Month one is coming to a close! Abidjan is amazing! It is a bustling economic hub for Cote D’Ivoire. We partnered with a church called La Maison de la Destinée and have had an incredible first month. Our arrival was marked with comedic confusion about housing and our ministry host, so I am glad we were told at training camp that we would need to be flexible. Ultimately, everything worked out, but we were informed upon arrival that our original ministry host didn’t need us anymore and would not be partnering with us; then we thought we were being evicted for an afternoon, but repeated phone calls with frantic translations and a miracle let us stay. We are so grateful for the beautiful accommodations we’ve been provided and have been taking full advantage of the showers.
Culturally, Abidjan is a beautiful place. The people are warm and hospitable. Ivorians are a proud and hopeful people and there is not a strong willingness to discuss the civil war or the fallout thereafter, but we could see some of the scars. Many publicly funded efforts are now diminished and the police do not have a strong presence; instead, there is private security at every storefront and ministry location. Yet, there is also great hope here! Signs praising Jesus are randomly scattered throughout the streets, hanging from telephone poles or written on the backs of cabs. There are strong youth ministries, much like the one we worked with. The youth from the church loved to show up to our house, turn on the T.V. and just sit with us. They also made a very intentional effort to serve us, which was hard to accept because we were all here to serve them, but we were extremely grateful nonetheless. They would ask us to sit while they heaped food onto our plates (I ate an absurd amount of fried plantains, no regrets). Also, aside from driving, the people here have an extremely relaxed outlook on the day. This also plays largely into the “Africa time” cliché. Oh yes, it’s a very real thing. A start time of 9:30 AM regularly turned into 11:30 AM. Thank goodness for Kindles.
La Maison de la Destinée was an amazing ministry host. We went evangelizing with their youth around the city every week. We managed the massive language barrier thanks to some of the bilingual church members. My very limited French included “good morning” and “good afternoon,” which I said ad nauseam, much to the amusement of our beloved and bilingual friend Paula. We met Paula our first day at church and immediately clung to her. She has a magnetic personality that we exhausted as much as we could before leaving.
Our work this month was incredibly exciting as we were able to tour around the city. Our ministry host took us to the business district, a hospital, the university, an orphanage, a church in a neighboring town and the major shopping areas. The evangelism was extremely uncomfortable for me at first, but I’m finding the conversation of Jesus comes much more easily when people feel welcome to speak freely. God’s not afraid of questions and I’m ok with not having the answers. Many people had very few things to say, but there were some who were curious. Some people had a hard time believing the Bible was the word of God, others were upset with the concept of religious legalism and several were passionately agnostic. I believe wrestling with questions and doubt is an inevitable, necessary and ceaseless part of faith journeys, so I am grateful for my moments with all these strangers and their raw moments of struggling with the greatness of God.
Cool story moment: Kelsey, Amy and myself are the Legitsticks (the logistics coordinators for the squad) and we were not all together this month. Kelsey and I were housed together, but Amy was across the city. We needed to meet up to organize transportation from Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire to Accra, Ghana. We had tried prior to leaving America, but the funny thing is, African bus companies don’t really have a strong online presence and our efforts were mostly trying to decrypt random backpackers’ blogs. So, once we were all in Cote D’Ivoire, we set a time and place to get things done locally, but somehow Amy ended up at completely different shopping mall. Kelsey and I found a security guard and asked him if he could help us find out the name the other mall so we could get to Amy. The guard grabbed his English-speaking boss, who might actually be an angel. He called his private chauffeur and had him drive us in his own vehicle to the other mall across the city and refused to accept compensation. It was super casual, by which of course I mean it was basically surreal. And wait, it gets better. Because we hadn’t found any websites with rates or routes, we still had no idea as to how we were going to arrange the transportation of 52 people. We managed to track down some phone numbers on facebook, but discovered none of the receptionists spoke any English and we don’t speak any French. Thank goodness however, that a bilingual local happened to have volunteered for the month as a translator for Amy’s team. After several phone calls he presented us with two competing offers and ultimately was able to reserve an entire coach bus for our squad well within our budget. Basically I didn’t do anything except get driven to malls and give my phone to people to talk for me. Praise God!
Prayer Request: The orphanage we visited is in dire need of spiritual support. They work incredibly hard to run an amazing facility for their children. Everything was very tidy and organized, which was all the more surprising because only a handful of people manage the home. They have an ever-increasing number of children coming in without an increase in their staff. During a tour of the newborn room, as my teammates and I stood amongst all the chunky faces brimming with life, the translator told us many of these children were brought to them after being found abandoned in the streets. More than one third have some form of intellectual or developmental disability. From what the orphanage manager tells us, the town has a very fleeting youth culture that loves a good time and doesn’t want responsibility. Thankfully, people continue to bring the children to the beautiful orphanage where they are well fed and grow up knowing they are loved. Please pray for the staff of the orphanage and the kids. Their work is having immediate impacts on the Kingdom of God by protecting and uplifting His children. If you’re looking for something to add to your list, please pray for the Pouponniére de Yopougon-Attié.
The Team: My team and I are having a blast getting to know each other and I am so grateful for all of the unique gifts they bring to the table. We are currently at a leadership development week just outside of Abidjan and will be leaving for Ghana tomorrow. The bus ride is estimated to be around 14 hours to Accra and then another 7 hours to Sunyani.
Also, I’m sorry for not posting more frequently. One of the things about Africa is the wifi doesn’t really work very often. But please check out Brittni Wisner’s blog for more stories, she is a storyteller for the squad and has a gift with words.
Thank you so much for your involvement in this journey and all of your support! Please let me know what’s happening in your life and how I can be praying for you. Much love friends and family! I miss you all.
