Being blessed by our friends at the Blaine Muslim Community Center

Last week I had the opportunity to go to the Blaine Muslim Community Center to share a statement of support from the Steering Committee of Chain of Lakes Church.

Let me back up.  In early August the Dar Al Farouq Center in Bloomington was bombed.  At about 5:00 in the morning someone threw an “improvised explosive device” into that place of worship.  The office of the Inman was damaged.  A witness said that the device was thrown from a pickup truck.

No matter how many times a place of worship is bombed, we are called to speak up and ultimately resist.  Every…single…time this happens in the Twin Cities we are called to resist and share that this action will never be acceptable.

The Blaine Muslim Community Center is located about a mile north from where Chain of Lakes Church worships.  Last spring at the lobby day for the Joint Religious Legislative Coalition I had the opportunity to sit around a table with many leaders from the Blaine Muslim Community Center to talk about important issues that the Minnesota Legislature was facing.  After that event the leaders of that community invited people from Chain of Lakes to an event where our friends were breaking the fast during Ramadan.

Shortly after the bombing of the Dar Al Farouq Center in Bloomington I wrote a statement of support for our friends at the Blaine Community Muslim Center.  The Steering Committee of Chain of Lakes edited the statement at our August meeting.  The Sunday after that meeting the Steering Committee stood behind me as I read the statement during worship at Chain of Lakes.

Last Thursday I dropped the statement off at the Blaine Muslim Community Center.  I got there about 8:00 and the parking lot was full.  I walked into the building and shared that I wanted to talk to share the statement with Waleed Shady, the Inman of the Community. 

When I arrived he was praying with others.  When he was done praying he greeted me warmly.  I shared with him the letter of support and other notes of support that people from Chain of Lakes had written on index cards.  He put them all on a bulletin board.  Then he invited me to dinner.

The community was breaking a fast that day.  Over two hundred people had gathered for dinner.  Food was strewn on a table that was must have been thirty feet long.  A man who was my guide told me about all of the different foods on the table.  He wanted to make sure I had the food I wanted.  He practically filled my plate with food.  When the two of us sat down to talk I asked my new friend if it was hard to fast.  He smiled and said he was used to it.  He lives in Blaine.  He has a daughter who is in 11^th grade in Blaine High School.  He teaches in Minneapolis. 

He was willing to spend time with me—a white Christian instead of spending time with the people he knew.  He got out of his comfort zone.  Even though I walked into the Blaine Community Muslim Center with the intention of sharing a blessing, I was the one who walked out feeling blessed.  I was blessed because the leaders at the Blaine Muslim Community Center were willing to get out of their comfort zone and share hospitality with me.