My FUNNY Birthday

My Abidjan family did a good job of making my birthday a special day.

It started...

With a 6.30 a.m. knock on my door from Emily singing happy birthday and presents.

This is a toy Emily gave me that we put together right away on my bed, we think it is a flamingo. It is now the official office toy.

When I walked into my office, my friends had lovingly decorated it with signs, streamers and stuff for me to wear!


Then there was cheese cake. (Made from scratch by Mary Beth, my supervisor and friend.) All the regional leadership gathered in my small office to eat and talk about what they were doing when they were 24.

The day was not done.

In the afternoon the girls went Africa-Karting!

That’s me taking the turn and then passing Mary Beth! At the end, the French man who owned the place asked if we had funny! (not fun, but funny!)

We then went out to dinner where the whole crew sang Happy Birthday. It was a great and special day.

So, to all of you who sent special birthday wishes, a BIG THANK YOU! You also made me feel loved and special.

To see more pictures click here.

To add to the day, comment and let me know what you were doing at 24. So far, I have a lot to live up to!

AVANCE 07

Yeah, for getting to hang out with other singles!

Senegal was a blast. I didn't get a lot of sleep, but then I had a lot of fun. (an average of about 5 hours a night for 10 nights) I have kind of taken a vow to not really sleep again until the middle of September!

When I arrived at the hotel for our regional wide meeting, Emily and I immediately went and put on our bathing suits and jumped in the pool. We laid out for about an hour or so then went and ate fried chicken. That’s right FRIED chicken, a luxury here.

The next two days were spent “hanging out” with missionary kids while their parents were in some before the meeting, meetings. We had a hotel photo scavenger hunt, swam and watched movies.

Saturday all the singles went to this awesome ropes course outside of town. It was up in some trees that are called Baobab trees. It is been a long time since I have tested my body like that. But, the pain was worth it.

The rest of the week was all business. I attended worship (it was great to sing and hear worship in ENGLISH), sessions, team meetings and spent the majority of the time talking our great personnel into sitting down in front of a video camera for me! I spent a lot of time getting prayer request, thank you's and God stories on film.

I also worked on interviews and gather photos for next year’s prayer calendar. Oh and the most important thing, meeting all the new personnel and hearing the great God stories from around the region. He is doing such great works out here right now.

At the end of each day the singles had an activity. I did them all. A luau, movie night, basketball in the dark (the power had went out), worship, game night (I actually won my first game of “hearts”).

Got a hair cut, pedicure and my teeth cleaned!

Though I didn’t get refreshed by sleep I was refreshed to spend time with some great people that God is using in this region. Can’t wait until the next time.

My unborn Nephew

My older brother Jeff and his wife Erin, found out this last
week that their baby has a hole in his skull and some of
the brain is outside in the sac. The baby will not make it.
Please life up my family as we process this. Lift me up as
I am so far away and can do nothing. They will induce
labor at 36 weeks, which is about 4-5 weeks away. Then
there will be a service for the baby. Our Father knows
what he wants to happen in all of this.

Market visits

About a month ago I started visiting a local market once a week. The reason: to meet African women to tell them about Jesus.

It is very difficult to meet African women in my neighborhood, Marcery. I was invited to go with another missionary woman, Stephanie after her original partner, Bobbie, had to return to the states.


At first I dreaded it. But, I knew I had to do it. Stephanie wanted someone to go with her. (Two people who can barely speak and understand French is better than one.) So, I spend most Mondays talking myself into going on Tuesday morning!

We meet with several women, who know who Jesus is. Most of them attend a local church –Catholic, Evangelic, Lutheran, and Assembly of God. Our idea is to get them to be the missionaries of the market. Inspire them to reach out to the women in the stalls next to them.

Because I am new to the visits, I am still getting to know the women, most who are 20+ years older than I am. We talk mostly about their families and work. Their work ranges from selling baby products, a tailor, owner of a nail solon, to selling hair products.

Some want us to pray for them. And we do.

We slowly plod on hoping for a chance to introduce a story, “Creation to Christ,” which tells the main stories of the Old Testament leading up to Jesus’ resurrection. I know it somewhat in English. We are trying to learn it in French.

I know I can never accomplish this on my own. I know it is only by the will, grace and help of God that I will be able to learn this story.

Happy 4th

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July. I know I did. The mission got together to celebrate. We ate hamburgers, potato salad, fruit and cake. We talked and it rained, all day.

Our original plan had been to play badminton, and the rain did not stop us. We played several rounds and got soaking wet.

The rain has been slow to come and not as much as we need. I think the 4th of July party has changed all that. It has rained off and on since then. And it has been cold here, as low as 75 degrees. We need a whole lot more than we are getting.

But, most of the other West Africa countries are still in need of a lot more rain. Some haven’t gotten any. For them, it has been excruciatingly hot.

Pruning

It's cutting season. (When the rains come...everything gets cut, even this palm tree.) Wouldn't you like to have this guy's job?

Each evening walking home from work I see piles of freshly cut branches and bushes. It got me thinking about how our gardeners prune our bushes so they will look better next year.

Wouldn't you know the Bible says something about that:

"He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful."--John 15:2

Ah, the life lessons in Africa.

Sleep is highly over-rated

How dumb of me to forget that Thursday nights are wedding nights! Let me tell you, at 1.30 this morning I remembered. After the hundredth time rolling over in my bed and cursing the loud apartment shaking music, (I think people are tone deaf, the music was horrible.) the light bulb went off...it's Thursday night, someone’s getting married.

Yeah. Joy. Whoopee.

Lucky for me I wasn't invited, though the music was loud enough, I dreamed I was there. It was beautiful.

So, to those of you getting married this summer, thanks for not playing loud, bad, apartment shaking music. We are all grateful.

