An interesting experience I would like to share occurred when I was serving in Faisalabad, Pakistan.  An important thing to mention here is the fact that Pakistan is not exactly the right name for the country.  The real name is “The Islamic Republic of Pakistan”. Usually, we ask ourselves, “What’s in a name”.  Well, in this case, there is quite a lot.  If you are a Muslim, born in Pakistan, you have all the rights and duties. If you are not, then you still have all the duties, but not necessarily the rights; at least so it was about 25 years ago.  This meant that if you were a poor non-Muslim and needed to be hospitalized then you had to pay for all your care and medicine even in the General Hospital within the national health system.

Well, there was a very poor Christian widow who had no family and I used to visit her almost every day to talk with the doctors treating her and bringing the needed medicine. The hospital was the old type where you had a big hall with beds lined up and facing each other. One day, I entered for my usual visit and, in the opposite corner to the bed of the widow I went to visit, there was an old Muslim woman seemingly on her death bed.  She was surrounded by her family; typical Maulvi white-robed men, others in their shalwar qameez, and obviously, women in their black burkas. This old lady called me and, when I reached her, she grabbed the cross I was wearing around my neck and told me, “Your God and my God must be the same God; the God of Love”. I had never said a word to that lady before.  I only visited the widow.

Evangelization does not necessarily entail beautiful sermons. A good deed can, by far, achieve more.