Muslims n' Buddhists

Today was the day our YWAM group went to tour some of the other temples around, to get to know some of the beliefs of where we are going. So we went to a local mosque since both Indonesia and Malaysia are two of the biggest Muslim countries in the world, with Indonesia being the biggest Muslim country in the world.

So we went to the mosque in the morning, it was pretty interesting. All the men had to wear collared suits and slacks. Jeans are shunned at the mosque, for both men and women. All the girls had to wear a hijab, or a head cover at least. So we had a little tour and a sort of 'Islam 101' so we can better understand the religion. It's really weird because they worship the same god as us, but they have different versions of our old testament stories. The biggest example is they believe that Abraham was going to slaughter Ishmael instead of Isaac. So there were a lot of questions asked, with some interesting answers.

So after leaving the mosque we went to a Buddhist temple, a more aesthetically appealing place. It was very Chinese in style, in the architecture and such. There were a lot of golden statues of various Buddhas throughout history, and oddly enough, many plastic animals. So then we had a chat with one of the workers in the temple about Buddhism, and how it works. It's really self-centered, all about searching for enlightenment, how important Karma is and how reincarnation is. A very confusing religion.

So then we came back to the base, watched a movie, and that's about it.

So tune in tomorrow for the smashing conclusion of our urban outreach week.

Arrivederci.