For the last 3 weeks our lives have pretty much looked like this:
Monday-Friday:
7-8 Bible Study
9-11 French Class
11-12 Culture Class
12-1pm Lunch
1-2 Nap time (because it’s too hot to do anything then [even in the winter!])
2-5 Service project or go into town
5-7 Free time (is dark at 6:30)
7-8 Dinner
8-9:30 or 10 Free time
Saturday and Sunday are usually days to take it easy and one time we went camping in the bush, but I’m sure I’ll write more about that another time.
Every day here has felt like 2, partly because we nap in the middle of the day, and partly because we are learning and experiencing so many new things. So, here is a compilation of things I have observed and learned so it may seem quite arbitrary.
So, the Ivory Coast. First thing: it is not a desert, it is very tropical, so it has lots of trees, bushes, flowers, and plants. It is a very green place, like Minnesota in the summer. Right now we live on an old boarding school campus outside Bouake. On the campus there are a ton of fruit trees, banana, grapefruit, papaya, orange, lemon, and a bunch of other ones I don’t remember. We go and hit the fruit off the trees with a stick and eat them. Grape fruits and papaya are what we have been eating lately.
We are learning French and about how they do things differently here (culture class) . The best example is the left hand. The left hand is considered dirty, so it makes people mad if you give or take anything from them if you do it with your left hand. So I have to learn to only use my right hand for things like that, and the hardest time to do that is when eating. You can’t pass, take, serve, or even eat with your left hand. It pretty much gets in the way and I feel bad all the time because I forget, because I’m trying to listen to the others speak French, which I can only understand some. It’s a lot of work in my mind so I am tired fairly often.
More exciting than that difficult stuff. Motorcycles! That is pretty much the way to get around here, some taxi cars, and a few vans that are actually busses. But motorcycles are EVERYWHERE! But they are all normal sized motorcycles like the one I owned, but the engines are ONLY 125cc (very small). So some SERIOUS power pushing those suckers (the reason they are so small is so no one has to have a license for them!). Better yet, it is not common to see a bike with 1 person on it (if you do it’s loaded down with giant bags of rice or something), very common to see 3 people on one, and not uncommon to see 4 adults, 2 kids, and a baby strapped to a mom’s back riding around. When we take a moto both Jess and I ride behind the driver. The only reason there is enough room for both of us is that all the motos have racks that stick straight out the back. The roads are so bad most of the time spent driving is purposely maneuvering pot holes.
Another exciting thing here is the food. The main thing the people eat here is rice and sauce. There are many kinds of sauce, most have meat in them and are good. I’ve been told that the national food is Atteike (sounds like “a check-eh”) which is kind of like rice, but smaller and has more flavor, and you eat it with chicken, and the best part is you eat it with your HAND!!! But only your right hand because you offend people if you use your left hand. It is by far the best food here.
Devin (the ME) and I worked on some florescent light fixtures there. It is funny how reliant I became on the internet when working on things. If I ever needed to understand how something worked here I would just google it, here you have to just figure it out. One great thing I learned working at Medtronic was how to trouble shoot circuits by comparing a function one to the broken one. I will get to trouble shoot some stadium lights at the soccer field/track on campus later on this week. They are doing work to get the campus ready to rent to the University of Bouake for the medical students, which should happen in January. It will be nice to have more people around campus, it’s a huge campus and it feels deserted and kind of like an apocalypse movie because everything is kind of run down, but mostly just not been used.
Culture: It is completely opposite of the culture here to not have kids right after getting married. The way you know a woman is married in Cote d’Ivoire is that she has an extra pagna (wrap skirt thing) on because “she should always be expecting a baby.” The extra pagna is used to hold the baby on the woman’s back. And we thought we got out of the trouble the single people have with everyone trying to marry them off. I guess we won’t fit perfectly into this culture, but that is to be expected.
