David's 2nd email summary

Friends-

We are still on the long train ride from the ancient city-- we stopped suddenly in between stations because we hit 3 cows on the track. I had to get out and investigate with some of the soldiers who jumped off the trian to see. There was not much left, needless to say. But I made some friends with some of the soldiers who were hanging out while we waited. They were a few years younger than me. They spoke Arabic and a little English. I found out that they were paratroopers... We talked about where they are stationed... And that they have done 6 jumps so far. They smiled a lot and asked me many questions... So I have made a few new friends today! The train whistle blew and we had to go back to our train cars, but I am hoping to run in to them again when we get off.

Let me jump back to yesterday since I haven't told about it yet...

Sunday (yesterday)--
Rick and I got up early for breakfast with the family. We had some more coffee(gasp), and some bread with the most amazing apricot jelly I have ever had. The mom in our family reminds me of my mom... She loved to see us eat well and enjoy the food she prepared. We met up with the group and went to a building designated for an international fellowship service. This building is a gift to to the foreigners here. Locals are forbidden to enter. We went to the first sevice in English and then hung around for the second service in French. The music was beautiful! We all went for some American food after the service. Yep-- McDonalds.

After that we took a tour of the city with the whole team. We learned a lot about the history and culture. We saw many of the mosques, and went on in depth tours of a tannery, a handmade rug and scarf shop. The tour lasted 6 hours! We were not worth much at the end of it to say the least.

At the end of the night, Rick and I had a feast with our family. We had meatballs, avocadoes, tomatoes, as well as strawberries, pineapples and bread. Rick and I gave the family gifts... We gave the dad a braves and a falcons hat. I bought some spices at the market for the mother-- saffron and a mixture of other spices. She was very happy to get them.

The highlight of the day was when the dad took me and Rick to the public bath after dinner. Men here typically go twice a week to clean and experience community. It reminded me of the sulfur caves in Glenwood Springs that Pop took us to growing up. Basically you grab a bucket... There is a superheated water basin that you dip it in to, then you add cold water till the temperature of the water won't burn your skin off... It was pretty interesting. What a great couple of days with our family! They said we are always welcome with them. I did buy a handmade knife that is inscribed with the symbol of the village peoples from the area. It is pretty cool. No Dad, I am not going to carry it on to the plane. Well, I am tired of typing one letter at a time... Later.

David

Correction

We actually hit 3 bulls.

We Hit A Bull

Breaking News from our train...
WE HIT A BULL

We were just riding along and we saw stuff flying by our window and then our train stopped. We asked around and found out our train hit a bull on the tracks! We obliterated it!

Train Post From David

Hello all-

Right now we are riding a train from the ancient city to the mountain village... The trip will take 7 hours. I am not sure when any of us will be in front of a computer again, so I thought I would try and just send another email update with my blackberry. Please forward this to any friends that I might be forgetting, because I don't have a lot of emails programmed in yet.

Saturday afternoon/night--
After meeting up with the dad in our family, Rick, John, Garin and I took off and explored the maze of streets of the ancient city. I met many different people and shopkeepers. A very nice man showed us his leather making business... Shoes, purses and cushions. He taught us some new Arabic phrases. The people here a truly very friendly and genuinely interested in getting to know you. My friends in Spain will be excited to hear that I watched Barcelona play another Spanish soccer club on TV with all the shopkeepers on Saturday night. Everyone here is big fans of the Barcelona Soccer Team! It was fun to high five all the shopkeepers when Barcelona saved a huge penalty kick near the end of the game(they ended up losing though). The next morning some of the shopkeepers called my name out as I walked by and said BARSA! When we went home saturday night the mother of the family had prepared a nice meal for us. They had three daughters, one is 13, one is 5, and then a baby, 10 months. They are all very sweet girls... By the way-- I have never really had much coffee in my life because I don't like it, and all of a sudden I am drinking it twice a day here- the stuff here is like rocket fuel with like a pound of sugar in it-- my heart is constantly about to pound out of my chest.
I was worried initially about whether or not I would like the food-- everyone who knows me knows that I love to eat and I will pretty much eat anything... But the food here has been awesome!!! The mom and dad that we stayed with were very happy to see how much we enjoyed what the women had prepared.

Sunday will be in the next email....

