Arab Hope

[00:00:00] I want to greet you in the name of Jesus. It's a privilege and an honor to be with you folks. I didn't know I was coming here, but here I am. and Brother Chad has really put me in a higher place and I don't deserve that, Brother Chad. [00:00:33] Actually, he's been the encouragement to me. I was scared in New York City not knowing what I'm supposed to do when Mr. Alan Roth called me up and said, You need to come and help us in evangelizing Muslims. And I would go to the streets not knowing what to do, what's evangelizing means, and didn't have any previous training. And Brother Alan Roth told me one day, he said, you have Jesus in your heart, you have the Bible, you know about Islam, and so I want you to just go out there and the Lord's going to be with you. [00:01:17] That didn't work much, so I needed really help, and Chad Grebel was one of those that had blessed me with wanting to invest in our ministry and helped me, blessing me, going out with me to the streets, praying over me, interfering when I'm stuck, when the words are not out there easy. He was there blessing me in that way. I feel privileged being here. I had no idea this is where Chad worshiped, but it's a real honor to be here. [00:02:00] I also know his brother Craig. Craig and I, we shared the same basement for numbers of months in SMBI of Brother Claxton's house. And so we used to go sleep at night there and then daytime spend it in school. So we get to know each other real well, real close. It's a privilege being here and seeing my brother again. [00:02:32] I got to meet their parents before they went off to Thailand, I believe, and many times before that. And so I always felt so close to that family. Having the parents that have a heart to serve the Lord in mission, you can tell the outcome, how it worked and rubbed off on their children. and it's a blessing to know family such. Brother Phil, where are you? Yes, a dear brother also from different times in SMBI [00:03:06] where we got to spend time together. We prayed a lot together. I have vivid memories. I'm glad to see that you have a wife now and one or two children, one child. I'm not prophesying for the second one or anything. Just so we have that. Yes, yes. I'm glad to meet you again. It's real nice. Like you, I was saved by the grace of Jesus. [00:03:40] And that grace is still working on me. Working in me, working out of me. Each day, it's a battle. And like many of you, I did not come to the Lord from a righteous mind. I did not come to the Lord telling Him that I've done everything by the book. To the contrary, I've done everything against the book, against the laws of God. [00:04:13] Let's open our Bibles to Luke 7. A familiar passage. I'm going to read through it real quick. You help me read that too. And so I'll show you my heart a little bit. Who I am in essence. Luke 7 starting from verse 36 Luke 7 starting from verse 36 [00:04:45] And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee's house and sat down to meet. And behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat with the Pharisees' house, brought an alabaster box of ointment and stood at his feet behind him weeping, [00:05:19] and began to wash his feet with tears and did wipe them with the hairs of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with ointment. And now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spoke within himself saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that touches him, for she is a sinner. [00:05:58] And Jesus answering him said, Simon, I have somewhat to say to you. And he said, Master, say on. There was a certain creditor which had two debtors, the one owed 500 pence and the other 50. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Now tell me, therefore, which of them will love him most? [00:06:32] Simon answered and said, I suppose that he to whom he forgave most. And he said to him, You have rightly judged. And he turned to the woman and said to Simon, See this woman? I entered in your house. You gave me no water for my feet, but she washed my feet with tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head. [00:07:02] You gave me no kiss, but this woman, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil you did not anoint, but this woman had anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore, I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. [00:07:35] But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little. And he said to her, Your sins are forgiven. And they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves, who is this that forgives sins also? And he said to the woman, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. [00:08:06] I chose this topic this morning to share with you, and I'm not going to elaborate more, except to say to you, in my sin nature, I am that woman. In my sin nature, I came to the Lord with tears, believing in my heart that He is my Savior and Lord. And He answered me with forgiving my sins and giving me peace in my heart, in my life. [00:08:51] I did not come to the Lord being a righteous man. A righteous man who does everything by the book, by the law. righteous man who thinks does not sin righteous man who prays every day to God righteous man who gives his alms and more to the poor, to the needy and back to the Lord God [00:09:22] I'm not that man and if you came this morning looking for that man then you got the wrong guy Now the one that was credited 50 and the one that was credited 500, both of them couldn't pay. Both of them were forgiven their debts. And my question today, do you run through in your minds, cross those thoughts, [00:09:56] Anytime, any day in your life Are you like this man here standing before you Feeling like that woman, the sinner that came to the house And bring in a box of ointment And anointed the heads of our Lord And washed his feet with her tears And wiped them with the hair of her head Out of her faith, knowing this is the Lord, out of her faith, throwing herself to Him at His mercy. [00:10:39] And because of her faith, she was relieved, forgiven, and given that peace. Who are we today in Christ? Do we come to the Lord Jesus thinking, I've done everything by the book and you owe me this. You owe me salvation. You owe me because I keep the good work, oh Lord. [00:11:14] Do we put those that we think in our eyes are not good enough in a certain class and in position? Do we view ourselves higher than the rest because we do mission work, because we preach the gospel on the pulpit, because we give a lot of money, because we work hard and God blessed us with money so we give? Who do we view ourselves this morning? [00:11:50] Did we come to this church discouraged? Crying to God, needing encouragement from the strong ones and from the Holy Spirit to lead us today, to give us joy through our suffering? Did we come because it's the fun time that you get throughout the whole week? You're busy working, busy in your mind, in your lives. You don't have time for God. [00:12:22] You don't have time for your followership, social work that you came today. This is what you enjoy doing one day out of that week that you get to socialize. Did you come today because everything is closed on Sunday and this is what you've been doing all your life, is going to church? Are you a church goer? [00:12:54] Did you come today with a purpose to help someone? Did you come today with a purpose to be healed from your sickness? Did you come today with the purpose to reach out to somebody, to pray for somebody? We are all here today. I cannot know your hearts. [00:13:26] The reason why you woke up this morning, rose out of bed, thinking about this meeting this morning. Just something to think about. Something to chew