Welcome to the World Race!
My first full day in Africa happened to be my 23rd birthday! My team and I left Abidjan at 6AM with our host to go to the bus stop. We split up into two taxis, and I ended up at the wrong bus stop. Luckily, our host, Sherri, was so helpful and got us to the correct place on time.
We boarded our bus to Korhogo, a city in the northern part of the country. If you know me, you know I am not a fan of being close to people, especially when hot. For the next 10 hours, I had the privilege of being shoulder to shoulder with my ministry host. She taught me about the culture and I asked all the questions I could think of. We also slept more than I thought possible on a bumpy bus ride. By the way, these are no ordinary bumps. These giant pot holes in the bush of Africa were like a roller coaster. I was genuinely amazed we didn’t get a flat. With every stop, people would come out of the woodwork to sell us food, soda, bags of water.
When we arrived in Korhogo, I was so relieved. Arriving at our ministry host home was a breath of fresh air. Y’all, Sherri and Gozie are serving us so well. They have given us with the best of the best. We are blessed with western toilettes and showers, beds, and genuinely everything we could possibly need. WOW. We feel so honored to be here with them. Our first meal was truly a feast. We ate one of the many pet rabbits on the property, stew, potatoes, plantains, and fruit. It was genuinely so delicious.
We said our goodnights and settled into our guest room. Come to find, my team hung a “happy birthday” banner and gave me a card signed by all of our squadmates with words of encouragement. I immediately started crying, because words mean so so much to me. These people know me and love me well. I was also blessed by so many from back home, so thank you very much!
I am so excited to begin this year of life on the World Race. I can already see this process refining me to look more like Jesus. I know there will be times when the pot holes seem so big on the Race and the world might expect me to give up. I am praying for the endurance and the discipline of those bus drivers. By staying rooted in the word and surrounded by community, I have a feeling I will get to Month 12 just fine.
Please pray for our hosts, Sherri and Gozie, to be blessed, the Ivoirian people to be ready for the Gospel, and our team to be unified.
On a more personal note, I would love if you could pray for abandonment this month. I want to let go of my expectations, need for control and structure, and lots of other heart issues.
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Praying for all of you back at home.
With love,
Kristy
