Lady Ramblings

The Guest Speaker???

2008-04-11T06:02:00.000-07:00

At a little after 4a.m. this morning my kids were up screaming and I was sitting straight up in my bed. We live in a building with a mosque on the first floor. So hearing the call to prayer is nothing new to us....but this morning evidently the normal Imam was taking a breather. This new guy came through the speakers at full force. I heard several people from the other apartments moving around too.
Then minutes after the yelling ended, a crazy new sound kept us awake.....a rooster. Yes, a rooster in the middle of downtown!! My son sleepily asked me if we were on the farm??? Craziness! We finally were able to return to sleep at nearly 6 a.m.

Hello again....

2008-04-02T04:16:00.001-07:00

We have been very busy the last few weeks with lots of guests and other things. I have slacked a little in my blogging.

I have been reading a lot these days and I just finished an excellent book. It is called
A Martyr's Grace. By Marvin J. Newell. It was a challenging book, but also a great faith building tool for me. I wanted to share one of the quotes from a recent martyr. It was a journal entry, a prayer written down, by Bonnie Witherall shortly before she was killed in Lebanon.

"Lord, here we are in the Middle East. How many people will die in this city of Sidon today without knowing You? How can I worry about my life or Gary's life when tens of thousands of people may die and face eternal damnation today? Lord, my life is already hidden with You. I know You. I have the truth. There is nothing they can take from me!'

That is powerful isn't it??? I can not explain how much her words helped me. I sat with tears in my eyes out of conviction and from an amazing peace and love that only God can give.
An interesting thing is I had already heard her story before I read this book. I have met Gary, her husband in Atlanta. He has forgiven her killers and still continues to serve the Lord. Bonnie was a nurse at a pre-natal clinic in Lebanon. The clinic was very well known to be a Christian Clinic. She was killed there at her place of service. She was killed by someone who didn't know the love of Christ.
I thank God for people like her, people who love God and gave everything to see God glorified in places where the people can not even see their own need.

Easy North African Pancakes.

2008-03-19T02:52:00.001-07:00

Several people had told me they tried some of the recipes I put on here before, so I thought I would share another.
My kids LOVE this stuff. This is an everyday food for people over here. It is usually eaten in the morning or at night as a snack.

Pancakes (or flat bread made in a pan) -These can be served with jam, syrup, or with cream cheese. Also folded with meat and cheese.

The following recipe makes 3 large pancakes. Multiply the recipe by the number of people you wish to serve.

Mix in a bowl:
1cup flour (wheat flour works great too)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup warm water

Turn out onto floured table and knead until the dough is elastic. (you may need to add a few drops of water.) With well oiled hands form the dough into ping-pong ball sized balls. On a well oil surface, with well oiled fingers flatten the balls until they are the diameter of your open hand. Fold the dough in 1/3 from top to bottom and then from side to side. You will have little squares. Again flatten the squares with your fingers until they are once again the diameter of your hand. In a pan fry both sides over moderate heat until golden crisp.

They freeze well too.

Part II

2008-03-16T08:55:00.000-07:00

If you read my husbands blog you already read about our awesome time last night! Giving out food and ministering from the Word of God. It was truly a great time. Everybody knows every reporter reports differently so here's my take on yesterday's ministry outreach:
First we counted up the money and went to the market. My co-worker and I were excited as we walked there, planning out what would be the best to buy with the little money we had. We were both trilled to be given the opportunity to minister in this way.
We returned with potatoes, milk, canned tuna, soap, noodles, beans, tea, and a few other things. We then divided up what we had into bags of equal portions. As soon as we walked out the door we saw Evelyn. A tall Nigerian women dressed in a purple djellaba, and a white head covering. Her friend was with her. She was similarly dressed, with her baby named Jackson strapped to her back. We talked with them for a few minutes. She shared with us the bad way she is treated here by the North Africans, and told us she was not a Muslim, but she had to dress that way to receive hand outs. They are in a difficult situation I understand, but I will admit she did hold a little bit of an expectant type attitude. We explained we wanted to give them food in the name of Jesus. We told them we simply wanted to share His love. We also explained we would do the same regardless if they were Muslim or Christian. As we handed them the food we received many strange looks from the people walking by and those working in stores near us. It was awesome to be showing others in a discreet way our good works, so they may in turn see Our Father.
Then we loaded all of us into the car and went to find Emy. Also a Nigerian. My husband had met him awhile back and had shared with him our churches desire to help. We found him and he directed us to his house. Or actually more accurately put, his room. When we were getting close, my heart was beating faster than normal. It was getting darker, all I could think about was about how the very neighborhood we were in is the one where reportedly many terrorist or would be terrorist live. The neighborhood had been on the national news awhile back for this reason. There was trash everywhere. Stray dogs and cats running everywhere. Horrible smells, etc. I think you get the picture.....really a BAD part of town. When we arrived my husband offered a man working a run down shop a little money to watch our car. We then filed out of our car. People were staring at us....well mainly me.( The white lady with blue eyes holding the hands of two light haired children. I usually stick out more than anybody.) I mean this is not the place tourists go for family picnics....I am sure the people were wondering what in the world we were doing there. At night for that matter. We then followed Emy into a building with a grass mat on the floor of the hallway. Shoes were lined up everywhere. We walked several rooms with only blankets on the floor. All of the rooms rented out for about $70 a month. Again bad odors filled the air. Something chemical, B.O. , and smoke. We all gathered in a room at the end of the hallway. Four or five guys live there. There were only blankets for beds. We sat on their blankets. The had a tiny TV and a small shelf with a Bible on it.
We sat with them for awhile. My husband shared the Bible with them and we prayed with them.We began with only a few and then others came in, one went to get his own Bible from his room. He then returned with a used looking Bible. Suffain shared his testimony with them. They were shocked and pleased to meet a North African Christian. I think it was awesome for Suffain as well to meet them and minister to them. I know usually when he shares his testimony he has to deal with negative responses. It was awesome to hear their positive and encouraging remarks when he finished. We had a great time and I am excited to meet many more Africans that we can minister to here. We are looking forward to next Saturday, when we plan to meet with them again. It was really a great day yesterday, I praise God for the opportunity!!!!

Awesome Day Yesterday!! Part I

2008-03-16T08:35:00.000-07:00

I had a great day of ministry yesterday. It is awesome how God knows just what you need to stay encouraged!! After many days feeling a little sick and just hanging out in the house with not much to do, I was bored out of my mind. Also I was anxious to do something productive.
Lately I have been spending a lot of time with some new friends. (I think we get chubbier by second, with the all food they give us!) God is really building some new relationships for us to share the Good News with. Suffain's family was pretty hard on him this past week, perhaps the two hardest on him were the husband and mother of my new friend. Yet anytime someone is discussing anything about what we believe I have noticed her straining to hear every word. Last night I asked her a question and she had to apologize for not hearing me....even though she was sitting right next to me. She had been listening to my husband and Suffain talk. I really think she is curious about why in the world would Suffain endure what he has from his family. Everybody loves him and respects him.....'why isn't Islam good enough for him.' He has been and continues to be a great testimony to them!
I thank God for more doors opening all the time. I know we have our responsibility and we have to leave it up to God to work in the hearts of those we speak to. He is working.

"Lady Ramblings"! Finally hearing from some ladies!!

2008-03-10T14:41:00.000-07:00

I have been excited this week because the Lord is really working here in what we are doing. I was a little down last week struggling with what exactly God was doing with me. I mean it is obvious He is working here. We have many people attending our Bible studies, and lots of e-mail contacts, but nearly everyone of them is male. So I guess to put it simply I was asking God to move somehow in the lives of the women we know.
Praise God, He is always faithful. At the end of last week my new friend came over to see me. She is Suffain's cousin. She brought her son with her. Our children played and we had a great chance to talk. Her Arabic is a little more difficult to understand for me right now because she has grown up in the south and I have learned from mostly northern people. None the less we had a great talk. I was able to witness some to her and she actually asked me some questions. The crazy thing is that she is the first Muslim lady I have ever talked to that has not put up one argument about Islam. She never offered even one word. She is not a quiet person either. She listened and then asked a few questions. Often my conversations are interrupted by the statement, "Well, in our religion....." But she said nothing. I know my Arabic is limited, but I praise God that this conversation opened up the door for Suffain to talk to her even more than before. He told us on Sunday she wants to come to our Bible Study, maybe even next week. Now, I have to say her husband is very Muslim at this point he is very friendly to us and we are praying for him. Should my friend continue her interest in the Jesus Christ this could be a major stumbling block at any moment. Right now I believe God is working in her heart. If you could remember to pray for her. Her name is Nejlat.
I often struggle with lack of faith. Learning to wait on God is difficult, but I believe He is giving us a little picture of the future. We had a lady visitor at the Bible Study last week and we have received a few e-mails from a few other brave women. For a lady to think about changing something so huge as her religion on her own is very serious risk in the eyes of her family. I am thankful for those who are ready and willing to search out the truth. Please continue to pray for these ladies.

"Do not Distrub."

2008-03-04T09:56:00.000-08:00

I have learned this week a huge difference in our American culture and the culture here. I have been sick this week and I stayed home most of the week. I quickly learned I would be "well taken care of". Here when a friend is sick it is customary to go to them. Not to just call them. That is considered by some people to be rude. It is important to visit with, sit with, cook for them, etc. Of course to me this is quite uncomfortable.
So, there I am on the couch not feeling good, in my pjs, my hair a mess, no makeup, and visiting with my friends. Everyone takes the responsibility of caring for their sick friend very seriously. Now, I will say it is very normal for women here to wear pjs all day long. They come home and quickly change and then change again if they go back out. So it is really normal from them to see their friends in the pjs. I feel very uncomfortable with this however. I like to be somewhat prepared when I am going to have visitors. I am used to the unexpected drop ins, but at least when I am feeling good, my house is clean, and I look half way decent.
So I have learned two things from this past week; one being that I will not have very much privacy when I am sick if I admit to being sick. I thought by telling my friends I was ill I would be avoiding visits. Wrong!
Secondly I learned that in the future if I want to be a true friend I need to always give kind gesture to my friends. Even if that means just sitting with them watching t.v. Here no one wants to be alone if they a sick.
I am grateful even in my discomfort, that I know people who want to care for me and show their friendship to me. I think I will be forever learning all the cultural differences that exist here. I am trying to understand and adjust the best I can.

