July Update

Believe it or not, July has already come and gone, although the hot weather seems to be never-ending. The Lord has blessed tremendously the past month.

I was privileged to be able to be a part of Vacation Bible School at my home church, Lighthouse Baptist Church.  We praise the Lord for 40 previous souls saved during the week including children, teens, and adults! I am grateful to God He allowed me to be a small part of this great week.

 Prayer Requests

·         Continue to schedule more meetings – filling in gaps for this year and in general for next year

·         Safety traveling – increasing the number of miles traveling this month

·         God to use me to lead more people to Him

Praises

·         Was able to lead 2 girls to the Lord during VBS

·         Lord provided meetings to fill in some gaps

·         God provided financially in many different ways

July Stats:

·         22% of needed support

·         Was able to be in 10 churches total

·         Drove 956 miles

·         Was able to present my burden 6 times

·         Traveled in 2 states: Georgia and South Carolina

June/July Prayer Letter

Praise the Lord for His mercies endure forever! God is so good and has been so good to me. The past 6 months have caused me as never before to trust in Him as Jehovah-jireh, the God Who provides. Not only does He provide financial and material needs, but also encouragement and friends just when I need them.

 Macedonia's Orientation

I had the joy of attending Macedonia’s Orientation just a few weeks ago. As with anything new, I was not sure what it was going to be like. What an amazing week! I was able to meet and talk to many veteran missionaries on furlough and new missionaries just starting deputation. With classes in the morning and afternoon, preaching in the evening, and fellowship time between, it was a busy week. I learned so much and was challenged in many different ways. The entire week had such a sweet spirit to it. God provided much needed encouragement through this orientation.  I am so thankful to serve with Macedonia World Baptist Missions.

 Praise

Earlier in the spring, when looking over my summer schedule, I did not have many meetings scheduled for July and August. The Lord has more than tripled that number! The upcoming months have more scheduled meetings per month than I have had thus far. I am grateful for these opportunities to share my testimony and the work in North Africa.

 Prayer Requests

· Safety traveling

· Scheduling meetings for rest of year and next year

· For a tentative departure beginning to mid 2012

· Muslims of North Africa—God will soften their hearts & be saved

· Believers in North Africa—safety, boldness, growth

Morocco continues its purge of Christians

Morocco (MNN) ― Morocco kicked a teacher out for allegedly attempting to convert Muslims to Christianity. 

According to the Spanish newspaper "El Pais," authorities expelled Sara Domene of Spain for "threatening public order."  It's a common phrase used to allege "proselytizing." Domene, also a member of an evangelical church, denies the charge, saying she was giving Spanish lessons.

However, the charge that ended her stay in Morocco carries stiff penalties. The 1992 constitution guarantees freedom of religion for all while designating Islam as the state religion. Any criticism of Islam is banned under the Penal Code and is punishable with up to five years in prison.

The government is being especially vigilant this year in upholding the code.  March, King Mohammed VI expelled 20 foreign missionaries accused of proselytism. Shortly afterward, about 7,000 Moroccan theologians publicly supported his decision.   

Several mission agencies note that this action set the stage for another wave of deportations and expulsions of believers and Christian workers. The latest round reveals itself as a calculated effort to purge Morocco of all Christian elements.   

Pray that many followers of Christ will continue His work in Morocco.Open Doors places Morocco at 37 on their World Watch List.

Taken from Mission Network News: http://mnnonline.org/article/14419 

Feast and Famine

I know there is an element of feast or famine in everything we do. It’s very easy to get discouraged when things are not going as well as I had hoped, but it is also exciting when things seem to get better for a time. I must admit I am a very results oriented person. When there does not seem to be as many results from work being put in, sometimes it gets hard to push on. I am thankful that the Lord knows this and He is able to send encouragement in different ways.

Growth in a Christian’s life is unending. I know the Lord has worked on me in these same areas before. I have both heard and found that growth is an unending spiral. Just when we think we’ve come around, it keeps going. We come back to the same area and grow more. I am thankful that God is so patient with me.

The past few weeks have been so encouraging. For the first time God has allowed me to schedule 10 meetings in 2 weeks – Praise the Lord! This Fall was looking a little sparse, but thankfully it is really filling in. Also, God has provided financially in amazing ways. I am excited to say the Lord has provided 15% of my needed monthly support! Praise the Lord for all He is doing!

Update

The past two months have been quite busy! I am grateful for the mission conferences I had the privilege to be a part of the past two months: New Life Baptist Church in Dalton, GA, and  Kenwood First Baptist Church in Fayetteville, GA.  I am always encouraged to see churches with a burden to reach the world with the Gospel.

Last month I was also able to be a part of the Macedonia World Baptist Missions Annual Conference held up in North Carolina at New Hope Baptist Church. What a tremendous blessing that was!! The church was so kind and worked hard to be a blessing. Each day they had an amazing meal. I was able to get to know more of my Macedonia family. Missionaries are always scattered around the world. It was a blessing to be able to sit down and talk to them and to hear about what God is doing all over the world.

