A former assassin, a suicide bomber and a few Christians

What a wonderful welcome home!!

Today we arrived home to Swaziland after 25 days away.  In the past month we have seen the Indian Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean and Mediterranean Sea.  We were on 14 flights landing in 8 countries on 3 continents.  We have been blessed beyond our wildest imaginations in seeing friends, family and the wonders of God’s creation.

Just sitting on the Mediterranean coast.

This past week we attended a conference in North Africa.  Due to the nature and location of the conference I will leave most of the details out, but I do want to share a bit about it because we were in a Muslim country where early Christians were imprisoned and then fed to the lions as entertainment for the locals, and Christians who have converted from Islam today are ostracized by their friends and family because they have become infidels.

In the midst of this eye-opening and informative week we met two incredible men of God.  One is a former assassin for the late PLO leader, Yasser Arafat, his name is Tass Saada, and his books are a “must read”.  The other is a man who was raised in an extremist Islam school and as a teenager was training/preparing to be a suicide bomber.  I won’t share his name or photo publicly. Both of them had personal encounters with Jesus, which lead to their conversion, at great personal risk.  Both of them had a profound impact on my life.

I wept as I stood and heard each of them speak so openly and honestly about the hatred they had in their hearts when they were young, and how it all changed when Jesus was revealed to them.  These are men who had never cried in their lives until they felt the love of their heavenly father, and then “suddenly there was something running down their cheeks from their eyes”.

It was humbling and inspiring to learn about the “Spirit of Martyrdom” in the early church and what an honor it was to be martyred for the sake of Jesus.  All this while we stood in the very location that the bible was Canonized in 397 BC.  It was equally encouraging to hear people serving God all over the world share miraculous stories of healing and transformation in the ministries where they serve.  You would be surprised at what stories a former assassin, a suicide bomber and a few Christians can tell :)

This month has been a month of encouragement for us both. No matter where we were, or who we were with, words of love and encouragement were spoken over us.  What an incredible gift that was to us.

Today’s journey home from North Africa to Swaziland took us a total of 26-hours.  We are tired, but at the same time rested. As the expression goes, “A change is as good as a holiday.”  We are ready for a day of rest tomorrow and then to be back to work on Monday with our Project Canaan family.

Live from Swaziland … 33 of our “big kids” greeted us at the airport!!

Janine