Sunrises
Sunrises are wonderful, beautiful things. Right now feels like a sunrise in my life, the beginning of something wonderful and beautiful. At the time I am writing this(we were promised wifi on Monday the 16th, but it hasn’t happened yet), I have been in Africa only 5 days, but it feels like so much longer! Each day feels like at least two, if not more, days all squished up into 24 hours. We have been so busy… and ministry hasn’t officially started yet! We have been to church at least once every day, some days for only an hour, some days for nine hours through the night. But it has been wonderful so far!
Sorry, this is going to be kind of just an information and story dump, I’m not taking the time to carefully word it and make it into a message, it is just too exciting and I want to tell it all, but there is so much to say! We are living in, I guess we are calling it a compound. There is a wall around the property with a solid metal gate at the road. It is down a dirt road, but only a short way off the main paved road. The compound consists of the church, a short building that appears to be a school (I haven’t gotten a tour, so I can only assume), a building that houses the rabbits, chickens, turkeys, quail…, a few other buildings I’m not sure of their purpose, and the building we are living in. Its kind of like a dorm situation. We have beds, we have electricity (except when someone plugs in just one too many things and kills it), running water (except during the middle of every day… not sure if this is the usual thing, or if we have just been overtaxing the system…) We have toilets, but there is no seat on them, just the bowl. We also have showers, but we are just supposed to use it to fill our buckets to take bucket showers. There is also a large-ish yard, which is kind of the grazing area for the goats and cows. I love watching the baby animals playing. There are a few trees, so we have gotten to hammock a bit, but I hope we get more time, because it attracts a few of the children that are always hanging around. French is the main language spoken, but there are enough English speakers that we can usually talk with people.
Church is difficult to understand because it is in French, but with translators we catch most of it. The first service we went to wasn’t like a standard church service, it was an event where they brought in 270 widows from a nearby village. They gave a short message and an alter call, and ALL of them stood to receive Christ! They also prayed for healing and we saw several women who said they had to be helped to their seats, walking and dancing! We then helped hand out big bags of rice to each one and a plastic bag containing materials to help them grow in their new faith. And because it’s Africa, we ended with a little dance party!
The next service was an unexpected surprise (as in they didn’t tell us until a few minutes before we needed to go there). We are still trying to figure out their schedule and which events we are participating in. Most of their messages are about missions, this church is really passionate about sending the youth out to spread the gospel, and the adults are meant to be the backing force, praying for them. And man can they pray!! We ended this service by stepping into the main sanctuary and prayer walking around the room, everyone praying out loud for the service that would take place the next night.
Friday morning the treasurers (not sure I wrote down anywhere that I got picked to be team treasurer, but I am!) got to go shopping. It felt like walking into a regular grocery store in America, only the labels were in French, the prices look ridiculously high (approx. 585 Francs to 1 US dollar), and obviously the people were different than the faces I’m used to seeing at home. Had a little problem with the ATM, but got enough out to make it work. I must admit, it’s a bit more stressful to shop for people who I don’t know well enough yet to know what they like or don’t like and a few food allergies, but it worked, and next time will be even better. Still hoping to go to an actual outdoor market. We drove past lots of stands on our way to the ministry site.
Friday night’s service was another new experience. They told us it was an all-night prayer vigil from 9pm to 6am. So, we weren’t sure what to expect, but we kind of thought it would be another pacing the floor praying out loud thing… just for 9 hours. It turned out to be really cool. They had a series of speakers lined up, a worship team singing lots of songs, and prayer in between. I’m not going to lie, it was tough. I had treasurer meetings and stuff all day, so I missed out on a chance to get a nap beforehand. But I made it! There were a few things that happened that I don’t really understand; there were a few women who collapsed and ushers brought them up to the front. One seemed happy, the other was shaking.
Saturday was great. After we finished with the all night prayer service at 5 am, we all went to bed and slept until noon. In the afternoon we went to Pastor Georges’ church. At first we thought we were just meeting with him as in finding out information…but again…last moment they told us to put on our skirts, it is actually another event. So we walked in not knowing the topic…. The first words translated were a question… “Why do you want to get married?” I had to laugh. In case you are not aware, as part of this trip I am on, we signed a paper agreeing not to date for the 11 months we are on this trip. What they meant to ask was what in the purpose of marriage. Yeah, it was like an introduction to marriage seminar. It was really good though, and the translation was very well done, so it was even more fun.
Sunday was the coolest. We were told to be at church at 7am for the youth service, got ready and were walking out the door and someone told us it was actually 7:30, but we were already ready, so we just went. After youth service they had a Bible Study/Sunday School/Small Groups, each of us was put in different groups, I lucked out and got an English speaking person sitting next to me translating. We talked about the anointing of the Holy Spirit and what that means. Then the adult service. And then an AFRICAN WEDDING! (I got some video, so I hope to get a video blog up soon) So we got done with church at about 1:30.
Monday was originally supposed to be our first ministry day, but it’s a national holiday, so it isn’t what we are going to be normally doing. (at this point I’m not sure there will ever be a consistent schedule.) But we got to go out with the youth (they mean young adults) to evangelize. Again with the we didn’t know what to expect until it was happening. We were told 20 minutes at 6 houses each, but in reality, my group didn’t go to any houses until the very end. Oh, and for this, they separated each of us Americans and put one in each group of 4 Ivoirians. I lucked out again and got a guy who was great with English. (Thanks God!) So we started out going in shops just outside the compound. The first two all said they were Christians already, so we moved on. The third, however, was run by a Muslim. Up until this point my group was doing all the talking, so I was beginning to think I was just along to watch and learn (and I was totally good with this!), but then John turned to me and said, “ok, you witness to him now.” I froze. Me? I have seen books dedicated to how Christian can witness to Muslims, but my mind went blank, and I couldn’t think of anything to say. I stammered through the conversation and left feeling awful. I felt like I blew it. Couldn’t John see I was stuck? Why didn’t he take over? But I prayed that God would use it anyway. So we moved on and the next place we stopped was a guy selling bed frames, he is a carpenter. After the introductions, John again turned to me and told me to witness. I wanted to panic again, didn’t he see how horribly I handled the last one? Why would he let me even try again? But something happened and God must have taken over, because suddenly I felt calm, and could think again. With John translating and adding bits, it ended in us praying for him to receive Christ! So awesome! We invited him to join us in church on Sunday, so please be praying for him! We stopped at a few more places and talked with people, and it was easier, but didn’t flow like the one did. Some people claimed to be Christian, but not church goers, so we invited them, but most of the rest said they do already go to church. We ended our time visiting an apartment building and the last house we went in was playing worship music as we walked in. Over all, it was a great experience. I still don’t think that is my favorite form of ministry, but if that is what they have planned for us this month I think it will be okay.
Prayer requests:
Several of my team and squad mates have been feeling sick
All the new believers, and the ones who had seeds planted, that they will be filled with a desire to know more about God
Our team leaders-we literally don’t know anything about what we are doing until it’s happening, which makes it stressful for them. They have been doing a great job of it though!
Me in the treasurer role-we have 5 teams together this month and ATMs don’t do what we want them to, so with covering for each other’s expenses it makes it harder to know how to input it in the system.
