pure joy

After a train ride back to Casa Blanca and a morning with some friends from the north of Morocco, we get back on a plane for the 8 hour flight to Dubai. We have seen many friends in North Africa who are doing an awesome work. I always come back from trips like this thinking we need to do more for our friends in places like this.

They ask for our prayers.

It is good to know how to pray in an informed way. My prayers will take on a more specific purpose from now on.

I will think of the friends who I traveled with up into the mountains to sit and talk to village elders about their school. My friends asked them what they needed. It was a remarkable meeting called to order by a Mullah and toasted by sour buttermilk. We heard their needs and their concerns. The problem, my friend told me, is that children here don’t get past the 3rd grade in their education.

The elders went through a list of things. They needed electricity, they need a better road- they need a medical center. One young man said, “I need to go to America!”.

My friend took good notes of all the things they said they needed. And then he and others did a skit illustrating to the elders that they were not there to do things for them- but only to help them to accomplish what they could accomplish on their own.

When we left the village I found out that my friends want to help them improve their well and pump and help them build a water system and solar electricity so that the children’s experience at their school would improve to the point that they would want to continue past the 3rd grade. The thinking is that if the school has a private latrine and electricity, the girls will no longer feel ashamed- and the village would take more pride in it and encourage their children’s education.

As we drove away from this remote mountain village I thought about what a difference they are making for these people.

I will think about the orphanages that my friends are working in- and how they are aggressively developing children’s programs that involve good exercise and values training.

I will think about the growing number of people who are coming to Christ in the northern part of Morocco and how successful the church is in that part of the country- and what kind of persecution they may face.

I think about some friends who were recently killed in Afghanistan- and how this has impacted the cause of Christ in this entire region. Tertullian said the church has grown strong from the blood of martyrs. There are examples in the Middle East of tremendous growth following the sacrificial service of believers who willingly lay down their lives because of their love for the lost.

A few years ago, John tells me, one of his close friends was killed in a Muslim country by an assassin’s bullet. She had been in the country for many years and had not seen but a handful come to Christ in that time. Shortly after her death the gospel began to breakthrough. One of the national Christians who came to Christ after her death began to trace the people who were now a part of the church who knew this woman and had been influenced by her through the years- he discovered over 160 people in 16 different churches.

“Count in pure joy, my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds.” (James 1:3)

I have grieved here with some of the friends of one who has died recently. This experience has greatly impacted me. I see their passion for what they do. I see that they are determined even more to carry on. I see that they know that every morning they wake up is a day that they could face the same fate. They are not afraid. They are not deterred. They are only more determined and more passionate and understand at a deeper level how much more important their work.

They walk more purposefully on this ground.

It has been blessed by the blood of martyrs.

setting prisoners free

From Casa Blanca we take a train to Meknes, Morocco. This is a city of about a million Muslims, about 200 Jews and a smattering of Christians. The smattering is mostly underground.

The train ride is an uneventful four-hour trip through the Atlas Mountain range- except for the sprint we did from train to train looking for our seats- and the train running over a guy on a moped. We stopped for about 20 minutes as they tried to sort that out.

For those of you who have never heard of Meknes- it is a city that has a two thousand year history dating back to the time of the Romans, with Christianity reaching back to about the 2nd century. The Berbers first became Christian as a result of the influence of church fathers such as Tertullian, who was from Carthage, North Africa. Islam came in the 8th century with the arrival of Moulay Idriss, a descendent of Muhammad. As a result of his influence here, there are shrines and mosques that if you visit seven times, are the equivalent of Mecca- and the population is now almost totally Muslim. The worship in these shrines is a kind of mixture of folk Islam and demonic trance. Worshippers dance around in a frenzy and call on the spirits to possess their bodies.

How sad to think that this once was a land dominated by Christianity. Islam was able to stamp out Christianity with persecution and economic incentives. The Berber people here now engaged in demonic practices are the descendents of a people who were once Christian. One of the tragedies of that ancient church was that they never took their worship out of Latin and never translated the Bible into Berber. Therefore, when persecution came, there had been no discipleship. Families did not pass down their faith or teach a kind of Bible literacy. The Word of God was read by the priests but was not hidden in people’s hearts. What a great lesson for our time!

