I've Been Waiting...

I was one of the team leaving the Oasis with invitations for the Thursday evening Coffee Bar. We all prayed with much more determination and faith that God would lead us to the right people - those he had prepared for us to meet. We found the street quite busy and had the opportunity to witness to a number of people of various nationalities. As we approached the main gates of the camp, I began to talk with two young men from the Gambia who spoke good English, while Ali and another guy from our team moved on a little further up the street.

I discovered later that Ali and Bob had met two Iranian couples right outside the refugee camp gates. They'd only been in the camp for a couple of days, and had not heard of the Oasis. When Ali gave them a programme and invited them to come and watch the Jesus Film in their own language, one of the women immediately burst into tears, sobbing "I've been waiting for someone to tell me about Jesus!"  More about her later .......

Along with my new Gambian friends, I gathered several more refugees from 'the highways and byways' and escorted them back to the Oasis. They were soon happily drinking coffee and playing Jenga, chess, Connect 4 etc with our volunteers and fellow refugees.  Tonight - pretty much a full house!

Before long the word went out that the Farsi version of the Jesus Film was being shown upstairs, and a number went up to watch, including both of the 'new' couples from Iran. Towards the close of the movie, Ali, as he often does, called me to join him upstairs along with Bob, to answer any questions that might be raised. With Ali's help, I was able to explain the joy of knowing that our sins can be forgiven right now through Jesus, rather than waiting for 'Judgement Day' and the weighing of our 'good works against the bad.' 

At this point (following an emotional conversation with Ali in Farsi which I obviously couldn't follow) the group all knelt and Bob led them in a prayer of salvation which Ali interpreted. After I prayed a prayer of blessing over them there were many hugs and kisses all round, and Ali presented them with Farsi New Testaments to take back with them to the camp. We're hopeful that they'll join Ali's Sunday afternoon Farsi discipleship group, and that we'll get the opportunity to see more of them before they are moved on out of the refugee camp.

Neal Grindrod

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