Folk Islam: We had the opportunity to take a Folk Islam class. In this class we were able to learn many of the differences between High Islam and Low (Folk) Islam. The best way to describe this difference is syncretism. Syncretism (discussed more in last post) is where one takes the “spirituality” of Islam and uses many systems, tenets, and practices to answer their pre-existing “animistic” beliefs. For example, Low Islam believes in many evil spirits other than just the Jinn (one of their evil spirits). They use parts of the Koran and post them around their houses and put them on their bodies to ward off evil spirits. Now before we judge this as a “crazy uncivilized worldview”, let us look within the United States. We have people who walk around wearing beads around their neck and wrists rubbing them as if they will give them “good luck” or procure a blessing. Most newspapers today will not even publish an edition without horoscopes in them, telling you what day is best for such and such… if that is still too distant for relevance, think about the example of “holding certain words on a piece of paper as a comfort” (i.e. the Bible), it is a challenge to us to always place our trust in God and His promises and not having the Scriptures be put in the place of an amulet. We are reminded by the words of Paul, “for his names sake…” (Rom. 1:5), it is not just a word or a name that we look to, but to the Person of Jesus Christ.
To sum up the class, combine Folk Islam with Animism (spirit worship, see previous post) and add a personal culture and you will have Folk Islam. This class is crucial for us in many ways because we are heading to Indonesia, which is the largest Muslim country in the world. We need to understand the people as best we can before we get into the country where we will be ministering. These things are important in order to know how to relate with them and comprehend what they are doing and implying with their various traditions and rituals. This is also a reminder and a constant challenge to us, that these beliefs (of syncretism) come from poor teaching and introducing concepts that were not spoken to people at a neither a heart level nor geared to their personal needs. We must grasp this fully so that when we minister to anyone they do not fall into a similar cycle with Christianity as they did to their Islamic faith.
Various other classes: there were so many classes that we cannot begin to start writing up a summary for each of them. But each one had its part in helping us gather more tools so that we can take them with us overseas to do church planting in a tribal setting.
Stoking The Fires 