Article October 7, 2013 Issue

Prayer for healing in Morocco

Shannon A. Horst

Some years ago my husband and I were traveling in Africa as a freelance writing and photography team. At one point we were accompanying a group of university professors and personnel from the United States Agency for International Development on a visit to semi-pastoralist (livestock-based and itinerant) communities in the high desert grasslands of northern Morocco. 

I had spent significant time in prayer preparing for this trip. And two ideas that I took to heart during that time were these: First, there is no “dark continent.” For many decades “colonialists” referred to Africa as the “dark continent.” I knew this could not be true because where God’s children dwell, there is only light, and Africans, like all people, are in truth God’s children.

Second, in thinking about the areas where we would be traveling, I specifically worked with the thought that God’s man is neither a “host” nor a “parasite.” He is completely spiritual, so he can’t be a host for insect-borne disease. And he isn’t a parasite—i.e., a victim needing constant aid, a beggar or a thief—in relation to his fellow man.

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