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to the National Press | 2/17/05 
Rev.
Rob Schenck (far right) speaks to an assembly of pastors who joined Ambassador
Aziz Mekouar (left, center) at his home for dinner and prayer last summer. The
group met to discuss Islam and Christianity over a two day period.
The
Christian Friendship Mission to Morocco, being coordinated jointly by the National
Clergy Council and Faith and Action, continues to come along nicely as new groups
join up with this historic undertaking. The Christian Friendship Mission
is part of a much larger effort inspired by the Friendship Caravan and its president,
Mr. Michael Kirtley. Mr. Kirtley teamed up in March of 2004 with Joe Grieboski
of the Institute on Religion and Public Policy and Morocco's ambassador to the
U.S., Aziz Mekour, to put together the very first official delegation of American
Evangelicals to visit this modern North African kingdom at the invitation of the
Royal Government. Rev. Rob Schenck was part of that first delegation and
has returned on a second one since then. Rev. Schenck also hosted an encounter
between American Evangelical pastors and organization leaders and a representative
of the Moroccan Ministry of Islamic Affairs held in June of 2004 at Ambassador
Mekouar's residence. There have been numerous other planning meetings at the Moroccan
embassy in Washington that included Rev. Schenck, the Ambassador, and an ad hoc
coordination team made up of Mr. Kirtley, Dr. Richard Cizk, vice-president for
government affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals and Dr. Harry Thomas,
president of Come Alive Ministries International and founder of Creation, the
largest contemporary Christian music festival in the world. A major component
of the next delegation's visit to take place May 1-9 is the work of Christian
humanitarian relief teams under the aegis of Operation Serve International, an
organization founded by Rev. Schenck in the early 1980's and now headed by the
husband and wife team of Dr. Sameh and Connie Sadik. OSI, as it is known, is headquartered
in Hamilton, Ohio, and dispatches hundreds of volunteer medical, dental and health
and hygiene personnel to assist the poorest of the poor in countries areas like
Mexico, Egypt and Southeast Asia. The larger weeklong Friendship Festival,
of which the Christian Friendship Mission is a part, will involve a formal "dialogue"
between American Evangelical leaders and Moroccan Islamic officials, the only-ever
contemporary Christian music festival to be sponsored by an Islamic country, and
informal "friendship encounters" between "Official Observers"
and Moroccans. Other participants this year will be Dr. Norm Beetler, a
long-time associate of Rev. Schenck and founder of Busses International, a group
that builds and deploys mobile medical, dental and other specialty service vehicles
for use by missionaries around the world. Dr. Beetler is a past president of the
Ohio State Chapter of the National Association of Evangelicals and is currently
presiding bishop of the old-line, Bible-believing Methodist Episcopal Church.
Dr. David Aikman, a prolific author and renowned journalist who most recently
made headlines with his spiritual biography of President George Bush, Man of Faith,
will head a sub-delegation of both Christian and secular journalists under the
banner of Gegrapha, an international fellowship of Christians in journalism that
he founded. Dr. Aikman, who is the former Time Magazine bureau chief for Buenos
Aires, Beijing and Jerusalem, is currently a columnist for Charisma, the most
widely read Evangelical magazine in the United States. Pastors, humanitarian
aid workers-especially solar electrical and potable water chemists and engineers-are
invited to join the mission. Sub-groups sponsored by churches and other organizations
are also welcome. Departure is evening of May 1 with return on May 8 with optional
extra day, May 9.The cost is $1500 per person, including roundtrip airfare New
York JFK to Casablanca, all hotels, ground transportation and two meals per day.
Send your E-mail inquiry to Mr. Tanie Guy at tanieguy@forgetmenotministries.org.
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