By Avant, May 2007

Taxi stories:  Avant missionaries give more than 'fare' during recent commutes.

Editor’s note: For security reasons, the web version of this avant magazine story has generalized certain names and places. 

LONDON – Ken, Avant missionary to Muslims in England, hitched a taxi ride in London last year with a cabbie named Ahmad. The Da Vinci Code had just been released, and Ahmad was visibly disturbed by the Hollywood spin.

“Is it telling the truth about Jesus?” he asked. Digging through his carry-on, Ken handed Ahmad a Christian book on the The Da Vinci Code. “Yes! I have a friend who will want to read it, too!” Ahmad exclaimed. Ken also offered to find Ahmad a New Testament in his native Dari, a dialect of Farsi. They exchanged phone numbers, but Ken could never reach him.

Months later, a flight delay prompted the same taxi company to send Ken a different driver than it had scheduled – and Ahmad showed up. “It’s you!” Ahmad exclaimed. “Do you have the Bible you promised?”

Ahmad had read the first book and dismissed the movie as heresy. At home, as Ahmad unloaded the bags, Ken ran inside to get the Dari Scripture he’d been holding for him.

“This is my language! I can read this!” said Ahmad, clearly startled.

Another Muslim taxi driver, a different story: Recently in Amman, Jordan, Avant missionary Billy began sharing Christ with a driver. But the discussion soured when the deity of Christ came up. Lost in thought in the back seat, Billy began humming a hymn – “The Old Rugged Cross.” The driver countered by reciting Qur’anic verses: “God the eternal, absolute; He begetteth not, nor is he begotten.”

“I gave the driver a [gospel] tract along with the fare,” Billy said. “He refused the tract, not the fare.”