There is a darkness that hovers over the city. It may be the vestiges of the 17th century Sultan who established his kingdom here. “Moulay Ismail was a megalomaniac who made Nebuchadnezzar look humble” my friend John says as we tour the remains of his castle with it’s incredible granaries, stables and apartments for his 900 wives (Ironically, the wives quarters and garden has now been converted into a golf course). The walls he built extend about 40 miles in circumference. “How in the world can one king build all these walls in his lifetime?” I think to myself.

The answer is “slave labor”.

He was so serious about his slave force that he constructed a catecomb prison which encompasses the entire underground of the city of Meknes. Many of his slaves were European Christians taken off of captured ships on the Barbary Coast. The pirates of the Barbary Coast were Berbers taking advantage of the narrow passage at the straight of Gibraltar (“Barbary” is a derivative of “Berber”- we also get the word “Barbarian” from this word). The locals call the underground dungeon, capable of housing 60,000 slaves, the “Christian Prison”.

Ismail built an Ambassadors Hall for greeting European envoys who came to offer money and gifts for the release of Christian prisoners. He built it right above the dungeon catcomb- so that the people who came looking for their captured compatriots would literally be standing on top of them as they begged.

My friends here are dynamic and capable Christians who are committed not just to the spreading of the gospel- but also to taking care of the poor and the orphaned - the blind and dispossessed and marginalized people who suffer most in a place like this. The hospital here has an entire floor for orphaned children who are born out of wedlock. Muslim culture has no place for these children- they are born in shame. By the time the children are older, most of the healthy girls have been adopted out- as they are in much demand to be brought into homes as family servants- so the older children are almost exclusively boys and handicapped girls.

Our friends are working hard to help give these children a life- they are committed to the strengthening of the support network that houses and feeds them and takes care of them. They contribute their time to educating them and making sure they are well fed and they invest into the physical needs of the children by teaching them sports and exercises. The children are about three years behind physically- the result of being raised in a big room with no space for running around. It is obvious that their work is having an impact. A few weeks ago a radical Mullah came into the orphanage and told the children that Americans hate them and are their enemy. The children all looked at each other and then looked at him and said, “Not the Americans we know- they love us, they take care of us- we love them!”

We spend the entire day walking around the city and praying for these people.

At night we gather with a group of believers and have an awesome time of worship and praise. The songs we sing are some of the new ones that our 10:45 worship leaders have taught us over the past several weeks. Our Christian friends here are very young- most of them in their 20s and 30s.

As we reflect at the end of our day here, my friend John says of the smattering of Christians in Meknes, “They are not unlike the ambassadors who stood before the barbaric Sultan and begged to have their captives set free- only this time they are working to liberate millions from the chains of a different kind of slavery.”

not bogarts casa blanca

The guy who checked my bags in OKC was really impressed that he was sending them to Casa Blanca. “Hmm, Casa Blanca- Humphrey Bogart and all that.” I am more than a little bit mystified by the thought of traveling to this part of the world myself- I just hope I go the same place as my bags. Actually, this is a part of the world I know almost nothing about. It is kind of a black and white blur to me- but I have a feeling I am about to get educated in a big way.

I arrive (with my bags) about 16 hours after almost literally running from our late worship Sunday to the airport. I never sleep on planes, so my mind is swimming in a sea of distorted thoughts. My brain feels like mush. The Casa Blanca airport has a kind of third world feel- but it is clean and the air smell like the tropics. And it’s in full color. It is the western most country in Africa- but the people are more Arab than African- a combination of French, African, Arabic and Berber has influenced their language, culture, and their unique features.

The people here are really beautiful.

My quest of course is to hook up with the church here- to travel across Morocco and other points in North Africa Middle East to spend time with Christians and see what God is up to in places where the population is practically 99% Muslim. I am always inspired by these kinds of trips- Christians who are persecuted for their faith tend to be the most radical - the ones who are calling His name in places like this tend to be the hard core types-I always leave with a kind of conflicted emotion. On the one hand, I feel incredibly inspired. On the other, I feel incredibly ashamed.