Rice! We eat rice here all the time, but this story is about how we got to be part of the harvesting process. We went to a rice field on the outside of the campus on Thursday Dec. 12 to harvest rice. Tenanan (don’t pronounce the last n, it’s French) a guy who works on campus had invited us to go help and when we arrived he showed us the rice field and said it wasn’t ready to be harvested. But there was some already harvested that needed to be thrashed. So he gave each Steph (a 2nd year journeyer), Jess, and I long sticks to thrash the rice. *Rice looks like wheat (I didn’t know that before) and they had it stacked in a U shape with an extra row inside with the grain end facing in.* The group of guys who started beating the grain end of the pile and scooping it away from the pile with their sticks. As they beat the pile one guy would push more onto the pile and they would alternate hitting the pile in 4/4 time, if more joined they would hit at the same time as someone else, usually someone on the other side of the pile. It was really cool. Once they had thrashed it a bit, the chaff (with some rice left on it) was passed from their pile to our pile (at first we were pretty sure they were just being nice to us [like small children] and our step wasn’t necessary). So we were the secondary thrashers and we beat that rice with our sticks. As we thrashed the grain, the rice is disconnected from the chaff and because it is smaller it falls to the bottom and the chaff can be pushed over the top. So we swung our big sticks over our head and beat that rice. When the other guys finished with the inside row (about 1/4th of the total rice) they came and took over our pile, the girls took a break and I stayed and finished it. They guys said I could stay because I worked hard. When it was thoroughly thrashed, we all picked up the chaff and shook it a bit to make sure all the rice was on the tarp, and tossed the chaff into a compost heap at the side of the rice field. At the end of thrashing I was exhausted, but we all stopped for coffee so it was alright. Then we went on to do another 2/4th of the thrashing before we had to French class. We were very thankful the thrashing floor was in the shade.
New photos on my (Steve’s) facebook: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.595976517230.2068838.110900143&type=1&l=e83a9bbea9
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Child-like Faith
Bonjour from Cote d’Ivoire!
We’ve been here for a week now and to say we love it is an understatement. We both expected that there would be a time of adjustment and awkwardness while bonding with our team, but we came and felt at home and found new brothers and sisters in Christ right away.
After a 3 hour plane ride, a 7 hour plane ride, a 5 hour layover, another 7 hour plane ride and a 5 hour drive in the dark, we finally got to Bouake, Cote d’Ivoire at 1am on December 3rd. We’re living on a campus that used to be a missionary kid school until about 2005 when it was right in the middle of the war. It’s a beautiful campus that keeps reminding me of the Garden of Eden (I picked my own grapefruit to eat for breakfast this morning off a tree out front our dorm).
We started French class on Monday and have been learning so much about language and culture ever sense. I’m just going to post a bunch of pictures because I can’t really describe it here in words.
The biggest thing we’ve been learning is child-like faith. Since we don’t really know the language (or the accent that they use), we have to depend on others for everything: to get us a moto taxi (everyone rides on the backs of motorcycles – seriously, a family of 6 can fit on one), help us buy clothes and food, schedule our French lessons, even things like teaching us how to cook or use the restroom (no toilet paper for Ivoirians). Because of that, we have to trust that these people know what they’re doing. That they’re going to get the best price for us (it’s rude not to barter for taxis and clothing). We have to trust that they’re not going to tell us false things about the culture.
Anyway, faith has been a huge thing this week – as we learn the language little by little, I more understand the “being sure of what we hope for and certain of things unseen” Heb. 11:1. Because I see that the Journeyers who have only been here for 4 months and the ones who have been here for a year can get around and are really having no trouble, I can be sure that we will figure this language/culture thing out, but there are a lot of unseens – what is our ministry here? What family are we going to be put into? Am I going to figure out the language by the time we get put in host families? What does it look like not only to be a Christian in this culture, but a Christian couple (we’re the first couple to do Journey Corps)?
Both Steve and I have learned that we need to trust God for these things and follow and trust Him, just like we've been trusting our friends, who know more then we do about this culture and language.
Anyway, we have internet about once a week or so, so we’ll try to keep you updated! Please keep praying for us, here are some prayer requests:
• Language – our French teacher, Timotee is getting married at the end of the month and here the man is the one stressing out about all the details, so he’s probably not going to be around much. Pray that we can get another teacher lined up.
• Culture – pray that we can know, understand, and embrace this culture. It’s an amazing one full of traditions and protocol (more on that in another blog).
• Team – we have a team of 3 returners (who have been here a year), 3 girls who have been here 4 months, and then us. The girls are in host homes and the returners are training us in. Pray that we can learn to work with one another and learn from one another.
• Service projects – the campus is getting ready to be rented out to med school students. There’s a lot to be done, pray for efficiency.
Okay – it didn't work to post pictures onto here, but here's the link to our facebook album...we'll add pictures from Dec - Jan as we go:
We’ve been here for a week now and to say we love it is an understatement. We both expected that there would be a time of adjustment and awkwardness while bonding with our team, but we came and felt at home and found new brothers and sisters in Christ right away.
