Wednesday, March 16, 2005

Moment #228. Swahili in Ft. Collins. Wed, Mar 16, 2005.

03/16/2005. I left the __________, and headed for the Colorado State University Campus, looking for their library. I pulled into the parking lot of the first big building I found. There was a man walking towards the building, and I could tell that our paths were going to intersect, so I rolled down my window and pulled over. I don't think I felt any specific prompting, but he "stood out" spiritually. I also wondered if he were an African immigrant. (When I say that someone "stood out" in a spiritual sense, I mean that they radiated something extra, or somehow caught or drew my attention in a non-physical way. It's almost like a halo or spotlight is on them. In rare occasions it's a spiritual equivalent of the "angel effect" on the TV show "Touched by an Angel.")

I asked him where the main library was, and he indicated that it was on the other side of this big building.

He spoke with an accent, so I asked him what languages he spoke besides English. He said Swahili. I said I had a book in Swahili in the car, called the Book of Mormon, and asked if he'd like to see it.

He said okay. I got out, reached into the back seat, and got out the Swahili copy, and presented it to him. He was amazed. It was the first book in Swahili he had seen in the United States. He's been in the country 2 years. I then opened the trunk to get out a hard-cover English version because the Swahili is in hard-cover. He accepted the English version too.

We talked a bit. He's from Tanzania, and also speaks a tribal language, but it's a small tribe, so it's not known very much. I forgot the name of the language, but it wasn't one in which the church has material.

Here is where it gets cool. He asked where our church was. I took an info flyer from one of the books, and showed him the addresses of the four local chapels. He asked what time we pray, and I pointed out the times the services started. He said he usually goes to Catholic church to pray, but would visit. We chatted a bit more. Perhaps I should have asked his contact information and given it to the missionaries, but he seemed positive about visiting on his own.

We shook hands and I got back in the car and drove off. But before I left the parking lot, I had to pull over, and write down this and the previous two placements in my journal. I was shaking with excitement.

2 Comments:

At 7/17/2006 05:06:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi. Somehow as I looked for an Ethopian restaurant in Ft. Collins I came to your site.

I haven't known many people who are as passionate about their religion as you are and obviously it seems that you have some motivation for being so excited to share the book of mormon with others.

How did you come to your views? What is your motivation for being so excited about others reading the book of mormon or the bible? Which do you think is more authoritative?

dawn

 
At 7/17/2006 11:51:00 PM, Blogger Bookslinger said...

How did I come to my views? My conversion story is a bit convoluted. I have most of it on a semi-crashed hard drive that I need to recover.

To people who truely believe in the Bible, shouldn't they be excited when another book comes along that testifies of the divinity of Jesus Christ? Can there ever be too many books that preach of Christ?

You can read some of my story here, too.

As for asking which book, the Bible or the Book of Mormon, is more authoritative, that's like asking which books in the Bible are more important. Aren't they all written by prophets? How would Jeremiah feel if you told him you liked Isaiah better? How would Peter feel if you told him you liked Paul's letters better?

 

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