I am currently in Ghana for the second month in a row. We were supposed to travel to Burkina Faso for this month, however with safety concerns due to Al Qaeda and the inability of the US government to help in the case of an emergency, the decision was made to stay in Ghana.
I usually write blogs for each country the month after to incorporate what God taught me through my experiences, however wifi access has been scarce (paying for it at hotels, traveling across town, paying someone to set up a hotspot on their phone, etc).
I want to make sure that I get all of my thoughts out about my time in Cote d’Ivoire while I am still in Africa, because the Lord taught me a lot, and a lot happened in the transition from South America to Africa, and with my time in Cote d’Ivoire.
Before leaving on the World Race, I began to plan a trip to ride my bicycle from where I was living in Arizona through Mexico, Central America, and South America and finish with a boat ride to Antartica. I had been convicted about my level of trust in the Lord, and I realized the privilege that I had from growing up in the US, and that I had no idea what it was like to truly rely on God for things like where I was going to sleep, what I was going to eat, and if I was going to live to see another day. A bit extreme, yes- but I had known through my experiences that God always shows up in the times that we lean into trust Him, I just wanted to force myself into a place where I had to trust Him. This month in Cote d’Ivoire I was able to see that I don’t have to put myself in a spot where I need to trust Him to survive, but I get to wake up everyday and choose to trust Him to show up.
In South America I had a ton of expectations. I knew some Spanish, I had researched things to do and places to see, and I had an idea of what I wanted my time there to look like.
After arriving in Abidjan, I had felt a freeing sense of release. I had no idea the amount of expectations that I had on the World Race until I arrived in Africa. The only thing on my agenda in Cote d’Ivoire was to press into what the Lord had for me.
Cote d’Ivoire (meaning the Ivory Coast in French), was the first month that I have stayed with missionaries from America, and was the first time I had English speaking hosts. We were living in Abidjan, the capital city of Cote d’Ivoire, and our main ministry was evangelism.
A normal week in Abidjan was as follows:
Monday- rest day
Tuesday- evangelism in one of the neighborhoods
Wednesday- trucker evangelism on the Port of Abidjan
Thursday- evangelism on an island neighborhood outside Abidjan
Friday- trucker evangelism/ discipleship
Saturday- show the “Jesus film” to the truck drivers
Sunday- trucker church at the Port
We also had the choice to choose to go to children’s ministry throughout the week in place of some of the evangelism, but I chose to go to the evangelism every day.
Before this month, the experience that I had with evangelism was either people coming up to me at the town square and telling me that I was going to hell if I didn’t repent, or through YoungLife which ministers to people by earning the right to be heard through leaders who share their life with kids of all ages.
How do you meet somebody for the first time, and explain in minutes the story that God has been writing for all of eternity?
I didn’t want to tell people that if they chose to follow Jesus that their life would get better because in reality, the people that were closest to Jesus were taken to their death for following Him. (Acts 7:54-60)
I couldn’t tell people that being a follower of Jesus would make them well-liked because it clearly tells us that the world hates the followers of Jesus. (John 15:18-25)
I couldn’t tell people that life would be easier because Jesus called us to do hard things like love our enemies. (Luke 6:27-36)
I didn’t want to tell people that following Jesus would make them more prosperous because although Jesus promised us that He would always provide for us- I’m still broke and homeless. (Matthew 6:15)
And, I didn’t want to scare or shame people into a decision to follow Christ by offering them an insurance plan to stay out of hell. In fact, the number one commandment in the Bible is “do not be afraid”, and Jesus did not come to comdemn the world. (John 3:16-18)
To sum it all up, I had a few minutes to tell people about following Jesus and how there is no better decision they could ever make, however it would cost them everything. (Luke 9:23-25)
And again, this was all in French.
So I asked myself again, how do you meet somebody for the first time, and explain in minutes the story that God has been writing for all of eternity?
The answer for me came while working alongside our ministry hosts. I can’t do it.
In reality, God has spent all of our lives writing our story, and will continue to write it until the day we die.
Our host Rhonda shared with me the story of how she became a Christian and it became really clear to me- while there was still a climactic moment in her story in which she chose to trust Jesus, there is a story named Rhonda that God has been orchestrating from the beginning of time.
In the same way, God has been writing stories everywhere and we have the opportunity to be a part of others’ stories. With this realization, we had the choice to choose into allowing the Lord to use us as part of His plan in the stories of others. The best thing about this was that the pressure was not on us, it was entirely on God. We would walk up to a group of about 5 Muslim men, ask them if they had a few minutes to talk, and trust that God was going to show up.
All of our stories have defining moments and the only way to know what part of the story God wants to write next is to be in tune with how He is speaking to us, to know how He wants to use us.
Often times I would know that God was speaking to me when I had an overwhelming feeling that I need to share a certain story with someone. A few times, things would shoot out of my mouth like “what is keeping you from trusting God?” or “God sees you and He has not forgotten you”. I knew that this was God speaking through me because those aren’t things I would ask somebody, especially someone that I had never met.
We were able to be a part of a lot of different stories. For some people, God used us to tell them the redeeming story of Jesus for the first time. For other people we were there for the defining moment where they chose to accept the life that is found in Jesus.
There is no formula. When Jesus came, He abolished the “formula” of the Old Testament law and replaced it with divine grace. He bridged the gap of sin, and replaced it with relationship.
I have nothing that I can say to a group of Muslim truckers. I can’t convince people of anything. I don’t know what people are going through. But I don’t have to. I have a relationship with the Father who knows us better than we know ourselves.
When I gave up my expectations of what my month would look like and released my agenda to the Lord, He filled it with His agenda and my time in Abidjan has been my favorite time on the World Race. About 300 people gave their life to Jesus for the first time. And not only does the Lord know the truckers better than I ever could, He knows me better than I ever could.
I also know that He is going to bring in the finances. I am having to trust Him in this, and it can be very difficult. I am having such an incredible experience, and the Lord is using me in so many ways. Please pray about partnering with me financially. I have already raised over $14,000!! God is so good. But I am still about $2,500 short of being fully funded.
