For Canary Islands Muslims, Love is Missing Ingredient

By Emilee Brandon

Passersby hardly notice the mosque on this active street corner on Fuerteventura, one of Spain's Canary Islands. No crescent moons, no Arabic writing, no minarets piercing the sky - only dust and exhaust-stained apartments.

But looks can be deceiving. Behind a black metal door, stairs descend to what appears to be an old three-bedroom apartment. At the foot of the stairs stands a floor-to-ceiling shoe shelf. To the left is a trough with two water spigots where followers wash their feet in preparation for Friday prayers.

Arriving worshippers stir a small breeze, wafting the pungent smell of shoes and body odor. No one seems to notice. Barefoot, each man crosses the holy threshold lined with red prayer rugs. “Salaam alaykoom” (peace be with you), each says as he enters. Those already there echo the greeting in return.

This is the first time Southern Baptist missionary Pepe Lopez* has attended a service at this location. Omar, one of Pepe’s Muslim students, invited him. As it turns out, many of the students Pepe teaches Spanish to every week go to the mosque here.

Omar has not missed a Spanish lesson since classes started more than a year ago. Pepe began teaching the free class after a new law required anyone seeking permanent residency be able to read and write basic Spanish. This made it impossible for North Africans like Omar to delay learning the native language.

Pepe believes he has garnered respect from his class because he does not force his beliefs on them. This alone gives him kudos in the eyes of his students—Omar in particular.

“He knows I’m a Christian…he feels like he is trying to reach me. He doesn’t know I’m trying to reach him,” Pepe says with a boisterous laugh.

But there is more to Omar and Pepe’s friendship than who’s reaching whom. Omar has taken to Pepe because he’s proven himself truthful and trustworthy—important traits to Omar.

“Although in public Omar speaks highly of his parents, his faith, in private he has shared how his father, particularly, has been rough on him,” Pepe says. “He is a very lonely person…and has few friends” since he finds it difficult to trust people.

In order to build relationships with his students outside the classroom, Pepe says he first shows them he is a loving friend. “That is practically an unknown in their culture or faith,” he says. “Love is a missing ingredient of their life. Just to love as a brother…goes beyond anything they have known.”

As the friendships blossom, Pepe finds opportunities to share the true reason he loves. “Jesus has loved me unconditionally,” he says. “He will always forgive me when I ask Him to, even when He doesn’t like what I do. That, too, is an unknown to them.”

In contrast, Omar’s faith requires him to make up for his faults. If he misses a prayer he must do something to get back in Allah’s good graces. “To know that God just forgives us when we repent and ask for forgiveness is an eye-opener,” Pepe says of Christianity. “Where for them it is always ‘perhaps’ Allah will hear my prayer, ‘perhaps’ Allah will remember my good works, ‘perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.’”

There is no “perhaps” with Pepe’s God. “I can speak with deep conviction of an assurance of forgiveness, of constant, steadfast love and conviction that at death I will dwell with God. That just blows [Omar’s] mind.”

On more than one occasion Omar has shared his admiration of Pepe’s strong faith and how he wants to be sure of his own life after death. “When I start seeing a wishful, wistful look,” Pepe says, “I know that I am getting through.”

That look makes it all worth it for Pepe. It’s all the payment he needs in return for teaching Spanish to young Muslims and cultivating relationships with them. He has plenty of time to work on these relationships, too—Pepe and his wife Shari* are retiring to Fuerteventura. The island is starting to develop more work opportunities, infrastructure and tourism.

“What better place to start and continue ministry, to see it grow together with the rest of the development of the island?” Pepe says.

Mainland Spain has two ports with regular ferry transportation to and from Morocco. Because of its close proximity, Fuerteventura recently became the third ferry route to Morocco. This new port has brought significant increases in the number of visitors and new residents.

“I hope and pray that we can start an Arabic-speaking church in the Canary Islands before I go to be with the Lord,” Pepe says, “and that it may be a starting place where many Moroccan and Western Saharan brothers and sisters will carry the message to their families and friends on the mainland of northern Africa.”

Baptist Press

*Names changed for safety.

Pulpit Helps Magazine, a ministry of AMG International, was a monthly publication which ran from 1975-2009. Founded by Dr. Spiros Zodhiates, Pulpit Helps was dedicated to the mission of equipping pastors, Bible teachers, and students of the Word for preaching, teaching, and living God's Truth. Each month, Pulpit Helps provided sermon starters, bulletin inserts, illustrations and quality articles on preaching, counseling, Christian living, and more. The ministry goals of Pulpit Helps continue today in the form of Disciple Magazine online.