Znoed van Veen-Azad dreamed of immersing herself in the Bible with an Arab group. Her dream came true in a very special way.
In 2010, Znoed became the first non-Dutch leader of a women's group at ICF Apeldoorn. Back then, her church worked with house groups. The pastor of the church chose a Bible passage and prepared discussion questions to go with it. These were then discussed in the circles. Things are different now: the circle participants have a more active role. Znoed is happy with this.
Three years ago, Znoed came into contact with Syrian refugees. That's when her dream was born: she longed to form an Arabic Bible study group. Together with Samer Younan, whom she knew from Gospel & Muslims, she started Arabic Bible studies. Znoed says: "There are many Catholic and Eastern Orthodox refugees living in Apeldoorn. We invited not only them, but the whole neighbourhood. Muslims too. Beautiful contacts developed.
Due to coronagraphs, we had to temporarily stop our Bible circle, but I keep in touch by phone. With one woman, I prayed three times a week. Because when there are problems, you want to pray together every day, don't you? Praying with one woman soon became praying with two, three, four, five, 10 ... We still pray together.'
Znoed followed the Philippians course at Gospel & Muslims: 'With abandon! I didn't know I could still do that at my age. But I was SO keen to learn how to answer Muslims' questions. I also wanted to know how to tell Muslims about Jesus as the Son of God and about the Holy Spirit. Bible study with Arab people is quite a challenge. They are not as direct as the Dutch and not used to express their opinions. You can, however, ask, "Tell me?" That moves the conversation forward in a nice way.
I also learned on the course how to lead Bible studies. With confidence. Even with men present. That is special, because in the Arab world it is unusual for women to teach men. But everyone listens, with open ears.'
Samer decided to wind down his work in Apeldoorn. So Znoed asked the Bible study participants to start preparing Bible studies themselves. Reactions like, 'Never done that' and 'I don't dare', she waved away. Just do it,' Znoed said. And so it happened.
She continues: "Meanwhile, eight to nine people provide Bible studies. As a result, they read more from the Bible and look for depth and explanation themselves. The number of participants is growing; there are already 15. They are more involved and feel they belong. The other day, for instance, I spoke to a Syrian Christian woman from a Muslim background. She had become disappointed in Christians. After leading a Bible study a few times, she said, "Now I remember, I belong to this group!". My dream has come true, I am very grateful!
This interview also appeared in the September issue of magazine Passing on.
