I have Jesus' e-mail address.

He uses gmail.

I was tempted to use as title, "The Second Coming of Jesus in Makurdi". That would have been a reference to a previous posting of 2011, "I met Jesus in Makurdi." I did meet him - in the Ostrich Bakery. I had gone over the hill from the Cathedral to the Hausa/Muslim area of Makurdi. You can read about that in the 2011 list of posting.

A brief explanation is that the name for Jesus in Arabic, Isa, is very common among Muslims. Two years ago when I met this man, whose name is Isa, he introduced me to three others, two of whom were also named Isa.

At that time he gave me his phone number, but, having a land line until very recently, I was unable to text him.

I contacted him yesterday, and he did remember me. This afternoon he, a deacon at the Cathedral, a friend of Jesus, and I all met together and had a long conversation. Sayyid, the friend of Jesus, is a mathematics teacher. Jesus is an engineer.

He is a man very at ease in cross-cultural situations. He has lived and been educated in Egypt, Tunis, and Libya. He has done work at the Cathedral, knows the bishop, and is familiar with many aspects of Christianity.

At the end of our visit we exchanged e-mails. I intend to contact him with some regularity, hoping to enter into a frank exchange of ideas around the nature of God and his namesake.

Before the two men arrived, the deacon gave me a full picture of the difficulty of a Hausa man in Makurdi converting to Christianity. He simply said that if one did, he would be killed. I hope the exchanges I have with Isa will bring him to know his namesake - and then to find a home elsewhere.