Bad Attitude=No Posting!!

2008-02-28T14:20:00.001-08:00

Okay, so I always try to be extremely honest when I post anything right?? So, that's why I haven't written anything for a few days. The good news is God is faithful to always help if you allow Him to. After a few days of feeling sorry for myself and moping a little, God is really doing a work in my heart. I know the bases of my problem stems from my lack of FAITH. It is so hard for me to see the future full of Christians in our work here in the country. I get in the attitude sometimes that we are wasting our time. I KNOW this is not true, but in weak moments it so easy to think this way. I think of what an awesome man my husband is, how God created him with such a zeal and so many talents. It is hard not to think of him working in a different place with many many converts. (the grass is always greener on the other side....) I know he struggles the same way at times. I hear of our friends ministries and often, though I am ashamed to say it, my delight in what the Lord is doing in their work is a bit tainted by envy. I know very well there is great sin in these thoughts of mine. I know it is not God causing these thoughts. These are struggles that the devil loves for me to have . I can't praise the Lord when my heart is filled with discontentment.

I have been very ungrateful in these last few days. I don't write any of this for anyone to feel sorry for me, I really don't want anyone reading to think I want to spread negativity. I only mean to share everything of my life here serving God. I want to be transparent. I do wish we had some women here to meet with in Bible studies and women to have Christian fellowship with, ladies meetings, etc. I have in these past few days not really been defeated by the lack of this, but by the lack of faith that God will work. It has been my negative thoughts that have kept me in a bad attitude. I am not very good at waiting. I know God is working. Tomorrow I am going to go to a new friends house for the first time. She is married and has one son. She is related to Suffian. We are praying hard that the Lord will open her heart. She has expressed some interest in learning about Jesus. I know God has a purpose for my life. I know I am very fortunate to be in His will. I am praying for faith like I have not had before.

Time in the Kitchen.

2008-02-22T11:13:00.000-08:00

I just wrote this entry, pushed publish, and.....it all erased because our internet is acting crazy! So here goes again.
This past week I have really done at lot of cooking. I enjoy to invent and try new things. So usually I like to cook, but this week was a little different. I had to make traditional food for the national people here. To me it was really intimidating. Here the food is a HUGE part of their culture. For example often when we are invited to someone's home we are served serveral different salads and side items and often two main course meals. Obviously too much food!!! Here that is their way to show off and a way of making the guests feel special.
We had invited some of Suffian's family over for dinner. I knew I needed to make a elaborate spread....but...I wasn't really sure where to begin. So I called my friend. I have known her now for over a year and we have a very close friendship. She came over and gave me some recipies. I was very grateful but still a little nervous.
Praise God my friend amazingly stopped by exactly the time I was begining in the kitchen. I opened the door and she smiled and said, "Are you ready to get started???". I was sooo relieved! As we cooked we talked about everything. Everything from the importance of having faith to our Presidential canidates. We are close friends and I thank God for her always being such a help to me. There is just one thing.......though we have simliar personalities, we like the same things, we can both be loyal friends, our differences are very deep. We are friends only on the surface. It creates such a burden in my heart. Though we talked many times about Jesus Christ and the wonderful grace He gives, she has yet to accept Him as her Savior. She doesn't understand everything yet. Tradition and pride are very difficult to over come. I am praying God will work through our friendship. I pray that God will cause me never to go blind to her spiritual need, a need I know she knows she has.

My "Liberal" Friends.

2008-02-14T12:09:00.000-08:00

I just had a long talk with two of my friends. I have known these two sisters for about six months now. When the students were here last summer they began the friendship with them, and now we still get together a few times a week. First I will describe what these two "liberal" (in their own words) girls look like. Not too uncommonly for early twenties, they do not wear head coverings. In addition to this they almost always leave their very long hair flowing. They wear whatever they wish. Sometimes very reveiling clothes. In the summer it is not a big deal to them to go to some areas in the country and wear a bikini to the beach. (not in their home city though.) They also believe they want to marry for "love". They say it is no big deal to them if their husband is a Muslim or not. - In Islam a woman is only permitted to marry a Muslim man. They are pleased to see this country opening up to the Western way of thinking. They are very educated girls. The youngest is even starting her own business where she will have a man working for her. These two also are in favor of freedom of religion in their country. They believe people should be able to believe whatever they want. They feel really burnt by the idea that how spiritual you are is based on whether you cover your head or not. They both said they beileve God is really going to judge people based on their heart. HMMM??? I think so too! For the next few minutes I shared how I completely agreed with them about God looking at the heart. I shared my testimony and we talked a lot about what the Bible says about sin and the forgivness of sin. I am praying that God will work in their already open minds. I thank God for the two girls here this summer who began such a good relationship with them. Their testimonies have not been forgoten by these two girls here. One of them told me their father asks about the "two American girls" all the time. I think God is working in their hearts. They came to a few Bible Studies awhile back. Please be in prayer for them.

FIRE!!!!!

2008-02-12T00:37:00.000-08:00

Two sad but interesting events have taken place in the last week. There have been two significant fires here in the city where we live. The first was serveral blocks away and was caused by old electrical wires. The fire burned up clothing stores and a lot of people lost a lot of money. There were huge clouds of black smoke rising into to he sky for over an hour. It was a little scary as I saw many rescue squads and fire trucks racing towards the smoke. (Also I bet you can guess some of those scary thoughts that passed through my mind.)
The second fire just happened yesterday and it was a little too close to home. It was in the building right next to us. In a residential area. I was in my kitchen cooking when I saw smoke rising from the apartment next to ours. We watched as people ran from all around to see what was happening. After a few moments my kids also wanted to see what we were looking at. We opened the window to see if we could judge the severity of the situation. After just a few moments we heard horrible screaming. We quickly shut the windows because it was not a "G" "rated event any longer. I don't think the screams were coming from and injured person, but it is possible. It is possible people were unable to get out by themselves or maybe they were just screaming for their losses. Whatever the case it was awful. My children were scared, but we took the opportunity to teach them to pray for people in need. We asked God to please use this situation to somehow bring those affected to come to know Him. We have a close friend from Pakistan that after being in a horrible plane crash through a series of crazy events he came to trust Christ. God can do anything, we believe that! I just thought I would share about these fires because it was a little out of the ordinary. At least I hope.-Just a side note, the spell check on blogger is not working right now and spelling has always been my worse subject...so forgive me.=)

Thanksgiving Sunday

2008-02-10T12:49:00.000-08:00

Today was a great day. It is awsome to see all God is doing! You can read about today also on my husband's blog, so I will just add some details. Today was our first day of Sunday School. I decided the best place to begin was the begining. There were three Arabic speaking children and also my kids. I taught in both Arabic and English. I had to translate everything. I wanted to be sure everyone understood. Praise the Lord it was an easy lesson to translate. We memorized Gen. 1:1 in both Arabic and English. I was excited to see my son saying the verse in Arabic. It was a language lesson and a Bible lesson for everyone. The parents of the other children are aslo Believers and they wanted their children to be able to attend Sun. School. Praise the Lord we have the opportunity to provide this for them.

Also one of the big events of today was the food. We had two tables full of food and drinks. After almost two hours of fellowshiping every last crumb was eaten.....I am not joking I saw one of the young boys holding the serving bowl of chips over his head to ensure every last tid-bit fell into his motuh! It was great to prepare and serve the food.

I can honestly say I am very thankful to the church we have been attending for the last year they have been such a huge help to us with the culture and the language. I am also very thankful the Lord is having us step out now on our own. I do have to admit, just so everyone gets the whole idea...For over a week I have been very nervous, I guess it is better to say scared. Not about whether or not everything would go well or not. But about how loud the singing would be, (we could be heard on the street below.)about whether or not one of our unexpected visitors would knock on the door.(two people came yesterday during our ministry day.) I was worried someone who lives in the apartment might have read the article last week (an article about the danger of foreigners bringing their religion to this country.) and decided they needed to report us. So many little negative thoughts were racing through my mind. I asked God to clear my mind and cause me to focus on Him and on all that He wants done here. Praise the Lord everything went well. God gave us protection and He blessed us all greatly. I Praise God for allowing me to serve Him. It is wonderful to thank the Lord for all He is to us and for all He has done for us.

Out Numbered.

2008-02-08T10:39:00.000-08:00

Yesterday one of my friends invited me to go with her to her work for their monthly Lucheon. I was a little nervous. She assured me everyone was interested in meeting me. I asked if I could bring my daughter because as long as she is there I always have a distraction. A very beautiful little ice breaker! She told me to bring my daugter and meet her at noon. So we got all dressed up in our dejellbas (traditional pretty robes for this counrty.) And waited below our apartment for my friend. When we first arrived I was a little surprised by how plain the office was. My freind works at the deligation of education here for the city. We went into the banquet room where there were a few women cooking couscous on single standing gas burners. We walked around and I met everyone. My little girl was a big hit. She starting screaming, "Mommy look couscous." as soon as she saw the plates. You would have thought it was candy or something. All the ladies were so pleased by her excitment. I felt relieved. We ate and had a good time of conversation. I only had a few minutes of akwardness when the majority of the women went to pray. I heard one of them say, "She doesn't pray." She was talking about me. In this culture that is a way of describing someone to be unspiritual. My friend looked at me to see if I had heard or if I understood. I know she knows all about what I believe. I gave her a look and she told the girl in my defense, as if I did not hear the comment, that that was not the case. She explained breifly I pray in a different way. And from there they began on their favorite thing to judge spirituallity by...their clothes. I could handle that conversation. We talked about that for a few minutes and then I changed the conversation to ask where one of the women bought her shirt. WHEWW. It can be a little nerve racking to be so out numbered. But praise the Lord we talked about many things and I believe I made a few new friends today.

In the Hospital:

2008-02-03T10:10:00.000-08:00

Would you prefer Extra Modest or Sanitary????

