Trip details as of today, June 17th

Hello all, 

Thank you so much to you who have supported us - both with your prayers and your financial gifts. There are many of you who are wondering what the status is of our trip, or what we're even going to be doing there. We hope that this posting will help answer those questions for you all.

We found fabulous tickets on kayak.com. We were able to get two round-trip tickets for approximately $1500!!!! We are leaving Portland at 6:30am on July 15th, and will proceed to have a four hour lay-over in NYC (yay!). From there we will fly into Malaga, Spain, where we will have gone back in time and arrived at 9:40am - that same day. We are still deciding if we will stay in Spain one day or go straight to the ferry. We would do this by taking the metro train from the airport to the ferry station where will board a ferry that will take us across the Mediterranean Sea to Melilla, Spain, a small piece of land owned by Spain within Morocco. From there we are traveling into Morocco, most likely via our friend Nathan (who also took our wedding photos, by the way). 

We are working with an organization called Friends of the Rif (F.O.R.), started by the parents of the husband of the couple we have been communicating with. This organization was created for the purpose of rebuilding homes for the Moroccans who lost their homes in the earthquake of 2004, which also killed thousands of people. You can visit their website at www.friendsofthe rif.org. We were told that the website has not been updated very recently. Here are the details for the remainder of our trip:

Summary of what we’ll be doing:

Mainly helping with the volunteers teams that come each summer for two week trips.

Gretchen: laundry, grocery shopping, and other tasks around the house.

Andrew: helping Joey in various ways, driving a truck with supplies, etc.

Best way to prepare: Be flexible and ready for whatever

Where we’ll be staying:

In a town called Izmmouren outside of a larger town called Al Hociema. Located on Northern Coast between Nador and Tetuan. Actual work is in villages outside of Izmmouren, but living space is in Izmmouren.

Sharing an apartment with other volunteers in the guest house (washing machine, but no dryer) J at the cost of 150 durhams a day (currently, it is 8.11 durhams to the U.S. dollar). This comes out to around $18.50/day. This amount is still be clarified, as we are unsure if this is per person or per couple.

Average Day:

Wake up and have breakfast and devotions with the other volunteers.

Doing anything that is needed as specified above…. All day.

Bible study/lesson with Moroccans that are also helping build the homes.

Have dinner back with the team, then have the night somewhat free.

Key: flexibility

Essentially, we are doing exactly what we originally set out to do: helping and encouraging the missionaries who are already there; doing whatever it is that needs to be done. We want to serve, and that is what we plan on doing. :)

We will be returning on Wednesday, August 5th, in a similar fashion to how we arrived: Izmmouren to Melilla to Malaga to NYC to Portland.

Please stay in prayer for us as we figure out some final itinerary details i.e. cost of the ferry, etc. and begin mentally preparing for this trip. We are thrilled to discover what the Lord has to teach us through the joys and challenges we know we will encounter these three weeks. Thank you for your love and support.