In just a few days, my team and I will be preparing for ministry in Ghana. Leaving Cote d’Ivoire won’t be easy! Our ministry hosts and their family have been so incredible to my team and I and saying goodbye will be tough! Ministry this month in Cote d’Ivoire has been varied. How does one minister when you can’t speak the language? Cote d’Ivoire is a country colonized by the French. Aside from French, there are many tribes within the country that have their own language as well. Altogether, in Cote d’Ivoire alone, about 70 languages are spoken! To put this in perspective, this country is about the size of New Mexico! In Korhogo, which is where I am staying, the most common languages are French, Jula and Cebaara. Very few speak English in this area. Sometimes we have an interpreter with us but, it is very very rare that someone speaks these 4 languages…
Back to my question earlier; given the many languages spoken in the area, my team and I have spent a lot of time in intercessory prayer for the country, the region and its people. Prayer is such a powerful weapon in spiritual warfare!! When we don’t know what to speak, the Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf. Prayer; a universal weapon that can be used anywhere and whenever!
What our prayers have been for this area is that;
- the lost sheep would come to know Jesus Christ as their Savior!
- dissatisfaction and disharmony comes amongst those following the Islamic religion
- strongholds will be broken
- the walls and barriers come down along with the walls within peoples’ hearts that keep from letting Jesus in
- that the Christians of this country would recognize what they have within them for their Muslim and Animist brothers and sisters!
- that when dissatisfaction and disharmony comes, that God would send a Christian brother or sister right at the moment needed to bring the good news of Christ and His Love to their hearts!
Join my team and I in the same prayer for this country! There is so much kingdom work to be done in this country!
We have also done a few prayer walks around a neighborhood mosque. We go out to walk around the walls of the mosque in prayer NOT as a religious act but simply to bring with us the atmosphere of Jesus to the area. Every mosque prayer time, you can hear throughout the city, the call to prayer over the speaker system. This happens about 5 times a day. A few days after our first prayer walk, we are not sure what happened within the mosque but, Praises to God, I didn’t hear a single call to prayer that day!!
Yesterday was such an impactful day for my team! We each found an area within our compound and began intercessory prayer for the country, region and for those who have not yet found Christ as their Lord and Savior. As I had mentioned in my previous post, the region we are in is predominately Muslim, followed by Animism (spirit worship) and then, the very few, Christians. This region has about 10% Christians!
As we were praying, God gave me this vision;
I saw a dry, barren land. I then saw BIG sized dominoes lined up. These dominoes were many feet high and many feet wide. As these dominoes began to tumble one against the other, each domino turned into a big concrete wall. As the first wall fell, it created a domino effect, bringing the other walls down.
God revealed the interpretation to me as the dry barren land being the hearts of the region and that with our prayers, the walls within their hearts will come down, one after the other, creating a domino effect.
After some time, my team and I got back together to pray together and prepared to go out for a prayer walk around the neighborhood mosque. Just as we were heading to the gates to walk out of our compound, one of our new friends, Jeremiah, walks in! We let him know we were about to go out for a prayer walk and asked if he wanted to come with and of course he did! His timing of showing up was completely God ordained!! Because once we walked out, we accidentely took a wrong turn and ended up in a cul-de-sac type of road. Before we knew it, we were surrounded by children and adults. They ended up wanting prayer after they found out what we were here for! Not all did but those who did, were very eager! We didn’t even ask if there were any healing requests but began to receive requests for prayers for healing! If it wasn’t for Jeremiah walking into the courtyard when he did, we wouldn’t have been able to communicate with these people.
We then continued on towards the mosque. As we got there, the evening call to prayer began. Such perfect timing! Talk about war in the Spirit! We were there for our prayer walk around the mosque just as they were beginning their prayer… if we weren’t stopped by those in the neighborhood we would have been too early.
We got back to our home here and ended up saying our goodbyes to Jeremiah as we will be leaving this country in a few days and as he heads on to a new chapter in his life. I believe God will use him mightily! He has such a testimony and a passion for Christ. A desire for his steps to be ordained by God in every way, to be at the right place in the right moment. And yesterday for sure was a testimony of that desire! He came by just at the right time…
Also, another brief praise report! After yesterdays prayer walk, one of my teammates was awake during the morning prayer call (which is at about 4am) and she said that the speaker system kept cutting out and breaking the call to prayer!!
My desire is that one day, these mosques will become churches where Gods people will come to to worship our Savior Jesus Christ!!
All Praises to God for His glory!
Much Love,
Viktoriya
