It’s been a long few days in the Ivory Coast. We’ve only been here a little over a week but it feels like forever. In a good way of course. God has really shown up in each of our lives. There has been so much spoken over me and to me as prophecy before and during this mission trip. It’s been a crazy journey.
This past Sunday our team was split. Three of us went to one church and three went to another. There is so much ministry to be done here.
When my part of the team, Stephanie and Kelli, went to church we loved the whole service. We danced, we sang, we clapped, we heard the Word given by the pastor, but there was something else that happened.
God began to speak to me and tell me He was preparing me on the race for something He would have me to do in the future.
While I was struggling with what was said, I was asked to come up and help perform the communion ceremony. It was very humbling and I experienced a lot of emotions during that service. There were tears of joy, happiness, nervousness, and excitement.
After the five hour service we were taken to lunch and then thought we were going back to our host house but our driver took us somewhere else. We ended up at the Methodist headquarters in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
While there they told us that we were going to be in an hour meeting and then go to the slums of Abidjan where there is a lot of Islamic influence.
I thought awesome this will be cool but little did I know how much I would learn from this experience.
They ministry partners started calling me pastor that day after the communion service. I don’t know if it’s because I served communion or if it was because I wore a suit to church.
At the meeting the director said, “Pastor Jon will you please pray for us before we go into the slums, also you are preaching when we get there.”
My heart suddenly sunk as I began to think of words to pray and think of words to preach. Thankfully the Holy Spirit took over and gave me the words to pray as I would pause every so often for the translator to translate.
On the ride over there I was silent thinking and praying about what sermon to preach to the poverty stricken part of Abidjan that was influenced by Islam.
I had never been in that kind of situation but I heard God say to me, “Start from the beginning.” And that is precisely what I did.
We walked down a hill and into the slums where people peed and pooped where they pleased. There was an interesting smell in the air that you knew was native to this area.
My heart began to break as I saw how these wonderful people lived and how they carried out their everyday lives.
We got to a little small opening where we sat in the center of the slum village and began to pray.
As we are praying, I open my eyes to observe what is going on around me while staying in a mindset of prayer.
There were about thirty to forty people from the slums sitting, kneeling, and standing, praying to God. It was a great sight to see.
As I was asked to come up to preach I could only think of one word, hope. I started from the beginning: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now, the earth was void and darkness was upon the face of the deep and the spirit hovered over the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.”
I then went on to say how our sin brought darkness back into the world but then Jesus redeemed us and brought light back in the world because He is the Light of the World. He is our Hope.
What I talked about really may not matter to you but what should matter is that the people I saw, the people I talked to, already had hope.
They had hope that they were loved by others. They had hope in God. They had hope that God would provide for them. They had hope that they were not alone.
They had hope that people actually cared for them. They had hope that they weren’t a burden to carry. They had hope.
In the short time we were there, I learned that God can be found in the darkest places and so can hope.
We always here of news saying that there is so much bad and devastation in this world but what about the hope in this world?
What do we hope for? What do you hope for? Hope in the Lord for He will take care of you.
“For the needy will not always be forgotten, nor will the hope of the poor perish forever.” – Psalm 9:18
