The Masters have arrived in North Africa
August/September 2010
The past few weeks have been an absolute whirlwind. Praise the Lord for graciously providing everything that we needed during this transition. All of our paperwork moved along a lot faster than we originally anticipated. We were even able to find a home within two weeks of our arrival. We are now living in our new apartment waiting on our crates to arrive. God is so good to us.
On July 20, we said goodbye to our life in the States and headed toward the field. Our first stop was in Madrid, Spain. We stayed the night with missionary Jeffrey Andrews and his family. All four of us were suffering a little from jetlag so most of what happened that day was a blur. The Andrews took good care of us and got us back to the airport the next day to catch our flight to Jerez.
We learned on this trip that you get what you pay for. I found tickets to fly from Madrid to Jerez for only 25 Euros a person. Unfortunately, the deal comes with a few setbacks. To make a long story short, we had to leave some of our luggage at the Andrews’ house and the flight itself took off two hours later than scheduled. In midflight the captain told us that, due to the delay, we could not land at our destination because the airport there closed half an hour before our scheduled landing. They diverted our flight to Málaga and sent us on a three-hour bus ride to Jerez. We finally got there around 5:00 in the morning. Needless to say that day was just as hazy as our first.
Our friend, John Beck, picked us up and took us to his house in Rota. Gretchen, Norah, and Judson went to their rooms to try and catch up on some sleep while I went out and gathered all of the necessary paperwork at the police station. In spite of the drowsiness we were able to get everything organized and ready to be submitted the next morning. John Beck was a tremendous help in running me around the city and helping me gather everything that I needed quickly. What we were told would take several weeks only took us three days. The Lord expedited everything.
With a little extra time on our hands we decided to take a trip down to Ceuta and look at some houses. We arrived in the city on Thursday morning and by noon the next day we found our apartment. We looked at dozens of houses online and could not find anything that we liked within our budget.
After visiting about ten real estate agencies and making dozens of phone calls I walked into one agency and told the woman working there what I was looking for. When I mentioned my wife and kids she lit up and said that she had something that we needed to see. She made a quick phone call and then explained that the landlords of one particular apartment were looking specifically for a family to rent their place. When I was able to get the whole family together again, we headed over for the grand tour. Within minutes of looking the apartment over we knew it was what we wanted. It has enough space, is almost completely furnished, and in a decent area of the city. We signed the contract and actually stayed that night in our own home.
Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support. God is preparing the way for us to work here in North Africa, and it is exciting to see His hand in everything that is going on. We will begin learning Arabic soon, so please continue to pray that the Lord will continue to work miracles in our life and ministry. There is very little light in this area of the world. Jesus Christ is the only hope that the people of North Africa have. Please pray for us as we preach the gospel to those who have never heard it before.
