Essaouira

Essaouira lies on the Atlantic coast directly west of Marrakech. Its temperate climate has long made it popular with travelers as far back as the Phoenicians. Although earlier ruins remain, its distinctive 18th century fortified ramparts give Essaouira an added appeal for the modern tourist.

Essaouira was Morocco's most important port until the French expanded Casablanca in the 20th century.
Today Essaouira is a quiet, picturesque, and somewhat decaying overgrown fishing village with an impoverished local populace. It is also a hangout for offbeat foreigners. This combination has encouraged all manner of vice: drug abuse, alcoholism, homosexuality and prostitution. An annual Gnaoua Festival is a great success economically but focuses on music and dance used to communicate with evil spirits.

Many of the women of Essaouira dress in "haik", the most concealing of Moroccan traditional dress. Haik consists of a large woolen or cotton sheet wrapped in such a way as to completely cover the arms, legs, body, head and face leaving open only a narrow slit for the eyes. Each evening women who live along the narrow passages of the old city gather with their children in a public square to chat with neighbors and to let their children play.

The first missionaries of the modern age to come to Morocco arrived in Essaouira to evangelize Jews who then formed a third of the city’s populace but have since moved elsewhere. Sadly almost two centuries later Essaouira has no national church.
"Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the ends of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all

that is in it" Isaiah 42:10

Pray that God will place Essaouira on the hearts of intercessors and will call church planters to work there.
Pray that He will save many Essaouirans and establish His church among them.
Pray that God will give strength and grace to those who bring humanitarian aid to the region.

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مواقع عربية