Wednesday - Thursday .... Fri, Sat, Sun... Mon?

So sorry for not updating you sooner!

Wednesday and Thursday of last week the adult team finished up ESL classes, and we enjoyed observing the progress the students had made throughout the week. As we have gotten to know the ladies on a more personal level, we have been blessed to hear their stories and have opportunities to pray for their situations. We made sabaya bread with one of the women’s classes on Thursday- the women were so excited to teach us something. As soon as the other classes found out we were making it a few different women came into the kitchen to show us the "right" (or how they do it) way of making it. It was incredible-- some women were in all black and as I would have been drenched in flour they didn’t have a speck on them.

During this time some of our team was able to make the bread and have conversations with some of the women. In these conversations it’s not uncommon as young women to be asked if you’re married, in Arabic culture the girls marry really young. This was a great lead in to find out more about the women’s lives. One young Yemeni woman shared with us about herself, she was married at fourteen and had her first baby by fifteen. She said she didn’t know her husband before they were married, and because of this she didn’t know how to love him; of course as women, hearing this broke our hearts. We felt for her so much. She then went on to say how she wakes up everyday sad and confused- that she had no joy. We were able to share with her about the joy Jesus has brought us.

That afternoon we had more teaching, specifically on women in Islam. We heard shocking stories of women being locked in their houses; some houses have all the doors and low windows barred. We couldn’t believe this was happening even here in the States. This brought us to the need for the Church to rise up and be strong in evangelism. R.C. Sproul once said “The reason we are so free to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ in the United States is because it’s so watered down it doesn’t affect or threaten anyone.” As Christians we must shine the light of Christ, we can no longer live in ignorance to the injustices happening around us.

That night we watched the Stoning of Soraya M. The story told of a family in Iran, in which the husband wanted to divorce his wife in order to marry a 14 year old girl, she refused. He accused her of having an affair and threatened a man in order to get him to lie and say this was true. She was sentenced to stoning, her own father said she was no longer his child and threw the first stones. As a team we were devastated, this movie isn’t about uncommon happening, it’s based on a true story. After the movie we talked and discussed together. All I could think of was Jesus saying "he who is without sin can throw the first stone.” What a picture of the differences in Islam and Christianity.

Friday morning the Adult team left, while five of us stayed waiting for the youth to arrive. We were preparing for the huge garage sale that was planned for the next day. The few that stayed were able to go to the Detroit Institute of Arts, we saw Julliard students perform and a high school group that plays folk music. That night the youth team got here.

Saturday was the yard sale for the community. This is a huge outreach into the neighborhood. Some of the ESL students came to buy things, but there were some who actually partnered along side of us, it was so cool to see the fruit of the relationships that are being built. Our team made Sno-Cones, popcorn and cotton candy for the kids who came along. By the end of the day some of us were covered in sno-cone syrup, some in cotton candy and all of us were exhausted.

Sunday morning came along and we went to a local church, the pastor spoke on Mark 10:13-16. He taught our need to be like children before the Lord, totally dependent on Him and losing ourselves so that we can follow wherever He leads. That afternoon we went to the Arab-American National Museum. This shows how Arabs have been involved in American society and their contributions to the culture. A really cool thing about this museum is almost all the stories are based on individuals; at some parts you can even listen to the person tell their story. Last night we had a tour of Detroit, seeing beautiful buildings and hockey town of course! We stopped and looked around a Methodist church that has the largest organ in the Mid-West, its smallest pipe is the size of a pencil and its largest is three stories high!

This morning we will having the second ESL for the week, please be praying that the youth and leaders who are here will have peace, comfort and boldness while they’re aiding the teachers. Pray that we will be a unified team, shining the love of Christ by the way we love each other. Pray for strength, spiritually and physically, we’re all starting to realize how tired we are!

We look forward to sharing some more with you! Thank you all for your support and prayers!

Days 2 and 3

Monday morning was the start of our English as a second language (ESL) classes for the week. Half of our team participated in helping the students and the other half worked with the children. The team members in the classes were split into various levels of ESL, the lowest being “ABC” level and the highest being intermediate II. Seeing how much the women in the highest level have progressed from the ABC class was very impressive. And we learned a little Arabic along the way, even some dancing! The girls in childcare met a ten year old girl wearing a hijab; it was shocking to hear that she started wearing it at seven years old!

The afternoon was our “immersion” into the Muslim culture. We went straight to a local mosque, took off our shoes and watched as about 15 men and a little girl (no more than three years old) did afternoon prayers. Prayers were followed by a Q and A session with the imam and some of his students. This was a time purely for asking question, though it was difficult to get a direct answer. After returning from the mosque we debriefed on what had been said, or more appropriately which of our questions had not fully been answered. The whole team was confronted with the realization of how much control the mosque and imam have over the community. We were struck with the conviction of how great a stronghold Islam is and how embedded the lies are in the mind of a Muslim.

