Kids are smarter than I thought!

Whoa, whoa, whoa! Ok. So. Here I thought that me coming here would be to maybe be a "bright and shining light" for this family. I had no idea what my purpose for coming here would be. I knew that this is where I was supposed to be, but I had zero idea why. So, I've been doing my own thing mostly. Chatting with the kids, trying to be the best example I can be. Giving English lessons etc. Well. Buddha is kind of a big deal in this area apparently.. or at least in the school that the kids go to.. or maybe Max is just friends with Buddhists.. I don't really know.. but he always asks questions about Buddha. Now.. let me remind you that I grew up in a christian family, and was very involved in church and pretty sheltered. After I left home I went to Branson, MO.. aka Bible Belt USA. Went to a christian college. No Buddha. Never really been exposed to Buddha. I just know that he is something that I don't believe in, something that kind of gives me the creeps when I think about it. And something that makes me sad when I hear about people worshiping Buddha... Now lets come back to today... Max and Jonas got into a fight right before Max had his English lesson. Max lied to me about what happened so for our Bible lesson (Maurien really encourages this) I decided to read the 10 commandments. Everyone should at least be aware of these, and I can never read them to many times because they are always relevant. So. We are reading them and I'm doing my best to explain them to Max as we go along. So he asks what it means to have no false idols and to not worship any other god other than the real God. Which then led into a talk about Buddha. And apparently Maurien has been teaching Max about Buddha as a cultural lesson. Which is fine. He needs to know about Buddha so he can make his own opinions about him and such. So Max asks if Buddha comes from satan. Crap. Pretty much I felt like I was going down a slippery mudslide faster than I was ready for. So, Max and I googled where Buddha came from and how he was a person and how people now worship him. I told him I think Buddha is a false idol and worshiping him makes Jesus very sad. And worshiping Buddha won't get you into heaven. So then he asks about Allah. Again, I know NOTHING about allah. Zero. Other than he comes from the Koran. So Max tells me that Allah is a gentle god and yada yada ya. So I tell him this, Max.. my God is the only God. He is a God that has been around since the begining of time. He made the earth, he made animals, he came to earth, died and rose again. He is a God who loves us no matter what. And He is a man of integrity, and someone who I can't live without. All these other "gods" are recent "gods." They have been around for a very short time compared to my God. So then he asks if these other "gods" come from satan. I know that the answer is yes, so I tell him I'm pretty sure they are. So..we finish our English lesson. Maurien asks how it went. I tell her it was excellent and that Max had lots of interesting questions. She asks if they are about the Bible. I say yes. So she tells me that the last time Max and I talked about Buddha he got upset with her when she was trying to tell him about Buddha. And told her that Buddha is from Satan and he doesn't want to learn about something from the devil............... Crap. Good for Max, however I think its important that he learns about this stuff that way he doesn't look like a deer in the headlights like I do when he talks to me about this stuff... Anyways. Maurien asked if she and I could sit down and talk about this stuff. I don't want to step on toes, and I don't want to cross a line, but I don't want to be timid either. She needs to know that this is garbage. That buddha is not a real god. Yes he might have been a real person but he's dead now and that's the end. I'm nervous to talk to her about this. I"m glad Max asks great questions but sometimes I wish he wouldn't, especially when its about something I know very little about. I wish that the church would offer classes about other religions so we could see the differences. I know they offer Alpha class, and that is great. It does prove that God exists.. but its frustrating not knowing about anything else. And I think its ridiculous that we don't know about anything other than our God. Like I said, kids are smarter and more inquisitive than I gave credit for... Does anyone know of a good book I can read that explains these different religions so I'm not caught off guard again? Or a good book that i can share with Max about different religions and how our God is the real God?