Month 2 has come to a close. CRAZY. Here is a little looksie into all of the amazing things God did this month! I am so in awe of His faithfulness.
Region:
- North Africa
Roaches killed in our apartment: 50ish (we brought in the big guns & bought some poison this month. This dropped the roach count per day by about 1/3 from the month before so we’re thankful!)
- We started working with the local international church where we got to put on a women’s retreat called Beauty for Ashes! I could go on & on about the things God did that weekend, so if you’re interested in reading more about it (or watching an amazing video covering the retreat) check out my Beauty for Ashes blog
- Our friend Fatima packed up a bag of coffee & tea & took all 5 of us to the beach. We weren’t planning on swimming, but we ended up diving in, fully clothed, & I don’t think I have ever laughed so hard in my entire life. Fatima also got a kick out of it, herself.
- I found a razorback mug in a Moroccan pantry. (like what?!) I shrieked with joy & may have teared up a little bit. This was such a sweet “hey Landry! I see you & I love you!” moment from God.
- Along with Beauty for Ashes we also got to put on a professional development workshop for the members of the church. This workshop consisted of valuable lessons for those wanting to increase their skills as they begin entering the workforce. It was such a joy watching my teammates shine through this & watching the faces of the men & women who attended light up as they were absorbing all of the information (several of them walked away claiming it had been the best day of their lives!)
- We also got to put on a Studying Scripture seminar. Members of the congregation came together as several passionate squad mates helped equip them with tools on how to go deeper when studying the Bible.
- I met a girl in a succulent shirt & God wrecked all of our lives through it. The gospel was shared & testimonies were told & a healing was done & it was just all so crazy. In case you didn’t read about it you definitely should check it out at The Girl with the Succulent Shirt
- Along with roaches, our apartment also came with the most rambunctious neighborhood girls (although these were much sweeter than our intruding critters.) For some strange reason they adored me & decided that my name wasn’t Landry, but Luna. Every. Single. Day. We would be in our living room & the sun would start setting & we would here “LUNAAA!” & I would get to peak my head out of the window & entertain them with my broken French & laughed as they shrieked & giggled & did cartwheels for me.
- Two of our squad leaders, Eric & Alysa, blessed us with their presence for 10 days & man we learned A TON from them in the span of those 10 days.
- We found two outdoor markets by our house & went there for groceries every week. All of the beautiful fresh produce & piles of grains is something I will definitely miss! These markets are also the place where we met many of our local friends!
- I learned A LOT about the glory of God & so much more about how He desires His name to be praised among the nations. I love how He continues to teach me about His missional purpose for His people even after so many years of learning.
- We found the loveliest park during week 1 & continued to go there multiple times a week. There we met two twin girls who did henna for us. They couldn’t speak any English or French so communicating was hard, but we found other ways to love them. We brought picnic dinners & water-colored & had the sweetest time with them.
- We tried to hail a taxi & ended up riding in a trailer on the back of a motorcycle throughout our entire city.
- Made some of the sweetest friends with a group of girls who worked in a cookie shop by our house. We lovingly called them our cookie girls & got to hang out with them several times towards the end of the month. They loved to giggle & link arms with us while telling us how cute they thought we American girls were.
- Our cookie girls took us to get the most intricate & beautiful henna done & the lady who did mine tried to se me up with her 6-year-old son.
- As sad as I am that Fall doesn’t exist here, the Lord has graciously provided me ample opportunities to buy a pumpkin spice latte & that has definitely been a highlight, there I said it!!!
- The last night of our time in the city one of our cookie girls, Yasmin, invited us over for dinner. Her mother prepared a HUGE meal of cous cous for us which led to snuggling her baby cousins which led to Moroccan drum & dance lessons which led to pastries & mint tea. The home was a revolving door of aunts & cousins & grandmothers & mother in-laws & it reminded me so much of my family in Texas, that I felt like I was home. Oh & THEN they recited the Quran to us & THEN we got to read out of Psalms & they loved it so much they asked us to read another. UGH praise God, if you wanna read more about this joy-filled night read Joelle’s blog
- What better way to end our time in our North African home than find the nest of all of our cockroach friends? Seeing Joelle’s reaction as she discovered their “home” underneath the kitchen sink as we’re literally packing up to leave almost made them worth it.
I don’t know how the heck I’m already in month 3, but here we are! Along with the end of month 2 came the end of our time in our designated city in North Africa. There’s been so many mixed feelings as we said our goodbyes to all of the precious women we became such good friends with. I pray that I was able to impact their lives in some way, but I can say with full confidence that they impacted mine. I am so thankful for the ways in which the Lord worked through the relationships we had with the Muslim women & with the women of the international church. Despite obvious differences, God sees them & loves them all the same & getting to share that throughout this city was the greatest honor.
*** My team is taking the next 5 days to explore the rest of the country! We’ll get to spend some time in another big city, the Atlas Mountains, & the Sahara Desert where we’ll then end in a tiny coastal surfing town. This is where we’ll meet up with the rest of our squad for a debrief over all of our time spent here in this amazing country. Then we are headed to CYPRUS! After my time spent here, I cannot even begin to imagine what the Lord has in store in that island.
As always, thank you so much for praying, funding, reading, & encouraging me in this journey. God is using you all to change lives over here!!!
