Aloha! :)

Before I start, I just wanna say that this is my first blog so no judge! haha. Anywho this blog is about me, Erik Isiah Louis, and my 1st adventure and privilege to serve where the need is greater, specifically in Italy and Israel. Thanks to Jehovah I get to be "A Need Greater"! Chee! So follow me on my adventure as me and my friends serve Jehovah where the need is greater!

Thursday, May 17, 2012

This Is Too Good To Be True!!!!! :D

Have you ever heard the saying "This is too good to be true!". Well if you have or even haven't heard it before, thats what was going on inside my head this past Wednesday night at the meeting! Before I start my story though, let me give you some info on what was happening before.  From the beginning of this trip, 1 of my goals was to start a bible study here. Jehovah sure answered that prayer because I started many studies! Only problem was that half of the people I started studies with, are not that interested or should I say none of them REALLY want to learn and study about the bible. I say this because Trying to get a hold of them and to meet up with them was always difficult because they always seemed to have an excuse or reason to not study.  So for the last couple of weeks I prayed to Jehovah day and night, to not only start a bible study but to start a study with someone who was truly interested and wanted to learn more about him.  Wednesday night he did just that! Now here's the story....

This past Wednesday night at our Theocratic Ministry School and Service meeting, Luke and I just so happened to be attendants that night. We noticed right after the meeting started that a short Arabian man came in and looked kind of lost. So as attendants, me and Luke helped him out. For the 1st half of the meeting Luke sat down with him and helped him to follow along for the Congregation Book study and Bible Highlights. After I did my bible reading, then I sat down with him and helped him follow along for the next talk. I told him if he had any questions to just ask away and I would try to help him out to the best of my ability.  5 minutes later he tapped me on my shoulder and asked me to go and talk to him in the lobby.  Right when we got into the lobby, he told me these exact words.... "I want to learn more about the Bible! Will you please study with me?" and he handed me a Italian study slip with all his information on top and everything. In my head I was like "Is this really happening?!?!" and then I looked up to the sky and said "THANK YOU JEHOVAH!!!!!!" (In my head of course). But for real you had no idea how stoked I was at that moment! and it even gets better! So I told him "SHOOTS! We go study!". So after getting all his information and leaving him a Bible and Bible Teach book and we arranged to study the next day at 3 PM at his house. For the rest of the meeting I was all smiles! :)))))) CHEEHOO!!!!

Now the next day, Luke and I went to this mans house (his name is Faisal btw). Now we get into Faisals's house and sit down in his kitchen to begin studying with him. But before we start he said he has something to tell us.  He tells us that he is from Pakistan and that he used to be Muslim but now he wants to be a Christian and learn more about the bible. The thing is that their is a HUGE conflict between Christians and Muslims especially in Pakistan. I just learned that in that country and a few others that if you are a Christian, then anyone in that country can kill you just for being a Christian! CRAZY! Anyways His whole family back home is Muslim and so are his 4 roommates that he is living with, so he doesn't want any of them to find out that he is studying the Bible with us. He told us that when his family found out that his brother became a Christian, they beat him! So it is very dangerous for him to be studying he said. Right after he told us that, 1 of his roommates just so happens to come home! So me and Luke both quickly grab our Bibles off the table so he wouldn't see. We talked story with his roommate for a little bit and then left his house to continue our study else where. We ended up continuing our study at a Cafe by his house. PHEW! Now that was close!

Now when we were studying together at the Cafe, I noticed that his english wasn't too good, it wasn't bad but it was ok. So we asked him if he would like to study in his mother tongue, which was Urdu, (Pakistan language) so that he could fully benefit and take in everything that he was about to learn. But no, he insisted he wanted to learn more about the Bible by english. So we agreed we would study with each other every Sunday morning at 9 at the Kingdom Hall before the meeting because that was the best time for him. After the study and everything, I can really tell that this man is really interested not only because he came to the meeting but because he's risking his life and everything he has to learn more about Jehovah God! I give him so much props for his faith and courage that he has! One of the things that Faisal told me which I will never forget, was when he told me that when he first came into the Kingdom hall, he noticed how happy and kind everyone was and after seeing that, he really wanted to be a part of the Congregation!. Brah! You guys have no idea how happy and how big of a smile I made when he said that! :D

Now that I finally found someone who is truly interested in learning more about the bible, I just hope I can do my part and be a good teacher for him so that I can help him strengthen his own personal relationship and love for Jehovah and to be a part of the Congregation as a worshipper of Jehovah. But I thank Jehovah so much for blessing me with Faisal! Jehovah literally gave me a bible study right into my hands! I barely did anything! So thank you so much again Jehovah for listening to my prayers and answering them and for really blessing me in my ministry!

Thats about it everybody! I will let you all know how Faisal progresses during the next few weeks. The only junk part about all of this is that I am leaving for Israel in 2 weeks! So I don't have that much time to spend with him but I am going to hand him over to another brother to continue to study with him when I leave. But I hope all of you enjoyed my experience that I had! This 1 was so good, I just had to share it with all of you! Before I go, I just want to Thank all of you readers for following my blog! I really appreciate it because I love sharing my experiences with all you. So please feel free to comment and ask questions and I will be happy to answer them. So thank you again guys! :)


7 comments:

  1. That is such an amazing experience!!! Im so happy for you! Jehovah truly does listen to our prayers and blesses our efforts. Keep up the great work :)
    Greatings from Bolivia!

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  2. Bra!!! You Dont even know!!! Thats Why You gotta Stay! But Ill Be more than happy to Steal or borrow this study from you!!! hahaha kk Bu~

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  3. I just had a horrible day at work but reading this just made that obsolete. That was such a great experience! One thing I've learned is that you have to be specific when you pray to Jehovah. He will answer your prayer but only what you ask for. Remember, we are made in Jehovah's image and reflect his qualities, so our sence of humor had to have come from him. :)

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  4. Crazy huh how Jehovah answers your prayers! I got a small glimps of that first hand! Keep up the good work!! Miss you guys

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  5. This brought tears to my eyes. As much as we miss you I'm so glad you are living this experience.

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  6. Wow! That's amazing. With such opposition from his friends, family, and really entire country, what made him choose to be a Christian in the first place? Something must have really prompted him to make such a stand, and then find us. I guess you'll get the whole story soon enough.

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  7. Love this. It's like a mini yrbk expierence. I feel like we always just 'know' Jehovah answers prayers but there is nothing that beats the feeling of 'shock and awe' moment and grateful mess we get to feel when our prayers get answered so directly. I always end up thinking I should've known jah was going to pull through why am I so surprised..probably bc he answers in ways we never would've put together with our limited thinking..expierences like this remind us of the power of prayer and make me call back to mind times when Ive had 'too good to be true' moments too! Thanks for that! :)

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