Reaching Morocco
.jpg)
Between the Rock and a hard place
By Gary Fallesen, founding president Climbing For Christ
“And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” – Matthew 24:14 (ESV)
Those words from Jesus inspire me. Knowing that every tribe and language and people and nation will be represented in the kingdom of heaven, according to the Book of Revelation, and that more than 4 out of every 10 people groups in the world remain unreached, according to the Joshua Project, I realize there is work to be done.
And I have been blessed to be a worker in His harvest fields.
Unfortunately, there are not enough of us working toward the end. Help is wanted.
Nearly 3 billion of the world’s 7 billion people have not heard. As the apostle Paul asked in Romans 10:14, “how can they believe in Him if they have never heard about Him? And how can they hear about Him unless someone tells them?”
We must GO. We must proclaim His name.
So when a Climbing For Christ member started working with unreached people in Morocco and his co-worker contacted us – saying, “Come!” – I had one of those Isaiah 6:8 moments.
“We have a huge need for short-term teams willing to put on a pack and trek back into the hard-to-get-to-places of this fantastic range,” the invitation read. “The people are open to talking about Jesus, but who will go back there and tell them?”
Here am I. Send me!
Our first short-term team arrived in North Africa in 2013. We went to survey the opportunity, make a seven-day exploratory trek in the High Atlas Mountains, encourage our brothers working there, and see what God had planned for us.
It was amazing; like working with a blank piece of paper to write HIStory.
In one village, we shared with a man about “the way, the truth, and the life.” He had no idea what – or Who – we were talking about because he’d never heard of Jesus Christ. This was a beginning. A new day was dawning.
There were many other starting points: from route finding between villages to locating homes that would invite us in (and by extension welcome future workers) to growing relationships.
“I loved not caring how foolish I may look because I know nothing of this culture,” said a female team member from Canada, “and that I look like a city girl compared to these hardcore women. But I go and try to learn and love because I want Christ to shine through and for them to bow down and worship Jesus as their one and only true God.”
She did this with Berber women – in their gardens, in their kitchens, and while weaving with them on a rooftop. While she was “doing whatever it takes to share Christ’s love,” the guys on the team were making new friends over tooth-aching sweet mint tea with the men of each house.
We did so, as one team member said, by “showing love and believing that seeds are being sown to welcome teams in the future to share Christ with them.”
In 2015, we returned to the High Atlas Mountains.
Doors were opening in villages there. “One day, in the throne room of heaven, these people will stand with all the saints and worship God,” said a co-worker, adding an invitation that shouldn’t be refused. “Be a part of God's kingdom coming to earth in their villages!”
There are 10 people groups with a total population of more than 565,000 in Morocco, a country of 34.7 million, who count among them ZERO CHRISTIANS.
3381