Mohammedia and more...

Hello friends and family. General updates.
I am still in Morocco - healthy and happy currently.
It’s getting hotter here, a bit of humidity has hit. My face is strangely tan while the rest of me, since usually pretty covered up, is not.

I had a great weekend. I wandered around Rabat on Friday after couscous with some girls from the program. We went to the Hassan mosque which is the ruins of an enormous yet unfinished mosque. After that I went to a cafe and got avocado juice with dried fruit with my host sister. It is delicious.

Saturday I went with five other students to my lit professor’s house for the day. He invited us for the weekend but due to pre-made plans, we only stayed for Saturday. I had a great time and enjoyed being with a kind family who really wanted us there. He has four daughters and each of them were so kind and genuine. I have missed my parents a lot and being with this family reminded me so much of my family, my professor mostly of my dad. I LOVE YOU and MISS YOU DAD! A quote of my professor’s to his 21 year old daughter…
Daughter – Dad, all I need is a car. (meaning she wants his help)
Dad – I agree. Once you finish school, get a job and you should get a car.
And I will be so happy for you.
And from time to time you can give my a lift.
Needless to say his daughter wasn’t pleased with the answer.

Sunday, I found the Rabat International Church. I got there early, since I wasn’t entirely sure where it was and talked with one of the English pastors for a while. He was very kind and discussed the political and religious atmosphere in Morocco with me. A notable case of Christians deported occurred within the last two weeks from Village of Hope, a ministry in the Atlas mountains. In a nutshell, Village of Hope is a sort of foster care program operating for the last 10 years for orphaned Moroccan children. The parents take these children into their homes and raise them as their own. However, they are unable to adopt as a result of the strict religious laws in Morocco. They are Christians and so unable to adopt Muslim Moroccans. As a result of supposed proselytizing, even though the organization has said that they didn’t do anything different, but had always been open about their faith in Jesus, they are being sent from the country to their respective home countries. This leaves these children without the only family many of them have ever known. Pray for the political situation and that other countries would bring pressure to the Moroccan leaders to reverse this action, restoring these families.

Anyway, I went to the service and afterward met another American who was coming for the first time from another program. She was very sweet and together we went to a café after the service with some other young people from the church. There were girls from Germany, Korea, Finland, America, and Britain plus two guys from Ghana. One of the guys shared his testimony with us and how he had come to faith, finding his salvation and eternal assurance in Christ.

I am torn between wanting to stay around Rabat for the next few weekends and wanting to explore Morocco more. I am realizing I don't have a lot of weekends left and so am going to start planning more to make the most of the time here.