An interesting article I read on the news a few minutes ago made me want to laugh out loud. It was an article about how Muslim Women in the healthcare profession in the UK are breaking health codes by refusing to wear clothing with their forearms exposed. This is a medical concern because it is impossible to be completely clean from you elbows down if you wear long sleeve shirts. So these very spiritual women would chose to potentially spread dangerous germs, rather than have men around them lusting over their forearms. HMMM..... I can't imagen how this idea is one the bases of spirituality for Muslim women. I am asked often if we, as followers of Christ believe it is wrong to show our arms. I always answer that we believe it is very important to be modest, but we do not have strick rules in the Bible about our sleeves. (Nor head coverings for that matter.) I mean there is so much more to loving God than how we dress. I am not sure, but maybe these women in the UK who have such a problem with the rules, maybe they are just trying to see how far they can go. How much they can play the card of freedom of religion. God reminds me more and more that my life as a follower of Jesus is about HIM! Living everyday to try and please Him, not trying to judge and show to others how spiritual I can be. I just thought this was kind of interesting and I wanted to share it. Maybe those of you in the UK who read this have heard about this issue??

"My dear you have the heart of a Muslim!"

2008-01-30T07:11:00.000-08:00

Today I went to visit a family we are really close to. They had been asking to spend sometime with the kids. So this morning the kids and I went for a nice walk down the street to visit our friends. When we walked in the door everyone was so welcoming. We talked and shared about what had gone on in each others lives over the past few weeks. We some amazing food and after we were just sitting around talking. Out of no where my friend's brother who is older than her says,"You know everyone missed you guys. You really have the same heart we have." I must have looked a little surprised by his comment, because their mother quickly cleared things up by saying,"Yes my dear you truly do have the heart of a Muslim." Then under her breath with a smile she quietly said,"But you just don't believe yet." Wow, I sat there a little shocked for a minute or two. I did not know exactly what to say. I smiled and corrected her a little and said, "Well, we can say I have the heart of someone who loves and fears God.!" I said that with a huge smile and a small nervous laugh. Before Icould say anything else my friend quickly changed the subject a little to the news. Evidently there is big news in the Muslim world.......It is rumored Brittney Spears will soon be converting to Islam. Wow! They are all hoping Islam will set her straight and she can be a new shinning testimony to us in the Western world. Hmmm????
So today, was an interesting lunch to say the least. The next time we discuss what my heart is like, I pray that I get a chance to explain who has changed my heart and about who calms my heart. The family I was with is not really all that religious they are Muslim out of pride and tradition. My friend herself has told me on numerous occasions that God does not answer her prayers like He does mine. She claims she prays and pray and gets nothing. Those are the exact words form her mouth. But in her pride she has to believe that somehow Islam is the hope of the world.I thank God for the truth of His Word and the miracle of His Grace. Praise God we can have confidence in what we believe!

Pressure....

2008-01-28T09:28:00.001-08:00

One thing men never understand about women is how emotional we are...right?? We have all heard this before right?? Well, sorry ladies I don't mean this to make us look bad but, I can not understand why I am so emotional......Maybe somebody out there can relate....
The other day I let my brain have one of those downward spiral type moments. Before I knew it I was all upset. Sure, I can practically explain the whole situation now and assure myself it was not as bad as I originally thought it to be. But, it was an intense few hours....
I wrote all that to share a few things on my heart. Most likely- if you are not a man- you can relate. We go through times in our lives when we are under a lot of pressure. No matter what our country of residence. I know and have faith that it is in these times that God allows us to get closer to Him. It has been a little intense for me here the last few days. I am reminded by the Lord that my life serving Him is an upward journey. Just when I think I can sit down I am given the nudge to get up and keep going. I know He will give me rest when I need it and then we will continue on.

At church here we sing a beautiful song and walking with Jesus,walking with our Sweet Jesus.

Faithful Fridays

2008-01-25T05:11:00.000-08:00

Today was once again an eventful morning at the mosque below our new apartment. I stood on the counter again to watch the excitement of the Friday morning prayers. The street is still full as I write this. A particular interesting observation I made as I watched was the amount of Father/son combinations. Young boys learning early to be sure to show their devotion to Allah.
As I watch the young and old alike going the motions I was pained in my heart for the lack of hope these young ones have. I praised God for allowing me to grow up in a nation where we can choose. As believers our responsibility in this world is huge. I thank God for Salvation and the security we have in Christ, and we can believe as we do by choice and not by an hint of force.

The Trip!!

2008-01-22T03:08:00.000-08:00

Hey, I just wanted to post a quick little note to let everyone who is interested in coming on the trip this summer know that we are praying for all of you! I pray for the Lord's will in your lives and for the courage to do whatever it is He has for you!
We are already excited about the trip this summer. As are many of our friends here. I can't wait for some of you to see things first hand. Please continue praying. Thank you to everyone for your faithful prayers!!!

New Sounds.

2008-01-18T07:25:00.000-08:00

Finally we have the Internet back up and working. We are excited to be here in our new apartment. It has been a lot of work unpacking everything, but slowly we are getting settled in.

-I wanted to thank everyone at home for the supportive and encouraging time we had with all of you. I love you all and I hope and pray that some of you will be visiting this summer!!

A little info about our new home; it is bigger and has many more windows than our last apartment. As a result of that we can almost see the entire city. The view is incredible. The one down side to all this is that because we are up so high, there is nothing in between us and the minaret towers announcing the call to prayer. So, it is sooooo loud. Today the kids and I had an interesting morning listening to the Imam (a Muslim preacher) give his message. The street directly below our kitchen windows was blocked off and huge mats were laid out and the men filled the street to do their Friday prayers.
Our kids were playing with their toys on the floor when the call to prayer started. They are pretty used to hearing it.("that Mohamed guy yelling") But today they noticed it was going on and on. My Son said, "Mommy is somebody calling for help?" I went over to them and picked them up so they could see the street below. I told them what the men were doing. How they were saying the same words over and over again. I explained that they do these things because they want to do good works so they can go to Heaven. Of course after that I explained what we believe. I reminded them about how we pray to God. After answering questions and talking for about twenty minutes our son said, "Hey, I think those people need to call to Jesus for help. Right Mommy???" I know he doesn't understand all the way, but I think that is a pretty good start.
I know I will have a new thought in mind every time I hear the blaring call to prayer from the mosques. I have to admit to me it is kind of a spooky sound, reminding me every few hours that we live in dark place, now when I hear it I will be thinking about how the people responding need someone to call for help for them, because they don't any better.

Easy and Yummy!!

2007-11-21T05:11:00.000-08:00

Over here, any time I can come up something I can make completely from ingredients from here I am happy. I am even happier when it turns out. Sooo....I made this on Saturday when we had a Thanksgiving meal with a few friends. I thought maybe somebody would like to try this really easy Pumpkin Cheesecake. Let me also say I am writing the ingredients for those who don't live in the easiest country in the world to cook in!:) You know places where you can't buy ready made graham cracker crust! So if you live where you can buy a pre-made crust...go for it.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup cookies (whatever graham cracker type you can find.)
2 tablespoons white sugar
1/8 tsp ginger
1/3 cup butter melted

1 pack cream cheese (softened)
3 eggs beaten
15oz pumpkin puree
(you can make it exactly like the Libby's brand by just baking cut up pumpkin in a baking dish with a little water. Bake it...mash it...and then puree it. It freezes great too. )
1/2 cup whip cream
1 cup packed brown sugar
(you can brown sugar by adding 1tablespoon of molasses to 1 cup of white sugar)
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt

Crust:
In a large plastic bowl crush cookies into a coarse powder
mix in sugar and ground ginger
add in butter
stir together and then pat into your pan. ( a break away pan makes a pretty cheesecake!)

Filling:
Combine cream cheese and brown sugar- beat until smooth(on low speed if you are using a mixer)
beat in eggs
beat in pumpkin puree
stir in whipped cream
mix well
stir in spices
-pour into pie shell

Bake for 35-40 min.

Something to come home to....

2007-11-20T02:53:00.000-08:00

Okay, this is another one of those transparent moments when I open up and share something that will leave me feeling a little uncomfortable. Anyway, in the 3rd month we had been here. I was struggling big time with not wanting to be here. I mean BIG TIME. I was letting my negative thoughts get to me and I felt so alone. We had to go over to Spain to renew our tourist passport and we were finishing up our visit there. I was in the restroom of the Port in Spain and I looked at myself in the mirror and I came up with this big plan about how I was going to tell my husband I had had enough, that I was not made for this kind of work, I just couldn't take it anymore. I told myself I could stand up for myself and tell my husband I was not going back across the border............(okay now you all see how I really am.) I walked out the door and I.......quietly got on the ferry boat back over here. Honestly I could feel the battle raging inside me. The Spirit is ready but the FLESH is weak. I asked God for grace and begged for Him to help me. I prayed silently in my seat on the 35min ride back "home". I told God to please, by December when it is time to go back to the USA for a little while to give me a reason to want to come back. I couldn't imagine how hard it would be to come back here after being in America. I am amazed to see how God has worked since that time. He has done things that at that time I did not think possible. He has worked in my heart and given me desire and contentment. He has given us many reasons to be excited to return to our work here. I am crying as I share my heart with you because God amazes me by His faithfulness. I fought for so long for reasons not to be here, I can't believe how God has changed my heart. I am looking forward to visiting the USA, but I am also looking forward to coming back to all that God is doing here!

Not Yet...

2007-11-17T12:11:00.001-08:00

I just wanted to give a short update. I have yet to show my friend the second part of the Jesus film. I have spent time thinking and praying about when to show it and I think for it will be best received after we spend a little more time talking about the life of Jesus. Then move on to the death and Resurrection. The really good news is that she is still asking about it. Asking questions about what she has already seen and wondering about what she is yet to see. In the past days she has opened up more to me and had a different a different way about her here in my home. She invited us to her home,(which means she is considering us friends, not just employers.) I am really encouraged. Almost everyday this week we have had really good conversations about Jesus. I am excited to see what God is going to do in her life.

Please Pray!