After a 3 hour plane ride, a 7 hour plane ride, a 5 hour layover, another 7 hour plane ride and a 5 hour drive in the dark, we finally got to Bouake, Cote d’Ivoire at 1am on December 3rd. We’re living on a campus that used to be a missionary kid school until about 2005 when it was right in the middle of the war. It’s a beautiful campus that keeps reminding me of the Garden of Eden (I picked my own grapefruit to eat for breakfast this morning off a tree out front our dorm).
We started French class on Monday and have been learning so much about language and culture ever sense. I’m just going to post a bunch of pictures because I can’t really describe it here in words.
The biggest thing we’ve been learning is child-like faith. Since we don’t really know the language (or the accent that they use), we have to depend on others for everything: to get us a moto taxi (everyone rides on the backs of motorcycles – seriously, a family of 6 can fit on one), help us buy clothes and food, schedule our French lessons, even things like teaching us how to cook or use the restroom (no toilet paper for Ivoirians). Because of that, we have to trust that these people know what they’re doing. That they’re going to get the best price for us (it’s rude not to barter for taxis and clothing). We have to trust that they’re not going to tell us false things about the culture.
Anyway, faith has been a huge thing this week – as we learn the language little by little, I more understand the “being sure of what we hope for and certain of things unseen” Heb. 11:1. Because I see that the Journeyers who have only been here for 4 months and the ones who have been here for a year can get around and are really having no trouble, I can be sure that we will figure this language/culture thing out, but there are a lot of unseens – what is our ministry here? What family are we going to be put into? Am I going to figure out the language by the time we get put in host families? What does it look like not only to be a Christian in this culture, but a Christian couple (we’re the first couple to do Journey Corps)?
Both Steve and I have learned that we need to trust God for these things and follow and trust Him, just like we've been trusting our friends, who know more then we do about this culture and language.
Anyway, we have internet about once a week or so, so we’ll try to keep you updated! Please keep praying for us, here are some prayer requests:
• Language – our French teacher, Timotee is getting married at the end of the month and here the man is the one stressing out about all the details, so he’s probably not going to be around much. Pray that we can get another teacher lined up.
• Culture – pray that we can know, understand, and embrace this culture. It’s an amazing one full of traditions and protocol (more on that in another blog).
• Team – we have a team of 3 returners (who have been here a year), 3 girls who have been here 4 months, and then us. The girls are in host homes and the returners are training us in. Pray that we can learn to work with one another and learn from one another.
• Service projects – the campus is getting ready to be rented out to med school students. There’s a lot to be done, pray for efficiency.
Okay – it didn't work to post pictures onto here, but here's the link to our facebook album...we'll add pictures from Dec - Jan as we go:
Monday, November 7, 2011
Tickets in Hand
We are finally and actually going overseas. We've been planning and preparing to go for so long that is seems crazy that we will actually be in Cote d'Ivoire in less than a month. We are so excited to start the next segment of our lives.
It has definitely been a time of transition. Both Jess and I have been home for the last 4 weeks and didn't drive each other completely insane, which is a miracle. I am currently sitting in an almost empty living room because we had Karen and Tom take a load of living room furniture to store. It has been odd getting ready, and even for us it feels like it is still not real, but we are leaving in 3 weeks. When we found out we could leave earlier rather than later it went from looking at all of this from a distance, to being right smack in front of it. Such an odd feeling.
We started shopping for all of the things we will need while over in Africa. Some of them are fun and exciting, like a hand pump water filter and sandals (because that's pretty much what we wear all the time). Other things aren't, such as a year’s supply of tooth paste and deodorant. It is so different to try and have everything we will need for 2 years packed in suitcases, that's what closets and Wal-Mart are for, right?
We have started saying our goodbyes to all the people we know and will continue to get together with people through November 23rd (let us know if you want to get together). After that we will spend Thanksgiving and our last few days with our families.
We hope you will continue to be excited for us as we depart, we will post as much as we can while we are in Africa and will have plenty of pictures. Feel free to email us or comment with questions. Next update from either Colorado or Cote d’Ivoire!
It has definitely been a time of transition. Both Jess and I have been home for the last 4 weeks and didn't drive each other completely insane, which is a miracle. I am currently sitting in an almost empty living room because we had Karen and Tom take a load of living room furniture to store. It has been odd getting ready, and even for us it feels like it is still not real, but we are leaving in 3 weeks. When we found out we could leave earlier rather than later it went from looking at all of this from a distance, to being right smack in front of it. Such an odd feeling.