David

Train to Mountain Village

Using my blackberry to type this so excuse any typos! We are on a 7 hr train to the Mountain Village. After the first city we went to the old city. We all stayed with families in the medina which has over 10k streets! All very narrow! We visited a tannery, rug factory, and silk weaver. We picked up some great gifts for ourselves and you too! We ate some authentic North African food with the families and used squattie toilets instead of our typical American toilets.

We also attended the International Fellowship protestant church where we had a service and took communion. It was in English and then another service afterwards in French!

Until the next adventure... Hopefully we will be able to add pictures soon too!

More news

Well, sleep came quickly last night and we all slept soundly until the call to prayer this morning at 3am. We quickly went back to sleep and woke up refreshed. Showers were taken and snacks were gotten for our long train ride today. BTW.... It's the last shower we will get until Wednesday! Pretty difficult for us Americans, but the norm for our host country. The pic above is the view from the window of the hostel we stayed in last night. On the top of the prayer tower are loudspeakers that broadcast the Call to Prayer five times a day.

Wow did I sleep well last night! I nearly slept through the call to prayer this morning over the loudspeaker (outside our window, there is a mosque). This morning, I got up early before breakfast to take a run along the walled city where we are staying. It was pretty cool to see the locals walking in to work or breakfast. I ran along the water towards another smaller walled city where kids were playing soccer outside. I am really enjoying seeing how similar our cultures really are! Today, we are leaving this town and are traveling to an ancient city. Here is another picture... a holy site built over ancient ruins.

We Made It!

After a very long flight, we finally made it to North Africa! We immediately met up with our liaison, and took a series of train rides to our first city. Attached are a few photos of the team on the first day as we traversed the city. We visited several important holy sites and tried our share of the local cuisine. Overall, we had a safe trip and a great day, and wanted to let our friends and family back home follow our journey. Enjoy the pics!

And We're Off...

Today's the day!! Our flight leaves ATL for NYC and then on to North Africa this afternoon...we arrive tomorrow morning. Here's hoping our luggage makes it!! :)

Easter Week

I've been thinking what great timing out trip has. All week long we have been preparing for today (Good Friday) when Christ was crucified and Sunday when we celebrate him overcoming death. I know that my eyes have been turned toward him more this week than normal. How incredible that we have this week before we leave to prepare our hearts and minds for our trip.

I'm so excited I can hardly wait!!

Thanks for following our journey so far... it's only just beginning.

Fasting

Last weekend, Jeff Henderson posted a comment on the Buckhead Church blog which challenged and encouraged each of us to fast for one 24-hour period prior to Good Friday, sundown to sundown. And then come ready to praise God for his unspeakable gift of mercy as we worship and celebrate communion together Friday night.

Fasting gives us the opportunity to turn our attention and focus from ourselves to the grace of God. It reminds us that God meets our needs. We can focus that time on our spiritual needs instead of physical needs and depend on God.

At our lake retreat a few weeks ago, we also discussed fasting before our North Africa trip. We decided to take up the challenge and fast all day yesterday and then get together in the evening at Garin's house for a feast and movie night. It was an amazing experience relying on God and praying to him for strength. When my tummy was growling all day long and so loud that my coworkers could hear it, I was thinking God is saying "PRAY HARD!"

Relax....

Yesterday, our entire team took part in Sharing the Hope seminar with speaker Fouad Masri. It was absolutely incredible! We learned about the history of Muhammed and the Muslim religion as well as ways to bridge the gap relationally and religiously with Muslims. There was soooo much information, the week and a half we have left before we leave will not be enough to absorb it all. The main thing we learned was to Relax!.... God is on the throne. It is our job to share and be an ambassador, not a converter. Sharing your faith is as easy as having a friendly conversation.

Fouad is a part of the Crescent Project and I encourage all who read this to check out their website at http://www.crescentproject.org/ There are books available from their online bookstore as well as the incredible Bridges program for small groups.

The whole team is getting psyched about going and we are ready to see what incredible situations we will find ourselves in!

Still not the whole group...

But getting closer!
We got together for dinner tonight with the team from last year to ask questions / get advice. Pictured below is our group with Rod who lead last year's group.

