Preaching to a Hausa Lady Wearing a Hijab in the Bus: The ICM Prelude

- March 19, 2022

Hi guys, so today, as the title says, I preached to a Hausa lady in the bus on my way home (well tonight actually. Just got home about an hour ago).

It was good. Really good. She listened throughout.

But before I go into it, let me give a prelude to what happened:

Today is Saturday. For 4 Saturdays now, I have been going to ICM (Ikeja City Mall, Lagos) to evangelise. The schedule is, after our YEN Ikeja meeting at Tantalizers, Allen, I just take a N100 bus to the mall. It's not far at all.

But first, as I realized painfully, it doesn't matter if you have prayed 2/3 hours earlier in the day; if you don't pray at least an hour just before you go out to preach, you will FUMBLE. Especially if it is in a new location you have never evangelised in before.

So anyway I went there, spoke to someone I spoke to last week (she's actually a shopkeeper there), and it was more of a follow-up conversation. But, one problem: she spoke a little too much.

I call this a problem because, evangelism is something that relies heavily on zeal, or ginger. So when you get into a conversation which takes your mind away from it, you begin to lose sight of what you came to do.

Challenge One:

The desire begins to wane, and it is at that precarious moment that you just begin to think to yourself, "Omo, do I really want to do this thing again?", "Let me just go to my house", Or

"I will come back tomorrow". Don't. Because most likely, you won't. And then you will break your chain of consistency, and eventually find it hard to go back to preaching again.

These are the struggles. So yes, our consistency must be guarded carefully.

Now back to the story.

Eventually we finished talking, and then after I wanted to talk to another shopkeeper, but they had already begun to close (this is already ~ 9pm). So it was a bummer.

Challenge Two:

Now if you have any experience with evangelism, you'd realize that when you set your heart to talk to someone, to decide not to talk to that person again can be a little difficult.

And then, after you find out you can't speak to that person, you may find yourself demoralised, and subsequently finding it hard to decide to talk to another person.)

Please, do.

I started walking round, and I suddenly had this desire to talk to a Muslim, specifically a Muslim lady. Anyone I saw. Wearing a hijab. Now I know why.

Naturally I desire to talk to Muslims because it doesn't make sense to avoid them (Christians are saved, even if they may not understand the gospel properly. If they believe in Jesus: His Deity, His death and resurrection, they are saved (Romans 10:9-10).

Muslims don't, so they aren't. Nigeria is 50% Muslim. Why wouldn't you be preaching to them?)

Now then, I walked round trying to spot one, found almost none. The first I saw was with her boyfriend so I wasn't bold enough to talk to them (I will be soon), then the next?

That was verrryyy weirddd 😂😂.

I actually saw her entering, walking fast, but because I was nervous, I was just walking behind her, but I noticed she was leaving the mall, so I followed.

But then I noticed she was actually going upstairs through the stairs outside, so I followed again 😂. I thought she was going to the lounge, so I was a little cautious. But I noticed she was going inside through the door above, so I followed again (please I'm not a stalker I promise 😭😭).

I followed her into the cinema booking hall, but unfortunately, she had entered to see a movie.

(Obviously, I can't follow her in. Because I'd have to pay. ALL THIS TO PREACH THE GOSPEL).

Anyway, I left the mall, and went back home, feeling bad, like I failed, BUT, I then saw this glowing Hausa lady, entering the same bus;

She asked me where it was going I told her, and, she needed help carrying something, so I offered to help 😊. I introduced myself, and asked for her name, and from there, the gospel preaching,

began.

(Next post reveals some of the details.)