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I would like to share a very powerful story to help you see what God sees in other places in our world, particularly in North Africa.
As I was driving out of North Africa recently on my way to Spain, I was reminded of the first story when I passed a familiar area. It was the same area where I had a very dramatic encounter a few years back … an area inhabited almost only by Muslims.
On that particular day several years ago, I had been driving through the rain with one of our students when we saw a young family by the side of the road. The father was trying to hitch a ride while his wife was squatting down in the mud, trying to shelter their two young daughters under her arms. (I later learned the girls were five and six years old.)
I stopped to pick them up, and they immediately told me they had no money to repay me. I assured them it was not a problem, that I just wanted to help. I explained that I had been helped in the same way by others when, at age 15, I hitchhiked all the way from Guatemala to Portland, Oregon!
They apologized profusely because they were tracking mud into the van, but I told them again it was no problem. Toward the end of our ride together, I began to share how I had found peace with God through Jesus Christ. Upon hearing that Name, the man began to nervously chant Muslim songs to ward off any “evil spirits.” The student riding with me told me they may have thought we were kidnapping them.
Understanding their nervousness, I explained to the man they were free to get out of the van any time. I told Him that, more than doing his family a simple favor, I was trying to share what had wonderfully helped my life, a personal relationship with Jesus.
Suddenly the woman began to vomit due to car sickness. She was visibly distressed by this, as well as the mud. I tried to put them at ease once more by mentioning that each family seems to have someone who does not travel well. We also have one daughter who is prone to getting carsick.
I noticed that her nausea was merely a case of “dry heaves.” It occurred to me that she might not have had anything to eat. I asked, and the husband confirmed they had not eaten all day. So I stopped at the next town and gave them some money for food. The man bought food, but only for the girls. I waited for them to finish eating, and for the woman to get a chance to settle her stomach. As we sat there, the man spoke up.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with us Muslims,” he complained. “We have been waiting in the rain for four and a half hours and not one person stopped to see if we needed anything until a ‘Christian’ stopped and picked us up.”
He was quiet and thoughtful for a moment. Then he calmly said something that shocked me completely: “Sir, would you take one of my daughters and raise her as your own? You could take the blonde one or the brunette; people normally like the blonde girls . . .”
My heart sank. I was horrified, wondering what could have made this man so desperate that he would give one of his own children to a total stranger!
I fear this man’s story could perhaps be multiplied by many, many times over, because there are more than a hundred million people who live in that poverty-stricken region. Their physical needs are intense but they are only the tip of the iceberg compared to the far deeper spiritual and eternal poverty.
Some people might even think this area is “God-forsaken.” But as you and I know, the love of Christ reaches everywhere, including to the lost souls in North Africa.
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Director's Desk 
