Day 2 - Ramazan 

Laila is a widow.  She and her children were helped extensively by Christians when they were destitute refugees.  She heard the message of Christ and experienced His love through His people.  Now she follows Him.  Laila lives in two small rooms with a courtyard, and sound carries easily from one courtyard to another.  During the month of fasting she rises well before dawn to prepare a substantial meal of rice, meat and vegetable dishes.  The neighbors are wary because Laila associates with Christians, and because she is a widow with no male to keep her in line, but the clattering sounds of food preparation coming from her courtyard at four in the morning, reassure them that she has not gone astray.  Even so, just to be certain, the neighbors will ask Laila’s smallest daughter, who is too young to lie, whether her mother is fasting.   

Laila and her older children fast from daybreak until after sunset.  This ritual is part of the community culture and to break it would break her relationship with her neighbors.  She would be thrown out of the community.  Remaining integrated, she is able to share wisdom with her neighbors and impact their lives, as well as provide peace and stability for her children.  

Pray that: 

• Muslim background believers will have grace and protection during the month of Ramazan, as they are scrutinized by suspicious neighbors.
• Pashtuns, whose religious fervor is at an all-time high during Ramazan, will have a vision of how far they have strayed from true religion (Is. 58).
• Expatriate Christians will have creative answers when Pashtuns ask, “Do you fast?”

 

Gal. 5:13 All that the law says can be summed up in the command to love others as much as you love yourself. CEV