Making Friends, Crossing Cultures 

                My friend Lacey, serving with one of GCMI’s ministry partners in NYC, frequently visits a South Asian salon in the city where she has been able to develop a friendship with a Pakistani woman who works there.  Several times, Lacey has been able to pray with Amal, pouring out love on a woman very different from herself.   At one point, Amal came down with a cold.  Working long hours while sick can be exhausting and frustrating, so it was exciting to hear from Amal that God had answered the prayers that Lacey had prayed over her, healing her from the sickness.  Lacey has also been praying for ways to deepen her relationship with Amal.   She has prayed to meet Amal’s family and for their friendship to lead into new friendships within the Pakistani community.  Two weeks ago, Lacey was invited to Amal’s home to meet her family and share dinner with them. Because of this opportunity, Lacey was able to further develop her relationship with not only Amal, but also with Amal’s adult daughter.  Together they enjoyed a wonderful Pakistani meal, which provided Lacey with further opportunities to share the Gospel.  Interested in how Lacey had been raised, Amal’s daughter (who has two daughters of her own) asked how Lacey’s parents had raised her.  Given the chance to speak on what it was like to grow up in a family that put God first, Lacey was provided with a large gateway in which to share more about her faith and her family’s convictions.  Pulling out her Bible, Lacey read to them from Proverbs 13:24, sharing that the relationship that God has with us is similar to the relationship that we should have with our own children, disciplining them in love just as He disciplines us.  Through their conversations, Lacey learned that their aunt is a teacher of the Koran in NYC.  Amal told her that sometime they would have their aunt come by to meet Lacey.

                God took Lacey’s prayers and transformed them into further opportunities to share His word.  Because of her first prayer (to meet Amal’s family), she was able to not only meet the family but to also see her second prayer answered, as God opened doors into the Pakistani community. Pray that Lacey will soon be able to meet the aunt and that further doors will be opened and relationships deepened, giving her and God the chance to work together to further His kingdom.