6 weeks of Sundays: part two

Sunday June 16th
Location:  Amman, Jordan
Mass?  None
Reason:  Jordan is a 96% Muslim country.  This means their weekend is Friday and Saturday... which is very different.  It was so interesting to learn about how Friday in Jordan is a family day.  We spent our Friday morning with Wissam's Family, and the Muslims with us took their time to pray.  I also was on a conference, so our schedule was packed for every day!

I asked Wissam, whos family is Catholic, how it works for them with mass.  He said that some people would go to mass on Friday, and that there are also Sunday evening masses.  I also had some wonderful opporunities to ask some of the Christian Jordanian participants about what it's like to be such an incredibly small minority.  There answer was surpising.

I think in the West there is a perception that if a country is majority Muslim, the other populations must be oppressed, persecuted, or disempowered.  But in Jordan I found that to be totally untrue.

The Christians I met shared with me that they did not feel that they were at all persecuted, or even discriminated against.  They are able to be who they are without fear or violence... they live their lives, in peace with others.  Yes, there are areas where Christians live and where Muslims live, but it's not forces... it'd be like Latinos, African Americans and white people living in different neighborhoods... it happens but they are not always seperate. 

I think western perception of  "The Middle East" is very wrong.  I am so grateful I had the chance to go and learn, listen, serve and share.  I hope I can share more with you over the coming weeks about these eye opening and wonderful experiences.

Sunday, June 9th
Location:  Beruit, Lebanon
Mass?  English Mass with Victor and his brother
Events of the day:  Victor picked me up and we went to mass, with all my stuff as I was moving house that day.  After mass, which was in English! we went to where I would be staying and met Gus, the father of the family.  I then went with Gus to pick up his very fun father and drive into the mountains to have a delicous lunch with his family.  It was some sort of Italian and crzy good.

After lunch we went to a Christian Community meeting and I got to say hello to some different friends.  Then I went with my hosts, Gus and Madonna, to their friend's beautiful home, and we all went to a town about 20 minutes from us for the evening.  It was lovely time with great conversation, interesting and delicious food (including fruit cocktail which was awesome) and seeing Lebanese traditional culture at a large school event which was open to the public.  It was a beautiful evening.  On the way home, Gus and I discussed development issues at length, which of course made me incredibly happy.

Sunday, June 2rd
Location:  Kampala, Uganda
I didn't go to mass... it was the day I left Uganda (posted about previously)