Stories

A  story that has been on my mind these past few days. 

One from the villages and our trekking adventure. The first house that we went to, our guide, chris, and his wife have been visiting this family for over three years now. They have a deep relationship with the family and have shared several times with the whole family (their was a husband and wife and the son and his wife) about Jesus and the gospel. They have had many discussions with the daughter in law esp. about Jesus and have show them several videos about the story and life of Jesus. They also brought up audio tapes in the local language for the daughter in law that are the gospels on tape. She listen to them so much she broke her cassette player but went and had it fixed at a local village because she loved the tapes so much. She can not read, as most of the woman can't in the villages. We only spent one night there and found out while we were there that the daughter in law was barren. That she had been trying to have children since chris had met the family. Through some communicating with signs she let me and another girl on the team pray for her. While we were praying her mother in law came in and what I thought was amazing was the reaction of the mother in law. Although the daughter had shown much interested in Jesus, the parents didn't show any but once we were done praying the mother in law was moved to tears and had to leave the room. Even through communication barriers, and differences in religion the power of prayer and speaking the name of Jesus over that woman was felt in the souls of all of us. I think this is something that people cannot deny is the sense in their soul the truth that the name of Jesus holds. It is something that she obviously didn't understand or know much about, but she couldn't deny it, and she couldn't deny His presence in that place so much so that she was overwhelmed. 

I love that, I love that our God is so big that people don't have to know anything about Him to know His power and His love. It is something that inside of them that they yearn for, and that they are empty without. But when they get a taste of it they might not know what to do with it but they know it is something greater than they could ever imagine. 

Forgot Pic's

The Final Stretch

I made it home - Australia home that is. A long journey full of adventure. Leaving on June 21st taking an assortment of transportation that included taxi's, buses, trains, and a ferry we arrived in Spain for a short overnight break. That was the first 30 hours of our trip. The next 30 hours included three plain rides that landed us safely back in Oz. 

To sum up a two and a half month outreach in Morocco would be a ridiculously long blog so I will put a few stories and pictures up this week as I remember and look back at all the fun stuff God did. 

I think one of the biggest things that God taught me during this time, surprisingly, was how much He loved me, and how jealous He is of my attention and how much He just wants me to receive His love. Going into a country and having your focus on other people, I forgot that in order for me to love others I had to first let God love me. 1 John 4:19 We loved because He first loved us. 

It is amazing sometimes how hard it is to receive things. But the freedom their is to walk in with knowing that no matter what I have done, no matter what I do, everyday God loves me; everyday He delights in the fact that I am His. That is an amazing truth to live in.

So before the last week of being in Morocco five of the members of my team including me went on a trek through the Altas Mountains. It was hard, long, and eye opening to a new world. We trekked about ten miles a day through mountains with huge back packs on. Then we would stay in the villages we walked to at night. The villages were up on sides of mountains, with houses made out of mud and straw bricks. Most houses had a room that was covered in carpet and pillows. That is were we sat and ate and slept. The culture is so big on guests and being enormously hospitable. They served us a lot of tea (well sugar that had a hint of tea in it) and lots of bread. Yes ladies - it was very difficult for the girls on a entire carbs diet. haha. The whole time they feed you tons of food and the whole time it was meal time the only thing they would say to us was eat eat eat. You aren't eating enough - you will find no husband if you don't eat. haha, we were a bit to skinny for their taste. It was amazing to see the lives of the woman. They can work. My goodness, they work more than anyone I have ever seen. Regular daily tasks that we take for granted that takes them all day to do. They wake up at 5 every morning to make the dough for the bread that day if that tells you anything. No running water - we were lucky because they had just got electricity in the villages last year. Squatty potties - yea that is all I will say about that. We trekked for 5 days and didn't shower once. I wore the same pants for five days! I think it was the dirtiest I have ever been in my life! That a good enough visual for now, I will write more later - tons of good stories from that week. 

I am super excited to be back and miss home terribly! Love you all.

You are blessed to be a blessing.