Devon Avenue

This afternoon I visited Devon avenue--the "little India" of Chicago, where Pakistani Muslims and Indian Hindus live and work side by side. There are a myriad of tiny clothing, jewelry, live poultry, and literature/media shops as well as little cafe's and mini restaurants boasting all kinds of foods and sweets.
        I was there with my Contemporary Islam class; we were taking a field trip to Devon Ave with our Pakistani professor, Dr. Samuel Naaman. We went to the South Asian Friendship Center first to drink some chai--oh, how I loved smelling that strong tea-and-milk aroma! I haven't had chai made quite like the Kenyan chai I experienced five years ago on a missions trip. I was delighted to say the least. Then we sat in the small room where the Center has their Sunday services and listened to David Echols, former missionary in Pakistan and India, tell stories about his own ministry experiences.
        He told us about how there were many Muslims coming to faith in Jesus Christ in India--partly because they are able to relate to the Christians easier than the Hindi's who look down on them and persecute them. He also told us about how he was being persecuted in Pakistan when he and his family began to have so much success at converting Muslims that the activist Muslims became angry, invaded his home in the middle of the night, and tried to rob and kill him. Both times that these men came, the Lord protected the Echol family in a mighty way. Such stories only add fire to the passion that has begun to burn in me for the Muslim world.
        I simply can't wait to begin full-time ministry! Yet at the same time, I know from my reading and studying with Dr. Naaman that I am far from prepared for the challenges of ministry. I don't have the maturity of years and the necessary connections with other like-minded missionaries. I need to form a team, I need to gather support, I need to make myself ready to become a "Muslim to the Muslims" and most of all, I need to begin witnessing to Muslims in Chicago.
     When I read amazing books like Bridges to Islam by Phil Parshall, The Unseen face of Islam by Bill Musk, and Building Churches in Muslim Cities by Greg Livingstone, I see the great need and feel an overwhelming call to Muslim missions. I am getting hundreds of ideas all at one for what I want to do specifically. Yet nothing has been tested by the council of others who have actually done this kind of ministry. I am really excited to see that God has so quickly grown this passion in me, and I know He will send me to the right mentors and programs. He will open doors and close doors.
     So, the purpose of this rant, is to say: "I want to be a missionary!"
And to express some of my wondering where to begin. I wish that Moody--or any other school for that matter--had a program to specifically train students for Muslim missions. I could use anthropology, culture studies, hermeneutics, church planting, language, phonetics, English teaching, more on classes on Muslim beliefs, music, and ways of thought. There is so much that a Bible or Missions major at Moody doesn't even begin to address! I could take a hodgepodge of stuff at Moody--but that wouldn't give me a degree. Hmm. A lot to think about. I don't think a degree is the point--the skills and knowledge is the point. But there are a lot of obstacles to that and if that's where God wants me to go, as I said, He'll have to open the right doors and close the wrong ones.
This is a great God that we serve!