Bible study and curry at the mosque

Last night I led bible study in Zac's on the topic of fellowship. I think it went okay.

You know when you're very involved with something, especially if you have any sort of responsibility, you can find mistakes or problems or view things as not a good as they could be? Well, last night I asked people to rate Zac's for fellowship (real connections and welcome in a common cause) and those who replied were all very enthusiastic. Off the scale good. You know I might have rated it as 7 or 8 but I got 10s shouted at me. 

People who call in now and again are always very appreciative and say how special it is, and unique. I needed to be reminded of that, and I was. Which was very lovely.

One of our old volunteers came along with a friend who was new to the area and wanted to visit a few places to get a feel. At the end they said, 'The mosque is open for visitors; let's go and have a look. Come on.'
'Um, okay.'

The mosque is immediately opposite Zac's. It was an old church building that had been allowed to rot before the Muslim community bought it and did it up. (I attended the open day a year or so ago and wrote about it then.)

We wandered in and were greeted by a man in his thirties. He led us to the sisters' area where a woman then took us upstairs to the hall where food was being served. As it's Ramadan about two hundred meals are dished up each night. As we were lateish most people had finished but they very graciously insisted on us sitting and eating. It would have been rude to refuse so we tucked into delicious lamb curry, rice and salad. 

The young man came back to talk to us and asked how we'd heard about it - we'd been told by some people outside and my two friends were keen to look around. He was pleased that we were there. 'Most people judge us by things they read in newspapers or see on the internet and they're afraid to come in.' He went on to say, 'I understand it: I would be wary of coming into Zac's.'

We were treated with nothing but respect and kindness in the mosque. I would like to think that, were a number of Muslims to pop in to see what we do, we would be equally respectful. But our community is such that I can't be absolutely sure of that. We have a minority with very different views - no matter how often we tell the story of the Good Samaritan.