Departing.....

I cannot believe that this trip is over! These past 5 weeks have been an incredible journey that I wouldn't change one single part of (except maybe actually going on the dragster at Cedar Point). I have learned more than I ever thought possible, with a lot of laughter and a few tears along the way. I have made some awesome friends on my team and some very dear friends in the D. The women I have met will forever be in my heart and Insha Allah (if God wills) I will see them again. We have already made plans to return next April for a wedding, so hopefully that will work out. For now we will keep in touch with them through e-mails and the awesome invention called Facebook. I look forward to seeing everyone when I return home!

New Friends

So yesterday was an absolute blast! We got to hang out with this cool chick named Ammerah. She took us to see the Arab American Museum which was pretty interesting. Then we went and walked some trails on the Henry Ford Estate. After that we met up with another girl, Effy, and went to buy umptah which are elastic headpieces worn under hijabs. Then it was off to the taste fest where we samples A LOT of food. We had pizza, chicken fingers, fries, lemonade, caramel popcorn, cheesecake, and hummus. Then we had some authentic arabic coffee at a Lebanese restaurant. After that we headed out to bd's Mongolian BBQ, which if you have never been there, I highly recommend it. Its actually more stir-fry than BBQ but still very good. A girl named Elyse met us for dinner. Then Ammerah took us out for dessert, we had baklava and a sweet cheesy dessert called Kanufah (If you ever try it, you have to eat it hot or its GROSS!) Then it was too Ammerah's for a fun fun sleepover. We had so much fun!!! It was just like hanging out with girls we had known forever. We stayed up till 2 am just hanging out and watching a movie called Paradise Now. Then this morning we went out for bfast and then went finally to an english speaking mosque. Over breakfast the morning, we were able to get into a more serious spiritual conversation with Ammerah, she brought it up and it just flowed naturally. We were able to explain to her exactly what it is we believe and were even able to share the Kingdom circles illustration. At no time was it awkward and neither side was trying to pressure the other. We were just able to talk freely, it was such a blessing. Then it was time for the mosque which cut our conversation short but we were able to just get in the car and go back to normal conversation without it being awkward at all. Thanks to all who have been praying for opportunities like this, God is really opening doors.

Cedar Point Craziness!!!!

So on our day off this week we took a journey to Cedar Point! It was an absolute blast! The lines were long and it was very tiring but it was definitely worth it. We were able to put Miss Mary Jones onto her first roller coaster. My favorite roller coaster was The Maverick, which starts off with a 95 degree angle drop. There is also a roller coaster there called the Dragster or something like that, which pretty much shoots you straight up over and then straight down in a cork screw, it goes 120 mph and takes about 15 seconds. We did not make it onto this ride, sadly but I'm told that its pretty awesome. Insha Allah (If God Wills) I will return to Cedar Point someday soon and take on this terrifying coaster!

The Wedding

So our third week is coming to a close so I'm going to update you on a few different things. The wedding was an absolute blast! I'm going to use real names because if you have been on my facebook you have seen that I have a few new friends. Khadigah is the one who invited us to the wedding and we hung out with her at the wedding. There were two separate rooms, one for men and one for women. We were not really sure what to wear so we dressed modestly, however, all the women were just wearing normal dresses you would see them wear to any wedding. Also none of them were wearing hijabs and everyone was just eating, dancing, and having a good time. There were SOOOO many people there, it was crazy but I loved it. We were taught a dance called the debkah which is a very simple dance that reminded me of greek style dancing. We also did a little bit of "freestyle" which was fun. After the wedding we went to a coffee shop called Tim Horton's, if you are living in a state that borders Canada, you will know what a Tim Horton's is. But its a good coffee place, a lot of which stay open 24 hours. It was so relaxing just to sit and talk with Khadigah and a couple of her friends. There was no pressure to convert or awkward conversations. It was just like sitting with a group of friends and talking. We were able to ask them questions and they asked us questions and by the end we were laughing and just having a good time. This was only the beginning........

