Conversational Opportunities at the Cairo Bookfair

During our recent trip to Egypt, my friends and I volunteered in the Bible Society booths at the annual Cairo Bookfair. The booth where I worked we stationed two girls at the front entrance smiling & greeting passing women, hoping they might come inside, and we stationed two girls at the back of the booth praying for the customers we saw and paying extra attention to the women who came in. All the staff workers at the Bible Society booth were men and they mentioned that the ladies would be more comfortable coming in to shop if they looked in and saw some women already inside.
Primarily our volunteer service was prayer (just in our heads). Watching each customer who came in to browse or buy, asking the Spirit to lead us in the exact prayers He wanted us to offer on their behalf. The customers were made up of a wide variety of people… orthodox Christians, evangelical Christians, born-again believers, nominal or cultural “Christians”, as well as cultural Muslims and even more fanatical looking Muslims. No one came in the booth to cause trouble. They all came to shop. And all we sold were Bibles & Christian materials.

At one point, I was standing along the back corner of the booth when I was approached by four Muslim men with questions. Two of the four had the physical appearance of quite serious Muslims, and the other two looked like average Egyptians. The first man showed me that he had just purchased an Arabic New Testament, already bagged and paid for, but when he wanted to ask a few questions. I found it interesting that he would choose to approach me when there were several men in the booth that worked for the Bible Society, but I was happy to try and answer his questions. (Because we didn't take pictures inside the shop, I drew silly pen-layouts to show you the story unfolding.)
His first question was “Can you explain to me what it means by ‘version’ or ‘translation’? Does this mean there are different versions of interpretations of the Bible?” Great question! As we began to discuss the real meaning behind this terminology, I noticed that the man would not look me in the eye, or really, wouldn’t look in the direction of my face as a whole. He stared down about 45 degrees and looked off to the left of my body the whole time we talked. I expected this, culturally, but in the moment it was really different to experience.

After talking through his first question, he went on to explain that he was “of course, a Muslim” but that he felt it was important for him to learn about other religions so that we can have a good dialogue between faiths. I agreed and shared with him that I too had studied Islam with this very same motivation. He told me that he and his 3 friends were all students at the Al Azhar University… which I knew to be arguably the foremost institution for Islamic teaching in the world. I must admit at this point I started to get a little nervous. Not for my safety, by any stretch. It’s just that I more avidly started praying for God to give me just the right words to be able to answer his questions with respect and wisdom because I felt this was a well-educated Muslim with serious, thought-out questions.

Next, he asked me “I heard one time that a woman came to Jesus and asked Him to heal her, but Jesus said ‘no’ because He came for the ‘lost sheep of Israel, the Jews.’ Is that true? Did Jesus come for the Jews or for the whole world?” Wow, huh? What a gift of a question! This opened a healthy discussion and gave me many opportunities to point him to multiple places in Scripture that affirm Jesus came for everyone. It was a lively discussion and although my heartbeat was through the roof, I was beaming from ear to ear because of the seeds God was planting.

After that, the man asked me for my email so that we could “continue this discussion” online as he read his new Bible. I knew that request crossed the cultural lines of male-female interaction, so I quickly invited the two Bible Society staff (men) to join the conversation offering to let the man exchange emails with one of them to keep in touch. At this point, the staff & the 4 men started an even more lively discussion (or perhaps it turned debate) with me stuck in the middle—literally. I was pinned in the corner with both groups on either side, loudly and passionately discussing their questions and beliefs.
I was uncomfortable on one level because they spoke 80% in Arabic and only 20% in English, so I was lost but obviously still a part of the group discussion. But on another level I was thrilled to be a prayer-plant right in the middle of this holy conversation! As each man spoke back and forth, I was furiously praying in my head for God to allow His Truth to shine above all other thought… praying for the question-askers to have their questions answered… praying for the staffers to have the right words… praying for ears to hear on both sides. It was truly awesome to be just where I was.

As the dialogue continued, more and more men were filing in the store and gathering in a wider circle, listening to the discussion—some overtly, and some doing a bad job of fake-shopping while they eavesdropped. At one point, I counted 25 people in our circle. I prayed as my eyes wandered from face to face to face of the silent bystanders believing that God drew them there for a purpose too. He wanted them to hear answers to questions they may never have been bold enough to ask themselves.
After about 30 minutes, the conversation came to a polite close. I respectfully complimented the 4 men for being learners and seekers of God’s Truth and they left the store. That was my highlight moment from our time at the Bookfair because it was such a unique opportunity to carry on a Q & A about who God is, what Jesus was about, and where you can learn more… in the very Bible we were selling at that booth. I thank God for the gift of that interaction and believe that in His time, any seeds planted will reap a harvest for His glory!