I was about to share a Say Hello message with a bunch of kids in church. Before things started one of the leaders pulled me aside and very gently warned that there would be a mentally challenged boy in the group, and that he could be disruptive...but not to worry.

I recognized him at once. He was active, for sure--ok, extremely active--but also very happy to be in kids’ church. He vigorously participated in all the preliminaries, all the way through worship. He exuberantly stood out in the crowd.

On that day I had dressed one of the kids’ church ladies in full Muslim attire. I called her to the front and involved her in a bit of an object lesson. My goal was to help the kids discover that under her Muslim veil she was simply a woman, no different from most women they knew. I began by asking them what seeing women dressed like her made them think. 

“She’s not from here.” ”Scary.” “Dark.” “Ninja”. “Mysterious”. “Can she speak my language?” “Maybe she’s afraid of ME.”  Those were some of their responses. 

“Do you think she might want any of you to speak to her?” I asked.

Their answer was a loud, unanimous “NO”!

Then I proceeded to unveil my Muslim friend, and the kids were hilariously amazed. “That’s Teacher Vicki!” they shouted, as soon as they realized my friend was actually one of their own. 

“Does Teacher Vicki like it when you speak to her?” I asked. 

Their answer was a loud, unanimous “YES”! 

My next question was, “Why?” 

Hands popped up all over the room. “She’s nice.”  “She loves me.” She takes me for ice cream.” “She plays games with us.” The kids loved saying wonderful things about their teacher Vicki.

When I asked teacher Vicki if anyone in the group had greeted her while she had the Muslim clothing on, she responded that only one had, and she pointed to the little fella that was supposed to be trouble. 

His face beamed...and so did mine! Here’s the take-away: If people could understand that our Muslim neighbors are really more like us than we think, and that starting meaningful conversations with Muslims might actually be that simple and that rewarding, we’d all do it more often.  More Muslims everywhere would get to know the love of Christ. 

Say Hello invites Christian women and kids everywhere into the wonderful privilege of getting to share Jesus’ love with Muslims everywhere.