An international year of prayer for
Morocco
| Week 50 |
IshilhaynA rugged, hard-working, frugal people, the Ishilhayn Berbers are known for their generous hospitality. With a population of some four to five million they are the largest Berber group in Morocco and among the largest of the least-reached peoples in the world.In hundreds of Ishilhayn villages scattered throughout the High Atlas and Anti Atlas mountains and their surrounding plains, life goes on much as it has for centuries. Many Ishilhayn village women still cook meals over fires the wood for which they cut, gather and carry from some distant scrubby forest. They draw and carry water daily from the local spring and wash clothes at the riverside. Men cultivate potatoes, vegetables or grain in small fields using mule-drawn wooden plows. Some Ishilhayn raise sheep and goats and may spend warmer months leading their flocks to greener pastures on high mountain plateaus that are uninhabitable during snowy winter months. Running a household is a bit easier for women in urban areas, while their men work at whatever they can find. Many Ishilhayn own and operate small grocery stores they may tend from before dawn until long after dark. Although there are key Ishilhayn believers scattered throughout the emerging Arabic-speaking Moroccan church, there is currently no church that meets in Tashilhayt, their mother tongue. Good things are happening but millions of Ishilhayn have yet to hear the Gospel for the first time. Far too few are involved in the efforts to reach this large people group. Pray !! "All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him." Psalm 22:27
|