On a lighter note we continued our emersion with dinner at an authentic Yemeni restaurant where we sat on a deewan (couch on the floor) and ate food with our hands. The food ranged from lamb broth to saltah, to garlic hummus, and motboha, all eaten with flat bread as our utensil! Some girls were able to visit the kitchen to see how aseed, giant dumpling with gravy (and we still stuck our fingers in to eat it!) was made. We finished the meal with an incredible Yemeni chai and headed back to watch a movie called “Dreams and Visions”, a movie about Muslims having radical encounters with Jesus, and how those encounters lead to salvation. The movie left us feeling assured by the knowledge that nothing is impossible with God!

This morning we learned how to make Arabic qah’wa (coffee) and later we visited the place where it was made! We got to see coffee beans roasting and learn the difference between Turkish and American coffee. A few of our ladies were interviewed in their ESL classes, as the students wondered if we were married and where we were staying. We put our gifts to use in childcare, playing songs and making crafts (or some of us just acting goofy!). The gift utilization continued into the afternoon as we practiced “landscape ministry”—that is, pulling weeds and laying mulch.

Over lunch, we listened to a speaker on contextualization and “the insider movement.” For those who didn’t take the Perspectives course, contextualization is an approach to evangelism that radically adapts certain words in the Bible to make sense in the context of a person’s given religious culture. The insider movement is a more specific technique that says new believers don’t have to reject their old religion in order to embrace new life in Jesus. This idea we continued to discuss throughout the day. While it is certainly a controversial subject, we concluded as a group that God’s truth is supreme, and that the Gospel is the hope of salvation to every fallen man.

Dinner was a real treat as we got out of the heat and into the air-conditioning of a Lebanese restaurant. The food was mind blowing! Chicken, beef and lamb shish kabobs, kafta, kibbi, fatoush, falafel, Lebanese style rice, hummus, stuffed grape leaves and freshly made pitas with garlic and tahini sauce.

Team unity is at an all-time high! Please pray that this continues, and carries over into the arrival of the youth team. Pray God would bring dreams and visions to the Muslims we encounter, He can use anything! Pray for continuing opportunities to have deep conversations with Muslims about spiritual things. Pray that God would supply wisdom and discernment as we face the darkness of Islam.

D1 Team Day 1

Last night we rolled into the Arab-American Festival, which annually pulls in a crowd of around 300,000 people from the area. Ethnic music, delicious shish tamook sandwiches, segregated dancing, and countless vendors lined the street and we got a little bit of the cross-cultural experience we had hoped to encounter. We were intrigued by the contrast of head scarves and tank tops, of belly dancing outfits and burkas. Our team was trying to blend in, but there were also Christian groups very open and outgoing throughout the festival. Some team members embraced the culture, buying hijabs, henna and incredible food. In the crowd the Lebanese-American people stood out because of their strong sense of nationalism, some wore flags around their shoulders, and others had shirts pointing to their pride.

As we arrived to unload our vehicles, we heard the call to prayer sounding from across the street; a chant both intriguing and eerie. The call sounds periodically, even as we draft this, so that it seems to pervade into every setting. Turning to a prayer more familiar, we’ve made ourselves quite at home at the local church. This morning’s sermon uncannily corresponded with our team’s daily devotion. (Who else but God!) The pastor spoke on John 6:53 “So Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you.” He emphasized our dire need for Jesus and our incapability to have a purposeful life apart from Christ. He is solely the thing we live for and the only one who can meet our needs, nothing and no one else.

As we returned from church we had the most incredible Yemeni chicken and rice, so good! Since it’s a Sunday we had no direct outreach tasks and we were able to watch two very interesting, informative documentaries exploring Islam and their relationship to the western world. The first, “Sacrificed Survivors: the Untold Story of the Ground Zero Mega-Mosque” was discussing the mosque plans a few blocks away from ground zero, interviews with 9-11 survivors and families of victims were the main focus of this video. The second film “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against The West” was discussing the jihad—“holy struggle”—this is the duty of Muslims to expand Islam, at any cost. This film showed our team the lies and strongholds Satan has placed among Muslim countries and even right here in the States.

Please continue to pray that our team will develop a deep love for the Muslims we encounter. That the Holy Spirit will be moving in incredible ways in and through us. That we will have discerning spirits while in conversations with the people we come across.
We’re so thankful for the incredible support system God has placed back home! Can’t wait to share more with you all!