The Masters Call

The following was written by Paul F, one of nine Strategic Impatct interns in North Africa this summer:

The main goal of this trip is to meet people. Duh. That is, of course, why we came here. Well, today I finally met a ‘real’ stranger. Two of them, in fact. The first was Abdul*. I was walking along the beach, passing out some flyers for our English class. Abdul and his friends were sitting on a bench, enjoying the breeze. I walked up to them, gave them a flyer, and asked them if they spoke English. Abdul said that he spoke little, so we made small talk for about 15 minutes. Although he won’t be coming to English class, I did get his name and number to contact him.

Stranger #2 was a much more eccentric character. He is an older man, and speaks only Spanish. (Yes, that was a challenge for me! My meager Spanish skills were pushed to the limit tonight!) After talking for 20 minutes, he offered to buy me a cigarette. “No fumo, no fumo!” I think he got the point that I don’t smoke, although he still lit up. His name is very long, but part of it is Morab. Morab and I talked about work, family, America, soccer… anything we could think of. Then he took me to a local cafe, which is also where he works. He bought me a ’super-black-espresso’, and we watched the soccer game for 45 minutes. It was getting late, and after he gave me his picture and telephone number, we parted ways. I am definitely excited. God is working here, and people are being reached for Him. Jesus came that none should perish; that includes Abdul, Morab, and everyone else that we meet. It includes everyone that you meet, too! Americans need the Gospel of Christ just as much as the people of North Africa!

The team in general is doing very well. We stared teaching English and learning Arabic today. Wow! Arabic is insanely hard to learn! We all felt overwhelmed after class today. But it was the first class, so hopefully things will improve with each class. Teaching English will be fun, though. We get to teach English and make new friends at the same time. Amen!

Thank you for reading this, and praying for us all. We really appreciate your prayer support!

*Name changed for security purposes