Comparison of Religions

Three weeks of Ramadan have already passed. Ramadan is the month of fasting for Muslims around the world. Muslims will fast from dawn to dusk for 30 days.  The fast includes refraining from eating or drinking anything in the daylight hours. The strictest groups will even spit out any saliva rather than swallow it, so as not to be considered to be drinking.
In history yesterday in home school, we began studying Mohammed and Islam. We were studying the five tenets of Islam, of which Ramadan is one.  For the sake of our study, we looked at what scriptures teach regarding those tenets. Listed below are the tenets and the verses we used to respond to them. Many more verses could be used, but this is a sampling.
Tenet 1: Confess that there is one god and that Mohammed is his prophet.
Scripture: Exodus 20:3; Deuteronomy 4:35
Tenet 2: Pray five times a day, facing Mecca.
Scripture: Ephesians 6:18; 1 Thessalonians 5:17; Hebrews 4:16
Tenet 3: Give required alms
Scriptures: Matthew 23:2323; Luke 11:39-41
Tenet 4: Fast from dawn to dusk for one month each year
Scripture: Matthew 6:16-17; Psalm 35:13
Tenet 5: Travel to Mecca on a pilgrimage once in a lifetime
Scripture: John 4:19-24
Pray with us for the Truth to be revealed to those who earnestly seek to know the Way of Truth and who earnestly seek Peace, especially as they enter their last week of fasting.  Pray their hunger will not be merely for physical food but also for the Bread of Life.

"This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer (and fasting)."

The title today is taken from Mark 9:29, in which Jesus explains why the disciples had not been able to cast out the unclean spirit in the boy.  It brought up discussion amongst us as to what he meant by "this kind."  Obviously that means that some healings can be done without specific prayer and fasting, which we suppose to be those physical healings as the blind men or the lepers.  "This kind" seems to indicate those of unclean spirits or demons.  There are times here that people are sick with legitimate physical illnesses. However, the people seek healing from a spiritual "doctor", which seems to invite the unclean spirits.
One example is in the home of a lady I know. Her son was having seizures, very likely medically caused. However, the mother went to every "spiritual healer" that she could to seek healing for her son. Her son now seems to have been healed from the seizures, but now he has moments where he is a literal fool.
This week then a story was shared with me about a woman in a nearby village. One of our sisters here has been going to this village to share weekly. This woman has been very interested in learning ans listening to the stories that our sister has shared with her. About a month ago, this woman began experiencing pain in her knee as if something is chewing on it from the inside. Our sister prayed for the woman but the pain moved to her hip. The pain is debilitating and keeps the woman from being ale to move around, even to the  bathroom.  The woman has gone to doctors, but they offered her no solution.  She has gone to "spiritual healers", but they just give her a ton of things to do or drink with no real relief.
We are well aware on a regular basis that the enemy has a strong hold on the area that we live. He certainly does not like the idea of anyone that has not been following the Truth to hear and believe. This woman was listening and was on the way to hearing. Pray with me for healing for this woman's body and spirit.  Pray for the bonds that the enemy has on the people here to be loosened.

Home School Field Trip

Ok, sometimes, alright, more than sometimes, my blog can be rather heavy and never have much to do with my role as teacher to my children.  So here is a light-hearted blog that also tells a little of what we are doing in school this year.

My mom has been wanting to go with us back to that Magical place in Florida, since we all went back in 2009.  Since we began planning our trip stateside for 7 months, we have also been planning to go there as well.  We had been planning for the spring of 2013, but then we planned for after Thanksgiving of this year.  (Shhhhhhh, it's a surprise for the kids!)

I have come to the conclusion that it is going to be considered a field trip. 
Here are my arguments for declaring it as such:

1) Our second history lesson this year was on the Barbarians and Vikings.  Since many of these people were from Norther Europe, it only seems fitting that we have lunch at the Akershus castle in Epcot modeled after the one in Norway and eat Norwegian food.  Meeting the princesses was going to be a bonus until....

2) Mariama has been studying Aesop's fables. I was going to skip the part in her book that talked about myths, since we are not studying Greece and Rome this year.  Yesterday, I decided we would substitute some of Grimm's fairy tales for the myths, since she is also supposed to be reading them this year.  After those she will be looking at Hans Christian Anderson as well as learning to tell Cinderella's story.  I decided it was only appropriate that she go meet all of the princesses after reading all of their stories, as originally told before Disney.  Just to be sure she meets everyone from Cinderella's story though, we will go to 1900 Park Fare to eat with all the characters from this particular story and hopefully get to dance with the Prince. 

3) In general reading maps on the way to Florida and to each of the parks and getting a taste (quite literally) of places around the world should work into geography somehow.  We can also compare Africa, which we know well, to Asia while we are in the Animal Kingdom.

4)  Mariama's other literature assignments include Pinocchio and Winnie-the Pooh.  We will be sure to eat at Pinocchio's Village Haus. We will also be sure to tell Winnie that she read his book and maybe get it autographed when we have lunch with him and the gang at the Crystal Palace as well as ride his ride.

5) Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland were on William's literature list for last year, so we will be sure that he indeed finished both before we go meet Alice or ride the Mad Tea Party or go to meet Tinkerbell or ride Peter Pan's Flight.  His list for this year includes the Adventures of Tom Sawyer, so Tom Sawyer's Island must be explored.  This year also calls for Mary Poppins, so we must read it before we meet Mary who will be just wild about, I am sure.  He will also be reading Robin Hood, which should tie in well to Friar's Nook.

6) We will be studying castle architecture and life shortly before returning to the states. So of course lots of observing of Cinderella's castle will be necessary.

7) Preparing for the next school year, we will get a glimpse as we go to Liberty Square and as we go to the Swiss Family Treehouse before he reads Swiss Family Robinson. 

So there you have it, my arguments for why we will be considering our trip to the most magical place on earth, well in Florida anyway as field trip.

Sometimes things just do not go like you want.

In early July, things were crazy busy with trying to squeeze in a few weeks of school before heading to the capitol and trying to get out to share as well.  Several weeks in a row I had tried to make contact and have been fairly successful in contacting a particular group of women.  One Friday, I realized how much I had neglected another group who had been eager to learn in the past.  I was not really sure where to go visit but felt lead to go to this house that I had not visited in a while. 

I entered the home and greeted everyone there. A young man that I did not recognize was there. He turned out to to be the son of the lady that I was there to visit. Since she has such young children as well, I was taken a bit off guard a bit, though I am not sure why.  The women begin having children here so early and continue to late, that it is not unusual for their children and grandchildren to be the same age. 

As I sat and visited, the conversation never went very deep.  People passed by just to greet the white woman or would stand outside the gate and stare.  At points, it felt so wasteful to just be sitting there. I had to look at it as just building relationships, which i do not often get to do. i have since questioned whether staying there was the right decision or not.  Was there someone waiting to hear the good news that I should have gone to see instead?  Was spending this time just being there worth my time? Only time will tell.

Keep up with what is going on around Africa!

Here are some other sights to help you keep up with what is going on around the continent:

africastories.org
africatales.org

The first is for all ages though geared more for adults. Though adults may learn something from the second, it is geared more for adults.  Have fun!