In the mid-nineties I was living in Terre Haute with my family. My wife was finishing her music degree at Indiana State University, our kids were in middle school and grade school, and I was attempting to start a church for the Southern Baptists just north of the university campus.
One day our phone rang. I picked it up, and a heavily accented voice said, “Ah, yes, my name is Rasheed Abdul Mohammed, and I am looking for information about Jesus Christ.” I thought, “Oh! Here’s an international student at I.S.U., a Muslim who wants to know about Jesus!” My heart raced as I tried to gather my thoughts to try to tell him the Gospel. But before I could say anything, a decidedly different voice—with a pronounced Hoosier twang—said, “David, this is Lonnie Rector. I was just kiddin’ ya!” Well, I was relieved, but almost speechless. He really got me. And I called him “Mohammed” from that moment on.
Lonnie explained to me that he was in a Christian band with one of my former guitar students, a young man named Michael Backfish. Michael was going to be leaving the band soon, and Lonnie was looking for a guitar player to replace him. He told me, “I can’t think of anybody better to replace Michael than the man who taught him.” He invited me to come to one of their rehearsals to hear the band and see what I thought.
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