What Africa has taught me about the Bible

A couple months ago Steve and I were reading the account of the Last Supper, where Jesus instructs His deciples to go into town and find a place to have the Passover meal.  In the middle of reading the chapter, Steve stops and says, “weird.”  I mean, the whole part of Jesus asking them to find a man and ask for the room is kind of strange, but I asked him what he meant.  “Men don’t carry water,” he simply said. 

Sure enough, when we looked at the notes for the section, it said that a man carrying water, in those days, would be a strange sight and the disciples would easily recognize what Jesus said.  Because of the culture we have been living in for the last 14 months, we are more and more able to see the Bible through the eyes of people closer to that culture.

Since then, as we’ve been reading the Bible, there are so many things that we’ve realized that we understand better because of the West African culture we’ve experienced in Cote d’Ivoire (and now Benin).  We would like to take the next few blog posts to share that with you:

WOMAN AT THE WELL

When we lived in Niakara, each morning the young girls in our household would get up and pull water from the well.  We lived on a hill, so our well was probably a good 70 feet deep and it was a long, hard process.  After our family got enough water for the day, women from the neighborhood who didn’t have wells, or whose wells had dried up would come and fill huge bowls/tubs of water and transport them back to their houses on their heads.  All morning they would walk back and forth getting water, then pour it into a metal barrel to use throughout the day.

It was the same thing every morning and every evening. 

So, when I read the account of the woman at the well, when it says “it was the sixth hour” (of the day, meaning around noon), it caught my attention.  Another thing about West Africa – it’s HOT!  Okay, I know that doesn’t surprise you, but it gets so hot that no one really goes out at noon.  Usually shops are closed from 12-3pm for “nap time” because of the heat, so for a woman to be working like this at noon means she was avoiding something – the other women.  Another weird thing for this type of culture.

Since much of the work is manual and women don’t have time to just sit and socialize, most of the socialization comes around food preparation, cleaning, selling, or walking to and from the farm.  Getting water from the well is not just work, it’s a social hour.  Women talk, laugh, sing, and share what’s going on in their lives and the gossip from the community.

This women didn’t want to talk to, see, or socialize with the other women.  She was out casted…had shame. 

Just realizing the depth of this woman’s loneliness helped me realize what relief, what peace she must have had when Jesus told her about “a sprint of living water welling up to eternal life.”  How amazing it is that Jesus looked into her heart and gave her exactly what she needed – life. 

Looking Back and Pressing Forward

Now that we’re getting a little more settled in, we thought it would be good to keep everyone updates on where we are now.  As many of you know, we finished our first year of the two year JourneyCorps program – year in review:

December-February – Language/Cultural training and seminars in Bouake, Cote d’Ivoire

March-December – Living with Pastor Luk and his family in Niakara, Cote d’Ivoire, partnering with the community and local church to be immersed in culture and have a “sink or swim” language experience.

·         Steve worked with moto garages and hung out with the guys at our house making tea, helping with English and math homework.

·         Jessica started a girls Bible Study and Formation class and started a bracelet selling business to earn money for the youth group and Girls Group                                                                               

Our next phase is more of a ministry discovery phase.  We decided to move over to Benin (see map) and work with TransWorldRadio.  Steve will be working doing Electrical Engineering and lots of odd jobs at the site and Jessica will be searching out opportunities in the community and through the local church much as she did in Cote d’Ivoire.

Drove from Cote d'Ivoire through Burkina Faso to Benin

Our goal coming out here was to see where our gifts and talents could be used in overseas ministry.  We’re praying that God really directs our future shows us what HE wants for us, whether that be here or in the US.  We want to thank you so much for allowing this time to be possible.  Without your giving, we couldn’t be here!

On that same note here are some of the ministries your support has contributed to this past year.

1. Youth Scholarships— scholarships with allowed 10 students to go to a National Youth Camp which was not affordable for the youth in Niakara.

2. Sunday School Rooms—the church in Niakara was able to build 4 more Sunday School classrooms that can double as guest houses for conferences and seminars.

Steve and Josué

3. Josué and his family—God has called a member of our church to give up his farm and go to Seminary—your giving allows our church to finance their tuition and living expenses each month.

4.  Bethel Bible Institute—only $60/month allows a family to pay tuition and cover living expenses for a month.  Your money has gone to train much needed pastors for the 500 Baptist churches with only 300 pastors in Cote d’Ivoire.