2007-11-14T13:24:00.000-08:00

Today my good friend and I watched half of the Jesus Film in this dialect of Arabic. It went well. I stopped the movie half way through because I saw it was getting late. I wanted to be sure we will have plenty of time to talk about everything afterward. I set the remote between us and told her at any time she could pause it to ask a question or make a comment. Surprisingly she didn't make one argumentative comment. Her only question was the question I anticipated, she asked,"Why do they keep saying He is the Son of God??". Muslims believe Jesus was only prophet. She watched and listened with I believe true interest. I told her later would talk more about her question and watch the rest of the movie. She thanked me many times and expressed her desire to learn more about what I believe. I am so excited to be given this chance to share the Story with some one who has never heard. Please be praying. Tomorrow Lord willing we will finish the movie. I know the Crucifixion is going to be very uncomfortable for her to watch and difficult to understand. Please pray that God will use all this in her life. She will have heard very clearly the message and it will remain in her head for the rest of her life. I believe God is at work! Please pray! My Arabic is still not very good so pray that God will help me with this as well!

"So thats why you guys have so many Bibles!!"

2007-11-11T10:11:00.000-08:00

I am so excited as I write this! Yesterday God gave me an awesome opportunity to share the Gospel completely with my friend who works in our house watching our children when we go to language school. She is usually a very hard case to crack. She rarely smiles and anytime I say anything about Jesus she is super fast with something about Mohammad. She fasted extra days after Ramadan to earn more points with God. When I have talked with her in the past she has always had a little smirk on her face. And a pitiful type little look every time I mess up my Arabic. But....PRAISE GOD, not yesterday!!!!! It began while she was helping me go through a lesson in my language school book. While we read many names we have in both Arabic and English, (OT names.) she asked me if we named our boys Issa (the Muslim name for Jesus. Not the same as Yesua El Mesih -Jesus the Messiah. A little confusing I know.) Anyway I told her we don't name our boys His name because there is no one like Him. And no man deserves His honorable name. She shook her head in agreement. She then said, "I will not name my son Mohammad because you are right." And so our conversation went out of our language school book to the names of God, to rights of citizenship.....why you ask???? Because if she has a baby in the USA her baby is a citizen of both America and this country. If I have a baby here my baby is American only. This is a Muslim country and they want to keep it that way. I am always talking about how in the USA we have Christians, Muslims, Hindus, etc. I explained while saying "I 'm sorry." over and over ( you can say anything as long as you apologize here!) about all our freedoms. She was extremely interested. Sooooo....I took it a step farther. "In my country and in South America were I lived we have the freedom to study and learn about other religions, to go to any Mosque or Church or Temple we choose to." I explained how I am not allowed into the Mosque here. She was shocked. I told her about how in America you can buy huge beautiful Korans and tons of books about Islam. Or course she thought that was great. Then I told her the thing that hurts my heart is that if I were to lose my Bible I could not even buy a new one. She reasoned," Oh, because it is in English or Spanish..." I stopped her, "No, because you can't buy a Bible of any kind here."( I didn't want to go into the fact they are illegal.) She then started smiling...."Oh, now I understand why you all have so many, because your husband has the tendency to lose things." HAHAHAHA!!
From there I got to witness to her completely, we both believe that Jesus is coming back so I started there. I explained that Jesus DID die(Muslims don't believe Jesus died they believe He was called up to Heaven.) She surprised me by asking "WHY??" I explained everything to her. Near the end of our conversation I asked her if she had ever eaten food from Turkey. She told me "No." I then asked her if it was good or not? She laughed and told me she didn't know. She knew exactly what I was getting at. She told me food is like religion. You can't know the truth until you "try"it. She left promising to read the NT I had given her awhile back. I told her to begin with John and Romans. Please pray that she does. Tomorrow or the next day I am planning to show her the Jesus film in this dialect of Arabic. PLEASE PRAY!!! When she left yesterday she thanked me for our conversation and told me she knew it was very important. She told me she loved me as a sister. I was shocked, all this from the girl who prays in my son's room and always has a stone cold face. Please pray for her.

My House...My Rules!

2007-11-10T02:11:00.000-08:00

Two days ago I had a conversation I would love to share with everyone reading. It was around 7:30 at night and one of my "friends" came to visit me. We made the first required 1/2 hour of small talk and then she started in on me. She has always tried to convince me to convert to Isalm. She always begins the same way....we are the same, we both love God,etc. I always struggle to get a word in. She is in her 40's and twice my size with a very forceful type personality. She has a very argumentative way about her in her conversation style. This is always very frustrating for me. So.....this time I with the courage that only God can give I let her have it.:) I was speaking in a tone I rarely use. I told her," Excuse me, this is MY house and you are NOT going to come here and talk at me. If you are going to continue to sit here I get to talk and you get to LISTEN." I went on to question her about the "peace" and "liberty" she talks about in her religion???? "So what I am seeing in Iran is liberty???"(In Iran, it has been reported that women are being arrested for exposing an inch of their hair. Also for wearing too bright of colors.) And What about Jihad?????? "Is that the peace you are talking about???" Or course she was trying desprately to stop me so she could speak, I just continued with my heart pounding and the feeling of anxiety probably very obvious in my voice. I could feel my face and neck were red hot. I continued by addressing her favorite topic....about how our Bible has been corrupted. She is always saying this. I told her to show me when and how it has been corrputed, I told her I needed an answer outside of the quran. Then from there we began to talk about a how I have read the quran and how she doesn't have a clue about the true Words of Jesus. I asked her why she is afraid to read the New Testament? Why is the Arabic Bible illegal here? I explained that in my country we have the freedom to search out the truth and that I did just that. I became a Christian when I was 17 so it is easy for me to explain how we are not born followers of Jesus. I explained that every person who is a ture follwer of Jesus Christ makes that choice for himself. I again let her know that I have read a good portion of the quran and I STILL believe the Words of Jesus. I challenged her to read the NT and to compare the lives and teachings of Jesus to the those of Mohammed. I paused to let her speak....I had to take a break.....She honestly didn't have much to say. I had gone to the bedroomto get her a NT.I laid it on the table and explained it was a gift from me to her. She picked it up and looked at it. She was quiet. I saw her struggle for what to say next. After a few minutes I guess she realized she had to change the subject, so what does she start in on.......President Bush....How we are all the REAL KILLERS....all the problems in entire world are caused by AMERICA. AHHHHHHHH...... with all the self control had I asked her if she wanted me to believe that all Muslims are terrorist and killers. Of course she said "NO!! That is not true." I explained that if we believe everything we hear on the news we cause ourselves to be ignorant only thinking what they want us to think. I told her how I believe we need to talk about problems we can do something about. I joked about me calling President Bush. She agreed with me that there is absolutly nothing she or I could do about the problems in Iraq, Afganistan, or Palestine. WOW....I was shocked we agreed on something. We talked peacefully for awhile longer and when she was leaving she thanked my over and over again for the NT. She kissed it and touched it to her heart. She left with the Word of God in her purse and questions in her mind.

Such a Spirtiual Thing to Do!!!!

2007-11-07T16:14:00.000-08:00

Today I had a really disturbing experience! I went to practice Arabic with my friend at her store. I usually go and just sit and talk with her for an hour or so. She is rather forceful with correcting me so really she is just what I need! Anyway, first I should in saying I went to her "store" I am being really generous with that word. Her "store" is the size of a small bathroom. So we were just sitting there talking....as women do best... and these SUPER MUSLIMS came in, you know the fully covered can't see their face all black type. I always feel like they think I am dressed awful or that my hair is just creating such a problem here. So I am always uncomfortable around them. I mean come on, all you can see is two tiny dark eyes....a little spooky right???? Well, they were especially strange because they came in asking to see the clothes that were hung up directly over our heads. They were hovering.....I hate when people hover.......they were almost leaning on me...AHHHHHHHHH. (People here have no concept of the whole personal space idea, you know your bubble...) Anyway, as my friend and I were helping get down the clothes they supposedly wanted to see, evidently in that moment the lady was not focused on the clothes as we were, because they STOLE MY PURSE! They were gone about two minutes when I noticed my bag was not were I had left it. Which was about an arms reach from me. In the movement of us lowering the hanging clothes and offering our assurance the clothing was nice they had stolen my purse. I was shocked! I am not going to lie......I was super MAD! So many thoughts were racing through my mind. I felt so taken advantage of. It is hard sometimes to think good of people, you know to trust people. But when you get burned like that... The crazy thing was that it was head covered women, not poor dressed "wordly" women. I was robbed by supposedly the example of Spirituality. Hummm.. I asked my friend this question," So I am a foreigner right, and Follower of Jesus, NOT a Muslim. You want to me to like and respect your religion when my things just got stolen for the most spiritual among you....?" She was quiet, her usually holier than thou answers didn't seem to flow in this situation. I explained that though I was upset it was only things that I lost and things are not what brings happiness.

To be honest when things like this happen, I get mad. I really loose compassion for the people here. It is easy to do. They are so aggressive and critical. I always have to keep reminding myself that they really don't know any better. They have NO hope and nothing to live for. My husband reminded me as we were walking down the street with me crying after the whole ordeal that God has given us so much and I have to be an example of His Grace. Man, it is humbling...I just wanted to be mad at that lady. I wanted to take out all my feelings of frustration with this culture on her. I wanted to go off about hypocrisy and about how everything they do is for show. My flesh so weak. Praise God, He helped me overcome all my anger towards them.( For today, I have to seek continually to know the mind of Christ.) I know that lady as well as all the other Muslims just need Jesus. Only by His blood can they have a new life. Only by the Word can they really learn how to fear God and live Holy lives....I can't expect honesty and peace.

Everything is working Again!!

2007-11-05T15:05:00.000-08:00

Not that everyone was just at the edge of their seats waiting for a blog entry or anything, but I sure am glad to have the Internet working again!!! We were traveling for a week or so and then we were home for about three hours and our Internet quit working. If you've ever lived in a third world country you know exactly what I mean!!
So much has happen in the last few weeks. I'm glad my husband was able to write about all the exciting things!
Another exciting thing happened today....not quite as exciting as 5 ex-muslim men being baptized but none the less exciting.....

*Our Daughter who is 19 months old used her little potty seat for the first!* I am crazy for writing about this, but come on, diapers are VERY expensive here!! :)

Frustration.