Connections

We finally finally made the type of connections we were looking for! After two weeks of waiting and one very bad experience we were finally able to connect with some women our own age. Friday at the mosque on our street we met a younger woman named Ann (once I again I'm not using people's real names). She did not try to convert us at any point but just wanted to know why we had come. She really understood that we are here to learn and to build genuine relationships. She invited us to a youth group of sorts at her house nearby. Myself and Kindra went yesterday (Mary was out of town for a wedding) and we were just blessed to be in a room full of women our own age. Women who had the same concerns as ours about being women of faith in the collegiate world. They read from the Qur'an of course but the topic was on how God sees everything that you do. After mostly everyone had left, we were able to talk with Ann and a woman named Christie who is affiliated with a Muslim Youth organization. Christie did a bit of scoping out what we were here doing and both herself and Ann were still amazed that we were willing to come into their culture and learn about their beliefs. It never takes anyone long to figure out that we are Christians, however, we were about to share with this women that we are different than a lot of the stereotypical Christians they are possibly use to. It was just such a blessing that these women finally understood us and that we could really relate to them. These are women who culturally should be married by now but have refused because they believe there to be other opportunities out there. Already today we were invited to a picnic for college age Muslims today, however, it was rained out which was a bit of a bummer. We will be attending a Muslim wedding this evening with Christie which should definitely be an experience. I already feel like the connections we have made with these women are the type that will carry on even after our time here is over and we return home. Be in prayer that God will guide our conversations with these women and I have hopes of possibly sharing the Kingdom circles illustration with them.

No Words

For all of you who received a text from me today, here is what happened. We went over to visit Kate, the sheiks' wife who if you haven't previously read, we have been developing a pretty good relationship with. She invited us over to meet a few women who were in town from Egypt. From the moment we walked in we were preached at. Imagine an evangelical preacher talking to an atheist. For two hours we were pretty much verbally attacked and the woman just wanted us to say the Shahadah and kept saying how Muslims are the only ones who will enter paradise. She was pretty much degrading Jesus the entire time kept It was the most intense and draining experience of my entire life. I NEVER thought it could be this hard, there are so many natural barriers between Islam and Christianity and pair those with language barriers and barriers we have put up over the years and you get one big mess. Be in continued prayer that we will not be put in that situation again, we are going to inform Sheik Oscar of what happened and tell him and Kate we are not interested in meeting anymore out of town guests who are here specifically to do Islam Evangelism. Pray also that our relationship with Kate will not suffer. Thanks to all who prayed for us today, God was able to provide a way out of the situation.

Frustrations

Myself and the other girls have been experiencing some frustrations lately. Its been extremely difficult for us to meet women in the community. We met 2 women but then its like we had no interactions for days. The men are able to go to Mosque and meet pretty much every man in the community, however, for us its challenging due to the fact that we are not allowed to go to the Mosque and ALL the women stay in their homes ALL day long. Also trying to find any women our age in the community is unlikely, most women are already married by our age and have a couple kids. The closest girl we have met is 16 going on 17 and is engaged to be married. Some things have been set in motion to help us potentially meet some more women in the community. Pray that these opportunities with bring fruitful relationships. Its a possibility that we will get to meet one on one with women to discuss Islam and this hopefully could open the door to share about our beliefs as well. Also the women will be potentially teaching us Arabic. My Arabic skills thus far are horrible, I'm pretty sure the women we met that lives upstairs is still laughing at my butchering of the words. But anyway thats all for now.

First Week Gone

So my first week here is gone, I can't believe I have already been gone from home for 2 weeks. I can tell the next 3 weeks are going to fly by. As we look to the next 3 weeks, we hope to continue some of the relationships we have started and start some new relationships. Its been a bit more difficult for us ladies to meet people because all the women stay in the house all the time. The men have had the advantage of going to the mosque and making many relationships. Hopefully over the next few days we will be able to meet more women.

Yesterday we painted the entire inside of a house that a family will be moving into today. They are another Muslim family, however they have two handicapped children. Pray that we will be able to help the family in any way that we can and that through helping them we will establish good relationships.

Our Neighbors

We are living in a duplex type house and we had a chance to meet the family that lives upstairs. The woman, Sally, has 6 daughters and 3 sons. Her entire family welcomed us into their home. They were very curious about why we were here because unlike Oscar and Kate, they didn't know we were coming. They pegged as Christians very quickly and I still get the impression that we are here to convert, however, we try to make it very clear that this is not the case. The one I took to be the eldest son was pushing the "awesomeness" of Islam and we had to take mostly a listening role. In the Islamic cultures, men and women who are not family are not suppose to interact with one another. We were pretty surprised he was talking to us in the first place, but since he knew we were non-muslim americans he felt fine about it. Still trying to respect their culture and in general is was not appropriate for us to refute him. Pray that we can get to know the women of the family much better and that the guys can get to know the men.

First Meetings

We finally moved into the house on Sunday. We met, lets call him, Oscar who is something called a shake (not sure if thats how its spelled) who is one we have had contact with and is allowing us to stay here in the community. If you are unsure of what a Shake is, they are very important person, leader of the community I suppose. If you think about small towns that have a neighbor who knows everybody and helps everyone out, then that is what Shake Oscar does. From the very beginning he has been very generous. We were about to meet his wife, I will call her Kate, and she was overwhelming hospitable to us. We were welcomes into her home with welcome arms. She cut up fresh fruit for us to eat and then made us hamburgers to eat. She gave us a george foreman grill to use in our house because she knows we don't have much in the house. She also gave us a ton of ground beef. That was all on day one.