5. Girls Group/Bracelet business—only $40 allowed us to start up this Sunday afternoon Girls Bible Study and formation class and get started on a bracelet making business.

6. Church Roof/Windows and Doors—I know that many of you gave to the short term team that came out, paid for, and put up the church roof!

The Church no longer looks like this!

Thanks so much for your giving!

We’ll keep you updated as our ministry becomes more definite here in Benin! 

Steven and Jessica Willman

The Eight P's of Roofing

Step One: Prayer
When they started building this church two years ago it was by faith. They had the money to build the structure and get started, but didn’t have enough to finish the church. They have been praying for God to provide for the roofing (the most expensive part of building here) for the last couple years.

God answered prayers through a church in Oregon who wanted to come out for a short term trip. They raised the $5,000 needed to put the roof on (plus the money for their travels) and planned on coming out Nov. 17th.

Step Two: Pieces

Now, you can’t just run down to Menards with your Ford truck and grab everything you need. That would be TO EASY! The supplies have to come from a bigger city. Once they are found and purchased, you need to hire a truck that can haul them all. Normally, that truck is coming from another city – our lumber, which was originally supposed to come Nov. 5th, finally came on the 14th (4 days before the project).

Step Three: Protection

Hire a guard who can keep watch of the lumber and supplies (all sitting outside the church) so that robbers don’t come and take “10 pieces at a time.”

Step Four: Preparation

Pounding Futu for the workers

Need to treat all the lumber with a seal so that the bugs won’t eat it all right away. Also includes preparing for how to feed 40 people breakfast, lunch, and dinner for 4 days (cue the 50 lbs bags of rice), where everyone will sleep, and how to communicate in 4 different languages (English, French, Djula, and Senefou – we’ll even throw some German in there, so that makes 5). Also, we needed to prepare the church, which has been sitting there for 2 years with no roof, mostly a home for sheep and goats.

Step Five: Power Tools

Rod drops off the supplies that will make this job take three days instead of two weeks trying to do it by hand. This includes back-up generators because the electricity WILL go out.

Step Six: Pumped Up Workers

Our work team!

Everyone showed up on Monday ready to work (including the Americans who had just gotten in the Sunday night before). Started building the “A frames” and getting them put up on the church, no easy job. Once that was done, we started putting the cross beams for the metal roofing to be put on.

*Step Seven: Precautions

Um…I’ll just let the pictures show you all of that…

Step Eight: Praise!

After four days of work, the roof is on and we could only stand back and praise God that for his provision, protection, and power (I’m really going with these “P’s” huh?). Everyone was tired and sore and ready to rest.

Thanks to all of you who helped out, financially, physically or prayerfully. We appreciate it. We’ll put up some pictures of our first Sunday in the church. Pray for the finances to get the windows, doors, and floors put in before the Christmas celebration!

Blessings,

Steve and Jessica

*Step seven is a recommended, but not required step.

End of Day One

End of Day Two



Finished Product!



Daily Differences in Cote d'Ivoire

#18 "Foutou"

1. You only paint the nails on your left hand because you eat with your right hand.
2. You wear the same clothes two to three days (or all week) because you’ll need to wash whatever you wear by hand.
3. The electricity goes out almost every night during dinner – I still don’t understand why.



#9 "Tea Time"

4. Everyone returns to their houses around 6-7pm to bathe, then comes back to spend the rest of the evening.
5. There is NEVER silence – there’s always music playing on someone’s phone, someone playing the drums, guitar, or balaphon.
6. It doesn’t bother you when there’s no discreetness in breast feeding, but if a woman is wearing pants or a skirt above the knees, it’s a scandal.



#13 "Meat"

7. When someone says your losing weight, it’s not a good thing, probably means you have/just got over malaria or amebic dysentery, on the other hand, when someone says you’re getting fat, they mean it as a compliment.
8. “It was raining” is a viable excuse for being late or not attending something.
9. You see men everywhere with little tea sets taking a break for tea.
10. You don’t need an excuse for being late (even a couple hours), no one even notices (even in a meeting of two people).



