O. M. G.
Or maybe I should say, O.M.A. (Oh. My. Allah.)
I had the best weekend!!! And it happened just by chance... or should I say by a divine plan?
A few days ago Lousie Carr, one of the pastors at Great Horton UM, invited us to be a part of some seminar in a near by city. She wasn’t too clear on what it would entail... all we knew was it had something to do with Muslim-Christian relations. Even without the details we really wanted to join in.
Friday afternoon Paul Bilton drove us out to a place called “The Community of the Resurrection” - a retreat center, seminary and home to an Anglican monestary. It is BEAUTIFUL! It has a large grounds: (19 acres) ponds, gardens, the most magnificant old buildings you’ve ever seen.
Turns out the seminar was about setting up an interfaith event for youth! For a year now they have been planning on having a fun get-to-know-one-another day in Bradford.
I feel like this needs some context. Here’s the thing; In the 60’s lots of people from the Middle East (or Asians, as they call them here) immigrated to the UK. Over the years, Bradford became predominantly Asian and white. Trouble is, they never integrated. Which means today there are Asian people with Asian friends, and white people with white friends. Sure there are exceptions, but in general Muslims and white people (Christians in general) don’t know one another. This explains why there have been riots every so often in Bradford since the 90s.
Anyway, this weekend we met with 3 female Christian youth workers and two female Muslim youth workers to sort out a “scheme” for Bradfords interfaith event for teens. After a quick ice breaker and faith discussion we ended for the night. But, instead of going staright to bed our team stayed up and spent time with the Muslim women, who I will refer to here as “Noor” and “Sheniqua.”
We had the best time! Mostly because we were poking fun at eachother’s foriegn ways of saying and doing things.
You have to realize we not only had to bridge religions and ethnicities, we had to bridge three cultures - Asian culture, British culture, and American. We laughed SO hard when “Sheniqua” tried out her American accent, which was a “home girl” voice with major attitude, and hint of the Yorkshire accent... Infact, we laughed so hard we were afraid of disturbing the monks who spent the night in scilence.
I don’t know what your opinions are about Islam, or women in Islam, or if you have even formed an opinion. If you’re like me, you’ve probably never spent too much time with Muslims, so there isn’t really any room for sterotypes. Well Im here to tell you I haven’t met two smarter, nicer, outgoing, funny, devoted lovers of God in a long time! They were such a good laugh, so deeply in love with God, and dead-set on knowing Him.
Don’t misread me; We acknowledged openly how different our beliefe systems are. Still, we decided we felt more at home with one another than with someone who wants nothing to do with God.
We discussed everything from forgiveness, poetry, true love, and destiny... To sin, illness, fashion, the media and terrorism.
Turns out Muslims are very positive! Noor said she likes Americans more than white British people, because all the American’s shes met are really positive people like her. For instance, she belives (and claims all Muslims belive) God can purify sins through illness. The Qur’an says if you only knew what a blessing being sick was, you would rejoice in your illness! Noor, being a young sickly person herself, found God through illness. She told me that a few years ago she found herself very sick in the hospital, and ended up questioning every single thing about herself. What she found, was God began to speak to her. He (or She if you like) began giving her vivid-prophetic dreams, asking her to pray for people she didn’t even know, but have since come to know. It’s as if, she says, she was so filled with love she could feel it pushing everything else in her body out. She was being purified, and she found it beautiful.
We talked about destiny and free will. How God works things out and yet we have choices that redirect our fate. She says the lines in your hands will literally change and form new grooves when you have your life transformed, as she did.
By Saturday afternoon, we had gotten on so well they even gave us a ride home! Turns out, “Sheniqua” (as we like to call her) loves to sing. In the car she sang us a song encouraging Muslims to keep at life even when it’s hard. In return we sang a two part harmony of “Come Thou Fount.”
I never thought five days into my stay in Bradford I would be singing hymns to a Muslim - God has a wicked sense of humor.
They promised to take us around Bradford sometime soon. So, until then, we will be on a high from our successfull peacemaking night of fun with our Muslim sisters.
“Come thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy praise. Streams of mercy never ceasing ...”