My friends here are not anxious for me to rest. They have people they want me to meet and places they want me to see.

The first national Christian my friends want me to meet is Hassan.

He is one of the most unique believers I have ever met. He is in his mid- thirties- very passionate, an obvious leader with keen intelligence and terrific social skills. He fills the room with his energy. Even though we talk through a translator, his body language and presence makes a huge impression. Hassan exudes confidence.

I ask him how he came to Christ? I am always curious to meet someone with a Muslim background who now calls the name of Jesus. “How did happen?” I ask.

Hasan smiles big and says, “The short version is that once I was lost, but now I see”.

I asked for the longer version.

He took a deep breath, leaned forward in his chair, clasped his hands together and said, “OK”.

It was indeed a long and very compelling story. He tells us that he was born in a home of a very serious Islamic scholar who was determined that his children be very devout. He was taught Islam from the time he was three- raised in a Madrassa setting where the Koran was memorized. He could quote long passages at a very young age.

Hassan became a kind of fundamentalist Muslim- one that didn’t just abide by Islamic law- but who actually read and memorized and understood the teaching of Islam.

When he was in college he heard a radio program in which the teacher talked about the Bible- claiming that what the Koran taught about the Injel (Arabic word for Bible) was completely wrong- that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and that He was the only way to salvation.

Hassan was so incensed by this he couldn’t let it go. He told us that Islamic teaching is that if you find a wrong- you must either resist it with your hands or resist it with your mouth- he decided to use his hand to write a very angry and condemning letter to the man who spoke in the radio program.

About a month later, the man wrote him back- but the letter he received was not angry- by contrast it was very loving and kind. The man even said that he loved him- and that he was praying for him.

Hassan was impacted not so much by the argument the man gave- but by the way he gave it. “I wonder if this is what Jesus does for people?” Hassan began to ask.

After much correspondence, Hassan was at a crossroads- he could see from his own studies that what this man was teaching was correct. The arguments he made regarding the Koran were flawless. Over time he decided to walk away from Islam. He wasn’t a Christian at this point- he had just concluded that Islam was not what he once thought.

His family became greatly concerned- and eventually convinced him to enter law school- where he would be indoctrinated into Islamic law. This is a very prestigious school that only the brightest students attain. Hassan became very aggressive in his studies – and was determined to do a kind of comparative analysis with Christianity. He asked his professors if he could buy some Christian books for this- remarkably, they agreed.

After graduating from the Islamic Law Center, Hassan went to Beirut and earned a Masters in Biblical studies. He was now in the position of being able to compare Christianity to Islam in a uniquely objective and informed way- the result was that he committed his entire life and being to Christianity.

God is now using Hassan to raise up the church in North Africa.

He is a very influential pastor in Morocco. The weekend before we got here, Hassan baptized 13 men he had recently won to Christ. The original number was 11, but the two Muslim drivers he took with him for the “swim” also came to Christ.

As you can imagine, Hassan is a marked man. There have been at least 4 attempts on his life, and one on his wife. He is responsible for the formation of many churches and of hundreds coming to Christ. And yet, he is fearless and unafraid. He smiles big and tells us through a translator, “to live is Christ, to die is gain. Humdelalah!”

Once I was blind. Now I see.

From now on, when I think of Casa Blanca, I will not think of Bogart.

renewal for us, hope for them

As many of you know, the Renew Conference we had at our church last Sunday, Monday and Tuesday had a duel purpose. First, it was a time for us to reflect on our own need for spiritual renewal and revival. As we focus together on the cross of Christ during this lent season, our intention is to reflect on what is most important in this life- the true meaning of the gospel is that Christ came to us and demonstrated His love for us by dying on the cross- that is the central issue of our lives- that the One who is most important in the universe sees us as His beauty, and therefore nothing else in this life has more meaning. It is the ultimate truth that answers all of our fears and anxieties and encompasses all of our hopes and dreams for the future. When we get the gospel straight and recalibrate our hearts according to that truth, everything else takes care of itself. That is what we drive home day after day during this forty day fast of lent season leading to Easter.