We started shopping for all of the things we will need while over in Africa. Some of them are fun and exciting, like a hand pump water filter and sandals (because that's pretty much what we wear all the time). Other things aren't, such as a year’s supply of tooth paste and deodorant. It is so different to try and have everything we will need for 2 years packed in suitcases, that's what closets and Wal-Mart are for, right?
We have started saying our goodbyes to all the people we know and will continue to get together with people through November 23rd (let us know if you want to get together). After that we will spend Thanksgiving and our last few days with our families.
We hope you will continue to be excited for us as we depart, we will post as much as we can while we are in Africa and will have plenty of pictures. Feel free to email us or comment with questions. Next update from either Colorado or Cote d’Ivoire!
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
OCTOBER UPDATE
I'm starting to realize that we're in a process - a process of the Lord giving and the Lord taking away. He's given us new eyes for Him, new eyes for the lost, a new passion for this mission, a new outlook on life, but in that He needs to take away some things. He needs to take away our comfort, our security, our future. In order to follow Him in what He gives, we need to surrender the things He's taking away. It's not easy, but it's so good to say, through the good and bad, hard and easy, MAY THE NAME OF THE LORD BE PRAISED!
Just an update for you guys on our lives. Steve had tried to extend his contract to into November. Because my mom moved closer, we didn't feel like we needed as much time inbetween. God had different plans - although his boss was totally okay with that, the project he was working on got shut down, so Steve is done after this week(CRAZY). We are praying that we will be able to leave mid-November. We need about $600/month to order tickets and $900/month to leave. God has given us about $800/month more in the last two weeks (He is Good). Keep praying!
Prayer:
Just an update for you guys on our lives. Steve had tried to extend his contract to into November. Because my mom moved closer, we didn't feel like we needed as much time inbetween. God had different plans - although his boss was totally okay with that, the project he was working on got shut down, so Steve is done after this week(CRAZY). We are praying that we will be able to leave mid-November. We need about $600/month to order tickets and $900/month to leave. God has given us about $800/month more in the last two weeks (He is Good). Keep praying!
- That we would surrender ALL - our future (or what we think it will be), our comfort, our money, our time, our way of life.
- That we would be material that is being "built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit" (Ephesians 2:22)
- That we would have a crazy love for God that doesn't make sense,but is following HIM whatever the cost.
- The people's hearts would be open to giving to God's ministry in Africa - a ministry that He picked us for. Pray that we will have a good understanding of our timeline (if God wants us to) by the end of this month.
- Wonderful sermons that have been LIFECHANGING from Sir Reverend Larry Willman :) I don't know if you know that God has been speaking through you to change our lives in a big way.
- Continued people serving God through giving.
Friday, September 23, 2011
Praise-tastic!!!
This is my happy face.
I'm having one of those weeks - the weeks where it's hard to be around me, because I can't stop smiling and I have to tell EVERYONE about how God is blessing us this week. The week where I've been saying cheesy phrases and words like "Praise Update" and "Praise-tastic" just so that I can talk about how good God is.
Then I realized that the ultamite way to blab this to the world is blogging - oh, internet, how I love thee :)
Here goes the "praise-tastic" news:
- God is building our financial team in a big way! We have 7 new partners in the last week (we haven't seen a jump like that in quite a while). We have seen generousity in ways we've never seen before - I think God is booting us out of the states, and we're ready to be booted.
- We've been given the go ahead to leave in November - it's a VERY long story, but there was a little worry we wouldn't be able to leave when planned, now we're good to go as long as we have the money (see first bullet).
- God PROVIDES! Should I ever doubt that? And He provides for things that we never prayed about as if to say "See! I know your needs before you even talk to me about it." We found out that we didn't really understand how our health insurance works and we have a chunk of money sitting in our health account for the needs that we were worried about. Enough to cover my dentist appointment yesterday, enough to cover the two fillings that need to be done, enough to cover a dentist appointment for Steve, glasses for me, and any immunizations that we need to do before we leave!
And those are the extra special blessings - we should be praising God like this everyday because we have another day to worship Him, love Him, and tell others about Him.
I know that this blog won't let you comment on it, but I would challenge you to share with us your blessings - whether they're in the midst of a "blessing storm" (where everything seems blessed) in the midst of a hard time in your life. His mercies are new every morning either way. Great is YOUR faithfulness, oh, God!
Have a BLESSED weekend (and make sure to count them and name them one by one)!
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Yahweh
This morning while doing my devos I was reading out of the book "Praying the Names of God," and this week is all about Yahweh (LORD) and the reading is from Gen 22:15-18 where Moses sees the burning bush.
