Question: How long does a witness for Christ last?
Answer: Years. Decades. Maybe forever.
This is part two of a story my friend Jack experienced when he met Tahir. I’ll let Jack tell it in his own words.
“Tahir’s a cab driver from Pakistan working hard in the Windy City. When he heard I wanted to be driven to the corner of Chicago and LaSalle (Moody Bible Institute), he blurted out, ‘That’s the Moody Bookstore!’”
But how does a Muslim cab driver born in Pakistan know about the Moody Bookstore? Naturally, Jack had to ask (Jack sometimes pushes boundaries and makes me a bit uncomfortable!). He continued.
“Tahir says to me, ‘Back in the 1980s, I was in Chicago with a Christian girl from Pakistan. She wanted to get some Christian literature, so I offered to go with her to the Moody Bookstore. Once inside, I was greeted by a man who spoke my language, Urdu, absolutely perfectly. It was fantastic!’ This Tahir guy appeared blown away, decades later.”
But neither Jack—nor Tahir—were finished. The cab driver recounted his conversation with the American who spoke Urdu.
“I said to the man, ‘You speak my language more clearly than I do! No accent whatsoever. How can this be?’ He told me that he had been a missionary in Pakistan for more than 20 years.”
Jack doesn’t know the full extent of the missionary’s conversation with this Muslim. But as the missionary was polite enough to engage Tahir, I’m certain that gospel seeds were sown.
And apparently, God has seen fit to water those seeds. On two separate occasions—by “pure coincidence”—Jack has ridden in Tahir’s cab, declaring himself to be a follower of Isa (Jesus). On the second ride, Tahir gave Jack his hand and let him pray a simple blessing over the guy’s life.
It is not for Jack—or me—to project the end of this man’s story. But to my simple way of thinking, the Holy Spirit of God appears to be hovering around Tahir. There are believers in and out of his life.
But consider that this all began when a missionary who was no longer in Pakistan, served a Pakistani who had come to the U.S. Who knows what God might do as you reach out with the love of Christ to those from distant lands who now live near you!