The Witness by Josh McDowell

table in front of Marwan. “There you go.”
    Partly wishing he had never brought it up, yet partly curious, Marwan asked, “So God told you to come? What, did you come across a burning bush or something?”
    Kadeen laughed. “Or something. No, this book is not just the reason I came to Morocco, but it is also my true work here.”
    Instead of taking time to sort through his friend’s riddle, Marwan leaned back farther into the couch and nodded for Kadeen to continue.
    “I’m here working for my company. That is my daytime job. As long as my work gets done, my employer doesn’t care what I do with the rest of my time.”
    Marwan looked up sharply, then grit his teeth at the screaming of his shoulder with the sudden movement. More slowly, he reached for his bottle of water. “And just what do you do with the rest of your time?”
    “Smuggle Bibles.”
    Marwan almost spit the water out of his mouth. “You do what?”
    “Well, actually, we don’t really call it smuggling anymore. We prefer ‘Bible couriers.’ But be that as it may, Rania and I felt the Lord leading us to get the truth of God’s Word into as many hands as is possible. We chose Morocco because it is the perfect launching point to reach Mauritania, Algeria, Tunisia, even as far as Libya.”
    “But that’s crazy! Why would you risk your job, your freedom—possibly even your life—all for this book?” Marwan said, picking the Bible up from the coffee table and letting it drop with a thud.
    “You ask why. Let me put it this way. Suppose you had the cure for cancer. What kind of person would you be if you kept it to yourself? Think about it. Even if the government was against you, even if everyone laughed and called you a fool, even if it meant a risk to yourself or your family, wouldn’t it still be worth getting that cure out to the world?”
    “Okay, I get your point. But the fact is, this isn’t a cure for cancer.”
    “You’re right. It’s not a cure for cancer. It’s more important.” Kadeen leaned forward in his chair. “I’m not doing this to save people’s lives. I’m doing it to save people’s souls.”
    Marwan dismissed the claim with a wave of his hand. “Now you’re being melodramatic. Come on, Kadeen, when it comes down to it, the Bible is just a book. No offense—I mean, it’s got a lot of good stuff in it, but . . .”
    “No offense taken. And I hope you will take no offense when I tell you that you’ve got the Bible all wrong. It’s not just a book with ‘a lot of good stuff in it.’ It is the very Word of God.”
    This had rapidly turned into a religious discussion, something Marwan had promised himself long ago he would never get into with Kadeen. He knew about his friend’s conversion to Christianity in college. He had also witnessed the change in his life from hard partyer to what Marwan considered to be a much more boring version of the original. On the flip side, if he was forced to admit it, he had also seen peace and purpose enter Kadeen’s life for the first time in as long as he had known him.
    The truth was, Marwan was happy for Kadeen—even proud of the changes that had taken place in his life. But he also knew religion wasn’t for him. He was doing just fine without God in his life. He had made that very clear early on after Kadeen’s transformation, and his wish to not be preached at had always been respected. Until now, apparently.
    Still, if he had to admit it, he was a bit intrigued. Picking up the Bible again, Marwan said, “Okay, if this is really the Word of God, what about all the contradictions?”
    “Like . . . ?”
    Marwan was momentarily flustered. He began flipping through the pages, not knowing what he was looking for, much the way someone who doesn’t know a thing about automobiles still looks under the hood when their car stalls along the side of the road. Finally he put the Bible down with a grunt of pain and a laugh. “You know that’s not fair, Kadeen. I’m not