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.