on. Do I have life with Jesus Christ? Or am I merely just pushing that old wagon? And so if you, my brother, my sister, young men and women, [00:14:03] One in life and you feel sincerely in your hearts that you don't have it Because you try by your own means You try to be the good person The secrets of our hearts are revealed today by our Lord Jesus Christ If you try to be that good image but you are somebody else You know that, and God knows that as well. [00:14:39] We're not here to judge each other. And by all means, I didn't stand here to convict you. I stood here to tell you that I'm that person on all the things that I just shared with you. I did go to church because that was the social thing to do. I did go to church because I was discouraged. I did go to church because of all the above I shared with you. You also know that we need all the above people to have church. [00:15:19] Jesus did not come to the righteous. And if it was for the righteous, he would not have sat down and sat down and ate meat with the sinners. disciples and tax collectors. He would have gone to the temple, met with the Pharisees and the rabbis, and they would have called him master, and he would have taught them, and on his way to another synagogue. But he spent three years, followed by more than 5,000 people, poor, dragging their feet, dragging their children, dragging their sins upon their shoulders. [00:16:05] And he loved them. He loved them until the day he died on the cross for them. Each one of them, especially the little children. You know why he said that little children, you have to be like little children unless you will not enter the kingdom of heaven unless you are like little children? [00:16:36] Because they are in tuned with their emotions. Let children speak the truth as they see it. If you're ugly, they tell you, oh boy, you're ugly. If you're fat, they tell you you're fat. If you're tall, they tell you you're tall. If you're short, they tell you you're short. And they have nothing to fear. They speak out of their hearts. And if it's something that makes them laughing, [00:17:08] They will laugh in your face We stop growing emotionally We start using our brain We think too much The Lord led me this past January Starting a ministry among the homeless people And many of us don't know What it takes to have a ministry among the homeless It's not just you go and feed them food You want to have a ministry among the homeless, you got to stand on the pulpit and preach to them and see the reaction of the homeless. [00:17:49] Entirely different. It became such a point where it's easier for me to preach to the homeless than to Christian folks. Some of you know why. And others I will tell you. We polish ourselves before we enter the parking lot of the church. We become this person we're not. We try to convince ourselves, and some of us just try to remind themselves [00:18:25] that we are here faced with God right now. We gotta act according. but the Lord Jesus knows that too and he loves you for that until the day he died for you where the Lord Jesus wants to meet us to reach out to us when we are reaching up to him [00:18:57] When we remember who we are in Christ, who we were before in the pit, in that hole, in that dark place, and we want to give ourselves to Him and reach out and cry out to Him, regardless to how old you are and how much gray hair you have, how much money in your pocket, How big is your belly? How big is your house? [00:19:30] He just wants you to come to him. And you come to him like a little child. Two weeks ago the Lord blessed me with a little baby boy. Whom I'm very proud. And that baby is a quiet baby. A sweet baby. You'll know that He needs you when He makes that scream out of the top of His lungs. [00:20:03] He will not polish His voice and say, Excuse me, Daddy, I'm really hungry right now. I would love some good of that, some hot good milk out of Mom's breast. Now, he goes just like what we're hearing here this morning. Those wonderful, honest, little people. Right there. And they let you have it. [00:20:39] We need to come to the Lord Jesus with our tears and cry out to him. It's easy for women to cry. There's an engine that, you know, they crank it up every time you say the wrong thing. It's hard for us men. Because we got to work it through here, process it in our minds. But to our Father God [00:21:13] Don't process anything Come to Him directly Talk to Him Tell Him how it feels How hard is it He cares for you And me So how about we just cry out to the Lord this morning together and tell him to come and rescue us from this wretched body and mind [00:21:45] that thinks too much. Let's close our eyes and let's cry to the Lord from the bottom of your heart. Just do it, not for me, not because I'm asking you right now, but do it because your heart needs it. Because you need the Lord right this minute. I'm looking at you. If you're looking at me back, you're not talking to the Lord. And I want you to talk to the Lord right now. Let's take a minute. Just cry out to Jesus. [00:22:24] Empty your mind from anything that you'll be thinking about right now outside of one. Just have that one moment with the Lord. Just think, the Lord is right there facing you, looking at you, saying, yes son, yes daughter, what you want? Talk to me. Tell him about the pain, about not finding clothes in your wardrobe this morning, or how your husband is treating you, or your wife is treating you, children is too much, not finding the money, or the job. [00:23:04] How people treat you. How you long to have a friend. Talk to him. My dear Father, Abba Father, I come to you as that woman that kissed your feet and just long to have you on my side all the time, Lord God. I'm a sinner. At times I get tempted and sin. At times you save me from my sins. [00:23:42] But overall I know faithfully that you're in my heart, you're my life, you guide me every day. I cry out to you this morning for I want to sense your presence. Your voice speaks to me, I can hear it. I want to know that you are there with me at all times, especially in those darkest times, those hard times. Father, make yourself known to me this morning. I want to sense your arms around me this morning. Comfort me. [00:24:17] I want to be encouraged. I feel like my prayers are not reaching the ceiling of my house. I want to reach out to you Lord Reach down to me Father I know you love me I know you died on the cross for me But I want to sense that I want to feel that I know it's about head knowledge But I want to know in my heart So I can live accordingly Father I just cry out to you this morning [00:24:48] I know you hear my voice You hear the voice of your children I'm one of your children, I bless you for you, you're a blessed father, you're holy, you're precious, you deserve everything, my money, my life, my body, my mind, my strength Because of you I wake up in the morning, because of you I have the strength I have, because of you I have the food I have, the house, the warmth in my house, the clothes on my body, because of you I am [00:25:23] And without you I'm nothing. I praise you and I worship you because you're worthy of all praise and worship this morning. Help my heart to worship you each day, O Lord, to sing to you each morning against all the tides. Help me to read my Bible each morning. Help me to discern the word you have for me there. Oh Father God you are so good to me [00:25:53] If I only acknowledge that each day Recognize that you are the one doing Not me Father give me a purpose Show me your purpose Your will is that I serve you When I serve my brothers That I love my brothers and my sisters And by this the whole world will know That I am your disciple When I have my love for them that you give