Yesterday, I had the privilege of traveling with my good friend Austin Gardner to the city of Ceuta, a Spanish enclave located on the northern shores of Morocco.
We spent over an hour with an entertaining, out spoken, Spanish taxi driver who gave us a ton of helpful information about the area. He reminded us several times, ” I have lived here for 23 years. I know everything there is to know about this place!”
Our first stop was on the side of a mountain that overlooked Ceuta. From there we were able to see on one side the neighboring city in Morocco, and on the other side we could see across the Mediterranean Sea to mainland Spain. Our driver pointed out where the majority of the 80,000 citizens of Ceuta lived, both the rich and the not so rich.
We asked him to take us down in the middle of it all and show us the good and the bad. It only took about 20 minutes to get from one side of the city to the other.
As we drove through downtown, I could hear the call to prayer ringing out from one of the five Mosques in the city. Between his estimation and that of a few other sources I’ve asked, there are somewhere between 20,000 to 30,000 Moroccans living inside the city permanently and several thousand others travel in and out daily for work.
He bragged about the international acceptance of his country as we passed by a four-headed statue that is meant to symbolize four cultures (Moroccan, Indian, Jewish, and Spanish) blending together in one location. Besides the Mosques and Catholic churches, Ceuta has its own Synagogue and Hindu temple.
With all of the nationalities coming together in this free city, only two Evangelical churches exist. They have complete religious freedom, but less gospel witness than the restricted Muslim nation just on the other side of their border. We need now more than ever young people who will stand up and say, “I will be a light in darkness, regardless of the cost.”
The work may not be safe, but it is like the statement Seth Godin makes in his book The Purple Cow, “Safe is Risky.”
Will we risk the souls of millions of in places like Ceuta and Morocco for the sake of our personal safety and comfort?
Lord, may we weigh the cost and risk everything for the glory of your name.