2007-10-20T03:14:00.000-07:00

When I mention frustration I am sure everyone thinks I am referring to my own frustration.....not the case this time!! I am referring to the frustration of my three year old. Yesterday I was busy putting up the summer clothes and taking out the fall and winter clothes. My son came in the room and asked for some juice. I told him to go ask Fatima.(The girl who watches the kids while we go to language school.) I heard him searching all around the apartment for her. After a few minutes he returned. He told me she wasn't here any more. I laughed and again instructed him to go find her and ask her, because I was up to my ears in little kids clothes! Again I heard him screaming, "Fatima, Fatima, FA-TI-MA." A few seconds later I heard the door to his room open and I heard him talking. He ran into my room and very upset told me that Fatima was on the ground. (He proceeded to get down and demonstrate exactly how she was positioned on the ground.) He had been in there with her for a few minutes, right in front of her. He could not understand why she would not respond to him. He was very upset. I quietly explained to him that she was praying....(hmmmm..well, not really praying....more like reciting......try explaining how some praying is good and some bad to a three year old.) I was a little surprised she wouldn't even acknowledge his presence in the room. He has so many questions. It is a little difficult to teach our kids that Islam is wrong without teaching them to be intolerant. For example the Mosques here are such beautiful buildings and they have tall minarets, some with crescent moon shapes on top. My son thinks they are fascinating. Once when he asked to go there, I tried to simplify the reason why we would not be going by simply stating that Mosques are "BAD." *Well, it's true they are, but does that make the people who go there bad?? You can imagine the questions that came form my simple answer. I know this is just the beginning of the challenges we will face with our children living here. I would appreciate your prayers for wisdom in this area! I have a very curious little boy!

So...uh..where's the bathroom???

2007-10-18T15:34:00.000-07:00

Where to begin.....we just got back from a trip around the country. We traveled to meet new believers and others who are searching for the truth. We drove all day on Tuesday and made a stop to give some materials to a young guy who wants to study more of God's Word. We were with him for a few hours and then it was back in the car again. We had a good friend of ours with us who is from here and is a new believer himself. He was such an encouragement to us. My husband and him talked nearly the entire trip about Jesus and The Bible. He is excited to know that he now has the truth. It seems like all this guy does is read the Bible!!! Even in the car....when there was a break in the conversation he was reading his New Testament. I felt sick at even the thought of reading in the car on those winding roads.

.... As we continued driving, it was getting late. Or friend mentioned that we were relatively close to the "city" where his family lives. Or to explain it better, the tiny little village very far away from evertything where our friend grew up. ( Lets just say I can see why he lives in the city now!!) Because we were so close he suggested that we stay in the village with his family.......uh....okay...I guess....So we continued on , first we came to the turn off of the main road. There was a sign there for the next city so I thought we didn't have much farther to go. Wrong! After passing through a very small city the road got extremely narrow and dark. We went further on the loosely paved road. After maybe 1/2 hour I saw faint lights in the distance. (Honestly at that point I was relieved to know that they at lest had electricity!) We soon parked our car and grabbed all our belongings and began the walk to his house. It was incredibly dark. Finally we arrived at his home. His super nice family welcomed us in. We sat and ate in their two room home. They have two rooms that do not connect. You have to go outside to get from one room to the other. They have a dirt floor, two light bulbs hanging down and NO bathroom. Not even an outhouse! So it was a different experience for us to say the least. Honestly, I had a great time. I am thankful the Lord is allowing me these opportunites. The time at their house was awesome for language practice and learning about a culture very different from the culture of the "city people" here in this country. We all wore the same clothes the entire time we were there, partly for lack of place to change and secondly because they would find it strange we change our clothes everyday. I have to be honest, when I asked to go to the bathroom and I was lead down a dark to path...... I started to get frustrated. I thought about how I didn't want to be there. I stopped and asked God to help me, to help me appreciate these people,their way of life, the hard work they do everyday, and their hospitality to us. God answered my prayer. We had a wonderful time. I can say it was truly by God's GRACE!

Babies and HOT Peppers

2007-10-13T10:44:00.000-07:00

One thing I noticed after a little while of being here is that they don't sell too many high chairs. For the reason that if they did their baby would be sitting up way higher than everyone else. People here eat sitting on the couches they have lining their living rooms. They usually holds the small children on their laps or....they just let the kids run around like crazy. :) Whenever we eat with other people, someone always insists on holding our daughter while we eat. I am never comfortable with that situation. You know being the typical mother I worry she is going to spill something or break something. I also worry about what they might feed her. Well, the other night I had a reason to fear!!!! Our friend wanted to hold our daughter at the table. She seemed to like him so we started eating with her eating sitting with him. There was a small bowl of extremely HOT hot sauce on the table. If you have ever been in South America, it was similar to Peruvian Aji.....we are talking about super HOT. This stuff makes the hot sauce at Mexican restaurants seem like ketchup. Sooo...you probably know where I am going with this, our friend had no idea how HOT it was. He took a small piece of bread and scoop up the HOT sauce and popped it right in our daughter's little mouth. I didn't know how to say anything in Arabic at that moment. I screamed "NOOOOOOO!" Everyone at the table was running around trying to get something to wipe it out of her mouth and soothe the burning. She shocked at the new horrible taste in her mouth. I think it was the worst ten minutes of her little life. our friend felt awful. We assured him she was okay. He learned that night babies aren't to fond of hot sauce. As for me, I have learned in my short time being a mom in living in 3 different countries and traveling to many more that I can't shelter my kids. I can't keep them from being right in there with everything the country and the culture have to offer. Obviously it is not always easy for me or for them but I really believe if you want to build relationships with people you have to share your life.

Later that night our daughter was sitting with our friend playing on the floor, forgetting all about her experience at the dinner table.

"You are the KING!"

2007-10-12T15:11:00.000-07:00

We all know that God loves it when we sing to Him and Praise Him. I just can't help but think He must enjoy it even more to hear those praises in Arabic. Sometimes when the Christians here are singing at church I feel tears coming to my eyes. There is one song they sing that I can understand almost completely, I love it. In the song they sing to Jesus and say, "You are the King."It is beautiful. They sing it with joy and thankfulness.
I have written several posts in a negative tone about Ramadan. Today I was thinking of something that has really blessed me this month. That being, while most people here are following strict Muslim practices and talking about all the things they are obligated to do, the Christians are learning about and experiencing even more the freedom they have in Christ. For example yesterday, it was awesome when our friend who was visiting us understood that he didn't have to fast during Ramadan. A little funny too! Anyway tomorrow Ramadan is over and everyone will be stuffing their faces all day. I am pretty excited myself. :) It will be nice to get things back to normal. Normal????.....I guess that wasn't the right word, back to the way things were before Ramadan.

"I JUST SAID THAT!!!......didn't I?????"

2007-10-10T17:27:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I would not be covering all the bases if I did not write about Torture......I mean LANGUAGE SCHOOL! I am in language school here learning dialectal Arabic. Arabic as you may know is not written using "our" letters so this really complicates things!! So in other words it is not like how it was when I was in Spanish language school..... where I would just write down the new word in a small notebook. In Arabic there are sounds we don't have letters for!!! Like for example the H in English, "H-h-h-Hat" right??? Well, here we need to learn three ways to pronounce what to me always sounds like "H". There is a sound that is kinda like a "KH"....but honestly it sounds like somebody clearing their throat. Then I was taught another "H" sound. It has to come from deep in you lungs. When our teachers teach us they always put their hands on their upper chests and ask us to the same. They say we should be feeling vibration. Hmmmmmm.
Today, I probably repeated a word 25 times after my teacher because I just could not hear the difference in what he was saying as oppose to what I was saying! AHHH! Talk about frustrating, I kept telling everybody,"I just said that!!" It was pretty funny our two other friends in class with me were agreeing with me(Nice to have the support.) Our teacher was cracking up shaking his head no.
It is NOT easy learning a new language ever. If you have children I think things can even get a little more tricky...not to mention annoying when your three year old can pronounce Arabic letters better than you and all your friends LOVE to point that out. God is giving me the patience and the desire to learn. Little by little everyday that is my goal. When I was ending Spanish language school I realized how much I did not know and I suppose to be "finished" learning. The truth is I am still learning English. I like to look at learning new languages as a journey. It seems to be easier to grasp that way. Really though it is not easy and sometimes have to make myself leave my children and go to school, I know it is an awesome opportunity from God to be able to learn how to communicate His word with people who otherwise might not hear......But please pray for me!!!!!!!:)

Creativity!

2007-10-09T17:46:00.000-07:00

A friend of ours took these pictures while he was here visiting. I thought it was pretty cool how he creatively put this together. It reminds me of how it is working here. Since we can't do the door to door thing, or the advertising, or any of the normal public ways to stir up interest we need to come up with newer ways of discreetly getting the word out. So far, even though we are just getting started we are getting some response! Another reason why I like this picture is because I love artwork. Artwork is always suppose to have a message or meaning behind it. So this picture probably says to me exactly what our friend intended it to. It symbolizes the doors of the hearts of the people here. We are praying that God will open these doors. You can read about some of the creative ways we are sending the message out on my husband's blog. Pray that God will use these creative ideas!

GREAT TIME

2007-10-08T04:38:00.000-07:00

I would like to ask everyone reading this to please pray about something with me.

My friends here are all very different. I always have a wonderful time hanging out with each one of them. I practice my Arabic with them, go shopping with them, learn about the culture from them, and learn about their religion from them. - That last point is where the problem begins. I learn by asking questions. I listen to their answers and then I always try to share things about what I believe with them. I share with them about the freedoms I have in Christ. They have a very hard time listening to this. I was questioning one of my friends a very strongly about why she changed only during Ramadan. Why the head covering and long sleeves during the day and then hair down with a sleeveless dress at night. Why only pray faithfully one month out of the year.? Etc. I have shared with many of my friends that true believers and followers of Jesus Christ are always the same. If I think it is right to do I need to do it everyday all day long. They see the obvious contradiction and just shrug their shoulders. They feel obligated to do everything they do. They all say the LOVE Ramadan. Hmmmmmm. I find that really hard to believe.
Anyway, I would like to ask you pray that the Lord would open up more doors for me to talk to them about Him. I always have fun with them. They are great people. I just hate thinking about their eternity. It would be easy for me to just hang out with them, but I know hanging out will leave blood on my hands. It can be intimating to say the least to bring up conversations that single me out. That magnify our differences. But it is true our differences go far beyond my blue eyes. Please pray with me about this.

