Greetings everyone!
This is quite a bit different from my usual posts, and I will try to update you more later this weekend.
I have been alerted to some important issues, and I know many of you are praying for me and for the ministry here in Ecuador. We are going to hold a camp on the beach the first week of April. There have been recent reports that the waves are very high (between 3 and 4 meters, which is about 10-11 feet, I think) PLEASE pray that these will cease and there will be no danger when we take our children to camp.
We also need to be united in prayer for Morrocco. Please read the following newsletter from a pastor there:
Wald Rabat Update
March 11, 2010
www.rabatchurch.org
waldiii@fastmail.fm
Greetings from Morocco:
Village of Hope
It has been an intensive few days and news of what happened at the Village of Hope is spreading through Morocco and through the world.
On Monday night, when I sent out the news about the government takeover of VOH, I was stunned and the emotional weight of what happened intensified over the next day.
The number of Christians deported from Morocco grew and many foreign Christians, including myself, wondered where this was going to stop.
On Tuesday I stepped out of the house, expecting Moroccans to be outraged and embarrassed by the actions of their government. Instead, I discovered that on the radio programs, the Moroccans calling in were overwhelmingly in support of this action.
As I was thinking of this, my mind went back to April 2008 when the American authorities raided a Fundamentalist, Polygamist Mormon community on the border of Arizona and Utah. There had been a report that a 16 year old girl had been sexually molested. In this community it was the practice for 13 year old girls to be married to one of the men in the community. When a man was excommunicated, his wives where shared with the other men in the community.
The authorities removed 487 children from the community. (A month later, the courts ordered the return of the children.) In the press the question was raised if it was right to take the children away and I remember thinking that it was better for the children to be taken away, despite the separation from their parents, than to continue to be brought up in such a destructive community.
I realized that Moroccans think of me, a Christian, in the way I think of this Fundamentalist, Polygamist community. And that conclusion has been devastating. As I walk on the streets and my neighbors smile at me and the people I know in the shops smile at me, I realize that they think that it is better to take the children at the Village of Hope away from their parents than to allow them to continue to be influenced by these Christian parents.
If someone asks me what Morocco things about Christians, this is what I will tell them.
Proselytism
proselytismThe papers accuse the Christians at Village of Hope of proselytism.
When my daughters were young, if I had discovered someone was teaching them after school about Hinduism, Islam or any other philosophy, I would have been outraged. So the statement that these young children were being proselytized has some truth to it - except that these children had no other parents.
Remember the circumstances. Ain Leuh is in an area known for prostitution in Morocco. When young women get pregnant, they often come to this area to have their baby and then are forced by their family to leave the baby behind. In an honor/shame culture, a woman can get married if blood can be produced on the wedding sheet, even if everyone knows she was not a virgin. But if she has a baby, there is no way she can get married.
So these babies are abandoned.
In 1999 Christians asked the governor for permission to restart an orphanage that had closed a few years earlier (because the two women running the orphanage were advanced in years and then the healthier of the two died) and to begin taking in these abandoned babies. They did this overtly as Christians. Their Christian faith was never hidden.
The governor gave them permission and the process of building homes and kitchen and dining hall began. And they began taking in children.
Over the years, there have been multiple inspections of VOH by different Moroccan agencies. Social services, education, etc. In every case the inspectors left impressed with the quality of care. Each time VOH passed with flying colors.
All through the years it was clear that these were Christians who were raising these children.
This was not an institutional orphanage. This was a family-based children's home. Each set of parents committed to taking in a maximum of eight children and staying until the last child turned eighteen. The goal was to provide a safe, secure, loving home for these children.
We wanted the children to grow up to be patriotic Moroccans who loved God, their king and their country.
The children received instruction in Islam because it is impossible to be Moroccan without knowing the Koran. VOH complied with the law about Islamic instruction.
But the children also followed the model of their parents. This is natural.
So were the children proselytized? If you look at the circumstances, they were rescued when they were abandoned, loved and cared for.
I say to the Moroccans who are now so keen on removing these children from the influence of their Christian parents, "Where were you when these children were abandoned?" "Why did you give permission for Christians to raise these abandoned children in the first place?”
For ten years the parents and directors of the Village of Hope have been open and transparent. For ten years they have received positive reports from the inspections that were made.
Unlike in the United States of America, there is no court to go to. There is no due process. The authorities came in, claiming that this was routine questioning and then on Monday announced that the parents and staff had to pack and leave. Seven hours after this was announced the bus pulled away with the tears and cries of the children in the ears of the parents and staff.
Personal possessions, wedding albums and the like, were left behind because the parents were more concerned with their children they had to say goodbye to than their possessions.
The government has confiscated the bank accounts, the land that VOH purchased, the house and other buildings VOH built, the cars and other vehicles.
But all of that would be gladly given up if it meant the parents could be reunited with their children.
This was a heartless decision on the part of the Moroccan authorities.
If anyone tells you the parents were proselytizing, remind them of the facts. Ask why Moroccans were uncaring of the children when they were abandoned and now seem to care so much about them.
This Sunday we will have a service to grieve for this tragedy and ask God to heal the hurt we have experienced and pray for those most affected, the children and parents and other staff.
There is intense diplomatic pressure being applied to the government of Morocco. I pray this will intensify. The media is catching on to the story. Use your contacts to expand awareness of what is happening.
The issue is broader than just Christians. The government has closed one of the magazines that was critical of the government. The government has taken actions against Shiites and homosexuals. There is a definitive policy shift on the part of the government and the society has lost the freedom and liberty it was experiencing.
If journalists want someone to interview, feel free to direct them to me.
I know you are praying. Please continue to pray. All of us in this country need your prayers.
God be with you.
Jack
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