me your strength, your power, the blood, the precious blood of Jesus. [00:26:29] In your name, Father Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen. Amen? Well, I think I took most of my time. Now I'm going to introduce myself. My name is Tophie Hales, better known as T-H or T-J. That means to Jesus Born in Northern Africa Algeria precisely And [00:27:00] 21 years ago I arrived into this country Landed in New York City I was going out with an American girlfriend And 9 months after that we broke up and God had a total new journey for me. Got a job in Florida as a tour guide and did that for 70 years. God, I speak in tongues sometimes. [00:27:31] I don't want to do it here, you might throw me out, but I do speak in tongues, just languages, different languages. I can say ni hao to chair, that's as far as it goes. Why Ani? But the Lord took me to Florida and I didn't know at the time the Lord and I worked there with Germans, with French, Arab people. As a Muslim, I did my prayers when I felt it's time to do it or closer to Ramadan, which is the month of fasting for the Muslims. [00:28:15] I grew a beard and wore the Jalaba or Abaya in the Arabic terms. It's a long robe and looked very religious. If you want to show yourself religious in the Middle East, you wear that long robe and you grow a beard. And then everybody will respect you because you're a religious person. Or they might want to hang you because you're a terrorist. It depends on the mood of that country. [00:28:47] The other thing is, I was sinning going out to clubs when I wasn't feeling very religious. And doing drugs and alcohol, drinking, partying, life of partying. I'm not sure if you're familiar with the Rumspringer, but I was a little too old for that. In the Arabic or the Amish way. We were doing that. [00:29:18] One day, my life got to a point where I said, is this all to life? Is this it? I mean, I was taken by my family, educated, put in good schooling, and then come to this country and I forgot all my family, my background, my roots, my culture, my religious background. And now all I want is to have fun, but I'm tired of the fun. I had my share of the fun. Is this all to life? And then what? I get married, get to have children, and then get older and die. This is it to life? There must be something else to life. [00:30:05] It's only when I ask that question that the Lord starts moving my life in the right direction. I packed up my things and decided to leave Florida, heading to Georgia. I had a friend of mine who had a store probably twice as big than this sanctuary here. and he sold men's clothings from Syria, men from Syria, Muslim men, and I went to work for him. [00:30:38] When I got there, he handed me the keys of the store and he left three hours away to Panama City in Florida where he taught mathematics to Muslim school. And I would only see him once every month or something like that. So I managed that store by myself. I had my little apartment and I was having a good time. Every day I see these people. This was in a shopping center. That's where the store was. [00:31:11] and every time I see these people that would come, they would park in front of my shop and they come back with their groceries, full baggie of groceries. They look different. So one day I had the courage to stop this lady in front of my store and say, Ma'am, excuse me, what's that thing on your head? It looked like a coffee filter. She was wearing it. and I like to say that just for the fun of it and she also was a great girl from Indiana [00:31:50] and she's married to Titus Shrock her name's Lois and she said we are Christians I said well look around you lady there are Christians all over actually between a church and another church There is a church. Georgia is God's land right there. Everybody is Christian. You want to do evangelism, that is not the place you want to go. And she said, no, we call the Mennonites. I said, Mennonites? Men at night? What do they do during the day? Do they sleep at day, wake up at night? Who are these people? [00:32:27] So that night she brought me, actually sent her children, brought me a plate of good homemade food and brought me some literature and a tape of Todd Neuswender. And I listened to the tape, a couple of songs and so forth. And then I read some of the material and I started understanding, oh, Menno Simons, who is this Menno Simons? and start reading about you guys, where you came from. [00:33:03] And two days, three days later, her husband and her and all the children showed up in my store wanting to buy some stuff from me and invited me to their home. And I started going to their home. They live five miles out in the country. And I would visit their home. and that was the first time I see Christians in their homes, what they look like. And Titus will ask the little ones to sing Jesus Loves Me This I Know. [00:33:37] Sometimes around the meal they invite me and they will cook kosher meat, not pork. And they will put their hands together and pray to Jehovah God in the name of Jesus and mention my name which was very foreign to me. At times they will invite me in the evening to sit in their sofa while their daughter Paula used to play violin and Rene played the piano. [00:34:15] Titus is a tenor, Lois soprano. The kids, they would scream along and we had a wonderful time. And I will sit there in my thinking, I'm thinking about my family, thinking how my family was so just shattered, angry, how they used to abuse me and beat me up, break my nose and bleed, tie me to the bed, fear, terror. [00:34:52] And this family sing together. Actually, Titus sit them with their, after the singing, they sit down, he reads them a portion of the Bible. He asks the children questions and they will answer him. He prays for each one and he takes them to bed. In my mind, I was so bedazzled by that. How can they do something? [00:35:23] Is this just a good actors in front of me? They showed me this kind of a Hollywood movie to swallow? Or this is really their life every day? One day they invited me to move in with them. They had a little apartment outside of their house for guests. And they had like a big shed. I don't know how to call it but it's prefabricated and it has a bathroom and a shower and a big room for a bed [00:35:58] and they had their niece from Mississippi, Macon, she was coming to teach there in their school and so they made it for her but then they decided she'll move in with them in the house and invite me to move in with them And so they brought me the news to the store and they said, TH, would you like to move in with us? We'd love to have you. And you only pay us about $100 a month, which is not much, we hope. [00:36:29] But we cook for you and we wash your laundry. And you have family, you're by yourself in this country. I thought about it and came back to them and I said, I will. I will take your invitation. And I moved in. I would drive to work every day. Lois, bless her heart, she started taking a habit in finding tapes of preachers [00:37:01] and stick it into my radio player, my cassette player. And in the morning I get in my car and hear these guys preaching at me. Sometimes I listen, sometimes I throw it in the back seat and put my own tapes and listen to it. She actually started doing something else. She would put a verse on a prayer, a little prayer card, little prayer verses. You'll see one actually on the frame outside of my table, outside. [00:37:35] And there is a verse below there with two pictures on top of it. and that verse was one of the verses that I memorized. I was still Muslim because she put it right in front of me on my dashboard and she won't tell me a thing about it. It's just in the morning I'm getting out in my car driving and I see