Workers Share Gospel Through Muslim Holiday Celebrating Abraham
September 2024
After working as a worship leader in Atlanta for over a decade, Clay* felt called to move his family to one of the least-reached places on the planet. Today, he and his wife, Cathy* live in Western Asia, where they do relational ministry with Afghan refugees. “It’s actually so much easier to strike up a religious conversation with people here,” Clay says. “There’s a call to prayer five times a day, and people dress themselves in certain ways according to their religion—so it's not awkward to ask people what they think about God. It’s easy to see who’s interested.” As he connects with Muslim refugees, he sees some commonalities between Islam and Christianity—one of which is the story of God providing Abraham with an animal to sacrifice instead of his son. Even though Muslims believe that it was the Arab ancestor Esau on the altar instead of the Israeli ancestor Isaac, both groups agree that God provided an alternate sacrifice. Clay says, “I've been seeing that as such a cool way that God has connected us with them.” Abraham’s story is so important to the Muslim world that they actually have an annual holiday to celebrate it called Eid al-Adha (“feast of sacrifice”) or Qurban (“sacrifice”). To celebrate Qurban, families traditionally purchase a live goat or sheep, keep it in their homes for a while, and then sacrifice it on day one of the four-day holiday. The meat is then divided into three parts: one for the poor, one for neighbors, and one for the family. They often use the “family” portion to have a large family gathering where they celebrate their sins being taken away. Wow, Muslims are so close to enjoying the riches of Jesus! That’s why Clay often finds himself wondering, “How can we capitalize on these similarities to tell them the story of the gospel?” Driven by a desire to help Muslims see the beauty of Jesus, Clay and Cathy are working with a language coach to learn both the local language as well as an Afghan language so they can better communicate with the refugees. They’ve even begun exploring ways to communicate biblical stories in simpler forms, like a children’s book, to help bridge the divide. The story of sacrifice echoes throughout the Bible, and when we can communicate it in a way that resonates with the local culture, it opens up amazing opportunities to share the gospel. If you want to help reach Muslim refugees for Jesus, consider partnering with Clay and Cathy. *Names changed for security
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