|
|
||
‘We are not just handing out Bibles!’
By Graham Hutt, SPAIN — I was working at my desk one morning when an e-mail arrived from Chris Martin, the pastor of a church in Casablanca who ministers to mainly African Christian migrants and refugees. “Help!” he wrote. “We need more Bibles for the growing number of Christian migrants here, all keen to complete a Bible course! The Bibles you sent me have been such a blessing because they are small and well bound. Every Sunday morning before I preach I say, ‘Hold up your Bibles!’ and it is a sea of red!” Survive the hardshipsThe ‘growing number’ of migrants was right. For years now Africans desperate to find a better life have been entrusting themselves to unscrupulous agents who, in return for large sums of money, promise to get them to the coast of North Africa and smuggle them into Europe. Those ‘lucky’ enough to survive the numerous hardships of the first part of the journey, through many countries and across the merciless Sahara, make it to Morocco. There they face a perilous voyage in a tiny wooden fishing boat, overloaded and open to the elements. Dozens drown. Often groups are picked up by coastguards and returned to Rabat or Casablanca with little prospect of either advancing to Spain or of returning whence they have come. Migrants arrestedIn May a BBC news report described how, over a single weekend, Senegal’s navy arrested more than 1,500 migrants who were trying to sail to Spain’s Canary Islands. So after all the physical hardships they have faced, not to mention the successive ‘people traffickers’ they have encountered, who try to squeeze more money out of them at every turn, being chased by police and evading capture by border guards, they end up destitute and discouraged in places like Casablanca, as far short of their destination as ever. Their fellow Christians in churches like the one Chris Martin ministers in can be among the few people who actually reach out to them at this unfortunate stage in their lives. Before they are given the Bibles the church requires them to come to its Bible school to take the ICI course The Great Questions of Life. After finishing the course they are given the little red Bible with a certificate inside. Then they are invited to join the church’s Bible School to take the 18 discipleship courses called The Christian Life Series. On completing nine of those courses, they receive a study Bible, and on completing all 18, they are presented with leather slip cases bearing the Bible school logo. So far, according to Chris, six students have completed all 18 courses. After these 18 courses they can take 18 more courses called the Christian Service Series. “A group of migrants I have been working with in Rabat keeps growing,” Chris’s e-mail went on. “I can see I am going to need to do the same thing in Rabat that I am doing in Casablanca – but you can see why it would be a big job. We are doing more than just handing out the Bibles!” Websites for the courses mentioned can be found at the following addresses:
UBS is not responsible for the content of external Internet sites. (WR 403/14 - 07.06) [1 photo] |
||
|
|
||
