Normie and Ini saw each other’s pictures only after they got engaged. Normie’s dad noticed Ini, talked to her parents and arranged for the wedding while Normie was away working at a welding factory in Malaysia. Normie is quick-witted and likes to share a laugh with matching funny grins. He is a good father: timely, diligent and exuding joy. Ini, his wife of four years, is gentle and steady.
Normie was a latecomer to the crew building our house and stayed to help me with the final touches after everyone left. When he started joining the morning Bible study with the others, I talked with him about counting the cost.
“Most Muslims who work with me end up getting shunned by the community. Some have been removed from the list to receive Muslim charity even though they were in great need. Some have been kicked off their relatives’ property for being too close to Christians. Others are mocked as stupid, or strictly warned away.”
Normie replied that he valued my friendship, was new to the village (since he moved here after getting married) and did not have many friends anyway. “Let them say what they will,” he replied.
Together, we have just finished 50 major stories and key passages from the Old Testament and the entire book of Matthew. Normie can read. He asks good questions. He has also learned to pray beautiful, sincere prayers. When he is confused about the meaning of a passage, we stop, and humbly ask Ya Allah (Father Allah, a term he came up with on his own) for wisdom, then re-read the passage with context. The passage is then more clear.
This week, he dusted off a Khmer copy of The Great Controversy in my ministry office. He noticed the last chapter was about the second coming. He sat down, tuned out all distractions, and read out loud for the next hour. His excitement was palpable. He finished the chapter and, without pause, started from the beginning of the book. With every turning page, he gave expressions of wonder and revelation.
The Muslim worldview does not include the plan of salvation. Eric Tirado and I could hear pieces of the puzzle clicking together from his expressions of awe as the angels realized the family of Adam was doomed, and when Jesus went into deep communion with his Father three times and then emerged, announcing victoriously that a plan of escape had been made. The three of us praised God for His matchless love. It was one of the most beautiful hours of my life.
Then a shadow came over Normie’s joy.
“It is hard even to hope my wife will one day want to learn what I have,” he said. “She thinks the laws of Islam are clearer and better [than the Bible]. The prophet Isa, Jesus, was better than most, she says, but Isa was from the past, and Islam is for today. Every Muslim thinks that way. It is how we are taught since we are young. They believe Jesus died because Israel hated Him, not because Jesus willingly sacrificed his blood to cleanse the sins of the world. Actually, Muslims do not believe Jesus died at all, but that an angel switched someone else out for Jesus on the cross and whisked him away to heaven.”
We have had five or six Great River People baptisms, but always the husband or the wife and never both. It would be a breakthrough to have a whole family. Please make this an urgent matter of prayer for Great River People mothers and fathers to be united in Christ and together raise their children to know Him.
Normie is good soil and may decide for Christ soon. It will break our hearts if his faith is a point of resentment for his wife and becomes nearly impossible to maintain. Ini leans towards witch doctors and charms for keeping demonic harassment away from her family. Normie does not like that she has had the Muslim Shamans tie charms around their boys’ wrists because they were seeing spirits in the house and screaming uncontrollably. It always bothered him, but it bothers him even more now that he has read the many accounts in Matthew of Jesus casting out demons.
The only reason Ini has not forbidden him from studying with me is that she has seen a change in him. She told him, “I used to resent that you were so patient and kind to everyone outside the home and bad-tempered with me and the children. It has been much more peaceful around the home recently. I like whatever you are learning.”
Pray that Normie will acknowledge Jesus before men. Pray that he will be faithful, sowing the seeds of truth he learns and have the joy of reaping a harvest within his own family.
