My God Splits Moons - by Mira

My God Splits Moons

This was written by a girl on my team. We spoke to Jane* again and we had a very interesting discussion.

Did you know that Einstein went to the moon and discovered that at some point it had been split in half? Afterwards he exclaimed, “I must find the religion in which the moon was split in half!” He discovered it was Islam, converted instantly, and lived happily ever after!

At least, so one of my friends told me in a very sincere tone. Granted, her English isn’t perfect and we already had her fairly confused. I hope she realizes that Einstein didn’t really go to the moon.

We didn’t try to argue with her. What she really wanted to know is: “Mohammed got God to split the moon. Did your Jesus do anything that left evidence?” A sort of ‘my dad’s taller than your dad’ view of theology. At first we found her question discouraging. After all, Jesus never split the moon. (As if creating it in the first place wasn’t enough.) But the more the other girls and I thought about it, the more we realized that our God doesn’t need to split moons. Our God is a personal God. He’s never flashy unless He needs to be. Splitting the moon serves no purpose. When Jesus was on earth He proved His deity and His mission by helping people, by healing and comforting, not by flexing His godly muscles. Now that He’s gone He proves Himself the same way. Jesus proves Himself by taking drug-dealers and race car drivers and molding them into preachers and servants. He takes recluses and makes them missionaries. He turns wretches into His children.

If Islam did that then I wouldn’t have to shut my ears to the catcalls and comments of the men here. I wouldn’t have to count my change every time I bought something. I wouldn’t be afraid to walk by myself through the city at night. I wouldn’t have to the cringe a little every September the 11th. And everyone here is a Muslim so if Islam changes lives like Christianity changes lives, there would be no War and everyone would want to live in the Middle East.

Her prophet Mohammed may have gotten God to split the moon. But my Jesus is the God that changes hearts.

Go with God
–Mira

Meet Crunchy!

I would like to introduce to you Crunchy. We're here in North Africa, visiting friends, who live in an amazing apartment built on the roof of the apartment building. They have an especially amazing apartment because they have their own patio just to themselves. We're sitting out there enjoying a breeze when all of the sudden, Crunchy comes out! Needless to say it was quite funny
when a turtle greets you on a roof. What an interesting pet for a roof in North Africa!

Closed Doors

The place I am at is very steeped in Islam. They have many arguments about why Christianity is wrong. I guess it's not that different from many people in the States honestly. But the second they find that you're a Christian, or you start talking about Christ, a wall goes up. God can break down the walls though! On Tuesday we were out meeting people and we met a teacher who spoke very good English. We talked to her for about 45 minutes. (When I say we I'm talking about my team of girls) We were able to give her our testimonies!! What a great opportunity that God gave to us! One thing we try to emphasize is the fact that I was not born a Christian - I had to make that decision. She asked how I could decide at such a young age. I told her even though I was so young, I knew I had sinned and needed forgiveness. We also told her we serve God because of what He did for us, not in order to go to Heaven. PRAY God will plant a seed in her heart about what we spoke of. God has given us so many opportunities - PRAISE the LORD! Pray that He will continue to lead us across the paths of those who might have an open heart, an open door for the Gospel.

First Tea!

I've heard so much about the tea here. When you go out with friends, many times you will go have tea with them. Well yesterday (Saturday) I was able to go have tea with some friends. On Wednesday, my team of girls was out meeting people and we were actually about to turn around to go another way when we met Jane*. She and her friend were on their way back to the university where they are both business majors. We talked to them for about an hour. Then we asked her if she wanted to meet up and do something and she said sure. (Where else can you meet someone for an hour and then go hang out again and it not be weird - certainly not in America) So we said we'd meet on Saturday at 10am. So she came and she brought 2 other friends. One of whom was a guy - we were a little nervous about that, but it turned out ok. We had a great time walking around town, and they took us to have our first tea. Wow! It's strong stuff - it's very very minty. Not bad though. I tried to talk to the girls about spiritual things, but they would change the subject fairly quickly. We talked to the guy about religion and he would talk about it for a long time.