It's silly how some things stand out when you hear a word. Whenever I hear Yahweh I think of a chapel speaker I had in college. He repeatedly said "When you hear NO WAY, think YAHWEH!" He had us repeat that over and over again and it just stuck in my mind.
Here is an excerpt from the book:
To the Egyptians the name Yahweh would have been a terror - a name to forget because it conjured plagues, darkness, defeat, and death. But to Moses and the Israelites Yahweh would forever mean deliverance, freedom, promise, and power.
I love those ending words. Deliverance, freedom, promise, and power.
As we go on our journey - a journey that we hope and pray will lead us to the Ivory Coast in a month and a half, there has been many doubts in my own mind. Not others saying that there's no way that it will happen, but my own mind saying that the money amount is too big and that the amount we can do is too small.
However, in the last few months, when my mind is saying NO WAY, I've been able to lift it up to the LORD and say "Yahweh".
I pray that God is showing you that in your own lives, in your own struggles. That when life seems too big, God is bigger!
Blessings!
It's silly how some things stand out when you hear a word. Whenever I hear Yahweh I think of a chapel speaker I had in college. He repeatedly said "When you hear NO WAY, think YAHWEH!" He had us repeat that over and over again and it just stuck in my mind.
Here is an excerpt from the book:
To the Egyptians the name Yahweh would have been a terror - a name to forget because it conjured plagues, darkness, defeat, and death. But to Moses and the Israelites Yahweh would forever mean deliverance, freedom, promise, and power.
I love those ending words. Deliverance, freedom, promise, and power.
As we go on our journey - a journey that we hope and pray will lead us to the Ivory Coast in a month and a half, there has been many doubts in my own mind. Not others saying that there's no way that it will happen, but my own mind saying that the money amount is too big and that the amount we can do is too small.
However, in the last few months, when my mind is saying NO WAY, I've been able to lift it up to the LORD and say "Yahweh".
I pray that God is showing you that in your own lives, in your own struggles. That when life seems too big, God is bigger!
Blessings!
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Excitrafied
I recently had an appointment with a student for my work at Northwestern. He had spent the last four years (since graduating from high school) doing different Discipleship Training Schools and different projects with YWAM. His parents were missionaries in India.
We started talking about Steve and I going to Africa and how we were excited/anxious/happy/nervous and they said "We have a name for that...Excitrafied." It was a perfect way to explain that excited/petrified feeling in my stomach these past few weeks.
Steve started a contract with Medtronic that ends on October 14th, in order to give us time to do those final things before leaving in November. I put in my notice yesterday and will be done at Northwestern on August 19th, leaving 3 months of not working to do full-time fundraising and ministry.
It's all coming together and really coming alive in our lives. It's crazy. It's something that God's been working in us to prepare us for this, but it's finally here.
My mom said it's like having a child - you spend all this time saying that it's TAKING FOREVER for this baby to come, and then two weeks before, you start getting all nervous about the future and how you're going to be as a parent and everything, and then when it happens, it's just a whirlwind and everything works out fine.
We're in the nervous phase...please pray for us. We know this is what God wants us to do, we know He's going to provide what we need, but sometimes it takes us a while from that to go from our head to our heart.
Also, we're in the last 2 months of support/partner raising. If you've been meaning to join us, but you've been putting it off, click HERE to join us in Africa through giving - we're looking for monthly partners of $25, $50, or $100, but any amount will be a blessing!
We started talking about Steve and I going to Africa and how we were excited/anxious/happy/nervous and they said "We have a name for that...Excitrafied." It was a perfect way to explain that excited/petrified feeling in my stomach these past few weeks.
Steve started a contract with Medtronic that ends on October 14th, in order to give us time to do those final things before leaving in November. I put in my notice yesterday and will be done at Northwestern on August 19th, leaving 3 months of not working to do full-time fundraising and ministry.
It's all coming together and really coming alive in our lives. It's crazy. It's something that God's been working in us to prepare us for this, but it's finally here.
My mom said it's like having a child - you spend all this time saying that it's TAKING FOREVER for this baby to come, and then two weeks before, you start getting all nervous about the future and how you're going to be as a parent and everything, and then when it happens, it's just a whirlwind and everything works out fine.
We're in the nervous phase...please pray for us. We know this is what God wants us to do, we know He's going to provide what we need, but sometimes it takes us a while from that to go from our head to our heart.
Also, we're in the last 2 months of support/partner raising. If you've been meaning to join us, but you've been putting it off, click HERE to join us in Africa through giving - we're looking for monthly partners of $25, $50, or $100, but any amount will be a blessing!
