God prepared Alex for the special ministry of running 2 Christian book tables in the Greater Toronto Area in places frequented by Muslims. For these locations, no permission is needed--just wheels to make the table movable. He sometimes has a competing table of Muslim literature near him. Its takes a gutsy person not easily flustered to discuss biblical truth with zealous Muslims. At times he turns into a polemic preacher. He was born in Azerbaijan and came to Canada as an atheist. Alex came to faith in Christ and subsequently started participating in Interfaith Dialogues. I’ll let him tell the rest of the story:
“I am the founder of “Road to Christ Ministry to Muslims”. For 8 years two of my friends, my mom(!), and I have been coming to Downtown Toronto for ministry. We set up a table of Christian literature and share the Good News with Torontians and guests to the city. More recently we opened a 2nd location in the suburbs. Literature that we usually have on our table includes Bibles, “How Do I Get to Heaven” by P. McQuade, “How Good is Good Enough?” by Andy Stanley, the ‘Jesus’ dvd, and my book and booklet “Qur’an-Bible Comparison” and “Mohamed was Right”.
Usually we talk to about 40 people during 4 hours on the street. We stand behind our small literature table with a sign that reads “Free Christian Literature”. I simply wait for people to approach our table. The response has been very positive. I have dozens of productive conversations every day we are set up! This non-aggressive approach helps me as a shy person to reach many strangers with boldness and confidence. This particular ministry works well with strangers who feel secure enough to share their lives, problems, sins, and hopes. Muslims also approach our table and like to discuss religious matters.
For many years I struggled when I shared Jesus with them since nothing seemed to work with strong Muslims. That all changed 3 years ago. After some study, I started to preach Jesus from the Old Testament(Torah). The Qur’an and the Hadith show that Allah in the 7th century was confident in the Torah. First I prove that the Qur'anic version of events is often incomplete and contradicts what we find in the Bible. Then I go further and show the errors and heresies in the Islamic faith before I start preaching Christ. I show them a booklet about the Dead Seas Scrolls to prove that the Bible we have today has not changed. I confidently open my Torah to Genesis 3 and 4 and end in Isaiah 53, proving ‘original sin’ and the Remedy is the Crucifixion of the Son of God.
Now I give seminars and training courses that teach
effective ways of witnessing to Muslims.”This is a great strategy to share the Good News of Jesus among pedestrians--especially Muslims! If a person takes something home, he/she may read it several times. A book table may well be the beginning of a journey towards Jesus.
Dear Lord, bless Alex and his team as they faithfully set up their book tables and boldly share even in the midst of opposition. Amen
