Stories from South Asia - Encounter with the Police - Day 5

Day 5

On the evening following our fourth day of outreach in this area some of the men on our team decided to go down the street from our hotel and get an old-fashioned straight razor shave. So we made our way to the little open-front barber shop and as you can imagine, a crowd quickly gathered to watch us. As we got our shaves, several of the team members took the opportunity to stand at the front of the shop and talk with the locals who were curiously looking in.

At one point a man walked up and grabbed one of our translators and walked him across the street. Concerned, we quickly made our way out of the shop to find out what the problem was. The man said that he was with the local police and that he had been sent to get information about “the group of outsiders who are giving out Christian literature in the surrounding areas.” Not knowing the legitimacy of this plain-clothes man, we told him if he wanted information on us that he could get it from our hotel. We thought that would be the end of it, but it was not.

The man indeed showed up at our hotel a few minutes later demanding a copy of all of our passports and copies of the books that we had been distributing. We told him we would gladly give him copies, that we had nothing to hide regarding what we had been doing there. My concern was not for our short-term team, but rather for our IMB friends that were hosting us and especially for the national leaders who had been translating for us all week. Typically when there are problems with short-term teams, the team is simply told not to come back. But matters get more complicated for those who live in the country. I sent the rest of our team up to the rooms and asked them to begin praying as I stayed down and tried to take care of the situation.

Within just a few minutes another man arrived introducing himself as the director of the secret police for this district of the country. It was evident that he was telling the truth and that we had roused a little more attention that we had at first imagined. He asked if we could sit down and have a conversation and we agreed. He mentioned all of the areas that we had worked in for the last three days and said that his intention was not to harass us, but rather he was concerned that we had not come to the authorities and asked permission prior to our arrival. To that I was able to reply that we had indeed gone first to each local authority and shared with them in submission to their leadership and then asked them for permission to distribute in their area. This seemed to please the man and he reiterated again that he had no intention of harassing us, but instead wanted to insure our safety. At that he made a proposal that surprised me – he offered to give us free police escort into a new area. At first I thought that he just wanted to keep tabs on us, but then after I talked with him a bit longer it became evident that he was genuine.

So the next morning when we headed out, we went to the area that this officer had directed us and sure enough, as soon as we got off of the ferry crossing two armed policemen greeted us and hopped into our vehicles. When we got to the villages the policemen hopped out with us and escorted us to various local authorities where we toned back our presentation a bit, but continued our distribution nonetheless. The policeman that went out with Katie and me took us to a college. This was quite a different setting than we’d had in the days prior. This was obviously a religious stronghold and it didn’t seem that we were too welcome there, but what could they do? One of their armed local policemen was telling them to listen to me! After receiving hospitality from the president of the college, he introduced me to about 25 of his teaching staff. I shared with them that I am working on my doctorate and that I am a follower of Jesus that is interested in studying and dialoguing with people of other world religions. After I shared briefly with them what the Koran says regarding Jesus and offered them New Testaments, I opened the floor for questions. Several of the teachers asked directly, “Are you coming to our country to preach Christianity?” To which I responded, “I believe that any person that is committed to their beliefs has an obligation to share those beliefs with others. I indeed preach, but not only with words, most importantly through my attitude and lifestyle.” At that I told them if their own beliefs in Islam were grounded that they need not fear a Western man and woman who came to their country to talk about Jesus. Things started to get a bit more heated and one teacher asked even more directly, “Who do you say that Muhammad is?” Now I felt like Jesus before the Pharisees! Those outwardly religious whitewashed tombs were constantly trying to trap Jesus by getting him to say something that would legally open him up to prosecution. Although this country is democratic in nature, it is illegal to “blaspheme” Muhammad and if I walked into that trap then I could have some real trouble – not only with the policeman sitting next to me, but it could very well have resulted in a mob-like mentality there at the college. Thankfully the Holy Spirit gave me the precise words to respond with – “I say that Muhammad is exactly who he said he is in the Koran.” Some of you may be disappointed with my answer, but you need to understand that Muhammad says at one point in the Koran, “I am nothing new among the prophets. As for me and my followers, I do not know our eternal destiny. I am only here to warn the people to return to God.” The shrewdness of my response brought the police officer that was with us to visible and audible laughter. I think he knew what I had done through my reply . . . I forced those teachers to evaluate what Muhammad said about himself and then what they believed about him – two totally different conclusions. At that we made our way out of the college leaving bibles and a copy of the Jesus film for them.

As we made our way back to the van, the officer kept directing me to people that I had inadvertently passed by. Eventually he took stacks of the gospels and started handing them out himself! I think he had become a bit more than security . . . he was now participating in evangelistic outreach! The officers then took us to the district police station where we took tea with them and presented the entire force with their own copies of the New Testament and the chiefs and those who had accompanied us with whole bibles and Jesus Films. They were very gracious, as were we. At the end of the day when we arrived back at our hotel our whole team rejoiced how God had taken a situation that could have meant real problems and turned it for our good. We lived Romans 8:28 that day.