Sorry it has been so long since I have last written a blog. Our whole time in Cote d’Ivoire we did not have access to WiFi except a couple days. Even now WiFi is hard to come by here in Africa so I will tell you about our time in Cote d’Ivoire, then I’ll post a blog on where I am now – Sunyani, Ghana.
Our team was partnered with a host doing trucker ministries where we would go out around to the main ports where the trucks would load their goods to be taken all around the country. We started off in Bouake which is the second largest city in Cote d’Ivoire. While we are here, we also did some ministry in the villages where we partnered with the local churches. Following tradition, we went to the local village chief to let him know what we would be doing and to get his permission. He was OK with it and was very welcoming. Here is a picture of my team when we met with him, sitting center with gold shoes.
The kids love us everywhere we go and some of them have never seen white people before. We even made a kid cry at the bus station because he was scared every time he looked at us, his parents thought it was hilarious though. Here are some kids that wandered into the church where we were to come see what we were doing.
Our day to day here consisted of getting up, eating breakfast, then heading to the truck yard around 9 am or so before the sun got too hot. We would walk around and talk to the young men waiting with their trucks to get paperwork to take their load around the country. Most of the trucks were carrying cocoa beans. You could smell it everywhere you went. It smelled like really strong chocolate. Some of them would have to wait a week or more just to get paperwork approved before they could leave so these men are just living in and under their trucks during that time. We would usually stop around 12 to go eat lunch and wait for the heat to die down a bit before heading back out around 4. Below is a pic of one of the truck yards, not exactly the best living conditions.
The thing that blew me away the most was that every single person we walked up to or encountered always let us talk to them and would listen to us share the gospel. It didn’t matter if they were Muslim, Buddhists, etc. They were more than welcoming, gave us seats and had a conversation with us. Here is Johnny and I out in the field.
I had been looking forward to going to church in Africa and was super excited to get to spend Easter Sunday here! And what an experience it was. We showed up on time, which to Africans doesn’t mean much, but that’s OK because it gave us time to get to know the church members and watch the kids play futbol before church. When church started, there was about an hour or so of worship with plenty and dancing and singing.
It was such a fun experience! After church, we all lined up at the front so the whole congregation could come by and shake our hands. Here is a shot of our team in their Sunday best!
Here is a picture of a bunch of the church members and translators that helped us during our stay in Bouake. If you need help spotting us, we are the only white people and the only ones smiling ??
Well, after about a week in Bouake, we boarded a bus to go about 8 hours south to a coastal town called San Pedro. Here, we also did trucker ministry in the ports with the help of another local church. Here I am making a new friend at a local neighborhood cookout.
All in all, this month was an incredible experience with some amazing people who love the Lord and serve Him so well. In total between all the teams, we presented the gospel to about 1100 people and 250 or so accepted Christ. My prayer is that they will be changed by this and stick with it to better themselves in Christ. Here is a picture of my team with our hosts. Far left in orange is Jean Claude, he was our host in San Pedro. To his left in Remy and his wife Janet, who hosted us in Bouake. In the very middle in front is Marius who helped us for a couple days in Adidjan.
Here is a picture with the same people but with Dan (third from left), and his wife Rhonda holding baby Joshua on the far right who is Remy’s little one.
I can’t say enough about how much our hosts helped us this month. They went above and beyond in everything they did. I enjoyed getting to spend time with them and serving alongside them here in Cote d’Ivoire. They have an awesome ministry going and I will continue to pray for them after we move on. Next up is Ghana and I can’t wait, we will actually be able to speak English instead of French so that will be a nice change! Thank you so much for reading, and for all your prayer and support while I’m out on the field.
For a fundraising update, I am currently at $13,812 and I need $16,617 to be fully funded. It’s great to see how far I have come and how the Lord has provided for me so far. If you would like to partner with me or know somebody that might be interested, please feel free to share my blog with others and I would be happy to answer any questions via email! [email protected]
You can donate through my main page by clicking on the donate button at the top! Thanks again for reading and I’ll update you all again soon.
