In my previous blog I talked about how God moved in our prayer walks in the country of Côte d’Ivoire. If you haven’t had a chance to read it, it’s titled “A Universal Weapon”! Before I begin on how God is moving in Ghana, I wanted to share some more on how ministry was in Côte d’Ivoire!
We had plans for ministry but God, He had other plans. It wasn’t what we thought it would be but, when we came alongside God, it ended up being more amazing than we had hoped for! In a country where you don’t speak their language, prayer is the language to speak! A lot of our time was spent in intercessory prayer and simply, just following His lead. We prepared the soil and planted some seeds for future missionaries to come reap!
Children’s Ministry
My team spent some time with kids of different grade levels in a school. The school was founded by Christians but they have students from all backgrounds/religions. Their hope is that they can reach families through the children! My favorite part in ministry with the kids was hearing them, as we were walking out, sing over and over a song we taught them. The lyrics that stuck with them were “Oui Señor, Oui Señor, Oui Señor, Amen! Amen! Amen!!” …in English, “Yes Lord, Yes Lord, Yes Yes Lord! Amen! Amen! Amen!” I thought, if we at least got the children of a Muslim/Animist family to repeat these lyrics over and over at home, that is a good start! …enough to have it be the beginning of ministry within that home!
Hospital Ministry
During our time in Côte d’Ivoire, we visited two hospitals! We got to meet the director and he shared with us the history of the hospital. The one in Torhogo was founded by Christian missionaries and is one of three or four hospitals in the region that has over 50% of the areas patients, visit heir hospital! Keep in mind, this area is predominantly Muslim and Animist.. The director says that the patients often say that the reason they come to their hospital is because they believe there is healing at their hospital! The hospital begins their day with a brief sermon and prayer and their foundation is Jesus Christ! We got to visit each department and pray over each department and all the staff that works there. We also were blessed with the opportunity to be inside of the exam rooms with the Doctor and pray for the patients that came in! We prayed for healings, for infertile parents to be gifted with a child, for blessings and whatever else the need may have been. Were they healed? We didn’t get to witness the healings happen but we are believing for healing!! ..unfortunately, we weren’t able to stay long enough for test results to come back to witness the healings! My team was also blessed to be a part of 2 people giving their lives to Christ! They were connected with the director so that they could be connected to a local church. Yay God!
Many times in the Bible, it talks about how Jesus was deeply moved with compassion! Be it for an individual, the crowds, for the city… etc. I’ve been praying for God to allow me to feel His heart in a such a way… on one of our visits to a hospital in Ferkessédougou, I believe I felt the heart of Jesus through me! We walked into a pediatrics room where they had malaria patients. There was one girl who I was drawn to, that had a severe stage of malaria.. and when I saw her, I had such a deep stirring move of love for her! It’s hard to explain. Tears welled up in my eyes and I just wanted to hold her!! As we prayed for her, I could see such a peace wash over her! I strongly believe God healed that little girl of malaria…
Ministry Set Up
We got to partner with our ministry hosts in helping them bring forth their vision;
A lot of our time was spent on transforming a box car into three rooms. One room is now their ministry office! A second room is a guest room for future missionaries and the third room is now a storage room! I now have quite an awesome Ivorian sun tan from all those days in the sun! lol
Some time was spent putting together teaching material. Their vision is to go out into the streets/villages to share the gospel with the children through pictures of Bible Stories!
Some evenings, we would take strolls through the streets and visit people in the neighborhood! Our hosts’ hope is for their neighbors to know that their home is a safe haven for them because Jesus lives there!! That they can come over in time of need, tough times or even just to spend time with them. They simply want their home to be a beacon of light in the neighborhood.
Côte d’Ivoire; Ministry Set Up https://youtu.be/7Mc3gM97uxI
^^ just a brief and fun video to mix it up a bit 🙂
At Pepe* and Memes* home, there are always people coming and going, be it friends, relatives or neighbors. We got to meet so many people through them!
I am very grateful for the time we got to spend with our ministry hosts and for their amazing hospitality to my team and I. We will never forget them and they will always be in our hearts.. I am expectant of Gods move through our prayers in testimony for Côte d’Ivoire!
And before I wrap up, a team photo of the ladies I spent my time with in Korhogo!
Much Love,
Viktoriya
* Names were changed
