CEI News: Newsletter December 2014

Newsletter of the Comité d’Entraide Internationale, the diaconal service of the Evangelical Church of Morocco

Editorial:

This year, our church reflected on the subject of witness. During our Synod from the 21st to the 23rd of November, we summarized our thoughts and came to a conclusion on the importance of the witness of the CEI in its actions toward the most fragile. Jesus himself shows us the way:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19).

 

We understand witness not just as words but also as concrete actions to relieve the suffering of others, in particular the migrants to whose aid we have committed ourselves to come. We hope to follow the example of the early Church who took care of people in need (Acts 2:44- 45; 4:32-35), notably those who were the most vulnerable (Acts 6:1-6; 1 Tim 5:5-16).

Love for one’s neighbor does not limit itself to those who share the same faith. Jesus fed the crowd and healed the sick with no discrimination: the parable of the Good Samaritan illustrates this lesson. Christ even healed the ear of the man who came with the soldiers to arrest him (John 18:10). The Lord said to us “If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?” (Matt. 5:46)

For us, diaconal ministry is not just to serve the poor, but it is to “serve God”. We bear witness to the accessibility of His love, and we reject favoritism, discrimination, and the creation of dependency among our beneficiaries.

We hope to continue this reflection within our teams to improve our listening and our service, and to better adapt ourselves to the cultural context of Morocco which has welcomed us.

Carlos Funk, CEI staff

The full newsletter is below: