Hey guys! Sorry it’s been almost a month since I last updated you guys. It has been an adventure so far. Northern Africa is definitely a beautiful country. I have meet several people through my teammates and even found an English speaking church here as well. My ministry is slightly different than the rest of my team. I have this area called the Berber Market. It’s essentially a farmers market with locals from the surrounding area come into the city 2 days a week and sell their goods. The 2 days that the market is open is on Thursday and Sunday. We get a variety of foods here. Today we picked up sweet potatoes, mangos, apples, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, pomegranates, avocados. The strangest thing we have gotten at the market is fresh cheese. We honestly are not sure if was goat cheese or camel cheese. The cheese didn’t smell like goat cheese so we kind of think it might have been camel cheese. Either way it was amazing no matter what it was. The language barrier has been a challenge but I’ve learned to count to 5 in Arabic thanks to going to the market twice a week. Everything in the market is weight based and almost all of the venders there are honest when handling change and tourist/ locals. Sometimes, locals will jump in and help us translate and help us negotiate on a better price. When the locals jump in and help is the best feeling I get when being in the market. We normally spend roughly 100-120dh at the market which in USD that’s roughly $10-$12. The vegetables and fruit we get at the market usually last us the week. Sometimes we’ll go to the market t o get more fruit but vegetables last a good amount of time with the amount we purchase. We tend to get roughly 6-8 apples, about 8 carrots, 2 mangos, 2 avocados, 4 sweet potatoes, 2 pomegranates. in the past we have also gotten zucchini about 6, bell peppers 4-6 and onions 2. Almost forgot we purchased a bundle of garlic the second week here and still have some left.
The market has been a slow ministry especially because of the language barrier and that it’s only 2 days a week. However, I haven’t allowed that to stop me from what I’ve been called to do. Yes, it might be in the more dangerous part of town, and I have to be more cautious with how I speak. But, I’m not allowing fear to hold me back from my calling and where He has told me to go. I’m boldly and confidently trusting and allowing God to direct my path no matter what may happen. I want to say thank you to each and everyone of you for praying for my team and for myself. A couple of my squad mates flew back to the states this week and will be returning before we leave Northern Africa. Please be in prayer for them and for my teammates and squad mates who are still fundraising. If you would still like to invest in finically please message me and I can get you in contact with a fellow teammate who is still fundraising. We are after our final deadline so anything would be helpful. I love you all!!!
Jamie
