The Mosque, Muslims
The Church, Christians
H U M A N S
Thats What We Are
Just like we are people pursuing after someone and something, they are people too- pursuing after someone and something. The difference is in who we are pursing and our beliefs in why we pursue what we do. I dont know every detail, aspect or rule of the muslim faith and why they believe what they believe just as many Muslims may not know every detail, aspect, or rule of the Christian faith and thats ok! We are all people, we are all living, breathing humans that desire to be loved, respected and cared about! We are always going to have different views and differences in opinions- that however, is what makes us unique, it makes us who we are!
Here in Albania, the majority of people are of muslim faith. I didn’t know that though until I got here, and found out that where we are living is very close to a mosque! Based on what I learned in a world religions class in college a few years ago- I know that Muslims pray to Allah, They pray several times a day- (I think its 4) and they have many things and rituals that they have to do and follow.
Initially when we first got here, a few of my teammates went to the mosque on a prayer walk- I didn’t go with them then but the second time around, I decided to join them! As my teammate’s Elsie and Hannah and I walked to the mosque, we prayed for different things but our prayers were pretty in sync based on the fact that we all desired to have an encounter with someone, and hopefully find someone that spoke English. My teammate Hannah also prayed for a person of peace.
When we arrived to the mosque, I saw some kids running around outside and there was a woman outside of the mosque doing something on her cell phone. We asked her if she spoke English- but she didn’t. So we navigated our way on our own. First we took off our shoes and we went into this room that looked like a bathroom except it was a place to wash your feet before entering the mosque. We washed our feet and then we headed up the stairs and into the first room we came across- a prayer room for women. There was a women inside that room and she was praying, we asked in quietly and kneeled and began to interceded on behalf of the muslims, the mosque etc, each praying our own prayers quietly. The woman that was inside praying was very interested in us, she kept smiling at us and tried to talk with us. Hannah asked her what her name was, she told us her name was Nor. There was the language barrier as she didn’t speak any English and we only know a few words in Albanian. We were however, able to communicate with her with the help of hand gestures and body language. We spent some time praying, and then she told us to “take video” “take video” basically giving us permission to document our experience! So thats exactly what we did, and she happily took photos with us too! Sweet Nor, gave us lots of hugs and even some kisses on the cheek! Then she offered to take us on a tour of the rest of the mosque! We went upstairs and saw what was another prayer room, and then we went to the bottom floor which was the prayer room for only males I believe. After that we asked her if we could walk around the outside courtyard area- and she joyfully showed us all around the outside! She even picked us roses from the garden! So beautiful! She also turned on the fountain for us, which was a wonderful sight to see!
In all of this, some things were yet again confirmed (coming full circle from Month 6 in India)
~Love and kindness- even just a smile can break la language barrier!
~ Difference in beliefs is only a hinderance if you let it be one.
~Love is universal, yes we are all different but we all want and need to be loved and showing love to a person is how you can let someone know that they are seen, known and valued as a human.
