hay.

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