We learned several things from them. One thing is that they have watched a lot of American television and movies. I think he's watched more movies than I have! The girls know of many different actors and actresses and told us who they like and dislike. We had a great time getting to know them and the city. We're going to do something again this Saturday - maybe see some caves that are nearby. Pray that we'll have the opportunity to talk about more spiritual things and maybe plant a seed of doubt about Islam. I'm so excited to see how very friendly the people are here and willing to spend time with you even though you're a stranger - a foreigner at that.

One thing is were are making time every day to just go out and meet people. Then we go do stuff, and for hours, not just a few minutes. I think I need to make it a bigger priority when I get back to just work at getting to know people and spending time with them. One of the leaders here mentioned that it seems that only in America do we have compartmentalized relationships: work, church, family, friends, etc. Other countries have friends and you do anything and everything together. They really develop relationships. This is one lesson I think we should definitely learn from the rest of the world.


*names have been changed to protect the innocent - well...they really have been changed just to be careful

Language School - Welcome to Arabic!

Language School. I don’t know what I expected. Maybe I expected it to be similar to my high school French classes. Just to give you an indication of what it’s like to take Arabic, here’s a picture of what my teacher wrote on the board.

I look at it, look at him, and just stare. So then he’ll point to it and say it and I just memorize where it’s at on the board so I can say it again. Well…I guess that’s not really what we’re supposed to do, lol.

The thing is, if we want to be able to speak to people and tell them the gospel, we must learn the language. We will not learn it in 6 weeks, but it shows the people here we are interested in them and their culture and opens doors. Pray for me as I try to learn the language to try to be a witness.

Friday we went to the beach - my first time in the Mediterranean! It's so beautiful! Everyday we go out to meet people and try to build a relationship to be able to witness to them. Actually, the beach is one place where ladies (the only people us girls will talk to here) will sit and not be on their way somewhere. Unlike elsewhere in the world, even on the beach women are covered here - I mean from head to toe. So we go and try to talk to people who are either sitting along the road or on the beach. We've met several contacts this way. Pray we'll be able to share the gospel with them.

I was really worried about the heat here because I don't do hot very well...but with the constant breeze from the ocean it hasn't been too bad yet. We'll see how it goes.

I haven't had the chance to share the Gospel with anyone yet - I'm praying we'll start to really build some relationships with some ladies this week to be able to witness. So far we've made contacts (to find ladies able to speak English enough for us to really talk to has been somewhat challenging - but God has led some across our path!) but now we really want to begin to step it up. When I say we I mean the team of girls I'm working with. So please pray that God will allow us to do that better. We are supposed to meet a girl this Saturday morning for tea - pray that we can share the Gospel!!

Praise the Lord everything is going well here. Keep praying!

Breaking the Law! (Sunday)

Today I broke the law. I attended a Christian Church Service. Wow - my first illegal church service I've ever been to. There were only 3 who were not from our group at the service. One man is still a Muslim - pray for him. He is searching. The preacher preached in Arabic, so we only understood one word. (The word is the Arabic word for Thank you) I think it's the least I've ever gotten out of a church service before! It was still very interesting. We still sung songs (well...they did ask us to sing one in English for them) and there was preaching. No piano, no choir, no offering (I know - can this REALLY be a Baptist church??? LOL) but it was a church.

That night we had a time of testimony and prayer. We heard the testimonies of 2 believers who live in the city. One of our leaders said that many people who become Christians here have dreams. I was a little unsure of what he meant, but in the testimonies they mentioned dreams. In one person's dream, he saw first (in Arabic) the New Testament. He had the dream again, but this time it was written in English. So He looked up that word and found it was the Bible - God's Word. He began to search. So, what started his search was these dreams. I stand amazed at how God can work in places we think are "closed." God made the earth and is the King of it. No place is closed to Him - PRAISE THE LORD!

