Faith...

Yesterday we had a very interesting seminar about the muslim faith. We are learning more about it and about how it is similar and different than ours and what is the best way to deal with muslims. We were surprised to learn that they believe quite a few things the same as we do. Of course the most important aspects of our faith are very different. They believe that Jesus was just another prophet. They also have great difficulty with the Trinity. They also talk a lot about fate. Fate determines where they are placed in society and what burdens they are given. So if they were born poor, they just stay poor instead of working hard to get out of it. We were also surprised to learn that the Koran comes mostly from the Bible. The rules about daily life come from other books called Hadiths. It is in these books that rules like the rule about head covering for women are found. There are actually to different types of muslims here. One group is a catholic type of muslim and the other like a reformed type of muslim. The one is very strong in following the hadiths and the other is not. Muslims do not believe in original sin, but believe that they are saved by following the rituals as laid out in some of the hadiths and through the Koran. So at this time of year there are many frustrated muslims because it is very hard for them to follow everything to a T. It was also interesting to learn just how intertwined the culture and language of this country is with the muslim faith. There are actually different levels of Christians here. They are defined as C1-C5. C1 being a Christian that attends a Christian church foreign to the muslim community in both culture and language. This is the type of church we attend. We sit on chairs and we sing accompanied by a piano etc… C2 is C1 in form but speaking the language used by Muslims though their religious terminology is distinctively non-muslim. C3 is a C2 but uses non-Islamic cultural elements (e.g. dress, music, diet, arts). C4 is C3 with some Biblically acceptable Islamic practices like prayer posture, sitting on the floor while worshipping, fasting etc... They are the first group to refer to themselves as Followers of Isa instead of Christians. C5 is C4 with a “Muslim follower of Jesus” identity. They remain culturally muslim but accept scripture as God’s divine revelation and Christ as saviour. C6 are secret believers who may or may not be active members in the religious life of the muslim community. They identify themselves as privately “Christian”, or “Follower of Isa” (Isa being the name Jesus in “muslim-friendly” language), or “Muslim follower of Jesus.” It is extremely difficult for muslims living here to join a C1 church. So that is why the other categories have come into being.
We were also told that it is better to refer to ourselves as being Nasrani (follower of Jesus) than Kristen. The term Kristen has a lot of baggage attached to it relating to Dutch colonialism. We never realized just how important language and terminology is when dealing with muslims.
As there are Muslims here actively searching the internet for information about Christian activities with the intent to jeopardize them, I must be very careful not to write any places or names. Please do the same in the comments section. Please also pray for those muslims that are making their way over to Christianity. It is very difficult for them culturally. We all live close together and as soon as someone changes the way they live, everyone notices. There are also areas of this city where there is active persecution. Please pray that the believers here will continue to be strengthened in their faith and not discouraged.

Update on Brynne - Brynne has now received all three doses of zithromax and now we wait. It is a more powerful antibiotic so you need to administer less doses but it still takes about 10 for the full affect to show. The swelling on her cheek and feet have gone down a lot. Her hands are still a bit swollen, but better than they were. She still has a tremendous amount of energy!



This completely unrelated photo is what you get when you mix a bucket of markers, two boys and no adult supervision....