by a worker in the Middle East
It was a normal Friday morning.
We were in the church parking lot, a tad late as per usual, and looking for a big enough spot to park our big family car. Doing a visual scouring of the parking lot for a vacancy, I spotted what I instantly knew was a Pashtun man. While seeing a Pashtun man walking about on a Friday morning here is about as expected as sand in a desert, this man was a different sight to behold. He was squatted down under a tree just watching people come and go from the church building.
He seemed to be searching or waiting for someone.
I pointed him out to my husband. “Look at this man. He’s watching a bunch of Christians go in and out of church, and not a single person is talking to him. It would be pretty tragic if he’s here hoping to see what Jesus is like and no one even acknowledged him. You should go talk to him,” I said.
My husband was not sure that he should actually talk to the man. Perhaps a bit more forcefully than I should have, I told him that the man over there needs someone who knows Jesus and speaks his language to talk to him. My husband knew both, so he’d better get moving.
We dropped off the kids at their class, and I headed inside while my husband went back to the parking lot to talk with the man. As I walked, I asked God to bless their interaction. As I sat down in the sanctuary, the service started. I waited, but there was no sign of my husband. He was gone for over an hour and the sermon was nearly over when he came inside.
The man in the parking lot, whose name was Ayoub*, was indeed looking for someone. The man he was hoping to see was a friend of ours named Ian. Ian had recently moved to a different part of the country, but prior to moving he had developed a deep relationship with Ayoub.
This man was searching for much more than just an old friend. He was searching for Jesus.
My husband told him about Jesus and what He has done for the world, how He is the true and only way to God. Ayoub had clearly heard many of these truths before from our friend Ian; it was amazing to see God’s hand at work in this man’s life. Ayoub’s openness was obvious to my husband from the beginning, and he had been thinking on the New Testament stories Ian had shared with him many months ago.
Ayoub and my husband have spent much more time together since that balmy Friday morning. His story has amazed us.
Ayoub comes from a long line of poverty. “We have always been poor,” he explained.
His father and grandfather worked as farmers, and there was never enough money to send all of the children to school. Ayoub had an older brother, and he and one of his cousins were the only children who went to school. “I would watch them go to school each day and just wish that I could go, too,” he recounted.
Thankfully, Ayoub found an apprenticeship as a young man and learned carpentry. Determined against raising his own family the way he grew up, Ayoub decided to do something drastic. He heard about a carpentry job in the Arab gulf. He tearfully packed up a few clothes and said goodbye to his wife and children back in Afghanistan.
For nearly 25 years, Ayoub has been working here and sending most of his wages home to his family. It has not been easy for him.
He came here as an illiterate man who only spoke his two distant, native languages. Ayoub taught himself how to read and write in English, Arabic, Urdu and his own native language. As a result of his hard work and sacrifice, all six of his children, even the girls, are in school. His eldest son recently finished medical school and is hoping to start a residency program soon.
Ayoub’s hard work and sacrifices have changed the course of his family’s future. And it seems that God is working in Ayoub’s heart to change the course of his eternity, too.
Pray with us that Ayoub fully surrenders his heart and mind to Jesus. Pray that with that decision, he will also lead his family to make a drastic change.
Names changed.