You mean you can't stay for dinner??????

2007-10-08T04:03:00.000-07:00

On Saturday one of my closest friends here invited me to her house to eat the meal at sunset. I agreed to go and I was excited to be invited to eat with her and some of her cousins who are also friends of mine. We were out shopping half the day on Saturday to prepare for the meal. We also stopped by the tailors to pick up our new djellabas we had made. I always have a great time with her.(*More on having a GREAT TIME in a few minutes.)
Anyway, last night after we got home form our church which is an hour and a half away, I went to her house. It was very close to the time to eat and everyone was already sitting in around the table with Harira in their bowls. I think it is hilarious, as soon as they her hear the first part of the word "Allah....." they already have their food in their mouths. I hid my smile and reached for my spoon. So we ate....and we ate.....and we ate some more. The word you say when you are telling someone to eat is "kul" like "cool". SO, I think I heard them telling me to "kul" about 100 times. I think I said "Safie" which means "enough" about 200 times. One way or another I was still left with that never ending bowl of soup!!!
After we were all stuffed they all got up to go pray. One at a time they went into the dark living room and wrapped blankets around themselves and read the Quran and prayed. They had to do it that way so I wasn't left alone. I could tell my friend was a little nervous about leaving me but her Mom told her she would sit with me. After about 20 minutes of this everyone had finished and they were laying all over the couches. I tucked my feet up under me and watched a ridiculous TV program in Arabic. I was glad it was in this dialect of Arabic. I understood enough to know it was a really cheesy comedy. After what I thought was long enough I stood up and stretched my arms up over my head, and stating how tired I was I told my friends I had to go. It was after 9:00. Then the protests began....."You mean you are not staying for dinner???? My mom is about to begin preparing it." I didn't know what to do. Quickly remembering the honor shame culture here, I told them "You must understand my children are with my husband and it is a shame to me to have him caring for them for such a long time!" They began to nod reluctantly. I apologized for having to leave the extremely exciting nap time and then I left. As you can see I am applying what I am learning about the culture here. :)

Playing Mosque.......

2007-10-05T12:23:00.000-07:00

Or should I say "playing Imam." Tonight right before the call to pray at sunset, I heard two of our young neighbors (maybe 10 years old or so) out on their balcony screaming the call to prayer. "Allah hoo Akbar" They where screaming it, and then cracking up. Their screaming was quickly followed by their mother screaming at them to stop. I heard her saying, "You boys have to stop now. Now!! Stop it now!!" I couldn't help but laugh. I quickly ducked behind the clothes I was hanging so no one could see the foreign lady laughing at this little innocent mocking of their precious call to one of their mandatory duties! I found the whole situation quite funny!

Bad Timing.

2007-10-05T03:41:00.001-07:00

Last night we had a few people over for dinner.(People not from here.) So we were finishing up and I noticed that we had a lot of chocolate cake left over. I put it on a plate and thought it would be really nice to share it with my friends who live down stairs. They love our American desserts because they are sweeter than their traditional ones. So I grabbed the plate and headed down the elevator. I left my husband and everyone else talking at the table knowing I would only be a few minutes. (My friends knew we had guests.) I rang the doorbell and our friend's maid answered the door. Their house was very dark and quiet in a strange kind of way. She invited me in. She looked very hesitant, like she didn't know what to do, where to take me. Normally I would have been warmly greeted a few moments after entering by a few members of the family. I looked around...I quickly saw everyone......there they were, all of them, all the women of the family completely covered being lead in prayer by their father. To make it a little stranger for me, when Muslims pray they must pray in the direction of Mecca, so they were all facing the doorway I was standing in. I am sure they saw me, but they didn't even lift one eye in my direction. I stood still for a few awkward minutes and then I turned to the maid ( I am not sure if I forced her to interrupt her prayers or not.)and told her I was needed to go. I wishing she had never opened the door. This morning my friend called me and thanked me for the cake. She didn't mention my untimely visit. Before Ramadan this particular friend almost never spoke about Islam. I am not even sure sure if she prayed, but during Ramadan their prayers "count" for more points. *you can read about the points on my husbands blog.
Anyway, now all the stores are starting advertise all the traditional clothing and party type foods, because Ramadan will be over in a little more than a week and everyone is getting ready for the big bash they have to celebrate the end of fasting. Believe me I will be celebrating too, because I will be sooooo glad when Ramadan is OVER!!!!

Spices and things.

2007-10-03T03:47:00.000-07:00

I was just thinking you women might want to know where we do our grocery shopping. I remember when my husband came here to visit before we came, one of my first questions was....."So how's the shopping?" I wanted to know how modern the markets were. Well.........

It turns out here we have one extreme to the other. Below our apartment on the first floor of the apartment building across form ours is a supermarket much like an American grocery store. Our other option ( the more exciting and interesting option) is to walk a few blocks to the suk. A "suk" is an open air market. Or to be more exact is a very crowded street that transforms into a market. It is packed with carts with fresh vegetables and fruits. Then little stores line the street selling live chickens, spices, beans, toiletry items, and.....really just about anything you can think of. There are little whole in the wall stores packed with imported stuff from Europe. Things are only sometimes cheaper in the "suk". Still the majority of the people do there shopping there, I guess out of tradition. I do about half and half. When it rains the suk becomes one nasty place. The particular suk we go to is on a hill. The area where the sell the fish is near the top of the hill, when you buy fish they gut it for you....throwing the guts on the ground. When it rains everything washes down stream! SO you can smell and see fish guts all threw the fruit and vegetable section! Obviously here there are no clean ups on isle 5!!Pretty gross! On a good day however, the smells and colors are beautiful. This is a picture of a little spice stand. Everything is always fresh. These spices make our little glass bottled ones taste so dull and stale.
Anyway, just thought you might enjoy a little knowing a little more about everyday life here in Northern Africa.

Thank You!!

2007-10-01T03:06:00.000-07:00

Hey, I just wanted to write a quick post to say thank you to all my friends who called and e-mailed or posted comments in this time while my husband was away. I feel very blessed to have so many true friends. Thank you for your prayers and concern for me. I know people are honestly praying for us and that is such an awesome thing!! Thank you very much!!

Can't we all just get along?

2007-09-28T15:24:00.001-07:00

I wasn't going to comment on this....I really tried not to. (Sorry to our friend from here who I know is reading.....this does not of course include you.) I had heard before I came that during Ramadan sometimes there are more fights than usual....let me say TRUE,TRUE,TRUE. Fighting is kind of a common thing to see on the streets from time to time here, but in the past few days I have seen two pretty major ones. The other day A. and I were shopping in a busy area of town and we saw a huge swarm of people gathering around a group of men fighting. -Let me stop there to say that swarms are super common. Crowds are everywhere here. But when there is a fight everyone goes to see what is happening. - Anyway, so we were in the busy area of town shopping, we got in our car and we were trying to drive away. The mass of people were screaming, women were grabbing their children and running. I looked over and to my surprise the men were throwing huge rocks at each other. I mean softball size. They were throwing them at a man on the ground too. All the cars were honking like crazy-more crazy than normal-trying to get away from the rocks and the fight. I know that is not normal for here or anything, I was just amazed it could go on for sooooo long. We were stuck in traffic at the intersection for at least 10 minutes, and the fighting was not letting up.
Just last night I heard yelling outside our apartment. I mean hateful yelling. I looked down to see what was going on. It was almost 1am. All the men that worked at the barber shop on the first floor of our apartment were in a fight with some men dressed in djellabas and long beards. I looked around and noticed almost every balcony had someone leaning over watching the fight. LIVE entertainment. Honestly all this anger scares me. I have seen several other small fights this month as well. You know they will blame it on the lack of food all day or whatever, but it is the lack of Jesus Christ in their hearts. I guess I would be mad and frustrated all the time if I was living only for myself and trying to work my way into Heaven. They say Islam is the true religion of peace...hmmmm.

So what did you have for dinner tonight????

2007-09-28T14:41:00.000-07:00

Well, if you are from here chances are you had Harira. This is a famous soup that the people here eat every night to break the Ramadan fast. I thought it would be appropriate to share the recipe. If you make it then you will know exactly what this whole country smells like from about 4:00pm until 7:30pm. I am not joking.....I open the door to our apartment and I feel like I just took a bite. Every family eats it everyday, I am not exaggerating. If they don't eat it everyday they are really in the minority. So here you go, you can fit right in.......

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Chickpeas (garbanzo beans)

1/4 cup lentils

2Tbsp chopped parsley

2Tbsp chopped cilantro

1 small chopped onion

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp saffron colorant

three sticks of celery chopped very fine

( it would be great if you could use the leafy part too)

1/2 tsp turmeric

1lb lamb or beef chopped small

2 cubes beef bullion

3 Tbsp olive oil

1/4 cup rice

8 grated tomatoes

salt to taste

1/4 cup flour mixed with 1/2 cup water

Place all the first section of ingredients in a large pot, saute on medium heat for a few minutes. Fill your pot 2/3 of the way full with water. Cook until all ingredients are tender.

Add in rice, tomatoes, and salt*. Cook on low until rice is tender.( You can also add 1/4 cup vermicelli pasta for a fuller soup. )

Finally add flour and water mixture. Simmer for a while longer until all is well blended.

*Add lemon juice to taste for a real authentic taste.

This recipe serves about 6 people.

* salt and lemon are always placed on the table for everyone to add to their personal taste. Harira is usually served needing salt. So don't over do it with the salt in the pot.

Let me be honest....it is good...but to eat it everyday for a month....well....

I mean it is not Papa John's, or MEXICAN FOOD, or even taco bell,or The Cheesecake Factory,or Starbucks, or Applebee's, or Cinnabons,or Cracker Barrel, or even Subway...........Okay, sorry....it has been a while!:)

Respect is an Understatement.

