Since leaving for the race I haven’t slept in the same building for longer than two nights in a row. Constantly being on the move has become the new normal. Tonight however, we are “nested” in one place for an extended period. We should hopefully be staying in the same place until debrief at the end of the month when our entire squad will come back together.
As will be true for many countries I’ll visit to do “M work” for the next few months throughout the Middle East and North Africa, I’ll have to be a little bit more discreet in information I post publicly. That being said everything will still be very true to the story, but details may be left out and names changed for safety purposes. The names of my squadmates will stay the same, but contacts in closed countries and our exact ministry locations will be undisclosed.
In my last couple of posts we had just finished up the Camino, and we were headed to the south of Spain for training in preparation for North Africa and the Middle East for a couple of days. I got to “test my metal” (reliance on the Lord) with organizing some squad worship for our time there. Val and I (my co-leader for squad worship coordination) got together and prayed for what to do. We met with squadmates who were interested in helping, and the Lord showed up! It was really cool to worship with our squad in ways that were more than just musical. It was so restful. I didn’t realize how much I needed to rest in the Lord after such a physically taxing journey as the Camino, but I did. Especially because immediately following our time Mijas we had some intense travel. Ferries, Taxis, trains, really long layover periods, walking with all our stuff, getting weird looks for carrying everything we own…
But the Lord is good. And now we are settled in. I’ve been able to Skype home to family and check in on what they have going on and let them know that I’m alive and well. We have semblance of a schedule now so I can more easily settle into some healthy rhythms. The team and I are exploring that together and it’s been really awesome. Our feedback that we give each other every other night in order to push us deeper into our relationship with the Lord and call us higher in how that looks on the reg has started getting more intense in the best way possible. We are driving deeper into intimacy with the Lord through each other! And we’ve started to make relationships with people here in the coastal town where we are staying. I met a street performing guitarist and hope to keep hanging with him while he’s in town. The dudes all made friends with a barber and his friend. We’ve been cooking and cleaning for each other in our living quarters. That’s where we are now. We are waiting on the Lord and doing what He says day by day.
One cool story in closing I want to share is the story of worship just before settling in where we are now with our long term “worker” contact. He’s the pastor of a secret church, and he is the sweetest man. He is a servant of the Lord who really knows what it means to give the Glory to God. He has a sweet family, and I’m sure His love for the Lord has had a huge impact on that. His wife cooked us the most amazing brown chicken as a meal to introduce us to the country and welcome us with Christian love. We also got to meet his brother who is Muslim and we all just had the best time laughing and meeting one another drinking some delicious tea. After a big meal we all passed out because we just got done with a really long and tiresome train ride. The next day his wife went with his son to visit family who were celebrating Eid al-Adha a huge holiday for Muslims. Our host stayed with us and showed us around the big city. When we all came in for the night and finished dinner our host kept pantomiming like he was playing guitar and lifting his hands and saying he wanted to worship with us in his native language, Arabic. Thankfully with the help of Allison on our team we were able to understand. We pulled out guitars and started strumming. Then our host turns on the TV and pulls up files of songs sung in Arabic. We just watched and prayed and our Host pleaded with the Lord on our behalf. We thanked the Lord for his prayers and we played some songs in English too. I don’t yet have words for how powerful this moment was and the next night was even more powerful. Two of our squad leaders joined us Solomon and Laura and the night started of similarly, then we broke out a bucket to try to wash the feet of our host. What happened instead, he washed all of our feet first then we were able to wash his. He had been serving and serving and serving. Yet he never once faltered in his deamenor of joy and kindness. He would say, “No is me. Jesus.” Followed by pointing up and to his heart then to ours. We got it. Jesus was showing us His love through this sweet man. Our voices nearly woke the neighborhood. Our praise was raw and real because it was fueled by love beyond measure.
Prayer requests:
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Continued growth in unity as a team.
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The people here in North Africa.
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Pray for our host and his family that they can continue in the work of the Lord and reap a huge harvest for the Kingdom.
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Our squad leaders. They need prayer too!
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Planning of things
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Against any personal distractions people may have on our team and squad
Pictures later. They generally upload on insta. Having trouble on the blog as of late.
P.S. I love hearing stories from home about what the Lord is doing there too. Or any encouragement you may have is super welcomed in the comments. Please leave them as you feel led. God Bless!
-Daniel
