It has been two months since Greg and I were in North Africa and we realize that some of you may not have gotten much of a report about our trip. The time has flown by since we got back, but that has given us time to reflect on our endeavors.
When we arrived, we were greeted with some horrible news about a terrorist attack in Sousse, Tunisia, which obviously put our everyone on edge, but God is sovereign. We quickly realized that if that had happened the day before, our trip might have been changed, and He had things for us to do that week.
What a great evening we had that first night, running around trying to observe the busyness of the city. But it wasn’t busy, because everyone was still celebrating the breaking of the fast, because it was Ramadan. We eventually found a bakery downtown and sat at a table on the street and were soon amazed at the busyness that was 11pm.
Our next day was filled with a planning meeting for our English Camp. Our meeting was a the home of one our friends co-workers with their families, another co-worker couple, 3 interns, another American short-term visitor couple, 3 young ladies from the school we were teaching at, Greg and I. We planned day by day, and sang the two songs that I got to write over, and over, and over, and over and over again until we were sick of hearing them. But, like our song says, “God’s love, it blows me away.” During one of our break times, I was just noodling on the guitar and we ended up busting out in Redman’s “10,000 Reasons.” Spontaneous worship. Ain’t nothing like it.
Camp was great. Every morning we would let the kids into the courtyard and just freely whip around frisbees, without any major tooth damage. We opened camp with our 2 songs, one about visiting America to the tune of Bieber’s “Baby,” and another one that we wrote using the Bible story of the day. The kids went to English class for 2 hours then came to games with me. I was given a schedule for games and modified them to things that work with American kids. Then Greg got to teach Bible stories to 35ish North African children. “God’s love, it blows me away.” His love reaches across the world and shows itself in the form of water balloon battles.
In the evenings, we would shop, sightsee (I can now say I’ve seen some really old things), relax, abide, whatever we wanted. By night time we were done and we would call our families at home and go to bed. Greg was awakened every morning at 3:30 to the sound of call to prayer from the loudspeakers of the several mosques surrounding our hosts’ home. I gladly slept right through them.
After a week of camp we celebrated the US Independence Day by going to the beach, playing bocce, and had a cookout with friends. On the 5th, Greg and I had the greatest home improvement experience that anyone could have. Our friends wanted screens put in their windows, but screens are not a common commodity, so we built them. 1 trip to the store. They work. No mis-measuring and breaking supplies, everything worked on the first try. They needed a new doorknob, we fixed it. 1 trip. “God’s love it blows me away.”
This, for sure has not been an extensive update, and there are many more stories to tell, but again, for the security of our friends, the internet is not the best place to post these things. So, please, ask us questions. We would love to share how God moved in our lives into the lives of our new friends in North Africa and how exciting it was to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to children who don’t know who He is. It was incredible on our last day at camp, looking out over the 35 children all singing, “God’s love, it blows me away.” Thanks for sharing that love with us, and thanks for sharing His love with North Africa. Please continue to pray for our friends, their families and the governments of North Africa as they are all trying to figure out what it means to allow freedom of religion. Continue to pray that our friends find ways to meet and interact with North Africans, so they can share how our God has given them the opportunity to live forever with us praising Jesus and singing “God’s love, it blows me away.”
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