(L to R) John, Emily, Kristin, Jessi, Tracy, Rick, David, Courtney, Rod
Not pictured: Jennifer & Garin

Muslim View of Jesus

Interesting story from CNN about an Iranian movie about Jesus through Islamic views.
Check it out: http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/world/2008/03/06/raman.iran.jesus.movie.cnn

We Shine

On Sunday at church Steve Fee sang a song off his newest album called "We Shine." This is a rockin song and it definitely makes you stand up and sing/shout. Part of the song says, "We're going into all the world. We're carrying the light of Jesus. We shine. We shine. In the darkest place we shine." As we were singing that song I kept thinking about our group. We are carrying the light of Jesus to this Muslim country. We are going to a place that is over 98% Muslim, where the call to prayer is announced over a loud speaker 5 times a day (including 3am). And in other areas where black magic and snake charming are common practices. We truly are the light of Jesus to them. Many if not most have no idea the truth of Jesus.

Help us Lord to shine! Even in the darkest places. Help us to show them your love.

Check out Steve Fee singing this song last week here: http://www.buckheadproduction.org/
-Emily

Clothing & Cuisine

Hey everyone, Emily here, trying this thing out and getting the ball rolling for other posts!
Thanks to David for setting this up for our team and we hope you will check in with us while we are in Africa.

Last night we had another team meeting where we went over things to pack and appropriate dress. For us girls, it is elbows and knees covered! So today I ventured out to Old Navy & Target to see what fashionable modest clothes I could find and to my surprise I actually found a lot! In case you hadn't heard tunics are big this season - which was perfect. I also got all my travel size toiletries and a few snacks.

Which brings me to the next topic...FOOD! I'm a little concerned about my food choices over there. I am really picky and I'm worried about how that will all play out. This is one of my biggest prayer requests for the trip. At our meeting last night Mike (who lived in North Africa for 2 years) taught us a new little prayer: "Where you send me I will follow, What you feed me I will swallow" or something to that effect. HAHA! I'm definitely going to praying that a lot!

Leaving in less than 3 weeks!

"...I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth."
-Isaiah 49:6

Many of the people groups that are still unreached by the Gospel live in places that stretch across the continents of northern Africa, central and southeast Asia. Many refer to this vast area as the 10/40 window, because it lies inbetween 10 degrees and 40 degrees latitude north of the equator. Current statistics place fully two-thirds of the earth's total population in this window, and an estimated 95 percent of the people living there have never heard the Gospel... not even once. Missionaries in this area of the world are indeed in short supply.

At the end of the month, our team will travel inside the 10/40 window into North Africa. Although we will only be there for 11 days, we are very excited to serve the Lord in whatever capacity he sees fit as we are exposed to Muslim culture in the mission field.

Our team first came together in early January at our first meeting with our team leader, John Hoover. Although we were strangers to each other then, we have become good friends since! We have met nearly every week, and a couple of weekends ago we all came together for a retreat at the Hoover's home on Lake Nottley. We shared testimonies, played many games of Ping Pong, Cornhole (the tailgating-beanbag game) and Catch Phrase. We all pitched in preparing dinner under the tutelage of Kristin and the ladies, and I (David) peeled and diced a cucumber for the salad (don't act like you're not impressed). We also shot some 5 year old dried out fireworks off the dock (the girls' idea). In a short length of time, we are have learned a lot about our team, and we are looking forward to our trip in a few weeks. Our fundraising is still a work in progress, but our goal is to hit 100% by the time we step on the plane at the end of the month. This weekend's meeting we will have some guest speakers who have lived in North Africa so that they can tell us a little more about what to expect in our travels such as food, what kind of clothing we should be expected to wear, etc..

We would like to ask you to pray for us as the Lord prepares our hearts for this trip. Also-- please pray for fellow team member Rick Tuley with his father's passing after a courageous battle with cancer. Rick has truly been an inspiration for the team, and we are so happy to have him continue to come with to North Africa with us even during this incredibly difficult time in his life. It is our hope that all of our supporters will follow our blog and continue to pray for us and the people of North Africa-- even though we are not sure how often we will even have the chance to update this due to the nature of our trip. I think at the very least, though, we will be able to post pictures and comments from our mobile phones, so we encourage friends and supporters to follow along with us, and post your own comments to our posts! As you add comments, keep this in mind... we hope all of our supporters and friends who follow this understand that for the safety of future mission trips to the area as well as for the general safety of all of our team members, our team has decided to refrain from divulging the town locations of the places we will be visiting, even the name of the country. Sorry for the mystery, we are not trying to pull a James Bond or anything... we will just refer to them as the base city, or mountain town or something like that.

Till the next posting, please continue to keep us and the people of North Africa in your prayers! We are very excited! Oh and for the record, Hoov and I are the Catch Phrase Champs. - David