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
My Heart Will Sing No Other Name
"Oh, I'm running to Your arms, I'm running to Your arms, the riches of Your love, will always be enough. Nothing compares to Your embrace. Light of the world, forever reign"
We sang that song at church on Sunday and it concludes with the words "My heart will sing, no other name, Jesus, Jesus."
When it got to that part, it started making me think. What other names does my heart sing? Does it sing money? Friends? Acceptance? Appreciation? Steve?
It seems as we raise support, so much of the focus in on money. Now, both Steve and I have never been "money" people. What I mean by that is that neither of us care about how much money we make, or ever being rich. Because of that, it's new to us to have to focus on how much money comes our way for Africa. It's weird because all of a sudden we have a glimpse of what it means to be a "lover of money."
I don't mean to say this in a bad way - we have learned so much about God's character and His power throughout our support raising, but it's been difficult finding a balance. When we rejoice, we've needed to learn to rejoice in God's provision (not just that we see our support go up another 1-2%). When we get anxious, we need to learn to give it to Him and know that He has our future in his hands and that this is HIS ministry and HIS timing, not ours and not go back to trying to raise support with OUR strength, but HIS.
My heart will sing NO other name, Jesus, Jesus.
Remember that as our hearts are deceitful, they wander far away from singing the name of Jesus. I just want to pray that as Christian, we can all focus on singing that one name day in and day out, in the good times and in the frustrating times!
We sang that song at church on Sunday and it concludes with the words "My heart will sing, no other name, Jesus, Jesus."
When it got to that part, it started making me think. What other names does my heart sing? Does it sing money? Friends? Acceptance? Appreciation? Steve?
It seems as we raise support, so much of the focus in on money. Now, both Steve and I have never been "money" people. What I mean by that is that neither of us care about how much money we make, or ever being rich. Because of that, it's new to us to have to focus on how much money comes our way for Africa. It's weird because all of a sudden we have a glimpse of what it means to be a "lover of money."
I don't mean to say this in a bad way - we have learned so much about God's character and His power throughout our support raising, but it's been difficult finding a balance. When we rejoice, we've needed to learn to rejoice in God's provision (not just that we see our support go up another 1-2%). When we get anxious, we need to learn to give it to Him and know that He has our future in his hands and that this is HIS ministry and HIS timing, not ours and not go back to trying to raise support with OUR strength, but HIS.
My heart will sing NO other name, Jesus, Jesus.
Remember that as our hearts are deceitful, they wander far away from singing the name of Jesus. I just want to pray that as Christian, we can all focus on singing that one name day in and day out, in the good times and in the frustrating times!
Monday, April 4, 2011
Keeping the Faith
Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of things unseen. We're sure that God has called us to ministry and know that He will provide for us to leave for Africa. I have to say that one WONDERFUL thing of having no control in life is that you get to see God work.
Recently, a member of a church I grew up in contacted me about our ministry and asked me to tell what's been going on in my life since he last knew me...in 2nd grade. I took a deep breath and hunkered down to write a long email. I breezed through my elementary, middle and high school years to the moment I knew that God had called me to be a missionary. I went into how God prepared me for ministry and my opportunities that came along. I went through when I knew that BOTH Steve and I were called to do this together and then how we support raised for France and now Africa.
I got done and I was nearly in tears seeing how God has directed EVERYTHING in my life to bring me where I am today (even down to NOT dropping out of school after my freshman year in college to do ministry, which seemed like an honorable thing to do, but then realizing I would have never met Steve). God is in control and as Steve and I reach an "uncertain" stage in our lives (not really knowing what Steve should do in the interim between job and Africa, not really knowing our EXACT date of departure, having to depend on God putting others in our lives to partner with us to do God's work) and we see how God has provided for both of us in the past.
Like in the Old Testament where people would stack stones to commemorate what God had done at that place, I was reminded how God has provided in the past and am confident that God will completely provide for us in our future.
We're excited to see who God puts in our lives to join us in God's ministry in Africa. If you would like to join us, please click on the number to the right to do a one time or monthly donation. Our hope (Lord Willing) is to be at 50% by mid-April.
Thanks so much for all your support.
Recently, a member of a church I grew up in contacted me about our ministry and asked me to tell what's been going on in my life since he last knew me...in 2nd grade. I took a deep breath and hunkered down to write a long email. I breezed through my elementary, middle and high school years to the moment I knew that God had called me to be a missionary. I went into how God prepared me for ministry and my opportunities that came along. I went through when I knew that BOTH Steve and I were called to do this together and then how we support raised for France and now Africa.
