It started on day when we went out to the Old Medina. We lived in a small apartment in the New Medina which is ruffly about a 15 minute taxi ride away from the Old Medina.
When we arrived we started walking through the streets. We got there at night after the sun went down, so it was dark. Unfortunately, almost all the little shops were already closed. One of my teammates, got the idea to head to a park that overlooked the city. We had a general idea of where it was, yet we were still guessing.
As we walked, a man and his daughter came out of nowhere and asked us, “where are you going?” We told him, “the park.” He immediately started walking that direction and showing us where it was. His little girl walked beside us and ended up taking one of my teammates hands and walking with them. It seemed so sweet.
We ended up siting at the park, overlooked the city, and had great conversation with each other. The man, Able (We will call him that for privacy reasons), and his little daughter waited there with us. When we were ready to go he began to show us the way back.
We walked about a quarter mile and Able stopped, turned to us, and said, “you have tea at my house?” Without hesitation we began making our way into his house. His wife put on some tea, we ended up trying to have conversation as much as we could with knowing no Arabic. However, we still smiled and had a good time.
We ended up leaving within an hour because Able said that it wasn’t safe to stay out late. So we went home blessed that night. We got his phone number and was wondering when we could connect again.
The next day we got a phone call from Able asking to have dinner at his house. He explained my teammate Connie through broken French about how we could pay for the dinner and make it together.
?So the next day some of my teammates went out to meet him and we found out he already purchased the food. We all met for dinner and his wife ended up cooking everything. They served us so well and seemed to bless us tremendously.
Able even found someone who spoke English to help communicate. He told us that we could pay him whatever we wanted to for the food.
Personally, I thought he was being so nice and enjoying the company and genuinely cared about us. However, after the meal we were asked to give him money for the food. Now we know that the food in Fes (town in Morocco) was generally cheap and so we budgeted our team’s daily food budget to give to him. When we handed him the money, he looked so disappointed. The guy who spoke English talked for him and said, “come on give him more! He helped you out earlier and you never paid him! Give I’m 100 each.” I was shocked. I watched as we gave him 700 durham which is the equivalent of $75 US dollars. This was more than twice our daily food budget for our team and personally I felt hurt. As we left he said, come back and I will cook more food the next day.
There was no way I wanted to go back to their house. I realized with myself as we left his house. The thoughts came to my mind, “we just got taken advantage of. We wanted the relationship with him, yet he sacrificed it for money. Everything was forced and now I have a sourer taste in my mouth.”
When we got home form the meal, I sensed the teams emotions running high so we sat down and debriefed how were were feeling about what happened. Some felt no hurt at all, and some felt taken advantage of and hurt (myself included). I was praying through these feelings and God gave me the idea to show him grace.
I had a picture of having Able and his family over at our house, serving him dinner, and blessing him with a gift. Realizing how God showed each of us grace – we wronged him, yet HE took our punishment away and gave us a reward. Being able to forgive Abdul and bless him and his family more may actually show him Jesus in a world where Jesus does not exist.
The next day we all prayed about it and came to the consensus as a team to invite Able and his family over for dinner. That night I had another picture of what this event looked. The picture was with Able and his family sitting on the couch and my friend Joseph (Also not his real name for privacy reasons) there next to me too. I knew Joseph spoke English and would be able to help us communicate with Able and his family.
The next morning I went to the coffee shop early and saw Joseph. Tamara and I were just taking, but when Joseph came by he came and sat with us for about 20 minutes. I invited him to dinner and he said, “yes, of course. I will be there.”
When I asked Joseph what he was doing, he said, “I’m going to the doctor for my heart. He said something about it hurting.” Immediately Tamara and I felt the desire to pray for him. We touched his heart with our hands and prayed for him. As we said amen, he looked up and said, I already feel better. The power of love is back at work again. Praise the Lord for crazy things like that.
Anyway, to continue the story, Connie and I went to meet Able and his family and when we got there they were all dressed up. As poor as they were they looked great! They even said that they have never been invited to an Americans house before for dinner.
They got to our house and we all sat and talked for awhile before dinner because Moroccans don’t eat diner till like 10:00PM. We had a great time all together. Able used to be a Taekwondo instructor so he showed us some of his moves!
When the time came we served them spaghetti and soda. Joseph gladly translated for us to communicate. I got to explain the picture and dream of him being exactly where he was sitting and us being able to bless him. I explained how God sent us here to bless you.
I gave him an envelop with a message and the money I had on me. The message included how we wanted to bless him, and how blessing comes not just through finances but through a relationship. I got to explain the gospel message on the back of the sheet of paper and put a prayer on the back.
When he opened this envelope, Joseph translated that his heart was so overjoyed and that he won’t let himself cry but he was crying on the inside. He said that he would keep this piece of paper forever. It was like the love of God came alive in that moment. We got to pray for him and bless him before he left. He was praying in how he knew how and I could just tell he was giving glory to God.
We sent him home that night filled and encouraged. He wanted to have us over for food again at his house, yet we decided to decline the offer after praying about it. The reason for this is because if we would have accepted the offer, we felt he would be using the blessing we gave to him to give it back to us. We felt he needed it and needed to know that God’s grace is free and undeserved. I have been praying for him and I just know that he will remember the way he was loved forever.
Our team came together so well that night as we realized it was a group effort to make it happen! We ended up coming so close, played games together, and laughed harder than ever. Our team was full of joy and there was no bitterness left all because we took the sour taste and chose to respond with grace.
