“Muslims and the Church Week” Begins at PIU

Last Tuesday’s chapel was the beginning event for our “Muslims and the Church Week” at PIU. The purpose of the week was to raise awareness in the PIU family and in the Guam church community about the needs and opportunities in the Muslim world, especially in Indonesia. Our keynote speakers for the week were “Paul and Hadassah from North Africa.” They made a very powerful presentation that humanized our Muslim neighbors and reminded us of Jesus’ call to reach out to them with love as He reached out to us.

After a good time of singing which focused on our mission to reach out to the world, Paul and Hadassah performed a drama of the The Woman at the Well story from John chapter 4. PIU student Josh Ladd began by reading the text of the chapter in English and then Paul and Hadassah acted it out in Arabic. It was especially moving to see so graphically how Jesus overcame cultural discomfort, distance and hostility to meet the woman’s spiritual needs and those of her whole village. After the drama Hadassah reminded us of how Jesus calls to us to move out of our comfort zones and go and serve in “the fields that are white for harvest.”

The theme that emerged from the many speakers and contributors to the weeklong event was that “Muslims are not our enemy. They are confused and don’t know about who Jesus really is and what God has for them.” Our job as a church is to get that message out by our actions and words.