Along the Siak River
Mesjid Raya
Our first stop is Mesjid Raya, the oldest mosque in Pekanbaru. This mosque, with its pale colors and smooth tile walkways, is tucked in between dirty shops filled with tires and plastic chairs.
The gate in front of the mosque has Arabic verses worked into the design. A big silver dome with the Muslim symbols of star and crescent is perched on top of the small stucco building.
Make sure you remove your shoes at the front steps. Don’t worry. The tiled floors will be cool, despite the hot day.
A middle-aged man wearing a peci (a traditional Indonesian hat) squats on the steps and looks thoughtful. People teem outside the gate, but inside the mosque, it is a different world, with only a few people and two cats fighting. The call to prayer begins, echoing off the tiles and then piercing the air beyond the gates into the streets.
I will take away their stony, stubborn heart and give them a tender, responsive heart.
Ezekiel 11:19 (NLT)
- Pray that people's hearts would not be hard and cold like the stone steps of the mosque, but that God would give them soft hearts to know God’s will and to obey.
- Pray that the call to prayer would one day call people to praise and prayer to the One God as revealed in Isa al Masih (Jesus Christ).