Oh Africa! We spent just shy of 90 days in Africa and those days brought so many beautiful things, albeit many days were difficult. West Africa was not an easy place to serve and live by any means. But the fruit that we saw in Africa was such a blessing. Many times doing missions it can be hard to see what exactly God is doing through us and in places until you have an opportunity to look back and reflect, however it was apparent during our time in Africa that many people were hungry and yes there was a lot who were physically hungry, but I am speaking about a spiritual hunger. This hunger for something more was wide spread in both of the countries we stayed in. (Yes I know we were there for three months and only stayed in two countries more on that later)
The first country that we stayed in was the French speaking country of Cote D’ivoire. This might have been our first country in Africa but it happened to be the last country that I would be serving with my first team. In which I had grown to love 6 unique, fiery individuals whose hearts are overflowing with the love of Jesus.
Our ministry this month was truck driver evangelism. Our ministry hosts were from the great state of Tennessee (Go Vols) however we did not spend much time with them as our team would be traveling to two other cities Bouake and San Pedro to support teams that were established or are being established there. Ministry this month was quite simple but profoundly effective. Basically we would walk to the ports or truck yards where the truck drivers and their trucks were waiting on their next load to take all over Africa. We would simply walk up to them and begin to have a conversation with them granted we didn’t speak french or any of the local African languages so we had translators to walk along with us. We would just spend our days hanging out under semi-trucks as this is where the drivers and mechanics were when they were not working kind of like mobile living rooms as many of them had mats or hammocks to lay on. Going into it I was nervous due to the fact that I have had basically zero experiences doing true evangelism that I can remember. I was blown away by how easy it was. The men that we shared with were so opened and inviting to listen to us share the gospel. It was easy to tell that most of them were lost and searching for something. Many of the men we would interact with were Muslim, however it was common for them to not fully grasp reasons to why they were Muslim. Many of whom were because their fathers were and it was culturally bred into them to be as well. You would think that being Muslim it would be incredibly difficult to share with them about Jesus but surprisingly it was super easy. It was real easy to get them lost when it came to their faith. We would always ask them how they knew their sins were forgiven and usually they would’t be able to come back with a solid answer, so in turn we would tell them a story of how we know that our sins are forgiven. Now many people in this area of the world know very well about making sacrifices specifically for sins as many people still made animal sacrifices for several different religious purposes. So we would always tell them a story (story telling is commonly used in West Africa to get a point across or to get people to remember something. It is quite effective.) of two sacrifices that God himself made the first being after Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden and God made an animal sacrifice to cover their shames and rid them of their sins. And so for the next several thousands of years this is how people would seek to have their sins forgiven, by making animal sacrifices. Then God decided to make one more sacrifice so that we no longer have to be tied down by animal sacrifices and so we wouldn’t be focused on the actual sacrifices and our control over our sins but in who God is and building a relationship with him. The second sacrifice would be the final sacrifice in which God sent his son to willingly die on the cross for our sins so that we may no longer have to make our own sacrifices and hope that it would be enough to cover our sins. (We could never do enough) Several of the people we would have conversations with had heard stories of Adam and Eve before and of Jesus as well but few had heard it in the context we put it in so it led them to reevaluate all they knew about God and who he was. Many of whom agreed with what we had to say and believe it to be true and still further many decided to become followers of Jesus. For the entire month the three teams that were participating in the truck driver ministry (we served alongside 2 and Nathan’s team served alongside the other in Abidjan.) had the opportunity to witness over 400 people decide to become followers of Jesus and over 1,000 people had the opportunity to hear the Gospel. It was incredible to be able to share the Gospel and see the fruit being harvested right in front of your eyes. 
We were so incredibly blessed to be partnered with some Jesus loving, Kingdom minded people for the duration of our stay in Cote D’iviore. We came in expecting to serve them however we were the ones who got served and loved on unconditionally. In Bouake Remy (Pictured above) and his wife Janette were such a blessing to our team even though they themselves were a part of our ministry they took it upon themselves to be a ministry to us. Whatever we needed, wherever we needed to go Remy was there at a drop of a hat even if that included sitting at the doctors office for hours waiting for Josh to get tested for malaria or going shopping with the girls so we all could have the proper African attire for Easter Sunday. Words cannot describe the appreciation I have and the love I felt from their family. I felt like I was apart of their own. The same can be said about our host in San Pedro as well Jean Claude. He had made the decision to leave his family behind in Abidjan and come stay with us for a week by himself and even so he devoted a great majority of his time and efforts to serving us. He was there when everyone started getting sick from malaria. 5 out of the 8 people I was with ended up getting either Malaria or Typhoid (or both) and he graciously went each time to the clinic and was constantly checking in on the girls as if they were his own.
Cote D’iviore was rather difficult of a month for me and the rest of my team. First off it was the last month that we would be serving as a team together and we knew that so we were trying to process through that, however for about half the month we were not a complete team. As I stated earlier 5 of the 8 people I was with contracted Malaria and were out of commission for at least a week. Two of them (Lindee and Josh) traveled back to Abidjan in the middle of the month to be monitored by Rhonda our host and so they were not even with us. It was tough to try and end the chapter of that first team when we were not even a team that last month. West Africa in general brings its own challenges to overcome. We were in Cote D’iviore during the hottest month, temps could easily reach close to 100 F and there is no A/C btw. We did have fans however electricity shut off almost everyday and sometimes all day. Food in certain parts was difficult to come by and was often hard to fit in our $5 a day budget. to put it in perspective we ate canned ravioli and white rice for 5 days straight and had to filter our own water through a bag.
Even though Cote D’Iviore pushed us and stretch us out of our comfort zones there was still so many beautiful things that came out of it and God was beside us through it all. I left Cote D’iviore with a new perspective on what the Race looked like and just who God is. You see he was beside us all along the way from the times we saw people get baptized and choose to follow Jesus even if it meant being disowned by their own family to the times malaria strikes and three girls (my teammates) find joy in eating terrible ice cream cones because it was the only energy they could muster to get out of bed that day.
