April - May

The days have been good; full of late night talks and hard work. But they are slowly coming to an end, and heart breaking goodbyes are just around the corner.

Some of the exciting things that have been going on are…

• In April, our team took an exciting trip to Burkina Faso, where we got to see first hand how missions and environmental protection can fit together. It was also really exciting to see elephants and hippopotamuses for the first time! (Although, I discovered not long after, that there are hippopotamuses here in a lake next to the fields of my teammate Chrissy’s dad!)

• Our library project continues to progress by the grace of God. The room is now painted and equipped with bookshelves and thanks to three churches all sixty-something books recommended by pastors and missionaries of Cote d’Ivoire are being bought and will be brought to Cote d’Ivoire in June with a friend.

• May 7^th  I began a voluntary stage in Maternity at the local hospital of Boundiali. It’s a little crazy balancing work eight hour work days with household chores and Ivorian late night talks but I am really enjoying my time at the hospital. Not only does it improve my French and Dioula, but it gives me a realistic look at the medical field; which is the direction I am thinking about heading in as I start university in September. 

• My host mom is now about eight months pregnant and I’m praying that the baby comes before I have to leave. My host brother decided to start reading a chapter of his bible every day almost a month ago, but reading the bible everyday is a rare thing! 

Travel Plans

Tentative plans are to leave Cote d’Ivoire the beginning of July, stop in Germany for a week, then continue to Thailand where I’ll be for three weeks, then re-entry in Denver and then in Sunnyvale around August 8^th. None of these dates are for sure yet but I’ll try to get official dates to you as soon as I can.

March

Instead of sharing my experiences in Cote d’Ivoire (which you have read a lot about) I wanted to share someone else’s experiences. So, I video interviewed Koné Sétiéhoué Noé aka my host dad. However, like a good Ivorian he answered every question so thoroughly, with dates and everything, that each clip is about 10 minutes long. So instead of sending you the video clips I have summarized his story here…

{Disclaimer: This is a very different testimony than those I heard growing up, but I hope it’ll be good for you as you enter into prayer for our Ivorian brothers and sisters. This type of testimony is not rare here in Cote d’Ivoire.}

“I was born into a Senoufo family in Karakpo, Cote d’Ivoire. I was the second son from my father’s second wife, and I was the favorite child.

So, instead of sleeping in my mother’s house (each wife get’s her own house where she raises her kids) I was the only child who slept in my father’s house. My father was a tough man, not only was he a veteran of WWII, but he was a man deeply involved in animism. And I was the one who was supposed to take the family’s entire mystical knowledge.

By age eleven, I felt like a god because of my mystical knowledge. I feared no one and even tried to provoke my brothers who had become Christian. But my father did caution me that the God my brothers adored was powerful. That phrase stuck with me…

When I was a little older, a boy from the fields sent a bad spell to me in the form of a scorpion who bit me. But more than the pain of the bite was the sting of defeat. I was very discouraged that someone was stronger spiritually than me. So I asked my brother for advice. My brother stated that the only way to be secure spiritually was to follow Jesus, because He was the most powerful.

And because of this I followed Jesus.

When I joined the church in my village there was no more than fifteen people there, and my brother’s made up eight of those. Trials came. My grandmother put poison in my water. Later, the village poro (the animistic brotherhood) tried to challenge us to physical battle. But Jesus was truly powerful.”

My host dad's church in Karakpo

The goal of Journey Corps is to build relationships. Knowing my host dad here has really been a blessed experience. God’s kingdom is coming, and I get glimpses of it now when I think of the love that exists between my host family and me. We had never even thought of each other a year ago but now we pray for each other and support each other in this life until God’s plan is complete. How cool is that?