Yesterday as we were sitting down to begin our Mark Study, Shake Oscar and two of his sons came and brought us what is called Arabic seating because we had no furniture in the house apart from a couple folding tables and some chairs. Arabic seating are essentially couches with no frame, they are just cushions, one you just sit on the floor and the pillows you set up against the wall. They are pretty much awesome. On top of that Kate, Oscar's wife, brought us lunch. She baked chicken with vegetables, made a ton of rice and prepared a salad for us.

Their hospitality is overwhelming. Our fridge which was empty 3 days ago is now overflowing more with stuff that has been given to us than things we have bought. Just now Shake Oscar brought us this type of arabic tea which is really good and some type of bread which is amazing. I am truly humbled by this people who truly do look out for their neighbors.

A Whole New World

So I have finally arrived and I must say that its a lot different than I expected. I mean I'm not entirely sure how to describe it, I definitely still in the United States, however, its like I'm in another country entirely. Everyone around is Muslim and signs are in Arabic and its all Arabian restaurants and shops. There seems to be no sign of typically American suburbs. But I must say I'm still very excited!

To address the questions a lot of people have asked about my previous two blog posts. It would take a long time to completely explain everything that was thrown at us in the four days at the conference. I will do my best to explain it here. Islam and Muslims are very misunderstood and their beliefs have been misrepresented over the years. What most people in the Western world know of Islam is the Muslims you see in the Media, the extremists who aren't true followers of Islam. Just like everyone who claims to be a Christian is not necessarily a true follower of God, Everyone who calls themselves a Muslim are not true followers of Allah. One of the things we learned about Muslims is some of them have high identity with Islam and being a Muslim because it is their culture but all of them do not if keep to all the Muslim practices. Unfortunately I can't sit here and type out every verse we looked at in both the Qur'an and the Bible. I can assure all of you who are concerned that I wouldn't still be here if I didn't believe in the things they taught us. I was just as shocked as all of you to get this information thrown at me, however, they backed it up thoroughly and I can't deny that their claims are legit. I wish ou could have heard the stories and the testimonies, they were incredible. This is a radical way of thinking, there is no way to deny that, but its very exciting to me. Know that God has lead me to this place, he has been preparing me to hear the things I heard at the conference. He has been softening my heart to the Muslim people and I'm excited to begin building relationships with you. I don't want anyone believing that I'm here doing some not of God, or that its a wrong way of thinking. I had a lot of same misconceptions of Islam that you do, however, know if you actually look at the Qur'an yourself and study it (warning english translations are inaccurate but unless you know arabic you dont tend to have much choice) that it says amazing things about God, and it specifically points Muslims to the Bible and to Christians. I promise I can explain everything a lot better when I return home, I will go through every verse with you if you so desire. I believe this is truth and that God is making an incredible moment. I ask that you continue to be in prayer for our team here and I still really need everyone's support even if you don't necessarily understand or agree with the common ground approach we are using. In the mean time if you are still curious check out Acts 15 and really look at how Paul did his ministry. Research on your own the truth about Islam as portrayed in the Qur'an. I advise not to believe anything in the Hadith which is a different book Muslims tend to use that justifies acts of terror and the Jihad. We are not even acknowledging the Hadith because its not true. So anyway if you don't want to research, give me a ring, I will be more than happy to discuss it with you.

Arriving

So I have arrived in Minneapolis for a week of Common Ground training. From first impressions, I really like everyone so far. I'm really glad to be here and exciting to start training tomorrow. I know I'm going to learn a lot of valuable things during my week here. God has truly provided me with a peace about being here. So hopefully I will have some fun facts for y'all tomorrow after my first day of training. For now I leave you with this.....
1. I already miss sweet tea
2. There is this burger chain called Culver's that is very northern but wasn't bad and is apparently the number one burger chain in the US (however there is still no sweet tea)

Waiting to Depart

Hello Everyone! So I have never done the whole blogging thing, however, since a lot of people seemed interested in keeping up with me while I'm on my arabian adventure, I figured I would start one. I will be trying my best to keep you updated as often as possible. Sharing my thoughts and what I'm experiencing while I'm away. I however, have been advised to use as much discretion as possible. So I will refrain from using actual names and things like that when recounting possible conversations or experiences.

For now I'm still at home, preparing for the week. If you are reading this, I ask for prayer for boldness. Boldness and words to talk to people in the community upon arriving. For God to lead our conversations with the Muslims there and for the people of the community to develop natural curiosities about Christianity. That we will be able to bridge the gap between these two religions and develop strong relationships.