I got done and I was nearly in tears seeing how God has directed EVERYTHING in my life to bring me where I am today (even down to NOT dropping out of school after my freshman year in college to do ministry, which seemed like an honorable thing to do, but then realizing I would have never met Steve). God is in control and as Steve and I reach an "uncertain" stage in our lives (not really knowing what Steve should do in the interim between job and Africa, not really knowing our EXACT date of departure, having to depend on God putting others in our lives to partner with us to do God's work) and we see how God has provided for both of us in the past.
Like in the Old Testament where people would stack stones to commemorate what God had done at that place, I was reminded how God has provided in the past and am confident that God will completely provide for us in our future.
We're excited to see who God puts in our lives to join us in God's ministry in Africa. If you would like to join us, please click on the number to the right to do a one time or monthly donation. Our hope (Lord Willing) is to be at 50% by mid-April.
Thanks so much for all your support.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
God's plans trump our plans, we just have to embrace them
It was quite a mental adjustment from thinking we were going to France, to doubting that and thinking we were staying in the US, to being so specifically pointed to Africa by God. We still say France when we mean Africa, but we are excited for this new direction.
We are pleased to announce 27.1% of the monthly expenses of going to Africa have been committed and 94.1% of our one time expenses are in. After being discouraged for a few months and then having the direction in our life change suddenly it is great to say God is making it possible for us to go to the Ivory Coast. We have been learning so much about what God is doing in West Africa and are excited to be part of His work over there. If you would like to be part of God's work in Africa please contact either Jessica or myself via email and we can tell you more in person or on the phone.
More about Africa: We will be doing some training here in the US before leaving and once we arrive we will spend the first 1.5 - 2 months doing language, ministry, and cultural training at the main campus in Bouaké, one of the larger cities in the Ivory Coast. In small groups we will be sent to different villages to work with churches and live with host families for 2 - 4 weeks, come back to the main campus for 4 - 7 days and continue this cycle for the first year. This give us the opportunity to work in different areas and with different ministries.
Please be praying that God will be preparing us to do his work, God will call his people to support his work, and God will continue to provide jobs for both Jess and I.
We are pleased to announce 27.1% of the monthly expenses of going to Africa have been committed and 94.1% of our one time expenses are in. After being discouraged for a few months and then having the direction in our life change suddenly it is great to say God is making it possible for us to go to the Ivory Coast. We have been learning so much about what God is doing in West Africa and are excited to be part of His work over there. If you would like to be part of God's work in Africa please contact either Jessica or myself via email and we can tell you more in person or on the phone.
More about Africa: We will be doing some training here in the US before leaving and once we arrive we will spend the first 1.5 - 2 months doing language, ministry, and cultural training at the main campus in Bouaké, one of the larger cities in the Ivory Coast. In small groups we will be sent to different villages to work with churches and live with host families for 2 - 4 weeks, come back to the main campus for 4 - 7 days and continue this cycle for the first year. This give us the opportunity to work in different areas and with different ministries.
Please be praying that God will be preparing us to do his work, God will call his people to support his work, and God will continue to provide jobs for both Jess and I.
Friday, February 4, 2011
God, You're Halarious!
We want to catch up with you all. As you saw by our last post, we were discouraged, tired, and drained from our support raising - I think our last prayer email to our support group really said it best:
Colossians 2: 6-7 “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”
Hello Everyone,
It’s been a while since we’ve written to you on a Monday morning. Hope all is going well.
As we’ve probably expressed to most of you, our support raising has pretty much hit a wall. The last we talked, we took a support trip out to WI to talk to family and friends about supporting us in our ministry in France. Since then, however, we have not seen support come in. Honestly, it was super frustrating to do all the work involved with that and then not see the fruit. However, we thought just to buckle down and work harder. When we saw nothing come in, we thought we’d take the holidays to re-evaluate what’s going on.
We contacted our mission board and the lady that is our contact/support person at WorldVenture. She looked through our presentation, analyzed our pool of donors and looked at our method and pretty much said that we’re doing everything as we should be. We’ve been praying about what God is trying to teach us and what our future is going to hold with no obvious response either way.
That said – we just don’t know where to go from here. It’s really difficult to talk to people and raise support, when we’re not fully convinced that is what God wants for us, but on the other hand, we have felt lead to this ministry for the last 3 years and it’s hard to believe that God would be telling us “NO” after everything so obviously pointed to “YES” for so long.
