Busy First Week and Mosque Visit

I had intended to post some other things during the week, but found my schedule very full. We are almost to the end of the first week of Toolkit. During this time, I have had sessions on prayer life, British culture, face painting and ballooning, gospel magic illustrations, kids work, youth work, Islamic beliefs, techniques for sharing the gospel, writing a personal testimony, and more. It is a lot of great information crammed into one week, in between eating, sleeping, tea breaks (there are a lot of those here!), cleaning duties, morning devotions, and making new friends.

Yesterday we visited a Muslim mosque. The girls in our group all had to wear scarves on our heads, sleeves past the elbow, and something to cover our hips (either a loose-fitting skirt or long sweater). This was not necessarily a rule of the mosque, but rather something we did to show respect as we entered another's place of worship. 
A Muslim professor gave us a tour, showing us the ritual washing before prayer and the recited prayer with genuflections. He explained a bit about Islam, but I was very interested to notice the way he presented his religion. He was obviously trying to make it appealing to outsiders and used many ideas popular in our culture today. He said Islam is a religion of peace, because the Koran forbids hurting anyone, either physically or emotionally. He stressed how all are equal before Allah, whether rich or poor. In his words, women are theoretically allowed to worship in the same room as the men, but must stand behind them. This is not because they are of lesser value, since no one is greater or lesser in Islam, but because of modesty. However, in practice, there are separate spaces for the women and they rarely mingle, even using different doors and staircases.
It was a large, beautiful building. The large room for Friday prayers (Friday is their holy day of the week) had high ceilings, a crystal chandelier, and blue tile insets in the roof, each one with a different name for Allah. It was very impressive looking. I am grateful to our guide for being willing to show us around his sacred place of worship and answer our many questions.