“For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light do we see light.” Psalm 36:9
This month took my team to a whole other level of the race. This month we lived in the village of Assafou; a village without electricity or running water, and a village that has never seen Americans.
The village was incredibly welcoming of us. Our first night, we were greeted by the chief and treated to a dinner of rice and fish by the villagers. I felt especially welcomed when they brought out a bottle of Coca-cola! As welcoming as the village was, the first night was rough. We were first shown the community bathroom, a small concrete structure with a hole in the floor. That part wasn’t so bad. It was just hard to not panic at the size of the roaches hanging out in there. (Notice that roaches is plural.) But when you gotta go, you gotta go.
The villagers were also so kind to give us rooms within their homes to sleep. Four of us slept side by side on the floor under mosquito netting. Not only was it incredibly hot, mosquitos still made it through the netting and were eating us alive. When the team re-grouped in the morning, we were covered in bites, rashes, hives, and other allergic reactions.
Being the first light skinned people this village has seen, we became quite the attraction. After that first rough night we decided to set up our tents under a shaded clearing. This further intrigued the interest of the village and everything we did became a public event- from brushing teeth to doing laundry. We were also followed everywhere. Everywhere. People repeatedly wanted to touch our hair and skin.
By the end of the month, half of the team members came down with either typhoid, malaria, or both.
It would be easy to write this off as a miserable month. But I know there was a bigger picture unfolding, and the Spirit let us catch little glimpes of it.
The children. Oh, those children. They loved being around us. There were nights the children gathered to listen in as we worshiped under the stars; other nights we danced along with them to African music. A few times we walked through the village to pray for families. As we moved from house to house, we quickly acquired a growing band of children. Hand in hand, they accompanied us as we prayed over people. They were getting a taste of Jesus.
Once a week, we held a children’s program. With the help of a translator, I was able to teach a Bible lesson each week. As I told the children stories of Jesus, I soon realized they didn’t know much about Him. Other times throughout the week, the children would see my Bible lesson visuals and exclaim “Jesu!” (Jesus in French). It brings me so much joy to know that we had a part in carrying Jesus’ name to this village and that it stirred excitement.
We also reached out to the community through evening programs where we worshiped, shared words, and even performed skits. During the day we worked on building a structure for the villagers to pray and worship and our final Sunday in Assafou, we shared in a joy filled service together.
Although a challenging month, it’s been a sweet one. Part of that sweetness came from the bond we held as a team. Sadly, this is also our last month together as team changes are coming up. Tomorrow we head out to Ghana, our second country in Africa for a few days of debrief, then we reform teams and start our next ministry. Here’s to the next chapter!!