this verse on my dashboard. Now I want to let you know these people actually did not know how to evangelize a Muslim. [00:38:07] They were ready to serve the Lord. They were taking risks, inviting a possible terrorist into their home. They were willing to adventure with the Lord and see where the Lord would take them to. I put those people through the mill. I gave them a lot of hard times. [00:38:41] They cried, they wept, they prayed for me over and over and over again. And I moved in with them and I used to come from work at night and I stand by the door and watch them entertain one another, talk to each other, treat each other. And I will go back in my thoughts to my own family, how my dad, at three years of age, he would come drunk, he would put his hand against my face and throw me against the wall, and he goes to the bedroom and beat up my mother. [00:39:26] terrorized, fearful and my mind is going back and forth and I will see Tyrus and Lois having good conversation Lois expressing herself, no fear with most respect lots of laughter in the house matter of fact, even when Tyrus had to discipline his children He'll take them out into a bedroom or bathroom and He will give them a good whooping. [00:40:03] And I hear that child cry. But when they came out, they hugged each other and told each other, I love you, Daddy. I love you, Sonny. I've never been told I love you in my own family. As a matter of fact, until I became a Christian, I picked up the phone and I called my own mother and I said, Mom, why you never told me you love me? [00:40:36] Well, son, you know I do. I said, but you never told me you do. You tell me now that you do because I asked you. but you know I worked so hard for you you know I snatched you out of your dad's house he was about to kill you and I took you back to my family and I worked hard for you I never got remarried so you don't have a step daddy you know I worked hard and I clothed you the best [00:41:06] and gave you the best education a woman can in our harsh society you know that I do but I say mom I wanted to hear it, I never heard from you or my dad, I love you son That would have built a man, a complete man, a man that God intended to have Our father God, Jehovah, did not shy away and say [00:41:42] I care about you guys and therefore I'm sending my only begotten son. He came out and said, For God so loved the world. Who loves me loves the Father. Do you love me, Peter? And one day I was leaving, decided that's enough, it's good for these Christian people, they are Christians, I'm Muslim, I'm gonna leave this home, I go back to Florida, get my old job back, I'm determined, I'm Muslim, I'm Arab, that's my life, that's my culture. [00:42:42] and I start packing. That morning of 23rd of August, 99, 10 years ago exactly, after living with the Shrugs for a little over two years, going to work, here was a tape in the player there in my car and this guy, his name is Lon Solomon. He is a Jewish convert, and he has a ministry in Washington, D.C., and he was sharing his testimony in that tape. [00:43:20] and it grabbed me because the man used alcohol and drugs to express himself really just rebellious against his family, against his religion, against society and here he was sharing how God got a hold of his heart and made him a minister Now he has a great ministry among the Jewish people and Jewish Americans in Washington, D.C. area. [00:43:54] It really grabbed me and I was listening to his testimony and at the end of it he said, Do you want the love of God? And at that point I felt that this man, this is God talking to me directly. Which I've never felt that before in my life. You know, sometimes you read a verse in the Bible and you say, that verse jumped right out to me. And you mean it because you know that that is the answer for your question. You know that God is talking to you because you have faith in Him. [00:44:29] And that was my answer of my question. And I remember driving in my car going to work when that happened. And I was in tears crying. And I said, if this love of God that you're talking about will forgive my sins, which are many, I will take him gladly into my life. And I went to work, didn't do much of work that day, but then I come out and sit down and watch this Georgia sunset, peach, beautiful sunset. [00:45:04] and this old man used to come and talk to me he's security in that in that area and he saw my tears my eyes red and he said TH what's wrong with you I say I don't know but something inside of me telling me that I'm saved he said audible voice what can I say within my heart I don't know what I'm saved from but I feel like something is happening inside and I'm in tears. I don't know why. [00:45:39] He said, hang on, I'll be right back. And so he got on those golf carts. They ride on the security people. And he brought this older gentleman who is a retired pastor who's working there as a security guard. The minute he saw me, he put his hand on my shoulder and said, son, don't fight it. Just say yes Lord. Pray after me and say yes Lord. And as I started praying, he started praying over my head. And I said yes Lord. And tears started coming. And I felt real peace in my heart. I wasn't fighting it anymore. I totally just felt at peace. [00:46:25] and I couldn't understand why those tears but I felt those tears were tears of joy. I went back to Titus' that night at 10, 10.30 at night. Titus and Lois, they saw me coming to the house. They reached out. They saw something there that wasn't before and they hugged me and we cried together until almost 1.30 in the morning. And I had a big head from just pain from in my head from crying too much. And I told them, let me go sleep on it. If this happens again tomorrow, I might believe that this is your Jesus working in my life. [00:47:12] So I went to sleep and the next morning I came and Lois had a cup of coffee for me and I asked where is Titus? She said in his office. So I went to his office, sat down with him, good morning, and he was reading his Bible and he started talking about Jesus being crucified from Pilate to the cross, lifting his own cross. and I saw that as a vision in my head like as he was talking I could envision that I could see it in my my head then he kept on and tears start coming down again and went to Saul going to Damascus to Syria and Jesus meet him there in a form of a light it blinds his eyes and he says Saul why are thou persecuting me [00:48:10] and I could see that whole scenario in my mind and at that time I believed that this is Jesus working in my life while I quit working my job I quit that day I did not go to work, I did not move out I stayed at home and I grabbed the Bible and I read, the more I read the more I was in tears crying and just something opening in my heart And the seventh day, this happened on Monday, on Sunday I went to church with them. [00:48:45] For second or third time that I went to church with them. Another time because they had singing, another time they had Merle Beiler, who is my mentor, was preaching there. So they invited me to come listen to him. And that time I went and I sat in the back. and once they had asked if anybody has an announcement I had something that pushed me to grab my arm and I said I want to say something and I came over here, the pastor invited me to come up front and share [00:49:20] and I said to them, my name is Tophik Hales and I just want to let you know that I renounce Islam I don't believe that Islam is a right religion or that Muhammad is a prophet from God but I want to ask the Lord Jesus to accept me in his kingdom and I want to ask him to to be my Lord and Savior and to forgive all my sins and I repent from my sins and so God helped me and the people welcomed me and about