"When the trials come, I ask that they be great, so my reward in heaven will be also!"

We met in 1984 in Shinyanga, Tanzania. Farid was 24 years old, young married guy (wife Shamsa) with a new baby (Khadija).

We became instant friends - due to the fact that he was one of only three people in Shinyanga who spoke English. We had similar interests. If you wanted to eat meat in Tanzania you had to go shoot it, so we became hunting buddies. In fact during our four year stay there, Farid went hunting with me every time I went. We spent a lot of time around campfires on the hunting trips, always discussing issues of faith... why he should consider becoming a Christian - my position, and why I should become a Muslim - his position. He told me he was born a Muslim and would die a Muslim.

I taught him to play Scrabble and many nights in our house he would come and we would have a game or two. His skill increased to the point that we regularly split the games! We were very close and he became one of my most trusted friends, even helped me with some disputes (as an objective third party) that arose between some of the pastors of the churches I had started in the Shinyanga region.

Before we left Tanzania, he and I started a bakery together in Mwanza. I provided for the equipment and training and he ran the bakery very successfully.

After we moved back to the states and I started doing the short term mission trips (at first to Tanzania twice per year, then to Ukraine, Russia, Cuba, and Ecuador) we spent time together every trip - even hunting together sometimes. We stayed in touch via email and occasional phone calls. He was always ready to purchase Bibles for us (even asking the bible distribution centers for a "Muslim" discount, which he would get). They were always curious why a Muslim was buying 1,000 bibles.

A few years after we left Tanzania, Farid and started a computer training center. Again, I supplied the initial equipment and training and he turned it into a successful business enterprise.  He would even use the profits to buy bibles and materials for Issa's mission trips.

After twenty years, I asked his (and Shamsa's) permission to share the gospel with their three oldest kids. They also had three younger children as well. They gave me permission and I asked him what would happen if they became Christians and he said, that was their choice, they would still be his children. 

So, that afternoon, the three of them, Khadija, Nawaaz, and Farida all accepted Christ! their grandparents rejected all three of them!  They paid a dear price for their faith, but it made an impact.

Two years later, at midnight sitting on the shore of Lake Victoria, Farid bowed his knee to Jesus! what a glorious time that was, we cried and hugged and rejoiced and cried some more. So this 22 year friendship turned into a new relationship as brothers in Christ for eternity!

The next morning his wife found out and gave him an ultimatum, "you choose Jesus, or you choose me!" He later wrote and said she did not understand that she was asking him to be unborn, he could not, so he chose Jesus but stayed faithfully with his wife and lived his faith out in front of her.

After it was known that he was a Christian, the Computer Training Center in Mwanza was confiscated by the Muslim community (his offices were in the Mosque complex, so they simply locked the doors and he was out of business instantly. Likewise, the bakery suffered a similar fate, so Farid found he and his family without a source of income.

Two years after Farid became a believer, Shamsa and I were sitting in her dining room, she looked at me and she said she was ready. I thought she meant she was ready to eat. She said she was ready to believe in Jesus! She may be the only person I have ever tried to talk out of accepting Christ. I said, "are you sure? You have seen what your family and community has done to Farid and your kids", but she insisted that now she as prepared for the same. So now she too was in the family! When I went in the living room and told Farid what had happened, you could of mopped the floor with the tears!!

Well it has been some rough since, but he has remained strong in the Lord. Even recently at a church service we were sharing in, he made the comment "When the trials come, I ask that they be great, so my reward in heaven will be also!" (I always ask that they be small and short lived, so I am not too uncomfortable... what a difference!).

Our friendship remained strong until the Lord brought him home.  I was able to gather with his family in Tanzania for his funeral.  It was bitter sweet as any home going, but in the end, his children all acknowledged their faith in the Lord was strengthened because of their father and I know they miss him sorely as all who knew him do!  See you soon friend!