When it is hard to say Goodbye, you know it was a good month! This month we were spoiled! We had amazing hosts and translators that truly cared about their community, church and the Beloved Daughters!
I wanted to share with you my last journal entry for Cote D’Ivoire!
Today was a hard day! Our last full day in Diabo was filled with making our rounds to say goodbye! As we walked the streets we have come to love with heavy hearts, we reminisced on the funny memories and adventures we had walking through the constant “fresh dust”
We started with the chief of chiefs! He was very sweet (so we think? Everything is from a translator) see ya Randy Jackson! Then we went to the Prefect and actually got to finally meet the Mayor! In each place we prayed, praised and enjoyed their company. We even got to go back to the hospital to say goodbye to the nurses we had met!
When we got home I packed up some more iof f my things and then our favorite teens came to hangout! We ended up playing Egyptian war (card game) for a couple hours. We laughed so hard as we watched Samuel and Leopold battle to win! They all also begged us to sing the national anthem, and then they sang theirs for us! You could get these kids to do anything, they loved to hangout! In a way God was always there, he always brought them back.. even after we walked them through a bible study when they thought they were coming over just to hangout!
We ate salad tonight for dinner! Always refreshing and a nice change from the fish that I don’t eat! I get excited when I can eat more than rice and bread!
We then walked down to the church for our “farewell party” obviously an hour later than planned. Africa timing! We got down there and it started with worship and dancing, and then members of the church took time to say words of encouragement for us. It was really sweet but hard to understand at times. Our pal John spoke and made us do a strange goodbye.. We got in a line and jumped up and down saying “Bye bye bye bye”?? He was a riot, and will be missed. I teared up when he walked away crying.
I don’t like goodbyes, but the hardest goodbyes mean your time with them was filled with so much love!! I will miss this community and the goofiness that consumed that compound!
This first month has been incredible. I came here with blinds on. I had a strong belief in God, I lived in community with my church, I thought I knew the basics. But man was I mistaken. I learned more about God, relationships, community, intimacy, simplicity, spiritual warfare, the enemy, worship, the Gospel and MYSELF in just 26 days in Africa, than I have in the last 26 years of my life!!
To think of everything I grew in inn just one month, I can’t wait to see where the Lord takes me in Ghana and the 9 months to come! It’s Ghana be amazing!