My good friend and Indian pastor, Sundar Sing Moses lead us through this journey with some excellent Bible study on prayer and spiritual renewal. I am very thankful for Sundar and your response to him. He was truly blessed by our congregation. It was wonderful to hear what God is doing in India and to hear from this humble and godly pastor.

The second purpose of this event was to benefit the orphanage in Motipur India. Our church is partnering with Global Action in the construction of several homes at the orphanage that will house up to 7 children apiece along with house parents. This "Hope Center" is run by Indian Christians on the edge of the Napal rain forest in one of the most unreached parts of the earth. The region is almost exclusively Muslim and Hindu, and yet this little orphanage has started a church and has a goal of raising over 200 children in a Christian environment and provide them with a first class education. The Hope Center will also provide a medical clinic for the region, an agricultural center and vocational training. In just a few months the school already has close to 100 children about half of which were taken from the slums of Delhi and Calcutta and Lucknow and given a new life and a new home, while the other half come from the surrounding community. It is truly a miracle in the making, and I am so pleased that our church has joined the effort.

I am thrilled to tell you today that in the three days of our conference, our church raised over 20,000 dollars for this Hope Center! Even as I write the words I can hardly believe it.

What an amazing and beautiful and generous congregation we have! I am so thrilled to be a part of what God is doing and to be involved in our church. I am so grateful to pastor such a loving and generous and Kingdom minded group of people. It is truly humbling and exciting to share this journey with you.

In addition, we have had many who have committed to return to Motipur next October for a mission trip that will begin the construction of these new homes. We have had some excellent builders and engineers from our congregation, along with some of our teenagers and parents who have committed to this trip.

It will be wonderful to be a part of the construction of this Hope Center and to follow the progress of these beautiful children down through the years.

What started for us as weekend of renewal, will translate into the transformation of many young lives in one of the darkest places on the planet.

As Sundar is fond of saying- "Praise the Lord!"

nobody knows how to play the thing

Years ago an old pastor told me the story of a small country church he pastored in his youth that nearly split over a very silly cultural issue. They had a long debate in a business meeting about whether or not to spend money on a new chandelier. Someone had donated about half the cost and therefore the church would only be responsible for the other half. After several members expressed their heated opinions pro and con, one old guy stood up and said with great conviction and disgust, "I think it's too expensive. We don't need it. I don't find it in the Bible- it will do nothing for missions or discipleship- and besides, I don't know a single person in our church who could play the darn thing!"

Conviction, passion and zealous anger are all very good and necessary emotions- as long as they come from a heart that clearly understands those things that are most important. Misguided conviction on the other hand can be very destructive. Making molehills into mountains is no virtue. The person who strains at gnats and swallows camels will only take energy away from the forward advancement of the gospel. Misdirected and uninformed conviction can lead easily to false and confusing doctrine that takes life away from the Body.

I think about all of the ridiculous arguments I have heard through the years masquerading as clear biblical teaching:

~ A true Christian will not have hair that covers his ears.
~ A dancing foot and a praying knee don't belong on the same leg.
~ Drums cause a satanic hypnotic beat that is evil and cause people to want to sin.
~ Guitars are "worldly" and demonic.
~ If you play rock music backwards you can hear Satan talking
~ The NATO alliance is emblematic of the ten horns on the beast in Revelation 13 and will usher in the anti-Christ.
~ Russia will attack Israel and that will be the end of the world.
~ The King James Bible is the only legitimate translation.
~ Iran will attack Israel and that will be the end of the world.
~ It is dishonorable for a woman to wear pants to church.
~ Men should always wear suits to church - after all, we should only give our best to God (as if God is impressed with our outward appearance).
~ Blacks and whites should not intermarry because it would be like mixing light and darkness.
~ Iraq will attack Israel and that will be the end of the world.
~ The year 2000 will be the end of the world. (The years 76,80 and 89 were also years He was supposed to come back).

The one thing that all of these examples have in common is that they all spring from a uniquely American cultural understanding of scripture. We can look back on many of these things and say to ourselves, "how in the world could anyone believe that?". And yet, at different points in my Christian journey these were considered to be important beliefs. These were the things you believed if you believed the Bible.

It is a clear example of how easy it is to insert our cultural beliefs into Holy Scripture and elevate them to first tier doctrinal issues.

