Out of the Office–Gone to Morocco

  Downtown Office Building. Can you find me in the picture above? How many times?

One of our friends is actually going to study Arabic so this will be a chance to support him in that venture and get him kind of set-up. I mentioned Nate in my last post. He will be returning to Barcelona after his busy summer which includes–language learning in Morocco, then back in the states to be with family and friends for a short break, then back to Barcelona to support the Latino cell group we have been working with this year. Nate also wants to learn more about the Mosaics project we are working on. So God is supplying more personnel as we transition back to the Seattle for a year. Pray for Nate, for his language and culture learning. He is excited but this will be a big venture none-the-less. We are excited for him. Before I sign off to go finish packing, I wanted to share this photo with you as a way of saying essentially. "I will be out of the office" for awhile. I may be able to post some stuff from Morocco but don't know yet for sure.

We had about 20 in our cell group last night night. A lot of energy and interest is growing with this group. This is the Esparcidos project that I mentioned several months ago. After our study and short time of worship I visited with some of our new people. One guy shared that he is agnostic but open and inquiring. I had a wonderful time sharing with him about the Mosaics project and my desire to build bridges of friendship with our focus friends. This guy was visiting from Holland where they also have many immigrants from our focus areas, similar to Spain. Anyway, he was intrigued with what we are doing and seemed challenged to reach out in friendship to focus people that he knows back home.

After our study I went to hang out with our colleague from La Coruña, Rob Reed, who was visiting Barcelona and this cell group. We both had a great dish of patatas bravas [spicy potatoes] starting around 10:45 at night, out in the open air of the evening at a sidewalk cafe. After a great time of visiting I looked at my watch and said, "hey, I got to catch the last train home!" I madly rushed and got the first two trains but the 3rd one was already out of service for the night. No problem. I popped my head out of the subway at a different place, got my bearings and headed up the hill to our apartment, about a 25 minute walk. Rolled into the house from the office, I guess you could say, about 1 am. But don't get me wrong. That sounds like I am addicted to work. I am not. I just love what I do and what God has called us to. It is a wonderful journey and the adventure is really, really fun.

By the way, keep our little travel team in prayer as we poke around Morocco. It is a fascinating country with many, many focus friends. Pray also for my Pakistani friends as they have their first event while I am gone. They have had a glitch with the logistics so pray that will be ironed out. Pray also for Carol and the kids in their places of life and activity, that God would show his love and grace to us all as we seek to follow. Thanks.