2007-09-27T03:49:00.000-07:00

I have been wanting to share this but I really haven't been able to think of the right words to say. Before we came over here, I will not try hide the fact that I was scared. I was intimidated by what was in front of me. I felt so small and so helpless. I thought we would be hated and unwanted. I even let my mind entertain thought of all the horrible things that "could" happen to us. I made my self physically sick. Worry and fear- two things that don't have a place in the victorious Christian life were taking over. After we got here and the Lord began a work in my heart everything was improving. I was learning to daily trust the Lord and not let myself think about anything "scary" or negative. Of course I had to learn to not watch Aljezeira News Station, and we quickly deleted all the propaganda channels.(There is one channel that shows nothing but Insurgents in Iraq killing American Soldiers and laughing about it. They just show it over and over again all day.) Yea, sick to your stomach doesn't explain what I felt when I saw that. We erased that one as quick as possible. I had to eliminate as much negative as I could. But everyday I was growing daily more comfortable here.
Then we heard news from Turkey....a Bible publishing warehouse type place had basically been attacked. There had been 5 young Turkish guys who claimed they wanted to learn more about Jesus and His message. They arranged a meeting with two young Turkish Christians and a German man serving in Turkey. They used the Publishing place as a meeting center as well. Well, to make the story short and less graphic, the 5 "seekers" brutally killed the two young Christians and their German mentor. The German man had a wife and 3 beautiful children. He was in his 30's I think. They had a huge funeral for the men. Thousands of Turkish believers attended. The fiance of one of the young Turks had to watch the funeral from far away because though she is a Christian her parents would not let her attend. The thing that impacted me the most about all of this and the thing that really helped change me, was that at this funeral the wife of the German was interviewed. She was asked if she had anything to say to the men who did this to her husband. She replied to the question with a very short but familiar statement: "Father forgive them for they know not what they have done." She responded in Turkish. I am sure when the people heard her answer they were amazed and confused. This response can only be given and understood by those who know the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ. When I heard about this I began to cry, I asked God to make me as strong as she is. She stayed in Turkey with her family. This kind of example I have never seen before. I praised God that his Grace is sufficient. I learned how petty the little things I get upset about are. I learned honestly how to appreciate my husband more. I learned that if this lady could trust God and have faith even enough to stay there, that God would meet all my needs and calm all my fears.
I am not saying since then that I do not struggle or worry. It would be a lie to say that, but since then I realized that my life is about God. HE is great and He will always be all I need! I can honestly say that living here has changed me in ways I never thought possible. I know God is working in my heart and life. It is amazing to me how if you are scared and alone how if you search for Him, He not only lets you find Him, but He lets you know Him better. I don't know if this makes since, I am just writing whats in my mind. Never more than a few days go by without me thinking about this lady. I don't even know her name I just know that I respect her and that God has greatly used her in my life. I just wanted to share this with who ever is reading.

Feeling Alone.

2007-09-25T16:27:00.000-07:00

I just got off the phone with two of my good friends . I just got finished talking about all the hard things I feel I am facing right now. My husband just left for a trip for one week. So we are here alone for this short period of time during Ramadan. (Ramadan is the time of the year when everyone suddenly becomes super spiritual. They all pray five times a day. They fast all day and then eat a ton at night. Of course that is loosely put.) I just complained and "vented" as we women like to say. Then I hung up the phone and God began to work in my heart. I know I am facing spiritual warfare right now. When I feel discontent I know it is because I am letting the devil win. I feel so convicted right now. Though I am facing challenges I have never faced before. Challenges I would not be facing if we did not live in a Muslim country, I am reminded that I don't understand. I don't have a clue what alone feels like. I just got off the phone with people telling me they were praying for me. I have many good friends who really do care about us who are praying for us. I am so thankful for them. I can't stop thinking about how it must be for the Christians here. Having to everyday be reminded that the don't fit in, even in the country where they were born. Let alone their families. The pressure they must feel. I am sure their families are asking them to pray and to go to the mosque. Some of them are completely alone. Like my friend M. who had no idea there were other Christians here for about 8 years. That's "ALONE." But I DON"T FEEL SORRY FOR THEM!! Praise God, that's honestly the good kind of alone.

I am asking God to meet our needs and help us to be a blessing to those around us. Please pray for the Christians here. Pray for God to use them. Pray for God to strenghten and comfort them.

Healthy Version of Fish Tagine

2007-09-23T14:50:00.000-07:00

Okay here is another recipe, only I modified it a little bit. A lot of oil is typically used in Tagines* here, but since we eat them so often I try to adjust the recipe to make it a little better for us. If you want a more traditional tagine* just add about a 1/4 cup more oil and spice mixture.

* A "Tagine" is a typical dish here. You can have tagine of chicken,fish,or meat. They are all prepared in a simliar fashion. More on the way the people here cook it in another post.

INGREDIENTS:
(serves 4-5 people)
4 pieces of fish of your choice (frozen or fresh tilapia would be my choice if I lived in the USA)
2 potatoes
3 carrots
1 small onion (or less if you don't like onion very much)
2 medium sized tomatoes
1 handful of fresh chopped cilantro (or parsley)
1 tablespoon cumin
salt to taste (a tablespoon maybe)
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon saffron colorant
chilli pepper to taste
1/4 cup mixed veg. oil/ olive oil

Okay, it might seem a little intimidating with the spices but it isn't. And it is simple to make. Of course you don't have to eat it like the picture, you can serve it on individual plates!!!

1. Cut potatoes,onions,carrots,and tomatoes in 1/4 inch thick slices.
2. Layer all the above in a LARGE skillet or casserole dish if you would rather bake this dish. Potatoes first, ending with the tomato. Save a few slices of tomato.
3. Lay fish on top of veggies.
4. Mix together spices,1/2 of the cilantro,oil and enough water so it pours easily over fish and lightly coats the top of the vegetables.
5. Place remaining tomatoes on top of the fish and sprinkle with remaining cilantro.
6.Add a light dusting of salt and cook until fish is fully cooked and potatoes and carrots are tender.
(you may have to add more water, and change spices to your taste.
I hope you will try this recipe it is one of our favorites. I am jealous you guys won't have to be careful not to swallow any fish bones. -it really is a pain to have a little tiny one stuck in your throat!!!!

Nothing like Northern Hospitality!!

2007-09-23T11:52:00.000-07:00

Living here is teaching me so much! Muslim women believe one way to ensure their welcome into Heaven is by being hospitable!! They really do an amazing job......so you can imagine the pressure I feel when we invite friends over. When they leave I feel like I have run a Marathon...( or should I say done an exercises DVD because I really know what that feels like. ) Before I go on let me mention something very important:
- If an Arab invites you to their home, they really mean they want you to come to their house. Excuse this next comment if you are the rare American who invites and really wants to always have people you barely know in your home.
-You know how we are, we always say "if you are ever in the area please,please come to my house." Of course what we mean is" if you are in the area CALL ME....and if I have time we will go out to eat or something. " Well in our experience here in North Africa (as well as with our Muslim friends in the States) They really mean it and if they live more than 1/2 hour from you don't be surprised if you are expected to spend the night!! Whatever time you go expect to stay looooong time!! You will most likely be shown every picture they have. (And if they have a video of their wedding you will see that too!)
In our time here we have invited lots of our friends to our house......in this time I have learned a lot! How did I learn by inviting our friends to our house ???? Well, the first few times one of my friends was "invited" to our house she came in, went in the kitchen......and TOOK OVER!!!! At first this got me a little upset. I was thinking okay, this is my house, my kitchen, my food,etc. Then I realized if I just accepted all the criticism I could really learn a lot. She means well when she tells me "......you don't know how to do anything right!!!!" :) I will admit they don't just pop anything into the oven directly from the freezer and eat it 20 minutes later, so I give them credit for that.
Every mother assumes the responsibility our teaching her daughters how to become good women. They are taught from the time they are little that is pleases God for them to be good housekeepers. The greatest compliment you can receive is, "you are a real woman." It is also an embarrassment to the woman of the family if her family eats out a lot. One embarrassing thing happened to me when we first got here; I was walking in the door to our apt. and my new friend (we had only been here a few weeks) stopped me and said, "Do you ever cook?I saw you just yesterday with a rotisserie chicken from the store. For us that is a hshuma(a shameful thing.)" Again this friend meant her comment for good. I explained to her that I really like to cook but we didn't have our kitchen set up yet. She nodded and later that day she rang our doorbell and handed us a huge plateful of food for our whole family! Later that week was when our daughter got sick. As soon as she knew we were at the hospital my friend walked in the rain to bring us food and see how we were doing. It is a real challenge for me to think of things I can do to repay my super hospitable friends and neighbors. Sadly, our hospitality is similar but our motives are completely different. While I my mind I do for others to show God's love for them, in their minds in a way they do for others to gain God's love for themselves.

No PLUCKING.......

2007-09-21T17:11:00.000-07:00

Eyebrows that is..... I am never going to understand all the "rules" Muslim women are suppose to abide by, but come on...what is so spiritual about a uni brow???? Really my friend told me she really need to go get her eyebrows waxed, but she said it was a problem during Ramadan. She said God doesn't like it when women pluck their eyebrows. When I asked" why" she kind of shrugged her shoulders and said "He just doesn't like it and If we pluck our eyebrows when we get to Heaven God is going to rip out every little hair!" OUCH! But I guess this is pain she is willing to face or should I say a "rule " she is willing to break.
After a little study I understand a little bit about where this idea comes from: The idea from the Quran is that we should not change God's creation. -I guess for some it would be a big change. It even goes as far as to say that if the woman's husband asks her to pluck or shave she should refuse. I am all for being happy with how God made you, don't get me wrong. God did create us the way He wants us. But come on. -I wonder how they feel about nose hair...... Just an honest question. Maybe I should start looking at eyebrows to see how serious they are!?????
I am learning more and more about the liberty we have in Christ! The TRUTH really does make you FREE.......even free to pluck your own eyebrows!!

Dessert Anyone????

2007-09-21T02:25:00.000-07:00

Here in North Africa we get some of the best citrus fruits in the world!! I love driving along the coast and seeing all the citrus and olive trees. It is really beautiful! Here is a recipe that is not really only North African but it is really easy and really good. My friend's family makes it all the time.

