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North Africa Update #3 28 January 2012

Thanks for your continued prayers for our group.  We've been safe and the minor stomach bug we've passed around has stayed minor.
 
Yesterday and tomorrow will look very different.  Yesterday we visited a group that is responding to the orphan crisis in this African country by working to empower families to keep their children and going to national believers to adopt these children so they can take care of the orphans in their own country.  It's an inspiring vision and one that is rooted in the church.  This organization gathered church leaders from around the country and said "God has adopted us in Christ.  If we understand that, then we must care for those around us."  Evangelism, missions, and orphan care all spring out of this mindset.  Yesterday, the first domestic adoption in the history of the country (the first done through the court system) was finalized and one believer standing outside the court said, "This is good.  We are believers, so we should set the example."  It's so encouraging to see believers with that mindset.
 
Then, tomorrow, we head far off the beaten track to a people group with only a handful of believers total.  This people group has adopted our host (who has been working there for 20 years into its family, so I'm sure we will be welcomed well (no doubt with sizable portions of food).  Here, though, the challenge is not encouraging the church to flesh out the Gospel within its society.  Here the challenge is planting a church, and then encouraging the baby churches to mature and begin planting others.  It is happening and Jesus will be exalted there, but there is much work to be done here, too.

This is a country of extremes in terms of the religious environment.  We're learning what is our place as foreigners, and the answer is not always the same.

Thanks for your prayers over the course of these two weeks.  After we get home in a few days, ask us for highlights of the trip, what we saw and learned.  Look forward to telling you!