It was a rare occasion. We were flying to Utah for a weekend, and I had been included in the plans! Plans that had been in the making for months. In the next three days we were going to be very busy. My husband was scheduled to speak in Ogden the first night at an open meeting on THE CHALLENGE OF ISLAM. Saturday would be our day at Utah State University in Logan, where he was advertised to lecture on the awesome subject of THE MIDDLE EAST AND THE WEST: FROM CONFRONTATION TO MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING. Sunday morning he would take the service at Brigham City and Sunday evening preach at a combined Reformation Rally in Salt Lake City.
On Friday morning it was my turn. I spoke to a group of ladies who gathered at the Anderson‘s house for a special coffee time. They came from Logan, Brigham City and Ogden. They were generously responsive and easy to talk to. We had decided earlier that the title of my talk should be “The Exciting Potential for Women as Christians Today.”
It was based on our need to love one another “fervently” as expressed in I Peter 1:22. Some versions use the word “earnestly,” others “deeply.” Certainly our need to love one another more intensely is worth thinking about. It fits so well with that other verse which ought to be written on our hearts by now: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength and all your mind . . .” Luke 10:27.
It appeared that after all these years there was something I could share with them. What could have been more rewarding or demanding than to be a Christian mother and to be able to demonstrate love to God and love to husband in such a way that the children had no doubts about it. Having had six children and t hen been preoccupied with them for more than twenty years, now my energies were being directed towards my husband‘s ministry. I was a part of the team in a very active way.
The ladies seemed to catch the obvious encouragement, even excitement over the fact that talents don’t disappear. For me there had always been a compelling urge to write, even to speak. And now my work with our Arabic broadcast gave me unlimited material upon which to draw, and a sense of great urgency.
We considered the joyfulness of the New Testament message in the face of darkness and persecution. We looked at the rapidly increasing and changing population which when projected will give us possibly a one in four ratio of Muslims at the turn of the century. In the face of cults and false religions you need to live in Utah to understand this better, with that overwhelming Mormon population) what can Christian mothers do to help? The exciting potential for any woman is simply to be utterly true to her faith and to shine from whatever corner she finds herself placed in. The life of a Christian is the life of adventure.
The fact that we were introduced as “Mike and John’s parents” and that all these. folk knew our sons, must have added something to what I was saying. They knew that the whole schedule of activities planned for us was a result of our boys’ involvement in Inter-Varsity work on the university campus and their concern for the growth of the Brigham City church which they love. We praise God for this awesome blessing.
Saturday, then, was our day for Logan, Utah, when we would meet our sons’ friends and my husband would lecture to a uniquely mixed group of Middle Eastern students, Mormons and ex-Mormons and Christians. At noon a Persian and an Afghani student prepared a delicious Persian repast for us. After the lecture twelve of us were guests at the home of a Syrian family, who in turn treated us to a Middle Eastern feast. At both meals it was heartwarming to have the hosts say, “Usually Mike asks the blessing for us, but today we will have his father do so.”
The highlight of that weekend was meeting people from so many different countries. At that lecture there were Iraqis, Iranians, Syrians, Libyans, Palestinians, Saudi Arabians, Eritreans and Afghanis. Church time in Brigham City saw this pattern continued. Mike’s friend Haile, from Eritrea, brought a Ghanian and a Persian student with him, adding to the usual balance of Navaho and Cherokee Christians. We worshipped together. After the service we shared our blessings.
When you only have a moment’s notice before you know you are going to be on your feet saying something to a group, thoughts race through your head. There were things I wanted to say, but how to express them? As I looked over that group of smiling faces I thought how beautiful “people” are.
We make so much of the beauties of God’s creation. Every country has its famous natural beauty spots·. Every season has its charm. We watch travelogues and take our own pictures hoping to capture a sunset or a snowfall, a bird in flight or a waterfall, so that we can look at them again. But how do we look at people—God’s greatest creation?
We need new eyes with which to see that all people of the world are potentially beautiful when they come to know the Lord as Savior. As the apostle Peter said: “Having purified your souls by your obedience to truth for a sincere love of the brethren, love one another earnestly from the heart.” (I Peter 1:22)
Shirley Madaay is the wife of Rev. Bassam M. Madany, Minister of Arabic Broadcasting of the Back-to-God Hour. They live at South Holland, Ill. The editor of this department is Mrs. Laurie Vanden Heuvel, 207 Kansas Ave., N. W., Orange City, Iowa 51041. Readers who would like to contribute to it are invited to write her