This summer I went with a group to Morocco for two weeks. Here are some quick facts about Morocco (so you can get an idea of what we prepped ourselves for):
Location: North Africa (literally a ferry ride away from Spain)
Language: Arabic, French
Religion: Islam, less than 1% is Christian and less than .2% is Jewish
Largest City: Casablanca
- As of May '10 at least 60 Christian workers were deported - more here
- Bibles are legally allowed to be imported but the government confiscates most Arabic bibles
- It is illegal to proselytize (to induce someone to convert to one's religious faith)
We went into a country were what we were aiming to do was illegal. This meant that we couldn't run VBS's for children, share our testimonies, or offer prayer to people on the streets; all very common and effective tools to share Jesus with people. So we abide by the law and didn't share our faith with people, but rather walked around praying for the cities and doing acts of kindness.
In Casablanca we stayed right near several flower shops and we bought flowers to hand out to women and children. You should have seen the faces of those women, they loved their flowers. In Marrakesh we bought water to hand out, since it was extremely hot, at least for us, to the beggars.
What they saw were Americans extending a hand of love to them, people who were ignored by tourist and their fellow country men. Honestly I know that through these two small acts, giving out flowers and water, we made a difference in lives of multiple Moroccans and helped the students in our group understand that God can use them to make impact lives even in a place where we could be thrown in jail for sharing their faith.
3 comments:
That's such an awesome opportunity to get out of the country and shift one's perspective on how things really are in the world... we have so much in this country and we take it for granted. Great job on the photography and taking a step for the Kingdom!
Thanks for posting this Rebecca. Most of North Africa is Muslim and very few Christians can be found in that region. The most I've heard of groups who travelled to that region consisted of praying, and a few conversations.
One more thought, I actually did some "illegal love" in Philadelphia over a year ago. Its illegal there to ask for money, give free food to the poor, etc.
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