six months later I was baptized [00:49:58] After a series of study on baptism and understanding it well, January 1st, I went to, 10 days after my baptism, I went to SMBI where I remained there from January all the way to the end of that school year and then came back another year, also remained there until the end of that year. That's when I spent the time with Craig and met with Phil as well. [00:50:34] And then from there, one of those classes that I didn't take Muslim evangelism, but one of those classes in SMBI invited me with them to go to New York City on a weekend for Muslim evangelism, and I went with them. And in that weekend, I didn't know that they were taking me straight to the Muslim mosque in Brooklyn where I used to pray as a Muslim. And we got to the third floor and Daniel Pollard and a big group from the SMBI, Elijah Yoder, and myself. [00:51:11] And I remember walking up those steps to the third floor where their sanctuary is and praying. Please God, please, please, please, just make it sure that nobody would recognize me. And I was so scared. And the minute I stepped foot into that place, the Imam used to be my landlord. And he said, hey, Brother Tawfiq, come here, give me a hug. Hey, Brother Tawfiq is bringing us Christians. [00:51:46] Praise Allah. Now at this time I'm really shaking. I felt the Lord telling me that day, Are you going to be ashamed of me now? And after a little bit, I gathered my courage and I stand facing that man. After I had gone to him, gave him a hug, I got up and I said, [00:52:18] Mr. I just want to let you know I'm no longer a Muslim, I'm a Christian and I'm part of this group. I did not finish what I had to say and Muslims start coming to my face and some pulling me from my collar of my shirt and trying to pull me to want to have a talk with me and want to tell me this and tell me that. We didn't last there long. Daniel and all the other brothers, they took me out straight downstairs. [00:52:52] I was in tears and they prayed for me on that sidewalk. And I felt the Lord telling me, this is the people I want you to witness to. This is the ministry. And I disregarded that thought and went back and did street work that day. share with them and learn a little bit that we can. Went back to Alan Roth Church, followers of Jesus Mennonite Church and Alan Roth approaches me and said [00:53:23] oh I heard of you, you're TH brother hey we've been praying for a Muslim evangelist here with us we have so many Muslims if the Lord put it in your heart would you come and join us? I said sure. I was ready to hit the road back to SMBI I did not want to stay in New York. That was a bad experience. I did not want to be there. And the Lord kept working in my heart. And I remember saying to the Lord, if you will tell that man, Alan Roth, to talk to me again, I will know this is a confirmation from you. [00:54:00] and that man did not call me until September 2001 I got an email from him and I sat there in front of that email I didn't want that to happen but it happened and so I went back to SMBI wanted to get my feet deeper in the word of God and learn more about that and then finished in May 2002 Thank you. [00:54:58] You have the Bible, you know Islam, you have the Holy Spirit. Go and get them, boy. He didn't say it in these terms, man. And so I would walk in the streets, and I didn't know, I'm afraid, I'm scared, I don't know what to tell the Muslims. and I started looking at the windows, some it's girls clothes, men clothes, electronics, you name it, toys, dream, daydream, go sit down at Dunkin Donuts, go wherever [00:55:30] and one day the Lord told me, go buy a soccer ball, and so I bought a soccer ball, it came in a fish net and I'm bouncing it on Liberty Avenue and I'm bouncing it with my feet like juggling like this and then this Muslim and this Muslim and this Jewish and this black man and this American and this Arab and this they start asking me, do you play soccer? I said, yeah. [00:56:02] I said, would you like to play soccer with me? They said, sure, where and when? So I made a deal with them. I said, tomorrow, 7 o'clock, I'll have my friends come pick you up, and I'll get me a stadium, Highland Park, the stadium back there, and I said, tomorrow night, we'll have a game, and there were Jewish, Muslims, Christians, youth group from Followers of Jesus, I cooked a lot of food that day, by the way I cook, so, and I had the ladies come and take me, [00:56:40] Take the food and put it on tables and I remember what we did in SMBI. That was the first time I learned it, Craig, in SMBI. When you're playing a game, they put you against the wall and they number you, one and two, one and two, one and two. Two's on this side and one's on this side. And it came handy to me that day. How to put these people back together to play a game. And I was the referee. I had a whistle. And we had a game of soccer. And then I called Alan to pray in the name of Jesus out loud and bless the food. And then I asked, I remember the youth group, this is all beforehand, to go sit down, each one of you, after the game, with a Muslim or a Jew, and sit down and share with them. [00:57:33] and I went around and took pictures. We had a great time. Next day, I went and took those pictures, developed them and took them to those players. And many became my friends. And I would stop by and say hello to them in their shops. And slowly I started praying with them. Slowly I started inviting them to my little apartment and cook for them. and at times I'm so scared I can't talk to them about the Lord [00:58:06] so what I'll do while I'm cooking I open my Bible and leave it open and I go cook and when I come back they have questions for me they'll be reading the Bible and that's how the ministry started if we have time can I take a little portion of time just to show you the PowerPoint if you have it ready guys and this way we'll finish that way and show you what the Lord has done through the years. [00:58:40] As I shared earlier, my brother used to come and encourage me in the streets and he'd stand there and say, I'm just going to pray for you, T.H. You do all the talking, but many times he interferes and he encourages me and pray with me, took out of his time. He was a teacher at the time in school and he would come on his days off and walk the streets with me. I cherish those times, Brother Chad. Arab Hope Ministry started in 2002 and here's our vision. [00:59:24] Where do I point? Right there? Yeah. It's to live out the love of Jesus in a way that will draw Muslims to acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior in their lives. Am I pointing in the right direction? To plant churches in the Muslim communities of America, beginning in Florida, and New York, and D.C., and all the big cities, Minneapolis, Maine, those are our hearts that we will, we're supposed to press on this back button here, right? [00:59:59] Pressing on the back button? Yeah, there. To establish discipleship programs among new MBBs, we'll call them MBBs. Muslim background believer. You're MBB too, but you're a Mennonite background believer. To channel resources to MBBs in need, in 2003 we opened a refuge center that will host illegal or legal immigrants [01:00:33] The missionaries that will come persecuted from their countries because of conversion and becoming Christ's followers, they run away from their countries, we take them in and we treat them like family and teach them Bible and set them in a church until they grow and they can become missionaries themselves. Equip Christians for mission work among Muslims. Muslims in America, these are estimates, they're not totally exact, but this is where we find out through our researches, 8 to 10 million, some tells me it's 12 million, not