Sunday 23 January 2011

A talk with a foreigner

I was sitting at the 'pondok' opposite the guard house yesterday evening, waiting for the transport to SCMC fellowship, and a foreigner came and talked to me.

Here's roughly the conversations between us:

Guy: Are you waiting for bus?
Me: No, I am waiting for car. (should be van..whatever)
Guy(point to my bible): Is that a bible?
Me: Yes.
Guy: So you are a Christian?
Me: Yes.
Guy: A Chinese Christian?
Me: Yes, Chinese Christian.
Guy(sat on another chair beside me): But there are not many Chinese Christian in Malaysia right? Most of them are Buddhist.
Me: Yea, not many Chinese Christian in Malaysia.
Guy: So why are you a Christian?
Me: Er..my parents were Christians, so...
Guy: Your parents WERE Christians.... (I realized my mistakes)
Me: They ARE Christians now.
Guy: So you are a Christian because your Parents are Christians..
Me: No no, that's because I believe too.
Guy: oh~ you believe. You know, I believe in Jesus too!
Me: Huh? You are a Christians?
Guy: I am a Muslims. I believe in Jesus, I can't be a Muslims without believing in Jesus.
Me: oh~ ok ok.. We Believe that Jesus is God, the son of God, but you all believe that Jesus is just a er...Nabi... (can't think of the word 'prophet')
Guy: A prophet.
Me: Ya ya, prophet~

Guy: (I forgot what he said, but what he meant was Christian believe in ONE God, but then there's another Son of God which is God too, he thinks that it is more than one God)

Me: Oh, that's the concept of Trinity. We believe in the Holy Father, Holy Son and the Holy Spirit, they are ONE God, but got different er.....位格(in a low voice, I seriously can't think of the English word of 'wei ge' ><, I failed to explain further, so I just end this with..) It is something that the Human mind cannot er..comprehend.

Guy: Do you know how many times Jesus was mentioned in the Quran??
Me: I don't know.

(Suddenly his phone rang, and he spoke very loudly with the language that I can't understand, but I can hear that he used a lot of 'Allah' in his conversation)
Guy: Sorry, my friend called just now.
Me: Never mind. (I continued) Which Country are you from?
Guy: I am from Jordan.
Me: oh~ Jordan~ (I thought he is an Iranian)
(After that he continue with his praise towards the Chinese and Indian, something that he likes the culture of Chinese as they are patience, hardworking, and the Indian too, and the SEA country..bla bla bla~)

Then he continued with his previous topic.
Guy: Do you know how many times Jesus was mentioned in the Quran?
Me: Don't know.
Guy: Jesus was mentioned 24 times in the Quran, compared to Mohammad which was mentioned 4 times only. So is like a 6*4....(he means 6 times more). Do this mean anything to you??
Me: Er.. Jesus is a very important 'person' for the Muslims? (I continued and emphasized) For the Muslims he is a person, but for the Christians He is God.
Guy: Yes, Do you know that Jesus actually mentioned about the coming of the Mohammad?
Me: =.=
Guy: There is a debate in America between a famous Pastor (I forgot his name le) and the Muslims about this.
Me: Ok~
Guy: The Muslims believe that Jesus will come again.
Me: Oh, for the Christians, we believes that Jesus will come again to Judge the world.
I continued: The Muslims believes that Jesus is Al-Masih right?
Guy (trying to recall): Yea..Al-Masih..
Me: Do you know that Al-Masih in English is called Messiah and it means Savior, he is the Savior God, the son of God
Guy: We do believe that Jesus is the son of God, but indirectly.
Me:Indirectly?
Guy: Everyone of us are the sons of God.
Me: oh~ =.=
Guy: Jesus was born 2011 years ago ??
Me: (I explained to him about the minor mistakes in the calculations, the correct years will be roughly 2016, 2017)
Guy: Ok, so is just plus minus 10 years.
Me: Yea.
Guy: What do Christians believe before Jesus was born.
Me: (Explained to him about the old and new testaments, and also the prophecy of the coming of Jesus Christ in the old testaments)
Then I asked: The Old testaments is also in the Quran right?
Guy:You know that the old testament is written in the (don't know what language)..bla bla..I don't really understand..I think he was trying to deny that the old testaments was originally written in the Hebrew.
Me: The old testaments was written in the Hebrew language, new testaments in Greek.
Guy: You see, the new testaments was written around 100 years after Jesus..?? (I think he wants to deny the validity of the new testaments)
Me: It was written by the disciples of Jesus Christ and it was like around 50 years after Jesus (I meant after the birth of Jesus, but I think he thought that I mean 50 years after Jesus was gone)
Guy: Ok, 50 or 60 years...bla bla bla (I saw the van came and I wasn't concentrate of what he was saying)
Me: Sorry, I have to go..
Guy: ok ok..
Me: Nice talking to you...
Guy: Nice talking to you~ What is your course?
Me: Dietetic.
Guy: Oh~ Dietetic, I am in the Nutrition Department, I am taking my PhD in nutrition. What is your name?
Me: Er...Lee, What yours?
Guy: Hen (that's what I heard)
Me: Ok, Hen~! (=.=), Bye.


1 comment:

Xing said...

WoW~ you have so good memory! You really can memorize the conversation between you and the guy. Thanks for the sharing!

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