Imperishable Inheritance

Here now is the second installment of my trip recap to North Africa.

An Unreached Village in an Unreached Land

Our next excursion was into the mountains to visit a "classic" unreached people group. We visited a Berber village. Berber people are to North Africa as Native Americans are to America. In fact, many of the early church fathers (Augustine for example) are Berber. They are stretched all along North Africa. When the Muslims came through in the 7th and 8th centuries they either pushed them farther west on into Spain, or they fled to the mountains. The latter is what happened with the village we visited.

We took a taxi a to a tour guide who takes foreigners to meet these people. We marched for a day into the mountains to see a village much older than the U.S.! There were pockets of these villages throughout the mountain region, and sometimes there were different dialects spoken from mountain to mountain! These people we went to didn't even speak Arabic which meant that we couldn't converse with them (our tour guide did for us), but it also means that they can't read the Qur'an. You see pretty instantly that they don't have a dogmatic understand of Islamic doctrine as they have mixed what precepts they wanted from Islam into a form of folk religion. They were observing Ramadan while we were there however, and it was an amazing experience to share time with a family that has never heard of Jesus. Imagine not even being able to hear the news about redemption even if you wanted to? That, my friends, is a powerful impetus for action.

An Early Ride Home

I should note that after this trip I find out that I was coming home early. This is probably where the most tangible lessons I could've learned transpired. It was here that I learned about the lack of character I posses currently to do work like this, but it was also here where God showed me his power to give me the things necessary in his timing.

Before we went into the country we were told we couldn't bring in anything that would appear as though we had missiological intentions. On that list were Bibles, but I rationalized bringing in the Arabic New Testament that I took with me. For two months I did nothing with it, but when some girls on our trip made a friend I thought it would be a good idea to give it to one of them to give to their friend. Well, that friend turned me in (and rightly so). I learned hard lessons on what true leadership is and is not. I found out after our Berber trip that I was being sent home due to my sin, and it was the first time I got to see how my sin hurt others in a very tangible way. I was heartbroken, and they were as well. Sure enough, two days later I was back in the U.S.

Afterwards...

Coming back and telling my supporters what happened has been difficult, but I have learned a lot. I have reconciled my relationships with both the staff and students of the trip, and I have been restored at my local church. It has been a humbling time, but I thank God that he didn't give me over to myself. I am also thankful that I didn't make such a mistake when I had a family and full time ministry overseas in such a place. Praise be to the God of the harvest!