counting all those that are illegal, over a little million and a half in New York, New Jersey alone, approximately about 40% are nation of Islam, [01:01:29] And 40% are first generation immigrants like myself, and then 20% are born here like my son, who was just born two weeks ago. I never thought the day would come, I'd stand here and say, like my son, he's one of those 20%. How about that? Praise the Lord Jesus. They come from North Africa, Middle East, East Europe, Asia, India, and other places. They have high concentration in big cities such as New York metro area, Boston, Dearborn, Detroit right here, Miami, Orlando, 15,000 Moroccans work in Disney, Denver, Colorado and Phoenix, they're all taxi drivers, Chicago, Illinois, Cleveland, Columbus, Ohio where I've been in all these states and met with them actually [01:02:16] and we took people from churches like yourselves to their communities and met with them in their mosques and have meetings and now those people, hopefully they continue on that, building relationships with Muslims. Recently I just joined this, my wife and I, we joined this Converge. We used to work with DNI, Destination International, which is BMA, Alan Roth, the president and since I got married they finished my contract with them and they said you got to apply again. [01:02:53] The only problem with that is that you have to be where they sent you. We decided our goals are narrowing to a different direction than where D&I was going So we decided to pray about some organization that will help us in doing what we have been learning in New York City with D&I to do and establish. And this is what we do. We go to churches like yourselves and we teach yourselves how to evangelize Muslims. [01:03:26] We do have workshops which takes like whole afternoon and questions and answers and we do little detailed study on the Muslim faith and the Quran in comparison to the Bible and then what we do we take that community that church and go to that community I call this Islamic center of what is this town Stooges and if there is if there is a community here of Muslims I call their their Imam or their director of Hi, my name is so and so and I represent this church here. We like to come and officially meet you. So we go on a Friday prayer and we watch with our cameras looking like tourists. Click, click, click and watch them and do all that scenario, which is the facade, which is on the outside, like we are so interested in you. [01:04:18] It sounds a little bit not so truthful, right? But it is. Because we are interested in them. We are interested in what they believe. So we can reach out to them. That's the part they don't know about. The rest they know about. So when we go sit down with them, they give us the time. We give them time to explain to us their religion. And then we ask the questions. and many times in the past we were able to reach out to them into their own nest. [01:04:53] In the nest where they breathe the spirit of Islam, we bring Jesus Christ. Last time I was in New York, actually, we were able to ask an imam a question like this. Thank you imam for all that you shared with us this morning. This was really tremendous. Let's put our hands together for our imam. And we all applaud for that imam. And guess what happened afterwards? I said, Imam, you just taught us a wonderful lesson from creation to now, to today, history. But have you heard it from the angle Christians look at it, the Christian point of view? [01:05:38] He said, no, what was that? I said, well, here it is. And Muslims sitting with Christians, and I'm standing up and sharing from Genesis to all the way to Matthew. Without anybody saying, oh no, that's wrong, that's a lie. No, because this was the Christian point of view. They could not object. Because we do it in an official, polite manner. [01:06:11] They have to sit there and swallow it and take it. That's all they could do. The Lord blessed us one other time. I said, Imam, you showed us how you prayed when you bowed down and when you say Allah, praise Allah and all that good stuff. Have you seen Christians pray before what they say? He said, to be honest with you, no. I said, would you like to see Christians pray? He said, sure, how would you do it? [01:06:43] I said, we don't need to do the dancing, we just speak and hear what we say. And I looked at my group and I said, let's say the Lord's Prayer. And in one unison voice, in the middle of the mosque, sitting on their carpet, around us Muslims, and we start going, Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. They could not object either. [01:07:15] They had to listen to it. We had to bring Jesus in the nest where spirit of Islam take birth. That's what they get their encouragement. We went in there to cut right through that. So God gives us so many opportunities that we do through visitations like this to the Muslim world. Converge through a friend of mine. Him and I, we do a lot of singing in the Arabic churches and we meet at conferences. He works for Converge. Converge is a Baptist general conference, but they're really not so denominational anymore. That's why they don't use the word Baptist anymore. It's Converge Worldwide. It's to connect, ignite, and transform. [01:08:07] They are looking for somebody like myself to help them evangelize their communities And so what we do, we go to their churches and equip them and teach them and take them out And they take the turn to do that ministry And then we move on to another state, another town Until something is born and then they call us again to start, you know, educating those new Christians And so we joined, partnered with Converge to do this. [01:08:43] They're active in 20 countries around the world. Mission, vision includes reaching U.S. immigrants and 200 U.S. cultural churches representing people groups. Muslims, Latinos, Haitian, Brazilian, Japanese, this is what they care about, U.S.-based missionaries. Here, evangelism, discipleship, church planting, and leadership development I always told Alan and other many Mennonites, I said, I consider myself a Mennonite I married a Mennonite The thing is, Mennonites have something special that none of the other denominations do have [01:09:23] Discipleship They will stick with it They will die for it They will invest in your life, but you got to have them, to get them to do it. Getting to do it, that's a big task with the Mennonites. I know lots of Mennonites that did it and stuck with it, and now the men and women that they had invested in are all men of God and have a solid foundation. [01:09:55] I heard that amen. Say it out loud, please. Amen. These people don't have the discipleship the way you guys do it. But what they have, they research a lot. They go forth first, pioneers, into other countries. They know all about the culture, and then they're big in evangelism. They're big in getting numbers. They're big in how many they baptized. [01:10:27] but they're not so big in discipleship and I always thought what if I can get this group to work with this group regardless to how they view and their doctrine and all that because that is not the object the objective is that we center we bring new Christians to the Lord and then teach them Bible not how to dress or how to cut your hair [01:10:57] I chose to be a Mennonite. My wife dresses modestly, wears a veil, and put clothes modest. That's been a wonderful testimony to the Muslims that I will reach out to. And I don't have to teach anything. I had the ladies come to my wife and say, why you wear a veil? We respect you for that. and that opens the door of relationships and growing trust into my family that's what we want to see happen not us pushing on them what we think is right let them see it in us and