We’re in Côte d’Ivoire!! After 59 (ish) hours of traveling (with very little sleep) we finally arrived at our house around 11 pm on Wednesday night. It is a beautiful Villa with a full kitchen, 4 beds, 4 baths, & two living rooms. Basically we are being spoiled this month!
Here’s what we’ve done so far.
Thursday August 11: Most of us woke up around 1 pm. No lie, it was pitch black & I kept hearing noise & wondering why people were making so much noise in the middle of the night. I was so exhausted that I could have slept the rest of the day but we hadn’t eaten in a while so we all got ready & walked to the store. At the store we ate some very late lunch & went food shopping. I learned quickly that my 7 years of French classes did not stick which made trying to communicate how much deli meat I wanted interesting, but, c’est la vie. After the store we went back to the Villa & started cleaning. Soon after began a long process of being told to pack & unpack periodically because there were some communication issues…it’s a long story. Ultimately we stayed at the Villa & once that was the final decision we got started on a much needed dinner (pasta!). I also learned how to play a new card game called President.
Friday August 12: We had our Team Time past midnight so at the end we sang Happy Birthday to Desiree! Because we stayed up fairly late it was a quiet morning in the house with many people sleeping through breakfast and waking up around lunch time. The rest of the day followed suit. We went out to the community playground which is a stone’s throw from us & got to know the kids there. Then after dinner we had Team Time & watched Mean Girls for Des’ b-day.
Saturday August 13: Kelsey G’s Bday! This day started out similar to Thursday & Friday. At 3 (read 4:30) we were picked up for church where we sat in service and then met with our Ministry Host. This was SUCH a relief! When we first arrived we were told that we would be making our own ministry this month. The task is daunting in any month, but month 1? In a new country with brand new contacts? I was feeling overwhelmed and not at all prepared. It was so wonderful to finally come in contact with people in the church that we can partner with in ministry. When we got back to the Villa after church we celebrated Kelsey’s birthday with ice cream J
Sunday August 14: Africa time is real. We were told that we would be picked up at 8 am for church so of course I got up around 7, got ready, ate, and waited….There were some phone calls & plan changes but finally around 9:45 am we were entering the taxis to take us to church. At church we sat in for part of the worship of the French speaking congregation where we were introduced and then headed over to the English speaking service where our ministry contact is. After church we met some of the church’s young adults and played with some of the kids while the young adults wrapped up their group. Then we went to a local restaurant and ate some amazing/authentic Ivorian food.
Monday August 15: We had a church service in the afternoon that was slated to be from 3 to 4:30. Me, Kelsey G & Erica volunteered to help with worship so we needed to be there at 2. We arrived at the church around 2:15 (not too shabby!) and practiced till 3:40 ish. What was meant to be an hour and a half service turned into a four to five hour service with evangelism. The worship was unlike anything I have ever experienced. I am use to structured services with planned transitions. What we did was throw out the “plan” we practiced. It was terrifying and freeing. We danced and sang to Ivorian worship songs about God’s goodness and joy, the mic was passed to me to lead songs and I had to start singing without music (sometimes it didn’t catch up). It was a beautiful mess of French & English crying out in unison to a God who transcends languages and cultures. After a guest pastor preached on zeal we went next door to the new Abidjan Mall to tell people about Jesus and hand out flyers for an event. It pushed me way out of my comfort zone & I felt a bit like a telemarketer, but overall it was really encouraging.
Tuesday August 16: Around lunch time we went into the city to a place called the Plateau to evangelize. We went to a bus station and split into groups so that 3 of us had at least one French speaker who could translate. After my group talked to a few people sitting on a bench we were told that we had to leave because it was privately owned and we were not permitted to evangelize without going through the proper channels. Next we went to a fabric market and were able to talk with several people about Jesus and pray with them. I was super nervous. As I’ve stated before I’m not the most eloquent person; praying out loud and sharing my testimony have always been a struggle for me. I don’t have a big conversion story so in comparison to others my story seems pretty dull. I did end up sharing a bit of how God has been faithful and loving in my life which I counted as a win even though it made me nervous pushed my comfort.
Wednesday August 17: We visited a public hospital, specifically the pediatrics wing. Our goal was simply to pray over the children. My team started out in the cancer ward & it was heartbreaking. It sucks to see children in the hospital but it really sucks when they have cancer because it can be so tricky to treat. Our translator, Emmanuel, said that cancer treatment is relatively new to Côte d’Ivoire. It was rough. There were very few smiles, many of the children were skin and bones, and the whole place was extremely heavy. So we prayed, I held back tears, and we prayed some more. We went down stairs to join another group and prayed over more children and several Muslim families allowed us to pray for them! As far as I know we only had one family that wouldn’t let us pray for them…well I still did, just not to their face.
Thursday August 18: “Tourist” day…We thought that we were going to the markets to do some shopping. Nope. We ended up evangelizing which turned out to be really cool. We talked with one woman who is Muslim but really wanted to know more about Jesus. We told her about our church in Abidjan and that she should come on Sunday to talk more about him. I really hope that we see her, she seemed extremely excited to find out more about Jesus. After that we talked to a Muslim man who wasn’t receptive and I think may have been making fun of us a bit. He told us to talk to a Buddhist man. We had a long conversation with him but weren’t able to talk much about Jesus, he was very talkative. Overall, it was a worthwhile trip and we did end with a bit of shopping.
So that’s been my week. God’s been pushing me out of my comfort zone a ton so far and I hope that he continues to do that.
