North Africa Trip – Update 1
We arrived at our destination and
met up with our friends on Sunday afternoon.
The trip here was really pretty uneventful, which isn’t always the
case. All of our bags and supplies even made
it here without getting lost. We spent
the rest of the day hanging out with our friends and their family. There was even enough time to go outside and
play a little baseball – sandlot style!
Sunday we started early and drove
to a village about two and a half hours away to meet with some fellow
believers. While we were meeting at one
of our brother’s houses, they broke out some musical instruments and played
some worship music. It was pretty amazing. We have a link here that gives you a sample
of the music they were playing. It is a
little hard to make out the lyrics to the song but they are saying: “Believe in God and he will save you….where
your treasure is there your heart will be also”.
After spending some time visiting
and singing we went to have lunch together.
One of our brothers brought his five year old son with him to our
meeting. At lunch there was a nearby
playground that he was able to go and play on.
This was the first time he had ever even seen a playground – they are
from a very impoverished village. He was
beyond thrilled. We drove by the
playground several more times that day and his eyes would light up as he pointed
at the playground.
Once we finished lunch we went to
another believer’s home in a village not far from where we were. There we walked in to a very modest home and
gathered in the back room to begin our meeting.
There were about nine of us altogether.
Craig and I started things off by sharing our testimonies. They were eager to hear and said that we were
sent there to encourage them by sharing.
It was getting pretty hot in the back room where we were meeting so we
decided to move outside in a little garden area by the house. Once we resettled, the local believers
started sharing their testimonies. What
happened next can only be described as amazing!
One day, he saw some Christians
on television speaking about Jesus. He
knew of Jesus as a prophet, but had never heard of Jesus as God. He traveled to another country so he could
learn more about the “good news”. Over
time, he began to realize the depravity of his life and his inability to ever do
enough good works to get him into heaven. He repented of his sins and began to follow
Jesus.
Persecution came quickly. His entire family shunned him. His wife abandoned him, taking their 3
children with her. He lost his job and
all his money and possessions. He had
nothing…except Christ. He said that he
had lost everything, but he didn’t care anymore because “his chains were gone…He
was, at last, a free man.” His joy was
in Christ, the Savior!
We listened to several more
amazing stories just like this man’s. Some
had been delivered from a life of worldly sin, and others had been saved from
their life of legalistic religion. We
began to realize something…..these men were just like us. In fact, people everywhere are the same. They are looking for truth…for freedom. Some look to a worldly, sinful lifestyle,
while others look to a rigid, rule-following religion. But the truth is neither. The truth is Jesus Christ! And the story of Jesus Christ is a story of
GRACE. Grace is a foreign concept to
much of the world. They can’t understand
a God that would take away our sins (past, present, and future) through grace,
and allow us to live a life of freedom…freedom from sin…freedom from religion…freedom
to serve God completely and wholly. This
is real life; this is real freedom. And
it knows no country, creed, race, or religion. It is found only in Christ
Jesus, the Savior to ALL the world!
“Amazing GRACE, how sweet the sound that saved a
wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see…My
chains are gone, I’ve been set FREE. My God my Savior has ransomed me, and like
a flood His mercy rains. Amazing love,
amazing grace!”
