Morocco 2010

 MOROCCO.- JULY. 2010.
Geoff & Jenny Metcalf and Keith Durney
At very short notice we were asked to go to Africa to stay at a centre there while the staff went to a conference in Europe. I, Geoff, had been there 3 times before and felt God calling me to be involved. It was one of the best trips I’ve had, although it was over 40degs every day and there was no air-conditioning, the water was off in the main centre and we had a longish up hill walk to get back to the centre after going into town!

A snapshot of a day!
Although we couldn't speak the language, Keith speaks some French which was a great help! We shopped in the main town (no Sainsburys) where standards of cleanliness and hygiene fell far below U.K.standards.12-15 live chickens kept in a very small cage. About 4 times a day there was a VERY loud call to prayer over the loudspeakers of each Mosque, starting at 4-15am! Being competitive, I took this as MY call to prayer as well and prayed for the town proclaiming that JESUS REIGNS there and across the world. It was a real privilege to join the hundreds (or more?) of people who had prayed there before.

Keith and I went on a prayer walk on the Sunday morning. We stopped to watch an organized football match and after asking the man in charge were allowed to film it. The pitch (such as it was...a dust bowl) was right outside the main Mosque and sheep and goats wandered nearby. We prayed on the Mosque steps (quietly of course.) We wandered on down the hill at about 10-30am and it was getting hotter by the minute.

We stopped to look at a small welding and metalwork shop where they were making one of the many metal pushcarts that people use to take stuff from place to place. Then a mini breakthrough we came across a tiny general store that sold ice cream!! We walked slowly into the town centre and to combat the heat decided we’d earned a mint tea - Moroccan tea comes in a small ornate pot, stuffed with mint leaves and oodles of sugar very refreshing. We sat in the heart of the town square sipping our tea watching a very different world go by, listening to a language we didn't understand and praying for these very poor but very warm and sociable, family-orientated people. I thought "this is the way to do Church on a Sunday morning and what a great way to prayer walk.

I had a freedom in the Spirit, a peace and confidence that I’d not had on my other trips there. Despite all the issues going on there (at the moment, 140 people deported, a break in at the Centre with lots if money and equipment stolen, and a general crackdown on Christians) we detected a definite change there for the better.

It would be great to encourage more teams to go - young, old skilled or unskilled. People can go to teach English, art, sport or other things, i.e. rock climbing, trekking, canoeing etc, lay tables, brush up, paint, D.I.Y, computers, prayer, worship,etc. Many who go are never the same again - they become "World Christians" having Gods view on the world -will you go?