Some Morning You'll Find Me Touring That City

I don't always have an internet connection, so I'll try to update several days. Here's Saturday.

Today we just got on buses (groups of 2 girls and one or two guys) and went around the city. Our goal was to meet people, try to talk to them and develop a relationship. Also, we were to try to find our way around the city to get our bearings. WOW! At first, honestly, I was a little skeptical. I really hadn’t met a person here yet and wasn’t sure how they would respond to me (the white skin, strange dress, and blue eyes really gives away the fact that I don’t live here LOL). The other girl and I decided to sit apart to try to get someone to sit next to us. It worked! The ladies here are very nice – they will try to communicate even if it doesn’t go very well. The first lady I was able to talk to spoke English fairly well, and we were able to carry on a conversation for a while. We exchanged e-mail addresses – pray that I can really develop a relationship with her and will be able to tell her the gospel! We also were able to invite some more ladies to English class – pray they will be able to come. I am amazed at how many languages everyone here speaks. More often than not they speak 2, 3 or even 4 languages! I’ve been butchering some French to try and communicate with many people – I think I can get the point across about English class, but I’m not very sure how well.

One thing Saturday taught me is the need for communication. That may sound very obvious, but it put a burden on my heart to learn the language to be able to talk to people. Limited language limits your witness. It brings to mind the scripture in Romans 10:14 “…and how shall they hear without a preacher?” If the preacher can’t speak their language, how shall they hear?

Miracles Happen

Wow! What a journey! I've dubbed a name for the traveling to North Africa - a comedy of errors. One thing after the other happened. We missed our flight out of JFK to Africa. So we were booked on the next flight - 24 hours later. Even in what seems to be bad circumstances, God was good. We were able to stay in Manhattan at a Pastor friend's church - WHAT A BLESSING! We were able to see some of the city and he spoke with us about really studying scripture - eating the meat and not just drinking the milk.

We made it in plenty of time to make our flight to Africa, and it was delayed. We were supposed to leave around 8:20pm. Apparently they combined a couple of flights and we finally took off around 4am or 4:30am. It's kinda crazy on those international flights. The flight crew was French and they speak to you in French and then will switch to English if you don't understand. All those years in French class are definitely paying off!

We landed in Africa around 3pm. We got through the passport stuff just fine and went to baggage claim, only to find out our baggage was not there. We had to go to the counter and describe our bags and stuff. I learned my first lesson in culture: there are no lines. You just push your way to the front and whoever is there goes first. Finally we meet the person who is supposed to travel with us up the city we will be staying in - he had been waiting 2 days! We got on one train, switched trains, then arrived in the city. Total train time: 7 hours. Needless to say, we were exhausted. I honestly think it was better NOT having our luggage on those trains. God was watching out for us - it would have been very hard to handle all that luggage up and down the aisles, on and off, and all that kind of stuff.

We found out where we were all staying, got to take a shower AMEN and slept for about an hour. It was very interesting when we went shopping for clothes and toiletries to last until we got our luggage. It was kinda like a market in Peru. After dinner we had to go back out for somethings we forgot. There were many more people out and about at night than during the day. One thing I saw while we were out shopping was quite interesting. The call to prayer sounds (you can't help but hear it) but no one stops to pray. I expected everyone to stop what they were doing and pray, but that is not the case. From what I've seen so far, there are so many groups of people and everyone does it a little different. For the most part all the women have head coverings, but not all. Some men wear the long robes, but not most. I'm not sure what I expected, but I don't think this is it.

So Praise the Lord, He is still in the business of miracles! Honestly, it's a miracle I'm here: from the health stuff, to the travel comedy of errors. Plus, He knows better than we do and what we need. It was very nice not having massive amounts of luggage on the train. I'm praying God will give me a great love for the people, and allow us to speak boldly for Him. Keep on praying!