be curious enough to ask the question and then we'll be there to answer them at that point [01:11:52] Now, these people, I'm not under their umbrella where I don't have to believe the way they believe, but I partner with these people. My heart, as an evangelist, is no denomination. Denomination is a wall built by Satan, and to divide, and to kill, and to destroy. But many of you maybe have a different opinion, and this is just my humble opinion, and forgive me. [01:12:26] I may never come back to this church, so I get to say it. This is the couple who recommended us to this ministry. He's Egyptian, and him and his wife have been working among the Muslims all over the world. He's a singer. He plays the lute. I don't know if you know the lute, the instrument that David speaks about. In Psalms, and he sings, and I join him also, we sing together in Arabic. These are some of the mosques, we took some mosques pictures in New York City. [01:13:01] This one was built on the left top, was built with $14 million. Guess where the money came from? You got it, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait. But over 2,200 mosques that are working now. They are in function. But 1,200 in construction right as we speak. [01:13:35] Just about three weeks ago, I found a new church in Sarasota, a new mosque in Sarasota being built. And it's back in the woods. You won't see it until it's ready. And that's how they come. They come to our communities, they infiltrate themselves, they buy a little store, if there is a doctor, they bring a doctor, if there is a lawyer, they bring a lawyer, a dentist, which I need one, because my tooth is going loose, and all that. [01:14:05] and then before you know it they start growing and they start growing and growing and then they build their mosque and then they are so inside of the community you couldn't get them out if you tried so hard that's how they come in peacefully and lawfully the law is on their side And before you know it, they want to Islamize the whole country. [01:14:36] Their goal, by 2050, America, England, Europe, Germany, Holland will be a Muslim nation. They want to invade the whole world. We are, I'm myself an apostate, which is a Muslim who used to believe in Islam and then left the faith, is an apostate. and my consequences of death is death. You are the infidel. Why are you infidels? Because you made God into a three. [01:15:08] So you blaspheme. Okay? And then you did not follow what Jesus came to teach. They say it's in their book where Jesus came to teach. Your Bible is corrupted. It means men like you before have taken what Jesus said and put their own word in there. So they don't believe in your book. And so we are all supposed to fall under Islam. Muslim means submissive. Submissive to the will of Allah. That's what Muslim means. [01:15:40] And so this is a group here of church young people that we take into cities and we do evangelism. Last group you just saw. I don't know how to go back there. Maybe. Yeah, there it is. This group here, we spend the whole week in New York City. We do one day, we take them to Buddhist temple, one day we go to Muslim mosque, one day we go to Hare Krishna, one day we go to a different place, we clean the church, followers of Jesus, we painted it, we did, you know, work here and there, we do some street work, giving out tracts, preaching the streets, and then in the subways, why? [01:16:25] because we want to give vision and purpose to the young people so they in turn can the Lord can work in their hearts when they see that many of them are convicted after doing such a week of work intense work like that they come back home they're on fire they want to go on missions and this is the way you In the back there, I'm sharing with a Muslim about Jesus Christ, because I don't need to hear what the Imam is saying. I know all about it. [01:17:04] Are we watching them how they pray? That speaks for itself. Other groups. Most of these women, they all went somewhere. Some working for Wycliffe, some are in Tunisia, Morocco, some went to Hong Kong and China, different countries of the world And so I make them dress that way in order to get them into a mosque And it's a wonderful experience, you've got to try it sometimes [01:17:34] This is some of the groups that Elijah would send us, sometimes he'd come with from SMBI And also we go to their mosque. Sometimes they treat us with a good lunch. And we have a good time eating with them and sharing with them this street work. This was in a Bengali community in Brooklyn. And we found some Silati tapes. We put it in there. Silati is another language for the Bengali from Bangladesh. [01:18:10] And we have their material and we play their music that will attract them. They hear their country music, you know, from their country and they want to know what it says because it's Christian, they're not used to it. And then they come and they stand there and start reading. Believe it or not, there are on the other side people that are taking those and reading them. They finish with one, they put it back on the table to grab another one and he goes and finish and read in it. So we had fun doing that. We go to their restaurants and, you know, they make me a chef with them. I go in the kitchen, help myself, take my group and we eat all kind of Bengali food, chicken tandoori and naan bread and all that good stuff. [01:18:54] And they love us, we give them good tip and before we leave we pray out loud, we sing songs and they allow us to do this. In their country, we'll never have a chance to do that. In this country, yes we can. This is one of my friends, Moroccan, where I take also my groups to his restaurant, and we leave our literature there, we go out to the streets and do our work, come back, pick up some more literature from his restaurant, and he's a Muslim. And he'll allow us to do all that. And then at the end, we sit down, he'll build a big table for us, and he will come and praise God for us. [01:19:29] And we pray for him. I used to sit down with him and tell him stories. The best storyteller, how to evangelize Muslims. Jesus said. Nothing better than Jesus, the storyteller. He cried, this man cried over the prodigal son story. Always sees me, he said, come here TJ, tell me a story. And I sit down and eat with him and have stories. Jesus for Muslim, another partner that I work for, it's a network called Jesus for Muslim, JFM. [01:20:07] JFM was established by a Muslim convert like myself. He, 25 years ago, started this network. Him and his wife had hearts for converts that they're not good enough for churches, for Americans, and they're not, they're completely thrown out of their families, and no Muslims care for them, no Arabs care for them, no Americans care for them, so he established a fellowship with these converts, and it became Jesus for Muslims, whom I'm serving still today as a vice president of the network. [01:20:42] We do a lot of gathering together. We do banquets twice a year. We do big conferences once a year for a three-day conference. I'm not sure if that video is going to work or not. This is supposed to be a video here. Maybe it will take time, which we don't have. Our theme, always when we meet, our theme, I have decided to follow Jesus. [01:21:19] So we sing that song in all different languages. So the Turkish will have their time, the Iranians, the Arabs, the French, the Africans, and the English and so forth. This is some of the conferences, what it looks like. Once a year, they're praying for the MBBs. All these here are converts from Islam. Those are Americans, missionaries, pastors, folks like you, Mennonites. They all come to join us and pray for us. This is what I look like in my own cultural dress. [01:21:55] Just