Reflections on Covid and the Muslim Community: Part 3
As Say Hello anticipates life beyond the pandemic, we remain aware of how it has impacted Muslims near and far. This final installment of our Covid series helps us remember that our Muslim friends need Jesus. We are in a place where our post-Covid world bears resemblance to theirs, offering unique opportunity for "togetherness" that features the ONE who loves us all. Once again, we are indebted to our special friend for her inspiring stories and her strategic ministry among Muslim women.
A husband left his wife and six children for a trip back to his homeland so he could visit his elderly mother. However, Mohammed was not able to travel into the remote area where his mother lived due to terrorist activity and waited around seven months. Finally he returned to North America. In the mean time his wife was finding many things difficult to cope with during those seven months of separation.
Mohammed’s wife, Hawa, quickly became overwhelmed while trying to manage the household of six children in lockdown in their very small home. When school abruptly shut down, and the children began remote learning online, she stressed regarding how to handle such a huge change. Such was an adjustment for any mother, but for Hawa who had never attended school growing up, it brought significant stress. She relied on the older children helping the younger children. There were many phone calls made to see how she was coping.
She found grocery shopping in the winter difficult with such a large family and wished she had a freezer. She inquired whether we knew of anyone wanting to sell an old one. We were able, with the help of God’s people, to purchase a brand new one.
COVID-19 has opened up unusual opportunities for caring and witnessing of the Good News of Jesus. When Hawa got sick from an overload of stress we were able to help her out with other practical help. We helped her find a motel for Mohammed to stay in for the quarantine time when he eventually returned. There are many needs during this pandemic time. The apostle Paul, restricted and in lockdown in prison wrote in Philippians 1: 12, “Everything that has happened to me here has helped to spread the Good News.”
Truly, love is flourishing in our relationships with Muslim friends and neighbors, especially during this last year. Rashida is one such example. Holding herself together amazingly well, she is a resilient woman from the Middle East caring for a very sick husband in need of an organ transplant. It is not the first transplant Rasoul has gone through; a former transplant failed.
Rashida and her husband worked as skilled professionals before they came to North America, but now everything has changed because of the transplant need and professional requalifying requirements. They were counting on adhering to strict religious practices and rules to count to their benefit. They followed the month long sad religious commemoration, Muharram, strictly. We have wondered if anyone from their religious and cultural community is helping them out, but little has been disclosed.
The much anticipated date of Rasoul’s transplant surgery finally arrived. Although they are not evidencing openness to the gospel, they do let us pray for them. It seems that the more desperate a situation becomes the stronger they cling to Islam. We insisted that we would take them to the hospital since public transport was being discouraged during that phase of the pandemic. It was not easy for Rashida to allow anyone to help her. We continue to visit them in their home, masked and at a social distance, and wait for the day when they will encounter a visitation from the Holy Spirit. Meanwhile we are in the pandemic together with Rashida and Rasoul.