At Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Carrollton, Texas, they have a really neat method of reminding people to pray for their lost friends and family that they are witnessing too. It is called Pipe Cleaner People. You go into the fellowship hall and pick up a set of pipe cleaners. You use them to make a pipe cleaner person. Then you can hang it on one of the crosses at the front of the church. We worshiped there last week. I made one and Brendan made two for his friends at school that he has been witnessing too!

Maybe you don't have a pipe cleaner person program at your church. We love to pray for the lost. If you have witnessed to someone that you would like us to pray for you can submit their name for prayer on our web site or via email to names@bezeugen.org. We'll add their name (first name only) to the site.

On Saturday I completed the Islam 101 class. Five weeks! I made some new friends that hopefully will contact me so we can talk more. I pray that they will come to know the truth, repent, and trust in Jesus.
The last session was on so called contemporary issues. They covered everything from Jihad to the morally good way that Muslims live. They talked about how Muslims embrace education, government and medicine. As I listened the thing that kept going through my mind was, "so what?" We eventually got into Q&A. The leader of the session was a man who had set out to be a Baptist minister and evangelist but in college converted to Islam. Someone asked him how he converted. In the process he explained Islamic salvation (through faith in the oneness of God). He then put up a slide that showed the moral life of a Muslim including that they obey the Ten Commandments. So I raised my hand and asked, "have you ever told a lie?" "Yes", came the answer. So, I asked, "how do you get forgiveness for your sin?" He then explained his belief that if there is forgiveness then there can be no payment and if there is a payment then there can be no forgiveness. This is idolatry. These people have made up a god to suit their own desires. The Bible clearly states that God requires a payment to be made for sin. Fortunately that payment has been made for us at the cross!
The other thing I found interesting is that they claim to believe in the Bible. However, they claim that the Bible  we have today has changed. So when questioned they would say something like, "if Moses were standing here, then I would believe what he is saying." Here is an example. Adam and Eve sinned. This established original sin - that all men are born into sin. However, the Quran states that Adam and Eve repented and then were forgiven by God, This is contrary to the account in the Bible in Genesis 3 that God first promises a savior.
I offered several people copies of The Case for Christ. But they all declined saying that I should be open to consider the truth. This really cracked me up. I am the one that just spent five weeks learning what they believe. All I asked them to do is to investigate what I believe also so that we could discuss it.
I am glad I went to the class. I had many good witnessing encounters at the class. I feel well equipped to witness to Muslims now.