We have been praying and praying and searching God’s word for SOMETHING to let us know what God’s will is, but for now we are completely content with whatever He wants us to do.
If you could please take some time this week to pray for us, that would be wonderful. We have been praying that God (because He doesn’t need us in order to do whatever He wants) would give us 11% more to show us that France is where we need to be. Please pray for that.
We will be spending this week in DEEP intentional prayer about our ministry (wherever God brings us) – I’ll keep you updated on where that brings us!
Thanks so much for all your continued support – please feel free to write back any response – we want to hear from you.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well.....we took this week to intentionally pray that God would specifically show us where He wanted us to be and what He wanted us to do. We honestly have to say that we were at best doubtful that we would be doing any long term missions work. However, God had different plans for us.
Today, I was at work and Phil B. (our menor/recruiter through WV) stopped by my office. He had heard that we were discouraged in our support raising and had a proposition for us. He told us that WorldVenture has just started something called Journey Corps which are much like what we were planning on doing at the OIKOS house. They have two locations: Paris and the Ivory Coast. He said if we would be willing to go to Africa, we might be able to go sooner (with the money we've raised). We could totally consider it, but I just put it to the back of my mind.
Later on that day, I sat down to look at it and calculated how much support it would be to go there - it's EXACTLY an 11% increase to our current support - JUST what we were praying for!!!!
When Steve picked me up and I told him, all he could say is "God, You're Halarious"!!! He does work in mysterious ways.
So...here we are - back on the support raising train, refreshed and ready to raise about $2,400 more a month - if you can, please partner with us! We're ready to see what the Lord has got in store. Check out the center and some of the opportunities through this program here.
Isaiah 40:31 "Those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
Thanks for sticking with us!
Colossians 2: 6-7 “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”
Hello Everyone,
It’s been a while since we’ve written to you on a Monday morning. Hope all is going well.
As we’ve probably expressed to most of you, our support raising has pretty much hit a wall. The last we talked, we took a support trip out to WI to talk to family and friends about supporting us in our ministry in France. Since then, however, we have not seen support come in. Honestly, it was super frustrating to do all the work involved with that and then not see the fruit. However, we thought just to buckle down and work harder. When we saw nothing come in, we thought we’d take the holidays to re-evaluate what’s going on.
We contacted our mission board and the lady that is our contact/support person at WorldVenture. She looked through our presentation, analyzed our pool of donors and looked at our method and pretty much said that we’re doing everything as we should be. We’ve been praying about what God is trying to teach us and what our future is going to hold with no obvious response either way.
That said – we just don’t know where to go from here. It’s really difficult to talk to people and raise support, when we’re not fully convinced that is what God wants for us, but on the other hand, we have felt lead to this ministry for the last 3 years and it’s hard to believe that God would be telling us “NO” after everything so obviously pointed to “YES” for so long.
We have been praying and praying and searching God’s word for SOMETHING to let us know what God’s will is, but for now we are completely content with whatever He wants us to do.
If you could please take some time this week to pray for us, that would be wonderful. We have been praying that God (because He doesn’t need us in order to do whatever He wants) would give us 11% more to show us that France is where we need to be. Please pray for that.
We will be spending this week in DEEP intentional prayer about our ministry (wherever God brings us) – I’ll keep you updated on where that brings us!
Thanks so much for all your continued support – please feel free to write back any response – we want to hear from you.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well.....we took this week to intentionally pray that God would specifically show us where He wanted us to be and what He wanted us to do. We honestly have to say that we were at best doubtful that we would be doing any long term missions work. However, God had different plans for us.
Today, I was at work and Phil B. (our menor/recruiter through WV) stopped by my office. He had heard that we were discouraged in our support raising and had a proposition for us. He told us that WorldVenture has just started something called Journey Corps which are much like what we were planning on doing at the OIKOS house. They have two locations: Paris and the Ivory Coast. He said if we would be willing to go to Africa, we might be able to go sooner (with the money we've raised). We could totally consider it, but I just put it to the back of my mind.
Later on that day, I sat down to look at it and calculated how much support it would be to go there - it's EXACTLY an 11% increase to our current support - JUST what we were praying for!!!!
When Steve picked me up and I told him, all he could say is "God, You're Halarious"!!! He does work in mysterious ways.
So...here we are - back on the support raising train, refreshed and ready to raise about $2,400 more a month - if you can, please partner with us! We're ready to see what the Lord has got in store. Check out the center and some of the opportunities through this program here.
Isaiah 40:31 "Those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
Thanks for sticking with us!
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