Awkwaba to Sunyani, Ghana
Actually I’m writing from Sunyani, but I’m going to be talking about my last month in Ferkessedougou, Cote D’Ivoire! So my team begins our journey to Ferke by getting dropped off at the wrong bus station in Abidjan with no translator LOL. So we gathered our things and began pronouncing the bus station we were supposed to be at as best we could. It’s not like we went unnoticed, people were walking by offering help and these two guys stuck with us. Ensuring us that this bus would get us to Ferke but not realizing we already had bought tickets and the other half of our team was waiting for us at the correct bus station (CK pronounced Say-Kah) so we just kept repeating that name over and over again until somehow it finally clicked. They helped us carry our things and showed us the right way until we see those 2 BIG BEAUTIFUL LETTERS CK and 3 familiar faces and screamed in excitement! Woo-hoo we made it! Check and check! Lifting those 2 dudes up in prayers and praying the Lord bless them wherever they are for helping us!
So we get our tickets and head on this previously said “5-6 hour bus ride” ready to get to our new site and join our new ministry hosts! Woo!
The 5-6 hour bus ride turned to a 12-13 hour ride that consisted of movies in French, 1-2 hour rants on whatever product of choice was trying to be sold, and bathroom breaks alongside the road. It was awesome! We didn’t prepare for that kind of ride and lacked in the food department because of it. Needless to say we were exhausted and borderline hangry, but we finally made it! We were greeted with a big ol smile from our host Sherrie and a big ol bowl of deliciousness with a side of coleslaw and cold mangos. “Boy is this gonna be a great month, I can already tell” I thought as I devoured bowl after bowl of food. We were left to a whole house for the girls to ourselves. We had our own room, kitchen, living room and sunroom. AN ENTIRE HOUSE FOR US TO PRANCE ABOUT IN! We were overwhelmed with the sense of gratitude, joy and genuine love to The Lord for providing a great half-month to have a home we could call our own. It was awesome!
Our home was in the midst of a hospital compound, Hopital Baptiste. It was founded in the 60’s by a man and his brother, both doctors and missionaries, that wanted to help relieve the burden of overpriced healthcare and share the love of Jesus with its patients. They also wanted homes to be an option for missionaries and their families that would be coming through along the way so we were staying in one of the uninhabited homes.
Our ministry there looked a lot like walking in the power of prayer and expecting the Lord to move when we called on His name. We met for prayer walks each morning, we prayed over difficulties the hospital is facing (financial burdens, hospital staff, pharmaceutical hardship, etc), we prayed over patients and all things encompassing that program and the people involved.
SN: if you’re a RN, Doctor, or Medical Personnel and are potentially interested in serving overseas for a short or long term I’d encourage you to pray into coming here. This place is doing great things for the people of Ferke and they need more people on staff!
Everywhere we went, we prayed! We were involved with a women’s widows group and we prayed over their people and their land and we got to speak life into them and hear their testimonies that most were sharing for the first time. We prayed over an all girls school, and so many other places around the community! We got to sit and learn from so many long-term missionaries and pour into them as well. We got pancakes, we got biscuits and gravy, and we got mangos in every way possible that they could be made! Thanks Linda! It was awesome!
The other half of our month we moved to a village in Sefogniekaha among the Palacka people. We were welcomed to stay with a couple that have been living in the village for 10+ years, Denni and Verne, and had lived there for quite some time pre-civil war as well! Denni leads a translation team in the village that is translating the Bible into the Palackas native tongue. They’ve never heard the Bible in their language before up until this point!! Could you imagine what that’s like? So the girls got to be part of printing the first ever printed copies of Ephesians, 1 Timothy, 1 Corinthians, Romans, and Titus with Dara manning the printer and rocking out with getting margins in order and printer settings, and Darlin and me sliding the book covers into transparent slips and stapling the books in the right order and we got to pray over them and be a part of history really! It was awesome!
The guys got to be a part of laying the foundation of a church so they helped in that. We came alongside and carried water on our heads (that’s how women transport things) to help make cement and bricks for the walls and bend rebar and such, which was exhausting, but we were so grateful we got to be a part of that. We helped in any way we could. One of the village leaders, PDT who isn’t a believer, asked for his house to be painted and that’s just what we did. We wanted the believers to see that Gods love doesn’t discriminate and it is necessary to win some people’s heart to do what you don’t want to do when the Lord provides those kinds of opportunities. The village life is pretty hard but so eye-opening. You go into this place where living in huts is still pretty prevalent. There’s no electricity and there’s a community outhouse for the entire village. In this village and most others nearby water is pulled from a well to provide for your cooking, cleaning and washing needs. In this community, it’s considered completely rude if you don’t greet every single person you see, and kids come out of all crevices just to be around you. This is what sets them apart from us; they smile, they rejoice in the Lords favor over them, they struggle and see that the Lord is good so easily sometimes. In America, we consider them so poor and in need and to an extent that may be the case but they don’t see it that way. It’s all they’ve known. They don’t compare themselves to us, they just think we have money coming from all ends of our body. These people truly rejoice when they hear the Lords word from His Book of Truth. They find it pleasing to their hears to hear what Jesus has to say. I want that! I want to find pleasure everytime I hear God’s word and I want to be hungry for more! I want to be excited to have time to read my Bible and that it’s already in a language that I speak and am able to read. Getting more into the Word just hadn’t been a goal of mine up until this point, but now I try to sit down and be in God’s truth for a chapter a day or a verse or something at least at some point each day (currently in the book of Acts) and I love it! I have a hard time still understanding some things and just being present while reading, but I’m fighting for it and The Lord is pleased with that. So some of my goals going into this month are: Being in The Word everyday, continue growing in the Lord renewing my mind and presenting all my struggles to the Lord and being transparent about them with my team and with you.
What are some of your spiritual goals at the moment? How are you going to hold yourself accountable to ensure that they’re actually pursued?
This one was kinda long! Thanks for sticking with me until the end! You. Are. A. Rockstar! Yeah, you!