LEMON MOUSSE

1 can of evaporated milk

6 tbspoons of powdered sugar

the juice of a large juicy LEMON

-Chill the can of milk in the fridge an hour or so.

-Once the milk is chilled pour it into a large bowl.

-add sugar, one spoon at a time stirring continually

-Whisk until the mixture becomes several times the volume

-mix in LEMON juice. The mixture will thicken immediately.

-Freeze overnight.....you can taste it now!

I love to eat this as a topping for raspberry or strawberry sorbet. It is good by itself too!

So there you have it, a super yummy and super easy little dessert!

Hospital vs. Clinic

2007-09-19T18:27:00.000-07:00

I will just take a minute to answer a question posted in the comments....
Well, we got a first hand experience at a private clinic our 3rd week here. We spent three days in there with our daughter. She had roto-virus! YUCK!!! She had been sick for several days and she could not keep anything down. She was already very small so when she didn't seem to make any progress we knew she needed IV fluid. Since we don't have that at home we knew we had to go to the closest clinic.(two blocks from us). The room at the clinic was very nice. It even had its own refrigerator. It was a big room with a bed and a couch. BUT..... I had to ask them to bring me a baby bed. I guess they thought a baby would bed fine on a very tall hospital type bed with no railing. Um.....NO! I had to pretty much stay on top of them telling them what to do. After two days they told us that our bill was getting expensive and we should go. Not "okay she is much better now" or anything like that. I had to tell them I wanted her to stay until we were sure she could eat and not just puke it all right back up!!! (sorry to gross anyone out with the word PUKE.) :) After 3 days she got better and we went home. So in this instance all I can say was the clinic served its purpose. Impressed I was not,but happy to return home with a healthy little girl,yes!!
The Hospitals are public and cheaper(sometimes FREE) and the care is not as good.(of course this is what I have heard.)
As far a need for health care here. It exists but the Government is very strict on outside health care. I don't know all the details, we have just heard from several people it is very difficult for healthcare professionals to work here. Because of security. Hope I somewhat answered your question.

What not to wear.......

2007-09-19T01:49:00.000-07:00

What to wear today?????.....A common question of women around the world....Well, I thought I would share this with you guys, so you can know a little bit about how we dress over here.

I thought I would take a minute to write about some of my first impressions on the way the women dress here....why is that important??????......let me explain my impressions first then I will explain form my point of view.

When we came here it was cold so I will start there...

-I saw no skin except for the hands and the face of the women.

Turtle necks, scarves, or head covering are a must.

I felt naked if my neck was showing even a little bit!

-No ankles showing. If they wore long skirts they put tall boots or pants under their skirts.

-Very, very dressy clothes...0r super dumpy clothes (like pj pants under skirts with hot pink socks etc.)

-Everybody tries to match everything, even the frumpy girls who wear their pj pants try to match their pink cheetah print pj pants to their pink head covering.

-They either care a lot about what they look like(the majority) or they really don't care at all.

And as it got warmer.......

-Everyday it seemed like the women would get a little braver

-Soon everyone was dressing more "normal"

-Still long skirts and long sleeve shirts

-If they wear pants their shirts almost always cover their bottoms completely

-Finally sandals of kinds!

-Even in the heat they wear lot of layers

So for me, I have spent this summer in long sleeves and ankle length skirts!! I have some friends who even follow that "dress code" when they go swimming in the ocean. For me, I just choose not to go. AAHH...sitting on the beach in longs sleeves in 95 degree weather!!!

I try to dress like them except for the head covering, if I wore a head covering everyone would assume I have become a Muslim. It is very important to fit in with the women around you. But it is also very important to establish a distint difference.I don't want to be immodest by their standards. Although I do get told by some of my friends that I need to cover up my hair. I do darken my hair to draw less attention to myself. It is obvious when I dress like them they feel honored and pleased that I want to be like them. One of my friends got really disappointed when I told her I wasn't going to wear my djellabas in America. I will always be an outsider to them...always..because so much of their culture in centered around Islam. Anything I can do to get me one step closer to them is something I willing to do! I wish they could understand the freedom we have in CHRIST.

STUFFED!!!!

2007-09-18T15:57:00.000-07:00

I had a really fun day today! This morning I just got some things done around the house. Nothing too exciting there. The normal breaking up toddler fights and cleaning up spilled juice on the floor. At around 2:00pm (after a super quick lunch before the babysitter came-we don't like to eat in front of her during Ramadan.) I went out with my friend who lives here in our apt. building. Most women don't like to go out unless they have to during Ramadan. They believe it is wrong to wear makeup during Ramadan......so they wait until after the sunset to get all painted up. (The "rules" of Ramadan I will save for another day.) But there are a few days of the month(of course these days vary form woman to woman) that every woman can eat and go about as normal. So we went out to buy so material to make new Djellabas. Djellabas are the long robe like dresses that are very popular and stylish here. I really enjoy wearing them too. We had a great time. We bought some nice fabric and talked about designs for how to make them. Of all the women I saw out today I was one of 5 without the head covering. Everybody is very conservative during Ramadan. I am more obviously "the FOREIGNER" then usual.
After buying our material we drove to a small town outside of our city to buy bread and fresh mint from the mountain women who ride there their donkeys in to sell their goods. It seems so crazy to have two drastically different cultures living so close together. In the city people live similar to people in any big city....but in the mountains here the women wear pointy straw hats with a bath towel stuffed up under it. That is really in style!!! (literally a bath towel...flowered seems to be the "in" thing.)
When we got back home my friend insisted that I get the kids and come to her house to eat the meal to break the fast for the day. So we went. I learned a lesson the hard way......don't go eat dinner with people that haven't eaten all day if you have! I am so stuffed right now. Here the main dish every night is Harira. A really thick soup with meat,noodles,rice,beans,and vegetables. I had to eat the never ending bowl of soup. I tried to share mine with the kids. That has worked for me in other countries.....they just brought out more bowls and poured more soup!!!! They will be up until 1 or 2 in the morning eating and watching TV. Then they wake up around 4am to pray...and eat again.
To end the night, my friend Khadija called me. She is working hard to convert me. She has set me up before. You know, told me meet her some where and then had her friend who speaks English meet us to really get her points across. She is so passionate about Islam. I am just waiting until I can really speak Arabic well enough to get my points across.
An afternoon and evening of intense language and culture learning. I pray that God will use me in the lives of my friends here. This is the first time in my Christian life I have had actual friends that are lost and on there way to hell. Sure we enjoy each others friendship and time, but we are so different. I think about that every morning when I wake up. Just how different we are. God has put me here to be a light to them. I love them, I pray that God will do the work only he can.

You won't find this on my husbands BLOG......

2007-09-17T14:42:00.000-07:00

I was thinking since the food here is really amazing I would share a few things with you from time to time!!! Living in any culture different from your own means changing what you eat. Fitting into any other culture means learning to cook the food they eat. Praise God the food here is amazing. Sometimes really different, but I haven't eaten anything gross yet!!! If you are trying to diet this is not the place to come!
- Let me start by explaining HOW we eat here. No forks or knives needed. We eat from one huge plate/bowl in the center of the table. Here you eat the food by eating it with bread. Just scoop it up. It is a little messy but to them it is no big deal if you get food on the table or anything-it is normal. So, I actually think it is pretty fun. I try to make food from here every other day. Then I have our close friends taste test it.......one is really honest, if you know what I mean!!

So here is a recipe for a common dish: Lamb Tagine (you could use beef)

2lbs lamb or beef
1 Large chopped red onion
2-4 cloves of Garlic
1/2 tsp saffron colorant
1/2 tsp ginger
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
1 cube beef bouillon
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt
1/4 C olive oil

-Saute all the above ingredients in the oil until the onion is tender. Add 2 Cups of water and simmer just until the meat is tender -but NOT mushy. (or you can put everything in a pressure cooker.)
Add a variety of vegetables listed below. With the veggies add 2 grated tomatoes ( just grate the whole thing, the peeling will separate.) 1/2 hour before the meat is finished.

Suggested veggies:
green beans (not canned) peas, carrots, cauliflower. For an extra good Tagine fry the cauliflower with an egg before adding it.

Depending on the quantity of vegetables this serves 6-8 people. It is great the second day too!

* I hope that is understandable* Learning to cook in another language is always a challenge...but that's another post!

A little History....

2007-09-16T16:34:00.000-07:00

So I have sat here and watched my husband post many things and I have always had things to add but I never wanted to invade the male blog world. So, I thought maybe there were a few women out there who might like to hear about things here from a woman's point of view

Where to start.......well I guess I will just take this one day at a time.
Today we went to our church which is an hour and half away. It was a great service! I noticed that when it got time to go the people started acting a little sad. It is Ramadan here now. Easily the hardest time of the year for ex-Muslim Christians. I sat with my friend M. she was sitting quietly by herself. I thought...."okay make yourself get over there and speak to her." So I sat with her and talked with her about her testimony. She has been a believer for 10 years. Until 1 year ago she did not even know other Christians existed here. She told me it was a kind of alone no one could understand. But she said that smiling. She is a courageous woman. Her mother knows she not a Muslim. She talks about her faith with her family from time to time.
After I have one of those conversations I am always convicted of the lack of contentment I have in my life. (Wow, I am being super honest on this first real entry....hope I don't scare anyone away!) I mean I am always finding things not to like in my life, I find myself dwelling on the struggles of living here in this Muslim country. But this NOT my where my only friends and family are. I have friends who I can share my relationship with God with, my friends that share the same desires and vision. Friends I can call and pray with. Friends that I praise the Lord for. But......M. until last year she knew of no one. And now she only knows 5 Christian women. I know God has us here for many reasons, one of which I truly believe is to be a friend to the believers. To provide the vital companionship that will help each other develop a closer relationship with God. I am blessed to know M. she is an awesome person. -And I thank God that he is merciful with an undeserving person like me.

First Post

2007-09-16T16:14:00.001-07:00

Coming from North Africa...This is the ladies version of what is going on with PNA. Everything you have read on the Ramblings in North Africa is totally male: no details, no style, just the facts. But this...this is from a woman's perspective.