This is exactly what Paul dealt with in Galatians.

I think there is a very powerful and salient reason for Paul's righteous anger directed at false teachers who confuse people with a false and misleading gospel in Galatia. "May they be forever condemned!" Paul says.

He is arguing against the false teachers who would have the Galatians believe that one had to buy into the cultural law of Judaism before they could truly believe in Jesus. Believing in Jesus was not enough- you also had to be a Jew.

It would be as if someone were to say, "It is not enough that you believe in Jesus, you also have to be a Republican" or "It is not enough that you believe in Jesus, you also have to dress like us and act like us and smell like us..."

So what does Paul mean when he says this in Galatians 2:16, "We too have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law. Because by observing the law, no one will be justified."?

Is he saying that when we commit to Christ, we no longer have to worry about the 10 Commandments? As Christians we no longer have to worry about stealing and cheating and adultery and murder?

This cannot be what he means, as we see in his other writings that Paul is very clear that a person who is bound to Christ strives toward a life of holiness and purity and certainly this includes adherence to the moral law. It must mean that these teachers in Galatia were pushing another kind of law besides the moral law of the Old Testament. This was a different kind of Mosaic law that Paul is referring to in this passage.

It is helpful to consider that the mosaic law is actually divided into three different categories. There is the civil law, the ceremonial law, and the moral law. The civil and ceremonial laws were more focused on the nation of Israel within a certain limited historical context, while the moral law was given to guide the hearts of man for every culture and for all time.

The Civil Law: These were the laws that governed the nation of Israel while it was a theocracy during one particular point in history. One example is Deuteronomy 25:4 which gives instruction about when to muzzle an ox. These are the laws that are much like the city ordinances that tell you when you can water your lawn and what you can't park in your driveway. When the nation of Israel was disbanded, these laws were no longer in effect.

The Ceremonial Law: These were the laws that governed the way the people of Israel worshiped in the temple. These particular regulations had the effect of setting apart the nation of Israel from every other tribe and kingdom around them and served as a kind of barrier to keep them from intermarrying and blending into the idolatrous pagan cultures around them. The purpose of these laws was to remind people of their uncleanness and unworthiness as they approach their relationship with God and to point them to day when Christ would come as the perfect sacrifice and substitutionary atonement for their sins. They are seen in the New Testament as being a mere shadow of the true fulfillment one finds in a relationship with Christ (Colossians 2:14-17; Ephesians 2:14-16; Hebrews 10:1-18 ).

The Moral Law: These are the laws pertaining to the immutable and unchanging nature of the righteousness and holiness of God. They are not impacted by time or culture or temporal kingdom and we are therefore bound to them for all time (Romans 1:18-20; 2:14-15). They reflect the very nature of God and serve as our standard for holiness (James 2:8-12). These are the laws that Jesus affirmed in His teaching and even clarified their true meaning, often raising the standard by pointing to the core issues that are dealt with as we embrace these standards as a part of our personal holiness.

So it is clear that the civil and ceremonial law is no longer in effect, and in fact are more related to the particular culture of the Old Testament Jew, while the moral law is not only fulfilled in Christ, but affirmed and strengthened by His teaching.

Paul then is exposing the teaching of the Galatian false teachers as one that elevates cultural whims and destroys the gospel. It is a clear warning to all of us to make sure we don't insert our own cultural preferences into the clear meaning of scripture- thus making mountains out of molehills and camels out of gnats and hanging chandeliers that nobody knows how to play.

keeping it real

There is never a time - not a day, a minute or a second that the defense of the gospel should let up. The forces that would reverse it are always in play. We learn from the book of Galatians that it has been a constant battle from the beginning of the church. We are taught here that when it comes to the gospel, our job is to keep it real.

The centripetal force of Christian doctrine is always to the right or left away from the central issue. The reason for this I believe is that at it's core the truth of the gospel is juxtaposed between the perfect justice and judgment of God as reflected in the moral law of the Old Testament on the one hand, and the perfect love and compassion of God as reflected in his substitutionary death on the cross as an atonement for our sins on the other. Only in Christianity do you find a God who dignifies his perfect sense of justice and truth by his incredible sacrificial love that satisfies that justice. Islam has a God of justice without the love, Buddhism and Hinduism have the sense of sin and imperfection without the sense of justice or truth.

