Magazine for March 2009
MISSION NOTES
 Family Cloud |
Here’s an up-to-date photograph of Mike and Safaa Cloud, with their children Jane, Joe, Roger and Steven. The Clouds live and work in Morocco, and have had links with St Mark’s for many years. |
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The Kingdom of Morocco is a country located in North Africa, with a population of nearly 34 million. Almost the entire population is Sunni Muslim. The capital is Rabat, and the largest city is Casablanca. It has a west coast on the Atlantic Ocean that reaches past the Strait of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean Sea. Morocco has international borders with Algeria to the east, Spain to the north (a water border through the Strait of Gibraltar and land borders with two small Spanish autonomous cities, Ceuta and Melilla), and Mauritania to the south, although this border is disputed. Morocco claims ownership of Western Sahara and has administered most of the territory since 1975. |
 The Kingdom of Morocco |
The official language is Arabic but French is the dominant business language in central and southern Morocco. Spanish is often spoken in the north. English is fairly widely spoken. The Berber languages, once dominant throughout Morocco, have declined in importance. With perhaps 20% of the people used Berber as their first language.
In July 1999, King Hussan died. His death concluded the longest monarchy in modern history of the Arab world with a total of 38 years. Currently, King Hassan’s son Crown Prince sidi Mohammed rules Morocco as the 18th king in the Alawite Dynasty.
Morocco is rapidly emerging as a strong footballing nation and were among the leaders in bidding to stage the World Cup in 2010. As part of a new plan to rotate the event among continents, FIFA decided that only African nations could contend for this World Cup and in the final stage of selection, Morocco (with 10 votes) was second to South Africa (with 14).
Mike and Safaa work with children with disabilities, helping them to be part of family life and society. Their chances of success depend to a large extent on building relationships with authorities, agencies, other missionaries and of course the Moroccan people.
Mike and Safaa are part of Crosslinks, which was formed in 1922 as the Bible Churchmen’s Missionary Society (BCMS). Crosslinks is an evangelical agency involved with missionary projects all over the world. In a recent publication, Crosslinks quote a Chinese proverb which sums up their mission strategy:
“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”
This philosophy results in a key part of the work of Crosslinks being the ‘training of trainers’ and this is reflected in the work of Mike and Safaa, who (as an on-going venture) train local people to be involved in the work with disabled children, at different centres in Morocco.