Project North Africa

Ramadan Mubarak

Yesterday was the start of Ramadan. Ramadan is a holy month for the Muslim people across the world. They will fast during the day from food, water, physical pleasure, and cigarettes then pig out at sundown. My wife and I actually saw a fitness club here advertising: “Loose the kilo’s of Ramadan”. So people actually put on weight during their month long fast. Hmmm. Interesting.

Everyone’s spiritual antennas are more alert during this month. If someone is found eating on the street he could be taken to jail or beaten on the spot. Fortunately as a foreigner I have a free pass to eat anytime with no small amount of awkwardness.

You can do two things during this month until Sept 21 or so:
-Pray for the people of North Africa and all of the Muslim world during this time. When God’s people pray, God sends laborers. Use these following useful link as prayer guides:
www.30daysprayer.com

-If you know a Muslim tell them “Ramadam Mubarak” when you see them. That mean, “Happy Ramadan”. It’s not sacrilegious, just polite and a confirmation that you are aware of their culture. I promise it will bring a smile and probably even an invitation to “Ftur” (the evening breaking of the fast at sundown). If they invite you, go. Their food is not sacrificed to idols.

Why Ramadan?
Muslims believe their is special forgiveness in the fasting for the month of Ramadan. Muslims who get drunk, fornicate, steal, never pray, and a host of other sins will fast during Ramadan if they believe in God at all. Probably 99% of Muslims in our country fast during Ramadan. That is their final hope that God will forgive their many sins.

The Boat

A couple days ago we had a holiday so I thought I’d do some snorkling around a ship wreck I had noticed off the coast last week. The old fishing boat was challenging me to conquer it. Once I got out in the water and did some circles around the shipwreck I was felling pretty good. There was a shallow rocky bottom that gave me considerable comfort in the open ocean. So I thought I’d take the long way back to the beach. That way didn’t have shallow rocks like my approach path did. After about 20 minutes in the water my mind started to play games with me. I started to worry about my strength, the waves that seemed to be fighting me, my half a lung, and even sharks with no rocks to stand upon! Before I knew it my body responded to what my mind feared.

I am not an experienced snorkeler by any means so I wasn’t prepared to get “scared”. The waves seemed like they were pushing me out further into the sea. I started to hyperventilate which is not a good habit while swimming. I started to breath in water Continue reading →

Pastor Gardner’s blog had this quote on it today:
“God plants His saints in the most useless places.
We say – God intends me to be here because I am so useful.
Jesus never estimated His life along the line of the greatest use.
God puts His saints where they will glorify Him,
and we are no judges at all of where that is.”

Oswald Chambers

What an encouragement that is to me in this place! I often feel useless and/or in a useless place. This quote came the day after reading this quote by Samuel Zwimmer, missionary to the Arabian Peninsula in the late 1800’s while on deputation referring to his supporters:

“One marvels at their faith in continuall sowing on such desert soil when all evidence of a visible harvest was absent.”

When I first arrived in North Africa full of hope, faith, and dreams I was talking to a friend who told me, “I couldn’t work in place like that. Call me carnal but I like preaching here to my hundreds each weekend.”

Now all these quotes hit a common nerve from a few different angles. I have often tried to figure out through my human reasoning, creative thinking, entrepreneurial planning, and staring at maps for hours exactly where I could be most “useful”.

What if every man did that? We’d all go to the same place! But God in his sovereignty knows where he wants me and he moves me there as I submit to His will! What does he get out of it? Usefulness. But he doesn’t judge usefulness like I do. While I am thinking of numbers impacted as judged by my limited capacities to observe, He judges by the depth, hight, and breadth of the glory he reserved judged by his unlimited (by time or space) ability to observe.

Brainard never saw how much glory God could receive from his relatively unproductive work…but God did.
Jim Eliot never saw any fruit from his labor…but God has seen immeasurable fruit.
Phillip never saw the potential in one black man in a desert…but God’s global eye did.
Zwimmer’s whole ministry during his life yielded less than a handful of believers … but his writings has stirred a generation of unprecedented missionaries to the Muslim world.

Can you think of anyone else serving in a useless place (humanly speaking) who were VERY useful to God?