But history has shown that adherents of Christianity are always spinning off into one direction or the other. "A loving God would never send people to hell" one group will say, ignoring the fact that it is in God that we live and breath and have our being and that none of us really has a clue what it would be like to live even one second on this earth without God's sustaining grace- and that many of us are already creating our own hell on earth by our rebellion against Him.

Another group says "A true Christian is one who does 'such and such'" as if that particular cultural preference somehow trumps the clear and central truth of justification by faith alone and that we in our fallenness have the ability to even know our own sin apart from His grace.

This is the situation that Paul confronted with the church in Galatians and the Jerusalem counsel. At a very strategic and important point in early Christian history, there was a group of false teachers who tried to say that in order for a person to be a Christian they had to first be a good Jew- and by that they meant to follow the customary laws of the Old Testament- including circumcision.

Paul's response was very direct and forceful. He was disgusted that the Apostle Peter was at first giving in to this doctrine:

When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, "You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs 'We who are Jews by birth and not 'Gentile sinners' 16know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified. (Galatians 2:11-14)

Here Paul is obviously not saying that the moral law has no say in personal holiness (we know this by his other teaching), but that the non- moral law- the cultural and customary laws that distinguish the Jew from other cultures, should be seen for what they were in the Old Covenant as pointing to a time when we would be freed by His grace. He is saying in other words that the gospel of Jesus Christ that we are justified by our faith alone, not by our works, is capable of moving into any culture- Jew, Greek, African, Babylonian, European etc without being encumbered by cultural biases.

So- what do you think- is this understanding of the true gospel under attack today?

Absolutely. It is constant.

To see how ugly and disgusting religious legalism that loses the true meaning of the gospel can get, consider what came out in the Daily Oklahoman in a full page add last week paid for by some Churches of Christ in our city. These churches spent thousands of dollars to send a message to our community.

A community that is mostly lost and mostly disgusted with organized religion anyway. A community that needs to the truth of the gospel. A community that could care less about their petty cultural biases in worship.

And what was that message?

That they were really ticked off with a local pastor and were hereby declaring him a "false teacher".

And why did the entire readership of the Daily Oklahoman need to know this? Why do they consider him to be a false teacher? Not presumably because he had reversed the gospel (the true meaning of "false teacher"), understand, but because he was leading his church to bring some musical instruments into the building during one of their worship services.

This group needs to hear Paul say, "We have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.

I am not Church of Christ and do not agree with their doctrine- so I don't have a dog in the hunt. But when this group brought this document into a full page add in our newspaper, they crossed a line that has ramifications for all believers.

For those who wonder why we must constantly be on the defense against religious legalism and stand for the true meaning of the gospel by keeping it real- this is only the latest example.

pray for cy mizell and muhammad hadi

Recently, I received this email from the Asian Rural Life Development Foundation:

"You may be aware that Asian Rural Life Development Foundation worker, Cyd
Mizell, and her driver, Muhammad Hadi, were taken at gunpoint January 26th
in Afghanistan. We continue to be hopeful that the two will be released
unharmed soon.

We have received innumerable e-mails and phone calls offering emotional
encouragement and prayers. We are grateful for these. For continuing
updates, check our web site www.arldf.net


Asian Rural Life Development Foundation is a humanitarian aid organization
that works throughout Asia helping to provide a better quality of life for
the poor, mainly through community development projects. In the area of
Afghanistan where Mizell works, ARLDF personnel serve in education and
projects that help people learn skills to better their lives and the lives
of their families. Aid efforts in the region also include food-for-work
projects, irrigation, rehabilitation, health care and restoration projects.

Mizell has worked with ARLDF for nearly three years, helping women and
families with income-generating projects, teaching English at a high school
and embroidery lessons at a girls' school. Hadi has worked two years as a
driver for the organization. He is married and has five children.

Although our attention and focus is on this difficult situation, our ARLDF
workers and their national colleagues throughout Asia are continuing their
work. When this situation is resolved, we expect Mizell and Hadi will want
to continue their work with ARLDF."