We made it to North Africa!!! ?? We will be here for roughly 50 days and so far wifi has been pretty much non existent.
Now let me tell you a little story of how our God provides. We were travelling from Mijas, Spain to North Africa.
While at debrief in Spain we were given two days notice of the area in North Africa that my small team will be located in. The night before leaving we found a house through Airbnb that was within our tight budget and were all set to go. We had to catch a long bus ride, a ferry and then taxi to the train station. Our train was going to leave at midnight and at around 11:30pm we received a message from Airbnb saying they had a problem with the system and they were actually fully booked out so we could not stay at the accommodation. The train ride to our destination would take about 6 hours and immediately our thought is that we were going to arrive at 6am and not have any accommodation for the 6 of us to stay in. We spent the next 30 minutes looking up accommodation before our train arrived.
We got on the train not knowing where we were going to stay… but our whole team was at peace. Immediately when I found out that our accommodation fell through, I was completely at peace. Also made a joke that we have out tents.. we can easily sleep in that if we really get desperate. I was so proud of my team, we all prayed and was trusting that God would provide a way.
One of my team mates was up till 3am messaging people, and the only person that came back to her was from a little town about 45 minutes away from where we were meant to be staying. That morning at 7:30am we booked it and went on our way to this random little town that we knew nothing about.
God provided a house, in a quiet town with the most helpful host I could have ever asked for. He went out of his way to help us get to his apartment. He would send us train timetables and even picked us up from the train station to take us to his apartment. He turned up with his very run down car that looked like it was going collapse any second. He didn’t seem to have much money but he was so generous in many different ways.
We have been here for about a week now and what a blessing it has been. Within the first day we were invited to a strangers families house for dinner, since then we have been invited to another families house for lunch and been invited to multiple dinners since then. The people here are so generous and they have the most amazing hospitality skills. You buy veggies in a market and then next minute you’re invited to their place for food and tea.
The second day we were here, a little 14 year old girl turned up to our house (still don’t know how she knew where we lived..most likely followed us) haha. All she wanted to do was play with our hair, do our makeup and sing & dance to worship songs. Since that day we see her mostly every day. We have built strong connections with the families here, have prayed for them and sung worship songs with them. It’s been simply beautiful. I love that our original plan didn’t work out because if it worked out.. we would not have met these people here and built those connections. God has us here for a reason and we are making the most of every opportunity.
We had a meeting yesterday with a pastor and I can’t wait to let you know in another post about what ministries we will be focusing on for the next 40 days.
God has big plans for us here and I can’t wait to dive right into it and see what God has for all of us and for the people here in North Africa.
As beings with needs, we often are quick to search for the things that our bodies and souls need. It’s both our weakness and our privilege to have been created with so many needs.
We need food, shelter, protection, clothes, jobs, money, rest, enjoyment, relationships, peace, freedom, significance, identity, knowledge, and a whole list of other things. And searching for all these needs one by one can be a very daunting task. Before we know it, we have very little time left to meet the needs of others around us.
As Christians, we are taught not to focus on our needs only but on the needs of others as well. But with all our personal needs just screaming for attention, how can we even find the time to meet the needs of others?
The answer is simple — boil down all your needs to one, and seek that one need. That need is God in our lives. When we have God in our lives, He will take care of all our needs because He is our provider. He is the source of life and He sustains it.
Matthew 6:31-33. “Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
A few snaps so far of our week here in North Africa.