I am very excited to say that last month the Lord provided 3 new supporters! This brings me up to a total of 10% of my needed support level. What a great start! I look forward to my upcoming meetings. I ask that you keep me in your prayers as I labor to schedule more meetings and in turn prayerfully raise the support I need to go to North Africa.

I have one special prayer request. North Africa, especially the area I worked in, is going through a bit of turmoil. Many missionaries who had been in the countries for many years were deported. Please pray for the missionaries there, as well as the new believers.

Pray for Christians in North Africa

There is a lot going on in North Africa right now, and this article will help us know how to better pray for them.  Pastor Gardner wrote this on his blog. 

I want to ask you to be praying for our friends that serve God in Northern Africa. There is a lot of turmoil there. Satan plays with their minds to cause them to worry. There is every reason to worry unless you consider the greatness of God and how He will work through all of this.

Here are some things to help you pray better:

The largest national newspapers are putting articles about Christianity on their front pages. One of the papers dedicated about half of the paper to the subject.

The paper reports that the American Churches have a goal to convert 10% of Moroccans by 2020. They reminded the Moroccans that the penalty of conversion is 6 months to 3 years in jail. They highlighted the testimony of one Moroccan family who had become Christians and then returned to Islam.

Though not true they reported that there are about 40-50,000 Christians in Morocco with an attempt to stir up the people.

Another day’s headlines in the newspaper were the following:

“9 centuries of missionary activity in Morocco”

“800 missionaries in Morocco. Casablanca at the forefront”

“Said Oujibou: A Moroccan running a campaign to evangelize Moroccans in France”

“Missionaries target the hearts of Moroccans”

Though Satan is attacking God is still working. Attendance in church services is actually growing. God is working in the hearts of new believers to make them more bold as they learn the Word of God.

Some churches have stopped having services but others are seeing God’s blessings.

Pray for faith in times of fear for these believers

Pray that the missionaries and believers will reject the thoughts of the accuser and hear the comfort of the Holy Spirit.

Moroccans Speak Out

This was taken from the the blog of the family I will be working with. Check out their blog.


I just received the following press release from a friend of mine living in Morocco:

We, the members of the Worldwide Union of Moroccan Christians, declare that:

We are following with great anticipation these waves of convocations, interrogations, arrests, and detentions, practiced these last few weeks by Moroccan security forces against Moroccan Christians, as well as the deportations of foreign aid workers working with humanitarian organizations in Morocco.  With this press release, we hope to clarify the following points:

As Moroccan Christians, we are proud of our rich Christian heritage. Some are first generation, others second and third, and all of these people and families have different functions in Moroccan society and abroad.  We live our daily lives peaceably, in total harmony and respect in our society that we serve according to our abilities and with zeal.

Contrary to the regrettable claims repeated by certain media that attempt to question the validity of our faith using any and every means possible, we hold fast in affirming that our faith in Christ is a personal choice that was never the result of pressure or material or social motivations.  Our convictions are religious and are not the result of any foreign influence.

The abuses and persecution coming from Moroccan authorities affect us as Christians and deprive us of our fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution and by all the internationally recognized charters and conventions. They contradict the Moroccan government’s declarations pronounced by its spokesman and communications minister by which Morocco guarantees religious and ideological freedom. It is our duty to question the legitimacy of these claims, because if they were true, why are Moroccan Christians being persecuted? Under what laws are they being interrogated and arrested?

We hold fast in affirming that the declarations of the foreign church leaders in Morocco do not reflect in any way the opinion of Moroccan Christians.  In fact, as foreign Christians residing in Morocco, they benefit from privileges for which Moroccan Christians have been denied: places of worship, churches, a total ban on gathering together and practicing our rituals in both private and in public sectors.  We are not even allowed to defend our faith when asked to do so.  In the end, we don’t even have right to possess Bibles in Arab or in Amazigh (Berber language) in our dear country, as our Bibles are confiscated and considered as tools for proselytizing.

We denounce the harassments that we are suffering as Moroccan Christians as being religious persecution that have absolutely no link to any political position.  On the other hand, we as Moroccan Christians pray for our king, our people and our homeland from Tangier to Laguira, for more goodwill, more progress and more prosperity.

It is on this basis that we are asking the Moroccan government the following:

To stop all forms of systematic security threats, arrests, detentions, and inspections with the sole objective of humiliating Christians and to pressure them to renounce their religious convictions.

That the government would open formal channels of dialogue with Moroccan Christians to establish true clarity, transparency and understanding, because we are looking to maintain the country’s integrity as well as its security.

The official recognition of Moroccan Christians and their right to have services and to practice their rituals and Christian rites freely without harassments and restrictions.

The permission granted to Moroccans to convert to the religion of their choice, including Christianity, without being submitted to any interrogation or harassment from security forces, as it is guaranteed by the Moroccan constitution.