I don’t think the bad music was the only problem; mosquitoes have taken over my house.

Power, what power?

Apparently everyone but the Mission Baptiste knew that the power was going to go out today! Our guard, Sisa, told us, "It's a schedule outage." I guess us missionaries should start listening to the radio.

I wonder how I would understand it anyway...

So, while the power is out I can't connect to the server or work on a video (it's on a desktop, no power...no desktop). With work coming to a halt, my supervisor, Mary Beth, and I went on an outing. Apparently our neighbor had made half of her house into an exhibit full of Indonesia products for her friends in Cote d’Ivoire to buy. It was beautiful.

After we took a look at the building that is being worked on next to my office. It is the new office (we need more working space, the region is growing, thank the Lord!). We wanted to visualize colors and all the possibilities this neighbor's house had shown us. (Don't know if it will happen, but we wanted to dream a little.)

I am about to take Mary Beth and her husband, Deron, to the airport for their two week trip to Burkina Faso. Emily left on Monday to go to Senegal. So, that means I am the only Media person in town.

Good thing I have a lot of work to do...

African transport

So, Emily and I got adventurous last week preparing for her parents arrival. We decided to go to Louis’ house the way she goes back and forth to ours. (Louis is our house helper.) Now, Louis takes three different kinds of transportation to get from her house to ours and three kinds to get back.

The first is a Woro-Woro or a set route taxi. It is about 200cfa or 40 cents to get it at her house and take it to the next mode of transport a bateaubus or a boat taxi for 150cfa about 25-30 cents. This takes us across the lagoon from the other side of the downtown area to our little island.

Then another Woro-Woro (100 cfa, 15 cents) to our neighborhood, where she gets out and walks about 30 minutes to our home, or sometimes a red taxi (more expensive at over a dollar) all they way to the house, works all day then repeats the trip in reverse.

It's a two hour round trip.

Wednesday, we braved the bad weather to go with her. It didn’t start really raining until we got to the other side of downtown. And then it poured. We were soaked by the time we got to her tiny house. The road in front was already bad, but the day before the rain washed it away even more.

We visited with her kids, her sister and her sister’s kids, all who live in a tiny two room apartment. That’s not two bedrooms, it’s just two rooms.

As the rain poured outside we sat crowded together talking about life and God. It was a great time and even though they are so cramped they are all full of joy and happiness. If only we could all be so content in life.

My fight

Do you remember a time where you were intent on studying a subject of God's word? Has the Devil ever tempted you in that area?

Well, for the last week or so, I've worked on a lesson about spiritual warfare. Boy, it's been enlightening.

In it I wrote that, “Satan uses things in our everyday life to gain the upper hand to move us into personal conflict with what God wants for our lives.
Satan uses our personal lives, families and friends, to make us discouraged and to feel defeated.”

Yeah, Satan is a crafty little sucker.

I’ve been discouraged about my lack of French speaking ability for a while now. But, yesterday in our English Bible study they told me my English was bad! I just can’t win!

My friends are moving on in life. They are getting married and starting families. I’m not. I haven’t attended a single one of their weddings. They are starting awesome new jobs and moving to places unknown.

You get the idea. Here I was think I’m doing this great thing, trying to help American churches prepare for the ever present spiritual warfare in West Africa and I couldn’t see Satan was using it on me.

So, today, I am rejoicing!

That my French is SLOWLY improving. I have no problem following a conversation and I’ve become bolder in entering a conversation.

Rejoicing in my friends happy lives. I am so proud of so many of you.

I wish I could have been there…

To see you walk down the isle in your beautiful flowing dress.

Watching you eagerly await the entrance of the most beautiful woman you know.

As a new little one enters your life.

Celebrating your new job.

Packing boxes.

But, since I’m not and haven’t been, know I pray for you daily. I get excited for you and brag about you to my African friends.

I also want to thank my parents. They have made life in Africa so much more enjoyable with e-mails, chats, little packages of American goodies and movies.

Today, you are a witness to the defeat of Satan’s spiritual warfare in my life.

“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”—James 4:7


This is just a random picture that I like...

It’s a young Wala boy and his brother parading the best donkey in the village in front of the visitors. (Burkina Faso)

The following is a story I wrote for The Baptist Digest. The Baptist newspaper for Kansas-Nebraska.

Village hut becomes evangelism tool

La saison des pluies!

Its rainy season!

It has rained twice today. It woke me up by it this morning, the thunder is intense. And As I am writing this I look up and out my window to watch the rain fall.



We had planned on spending the afternoon at the beach, but God had other things planned for today…

Let me start by saying one thing: if you aren’t ready for an answer don’t ask people to pray!

Remember in the last two updates I asked for prayer about my language skills, that I would learn and God would give me opportunities to use French.

Well, that is what God did.

I started French classes (for the second time) two weeks ago and am starting to work on phrases. So, this morning after class I decided to practice what I had been learning by telling one of our guards about church yesterday.

Here I am standing on the street corner with Sisa (a Muslim man) and I tell him about or study of John 9 and Jesus healing the blind man before the man believed in him. Our pastor related it to how we as Christians should help everyone, not just other Christians. He was talking about AIDS victims. (Our church is discussing doing AIDS outreach for the local community.)

Sisa asked, “What is the church doing? Just praying? I told him no, the church is going to hold clinics, give medicine, food, and pray for those with AIDS. Then Sisa asked, “What is better, praying or giving medicine?”

Let me tell you, this conversation out passed my French knowledge. So, he told me to look up the French words and get back to him. Well, I did and still had a hard time…so after talking with Emily and looking up some more words I will meet with him again this evening.

Motivation to continue learning French.

Thank the Lord for the rain and chances to share about Him. All the in same day!