sharing the Lord Jesus with people. This is what we look like when we stand in there sharing testimonies and singing that song at the end of our conference. I think this is the video here. I don't know if it's going to play. Nope. Maybe I should wait? It's not going to play? Alright. [01:22:29] I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back. No turning back. I have decided to follow Jesus [01:23:07] I have decided to follow Jesus I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back. No turning back. Kazakhstan people, Muslims as well. These are some of our banquets. Algerian, Jordan, Egyptians and Americans. [01:23:46] This is the food that I cook in our banquets. These are some Turkish fellows and Egyptians, my wife and I. We do discussion panels in colleges as well. We meet with college students and they invite us to share. Some of the missionaries and Lebanese lady, she's Shia, used to be Shia now, she serves the Lord as a missionary in DC. Fred Farouk, he's the executive director of JFM, he's half Iranian, half American, and the brother, he got his name, he used to serve 15 years in Turkey, he still does, with brothers also in Ohio, Chicago, a doctor, [01:24:34] Dr. Mustafa from Morocco and Gensi from Albania in the refuge center that I used to look out after. Sharaf from Morocco, he gave his heart to Jesus in followers of Jesus Mennonite Church in New York, Brooklyn. And their value, their teaching. Moss from Algeria, Bob Miller is the MTC director, Mission Training Center, and Sam, my friend. Some of our other brothers, Egyptians, Syria, Iraq, and Algeria [01:25:08] A brother from Saudi Arabia that we led to the Lord in my house, Alan and I And was imprisoned for six months, beaten, tortured, and still serving the Lord Jesus That's his wife in blue, another Egyptian lady in red, all Muslim background believers This is them when we took them to New Jersey to baptize them. They had a testimony given. The middle lady is his mother, Muhammad's mother, and that's his wife. This is the founder's wife of Jesus from Moslem. [01:25:48] This is a family from Iran that I led to the Lord, the mother and then the son and then the other son, and they're still following the Lord Jesus as far as I know. Quraish, Mike, he's from Egypt, also led him to the Lord. We still see each other once a month when I go up there. This is our fellowship at Sister Ramonda in Queens, New York. This is what it looked like when we met together. Some of the brothers in Orlando, and again in Orlando, teaching and equipping churches in Florida. [01:26:30] And I guess that's it. This is some of our, in our home in Sarasota, we started also a fellowship with the MBBs, and so we meet with them once a month. Muslim background believers, Mennonite couples that will come, this is where all the people We also do some services, they are on television, it's broadcasting in satellite dish That is intended for the Muslim countries [01:27:00] Since we cannot go, I cannot go to Algeria or Morocco or Egypt Then this will be straight to them They can sit in their home, open their TV, and they can get to see us speaking to them directly in their own language. And that's how we share broadcast in the Middle East with them. And we get phone calls, and they ask questions, we answer them, we pray with them, and we also lead them to Christ. One time, this one here, in two weeks, we led 255 people to the Lord Jesus. [01:27:34] They called and prayed with us, prayer of salvation. This is the network that I come to Michigan, right here in Detroit, and of course they don't know where we are, but we come to Detroit, I've been there just last October, I left Detroit on the 19th of October, a whole week of meetings and series, we do about shows like this for about a fourth a day, and so after that they'll be broadcasting, live and then some repetitions, [01:28:08] like recorded and every day they play some of that. We did Gospel Express also and worked with the prison crusades and in Florida, Georgia and Georgia and South Carolina. We prayed with people and convicts that don't know anything about the truth of Islam and know hardly anything about Jesus Christ. We lead them as many times as we can. [01:28:41] In January, the Lord helped me. I was out in the streets in Sarasota giving out tracts. Well, guess what? A lot of people came to ask for help, for money, for food. So I told them, Monday I'll be coming with food here. And so we gathered them in the downtown of Sarasota and we fed them. From there, we started having church services with them. Every Monday afternoon. Actually, when I leave here Monday, I'll land at 3 o'clock. At 5 o'clock, we have a Thanksgiving dinner under this pavilion with homeless people. [01:29:16] And we have youth groups that come and sing, sometimes volunteers. You see them, some of the ladies with veils sitting among the homeless. And we sing for them. We preach. We invite preachers to come preach to us. And also we have the food at the end of the service. We have food they get in the line and at the end of the food we will put clothings for them so they can dress sometimes, a toothbrush, a toothpaste, soap, whatever, towels, underwear, shoes, socks and everything like that we try to give and everything comes from donations. [01:29:56] No one pays for this. No one has a bank account or someone is paying us to do this. It's all by God's grace and volunteers like you, such as yourselves and others. And so the Lord blessed it. Every Monday we had a meal for the homeless. My wife thought I was crazy, you know, because I always come to her with new ideas. She said, oh no, here we go again So the Lord bless you guys We thank you for We've seen some people that came out of becoming a homeless [01:30:28] After we served them, prayed with them That week, the Lord gave them work They came back next week And they praised God for us And they praised God for answering their prayers And now they have jobs And they are off the streets And that's the goal that we have That we get them off the streets This is my mother If you could please, please, please pray for this lady. She needs the Lord Jesus badly. And so she was here last year in my wedding and we prayed with her and she has not accepted the Lord yet. [01:31:01] But the relationship is back good between her and I, between my family and I. We had no relationship for years and now last year it started getting back better. So this year is really good. So we're hoping that my mother, my own mother, and my sisters will come to know the Lord Jesus. This is my dear wife. She couldn't be here because she has to babysit a two weeks boy. That's my sister and this is my sister. This one, both of them need the Lord Jesus. If you remember TH family, the Lord knows their names. [01:31:43] Our work ahead, monthly Arabic fellowships, New York, Florida, and now in D.C. as well, coordinate MVB testimonies, programs with the TV station where we take MVBs to give their testimonies and share, as well as speak in all the churches to equip and motivate those outreaches, evangelistic outreaches. And I'm coordinating the first conference. This conference will bring Jews, the Jewish converts, and Muslim converts, and Christian converts together for three days of followership and forgiveness and reconciliation between the three. [01:32:27] and more. The event will be in February 5th, 6th and 7th in Orlando, so pray for that as well. Partner with us. You have prayer cards, all this information is in there. We're not paid, I don't get paid. We work and the Lord bless us and provide for our needs, so if you can partner with us, financially we'll be more and more most grateful. Thank you for your time. God bless. I return the service to you, brothers. Thank you.