Yesterday my house helper came excitedly to my house telling me of a 3 month old baby that everyone in town wanted to see. The baby supposedly had the word “Mohammed” written somewhere on her body, like a birthmark, and now she miraculously spoke three messages in Arabic related to praying and this current Ramadan season. I listened as my house helper told me how beautiful the baby was to look at and how my friend’s clothes were ripped because so many people were pushing their way into the compound to get a look at this baby “prophet” as they were calling her. People even said the president of Chad, Idriss Deby would come today to see the baby.
Today, I asked my helper if Deby came to town to see the baby. She told me that last night a respected Muslim leader in the town spoke on the local radio station to debunk any of the stories that had been rampant around town yesterday. He told the people he went there and saw the baby and none of the stories are true. The baby’s father and mother either made it all up or it was a demonic presence that they saw. Either way, they now have a stash of money from people who came to see the baby and thankfully this leader told the people on the radio to not believe what they heard.
Our believing friend had many people ask him yesterday what he thought (everyone knows he follows Jesus, is not currently fasting, and sees life differently because he follows the teachings of Jesus). He told them it was not true and today we were rejoicing in a small way that his steadfastness to Truth will today hopefully give him credibility amongst his non-believing friends. We pray that this sparks more conversations and opportunities for people to take a second thought at the things our friend has said about the gospel.
Regardless of whether the story of this “prophet” baby is a lie or something demonic, we are stricken with the grave reality that the vast majority of people living around us are so willing to believe anything but the Truth. They are in the middle of their month of obligatory fasting, hoping to add good points to their lives so God will accept them into paradise and they are even expectant they they may hear from Allah this month. When they do hear something that seems ridiculous to us, they believe quickly and with excitement. Our prayer is that the eyes of many would be opened to the Truth and that they would quickly and excitedly believe the best news of all – that hope is offered to them because Jesus died for their sins!
