My Arabic name is Jesus. I recently learned that Jesus is the name of a famous prophet. My new friend even said that he believes Jesus is the Savior of the world. I don’t know. I don’t understand why no one has ever told me who Jesus is. I am named after him, but I never realized it was a significant name.
The bus is full, but I squeeze through the crowd slowly inching my way towards the back of the bus. As I get close to the back, I see a seat on the last row. Since my journey is a long one, I make my way for the seat and sit down. I notice a pretty young woman sitting next to me with her purse resting on top of her legs. Her clothing is beautiful and full of bright colors while her head is covered with a beautiful bright pink scarf. She is beautiful and young looking.
When traveling through Yinchuan during Ramadan, you expect to see many restaurants and businesses closed during the day, as all Muslims are supposed to be fasting. Yinchuan is the capital of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in China and home to more than 100,000 Muslims. However, despite these large numbers, walking down a street in Yinchuan during Ramadan does not reveal that something is different.
The streets are quiet and the sky is still black at half past three in the morning when cell phones and alarm clocks beginning buzzing across the city reminding Muslims to wake, eat and pray. Hassan is one of these guys. He owns a noodle shop. He and his family wake around 3:30 a.m. to eat a hearty breakfast before the Salat al-fajr prayer time at 4:10 a.m. After they pray, they will go back to sleep for a couple of hours before they rise and head to work.
If you live in America and want to be more actively, physically involved in work overseas, you might wonder how much you can really do when you’re continents away from the Hui.
My family’s life here is a living, breathing, walking, talking testimony to what you can REALLY do and how it REALLY makes a difference in how we serve in our community.