So a few days ago, I, with no intention to do this, set out in the streets of my city here with a copy of the Sermon on the Mount in both Arabic and English. I wasn't passing literature out or anything like that. I was mostly talking with people I already had met before, which is usually more effective. I would just drop by someone's hops and ask them to listen to me read something in Arabic and tell me if I was reading it well. I would read it, or they would read it. And we'd just see what happened.
One Muslim guy read the beautitudes and said, yes, this is really good. I asked the guy at the sandwich shop about "love your enemies"--is that even possible for people like us? The guy I was going to give the Sermon to was busy so I didn't even get to talk to him, which is ok. I ended up giving it away today to another guy I hadn't spoken with in a while. We talked for a good while. He is normally a very mellow person but he was upset about some local problems here. He invited me in to his business place and I sat down and ate flat bread and a mixture of fried, ground lamb and white onion (yummy). I listened to him for a long time. Friends of his came and went. I finally had the opportunity to give him the Sermon and he promised to read it.
I don't do this all the time. But every now and then...
