This year we have traveled to ten different countries and have encountered a lot of sad things during ministry. However some of my saddest moments of happened outside of ministry.
While we were in Kampala, Uganda some friends and I went to a mosque and a two Hindu shriis. As a woman I put on the Jigab. It was very constricting and thought of how I would hate to live by the constrictedness of a Muslim woman! When we first got there we walked up the tower. During the walk up the stairs my friend was yelling “Jesus” because she was tired. In the mosque we went through all the traditional bows and methods. And in the mosque we were praying to Jesus. And a few days ago in Hong Kong some friend went to a service in a mosque and were praying to Jesus.
(At mosque. Photo credit: Daniel Gonzalez-Marquez)
After the mosque we went to a Hindu shrii. Immediately it was heavy spiritually, even more so than the mosque. The first one was not a success because the gods were ‘sleeping’. So we could not be there long. And of course the room is just full of painted images.
(god’s sleeping. Photo Credit: Daniel Gonzalez-Marquez)
The second shrii the gods were awake. But they did close the curtain at times to change their cloths. It was full of people and incense and offerings of food. It was crowded of people bowing down to these statues, very sad.
Yesterday we went to the big Buddha in Hong Kong. We climbed nearly 250 steps to this huge statue. It too was very heavy once we got there. People were praying to this statue. As I walked around I was singing songs about Jesus. After the statue we went to a monastery. This moment really broke my heart. There was a precious, innocent little boy with his mom kneeling down praying to this statue god.
This all reminded me of a quote I read recently from an article by Donald Miller, ‘Why I Pray to Jesus (Whoever That Is). He was talking about why he serves and worship God of the Bible. Check it out if you have time!
It also reminded me of the first commandments. The first commandment is not to have any other gods before our God. And the greatest commandment is to love the Lord with all that we are. I believe this commands are for us. God created us, he knows that is good for us. If we love God with all that we are, put him first, bow to him we will find true life that is abundant. It is full of joy, hope, love, peace, purpose and sooo much more!
Why would we choose anything different?
Announcement: I am entering China tonight. I will be unable to blog and facebook for the rest of the month. At the beginning of next month I will upload new blogs about China! Please keep us in your prayers! I am so excited about what God is doing in China!
