Written by a Cafe 1040 Student

Our team just began a homestay. You can read more about what these are here.

On our first night, we ate with our friend Sam who was a devout Muslim. Our conversation with him was very direct. He loved to discuss religion and what he believed. He began to discuss the duty of his belief and how Allah was the one true Father.

At one point he started to explain the concept of doing good to outweigh your bad. I asked, “How do you know that you have enough good works?”

 “You just have to hope,” he said. He just had to hope that they would outweigh his wrong.

The hopelessness in his voice as he said that just broke me. The one thing he was putting his hope in is solely dependent on a mysterious scale of good and bad that he will never know if it balances out.

As we left he told us, “I hope to see you all in eternity one day.” 

The next day, Sam took us on a tour around the village. We came across a mosque with a graveyard behind it. Each tombstone had the person’s name inscribed in Arabic with it facing toward Mecca.

My heart dropped. I felt so hopeless. There was nothing I could do except cry out to the Father.”

*Names have been changed for security