Today as I was getting ready to go to the Church for my morning prayers the grace of the Lord led me to feel that there was something out of the ordinary He wished me to do today. His spirit led me to walk past the Church and into a park by the ocean which I rarely visit. As I was walking through an old friend whom I have given a little food to from time to time ran up to me; I hadn’t seen him for a very long while. He is a muslim. Most of the muslims here are miserably poor (even in better times) and many of them, like my friend, try to scrape up a living by selling cheap little trinkets to tourists- only now there are no tourists. As with other groups of people in similar situations, desperation often drives them to crime. Many of them end up with very harsh prison sentences for very small infractions. He, though, was attempting to remain within the bounds of the law by selling only his trinkets. That is how I met him- while I was waiting for some food I was picking up he very persistently tried to sell me a fake pearl necklace for an impressive length of time and I very persistently and firmly refused to buy it. In this battle we earned each other’s respect! He doesn’t understand Christianity but he admires me because he has seen me helping people- “You have big heart!” I felt the Holy Spirit letting me know this is what the Lord had led me to do so I offered to take him to the bakery to get him a little food. He pointed at his friends- “Something for them, too?” Each time I have helped him he has always asked me to help his friends even though he knows this will mean less for him; it is very admirable given that he is obviously malnourished and has a family to support.
As we were walking to the bakery we talked about God. He said “Thank you my friend- when I go to pray I pray for you!” I thanked him and he said “I am muslim” almost apologetically. I said “One God, there is only one God- we pray to the same God- so your prayers are very important!” I have found that understanding a bit about Islam and focusing on the things Christians and muslims are in agreement about (there is actually quite a lot) has yielded very good experiences.
I bought some pastries for him and his friends and a few kilos of rice for his family. As we walked back we discussed theology in very simple and broken terms. He said “You pray… and you be good… and God will give… You no have to crime!” The teardrop tattoo at the corner of his eye reminded me that this was a subject he was very qualified to speak on. I said “That’s right! It is all God’s plan, even the hard times! You pray and you be good and God will give. But sometimes you have to wait.” He said “Yes, you pray- he no give now… you wait… You wait, no crime, he will give!”
When he had handed out the food to his friends I said to them, “You are muslims and I am a christian but there is only one God! Can we pray to God together?” They all enthusiastically agreed. “God, our creator, ruler of the world, please help us to love you and to serve you so we can be with you forever in paradise… Amen.”
“Amen!” they all shouted.
MISSION OF MERCY 