by Dick Brogden | Middle East
Cairo is the New Zealand of taxis. If the Kiwis have a flock of sheep for every denizen, I think Egypt has five taxis for every citizen—and there are over 80 million people here. None of our team members have vehicles, so we all ride in multiple taxis daily. We have found this to be an incredible opportunity for witness, prayer, and Scripture distribution among lost sheep.
Not long ago three of us were in a taxi, and I half-heartedly steered the conversation to spiritual things. It had been a long day, and I was in “sheepish witness” mode. Our driver was a Muslim who was going to add another wife to his stable in two weeks. All of a sudden, in the middle of a bridge that spans the Nile, the Holy Spirit intervened and the conversation shifted. We went from laughing and joking deep into spiritual things.
I still don’t know how it happened. One moment we were laughing, the next the driver had tears in his eyes, pleading with me to tell him how to get to heaven, how to have sins forgiven, begging me to explain to him what the gospel means. He was practically bleating. At the end of the taxi ride, we prayed for this noble man and gave him a New Testament. I promised to call him as soon as I returned from a quick trip out of the country, and he made me put my hand on the Bible and promise I would call him the moment I am back in the land of Goshen.
Interestingly, we had waved down a taxi prior to this one and that driver, after discovering where we wanted to go, had refused to take us. The Good Shepherd obviously had a little lamb wanting to be found. We get to participate in the finding—it certainly is not taxing!