European Worship Institute Travels to Morocco

By Jeff Slaughter

When we were invited to take ConVerge to Casablanca, Morocco, all kinds of thoughts went through my head: 'Isn't this the country that deported missionaries and gave national Christians trouble? Is it legal for Christians to go there? Is it safe to take our son, Nick?'

These concerns were dismissed by our host, Chris Martin, who pastors an international church in Casablanca. He explained that as long as we were honest with why we were in the country there should be no problem. In fact, when we went through passport control at the airport, they just smiled and said 'Bonjour'.

During our first two days in the country we visited a mosque built by the King of Morocco as well as a new state-of-the-art mall (complete with two Starbucks!). We also took a day trip to Rabbat where we got a beautiful view of the city atop a hill, saw the place where the King's father was buried, and visited a traditional Moroccan medina (market) where we ate a traditional Moroccan meal of couscous.

After two days of getting to know Morocco we felt that we had some understanding of the country we were about to minister in. But we were totally surprised by the passion and openness of those who attended ConVerge.

More than 80 attended the seminar, taught by me (Jeff), Jason Brown of Paris, and Zach Lowrie and Allyster Taubeneck of Brussels. (Nick, our son, accompanied us to run powerpoint for the events.) Organizers were so pumped about the event they even made ‘ConVerge Morocco’ t-shirts – the first t-shirts we’ve ever had for an event!

In the evening, our host church planned a 'Night of Worship' attended by 250 people. The place was full and responded openly to the three worship teams who led that night (including ours.) We were blown away by their passion and gifts and could hardly believe this was happening in Morocco!

The church in Morocco may be small but it is, indeed, alive and well! We've been invited back by our host to tour the country with worship concerts and to do another ConVerge in 2014.

Here are comments from some of the guys on the team.

"Walking around the markets during the ‘afternoon prayer’, we got a glimpse of the oppression of those ‘trying’ to be dutiful to their god. They looked miserable, broken, without hope. That really impacted me. Conversely, at the church, the doors were flung open and I could hear the sound of praise and worship resounding into the Casablanca night. There was such a contrast in the different responses of an individual who wanted to worship."  Zach Lowrie

“Converge Morocco was an empowering experience. Seeing people so hungry after ministry training, with such passionate hearts for God was inspiring. I walked away knowing that people were both equipped and encouraged for ministry in a difficult culture. We are believing together with the churches for a move of God in Morocco." Jason Brown

"The people were kind and warm hearted. The event was great and I feel that those who attended really appreciated the advice and help given. I was astounded by how much the culture was influenced by Islam and I would love to return to help the people there more.”  Nick Slaughter