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Saturday, July 31, 2010

Still in N. Africa

7/25? Sunday

Well, it's 4:22am, and we're still in N Africa. We were pretty good getting to the airport on time, and 40 min before the flight was suppose to depart. Alas, we didn't leave. Our flight was delayed for an hour, and then another hour until they decided to cancel the Flight completely. The next Flight is at 5:30p today (Sunday).

It's 4:44am, and we're still at the Airport, waiting for a bus to take us to our Hotel...

5:31am: we finally made it to the hotel room...good room...going to bed...good night.

Pray for us that we get home soon.

Spaghetti Night!!

7/21 Wednesday


We made Spaghetti last night for a church! "Mediterranean-style". ;). There's a church here that's celebrating a 5-year anniversary, and we were invited to come celebrate with them. Our Local Team Leader decided that we should make them some dinner to eat after the Service. Not to make this long with details, let's just say the talented cooks made dinner.

I think this trip is turning into a theme. In our last Post, we shared a passage that Lynn read a couple days back with a group of widows:

"After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!".
Rev 7:9-10

It wasn't an extravagant (did I spell that right?) celebration, but to hear Christ being praised in another language made my heart melt. (Sorry if I sound unusually mushy, but the Spirit has been moving) We came in as they were singing Arabic Worship music, and then they started singing "Above All" by Michael W Smith...in ARABIC! As soon as we recognized it we sang along with them in English. Later, before Sarah and Louisa shared their testimony, we led them in Worship. One of the songs was the chorus of "How Great is Our God" (Azeem Ya Allah). When we started singing it in Arabic, the Congregation joined us, and the men started to stand with arms held high, and singing loudly in Arabic. Incredible! So far, this trip brought that passage alive in N Africa. This is what it's going to look like in Heaven, around the Lord's throne!

This is just Day 3. What's in stored for us for the next 3 days? We will eagerly wait to see.

Grace and Blessings,
Leona

Late N Africa Update

Sorry for the late updates on the blog. We hoped to keep everyone updated on our trip last week, but we didn't have a secure enough internet access..(or we were just too tired to type even one letter on the keyboard). At least we had the desire to write you at heart, but not enough to act upon it. ;) I did log some of our interesting adventures on my iPhone to share for later, so here's "later".

Thank you for your prayers and support. It was an incredible trip that I can truly say that God used to change OUR hearts as well as the N African friends we met.

Leona

Monday, July 26, 2010

It's EE-lona Day in N Africa!

**This was written on 7/19**

Last year, I spent my birthday over the Atlantic Ocean, and lost 16 hours of my birthday. Kind of hard to celebrate my birthday then when I was exhausted from travelling.

This year I wasn't prepared that I was going back to N Africa the same time as last year, and actually celebrate it IN N Africa! It has been wonderful day. I woke up to balloons all over my bed, and a banner hanging from the kitchen Counter. Thank God for the Team I'm a part of. And, for my birthday present, I gave a couple shots of Vitamin B6 to one of girls on our Team. It's not a complete trip without someone getting sick. One of the girls woke up feeling nauseous and throwing up this morning. We gave her what meds we had to help her, but nothing worked. So, we spoke to our Local Team Leader, and he suggested I give her a shot of Vitamin B6. Even in N Africa, God is using my nursing skills..




Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Better Late Than Than, um, Ever.

Greetings from North Africa! We must be getting used to the N African culture because I (Sarah) am writing this blog at 12:20 am WHILE WAITING FOR DINNER TO BE SERVED. Yes, dinner is an after-midnight affair, and bedtime is usually 2 or 3 am. We are told it's because N Africans like to be outside when the sun is down and the weather is cooler, so they shift their "daytime" to include most of the night, and wow is it a huge change for us! How we Texans are managing is simply God's grace because we are all operating on about 5 hours' sleep, and a couple of us have battled nausea. But the short sleep and vitamin B-6 shots are undoubtedly worth it as we are using time we would normally be snoozin' to be-bop around this beautiful, bustling city of 20 million people spreading the Lord's love. Yee haw!

We have visited two different churches in the few days since we arrived, both small by American standards (around 60 or 75 people) but huge in Spirit by any human gauge -- the congregants are so welcoming and warm! This morning, Danielle and Louisa shared their stories about how God has protected them in their lives (a local friend translated into Arabic), and afterward we all sang a song ("Amazing Grace") to the church, distributed cookies and hot tea, and prayed for people in need of intercession. That we could travel 5,300 miles across this vast planet and find a pocket of family here in N Africa -- it's just like the song says: only by His amazing grace! It reminded us of that part of the Book of Revelation, which Lynn read during the service:

"After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: 'Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.'" (Revelation 7:9-10)

We also visited a gorgeous park here in town. It's a spacious oasis of towering palm trees, fountains, and rolling hills amid an otherwise parch, sandy desert, and as you can imagine, folks are eager to go outside and enjoy the cool breezes once the sun goes down. We all feared the language barrier would be difficult to surmount, and indeed, only about a third of the people we meet speak English well enough to converse, but guess what? It turns out that a big smile and a friendly hello are universal. We have been both humbled and exhilarated by the open arms and open hearts we've encountered here.

We've also met some food we really lurve (aka love). Shawerma was an instant favorite; it's a sandwich of either chicken or lamb wrapped in a tortilla and pressed panini-style so it's piping-hot and toasted. We also ordered dessert for lunch today (because we didn't want to make the same mistake we did yesterday in eating so much shawerma that we didn't have room for dessert) in the form of fruit salad (figs, apples, bananas, and mangoes) topped with ice cream, milk, and strawberry syrup. We are STILL jittery from the sugar high.

Speaking of dinner, ours is about ready so I'm signing off. (Fresh mangoes we bought at a corner market are beckoning like a siren song.) Please continue praying for us as we manuever crazy traffic, difficulty with the language, and not enough sleep -- we can definitely feel your support from here.

Much love to y'all!