#5 "Balaphone"

11. If you visit someone between the house of 8-10am, 11-1pm, or 6-9pm expect that you are going to have to stay and eat a meal – no arguments.
12. When traveling, you have to assume it’s going to take an entire day, even if you’re only going 2 hours away – you must assume that the bus will not leave on time (usually about 2-3 hours later), that you’re bus is going to break down, and that you’ll have to stop at every small town in between.  A two hour ride by moto will probably take (from bus stop to bus stop) around 4-8 hours, if you started after 2pm, that means you’ll probably spend the night at some bus station somewhere.
13. You start looking at any living animal as “meat” instead of that animal – looking at a live chicken, pig, or cow can make you feel hungry.



#2 "Washing Machine"

14. If someone says that you’re going to start at 4pm on the dot, that means you MIGHT start around 5pm.
15. Eating alone is an honor – so you might be put in a room by yourself with everyone else laughing and talking outside, in order to honor you.
16. Instant coffee and powdered milk IS coffee and creamer.
17. “Child safety” looks a lot different.



#17

18. Your stomach start growling when you hear the sound of Futu being pounded anywhere in the neighborhood.
19. You can watch storms roll in for miles and are completed comforted by the sound of rain on a metal roof.

We’ve really enjoyed watching these things become a daily “normal” in our lives and really have come to embrace it.  Thank you, Lord, for 11 months in Cote d’Ivoire!

Steve and Jessica

#19

Transmitters, Tractors, and Monkeys (oh, my!)

As many of you know, we've been in Parakou, Benin for the last nine days to check out the ministry of TransWorld Radio.
  After Devin (another Jouneryer) came back with good reports of ministry for Engineers, we decided to check it out! 
 


Devin, what a stud!

We left Niakara on Sunday morning with Devin and rode for 11 hours to Bobo (in Burkina Faso), then another 5 hour ride to Ouagadougou (also in Burkina).  Spent the night there and got up early to take our final 15 hour journey to Djougou (in Benin).  Met with Garth, one of the missionaries for TWR, who drove us the 120km to Parakou, where we stayed.
 


The Lake House

The first day, we stoped by the TransWorldRadio station.  Garth showed us around their property.  Since they need a lot of property, but only use a little bit for the station and the transmitter, he has been working on land projects such as planting teak trees, planting crops (corn, rice, maringa, and beans), and building a "lake house" for missionaries or pastors to go when they need a little break.  It is quite picturesque.
 
After the tour, we had lunch and went right to work.  Since there was a conference for the missionaries happening the next week and he wouldn't be around, Garth had made a list of things that we (even Jessica!) could do, and put us right to work.   

 

Moving the dock

Fixing the Dozer!

During the rest of that week (and the next) we did a little bit of everything.  Devin repaired and rewired the bulldozer, we put a GPS tracker in one of the company vehicles, replaced the voltage regulator on one of the generators, fixed the power to the water pump,  fished out the dock that got carried away when the lake flooded over the dam wall, and Jessica scanned in documents in the office.
 


David the generator

Outside of that, we explored Parakou (or more accurately, we got lost and got a flat tire), visited the church in the area, got to know a lot of the other missionaries in the area, visited the University English Club (and got to meet the US Ambassador), and met some of the Peace Corps voluneers.

The Benin Crew

 


We sure did shove a lot into 9 days, but it's been great to see what God is doing here in Benin.  We're looking forward to returning in January, after we've completed our host family stay.



Oh Yeah, and we ate Snake!!



Found a snake trying to eat a chicken

Cooked it up!

DELICIOUS!

Ready to Start Writing

Hello Everyone –


We feel like we’ve sent out our update emails, we’ve put up our Facebook pictures, and it seems like we’ve emailed everyone we know, but for those of you who we’re not catching, we just wanted to give you a quick update on life here in Cote d’Ivoire.

We’re coming up on our 10 month mark of our time here. What a crazy/wonderful/hard/terrific time we’ve had so far. We started living in our host family back on March and have been getting to know our family, the youth group, the language (mostly French, but some of the local languages also), the culture and a LOT about ourselves.

Doing a home stay has been a lot like doing research for a big paper/book/project. You know that you’ve put in a lot of work, but you don’t have much to show for it except for a lot of exhaustion and a lot more knowledge in your head. We’re starting to get to the point where we’re ready to start writing. We’re ready to be able to take all the time and energy and patience that people have invested in us, and pour back into our relationships and the church here in Cote d’Ivoire. We’re really excited for what is to come.

Our plans (I think God laughs at these a lot of times) – we like to make them so that we can see how God will change them, but here’s what’s happening right now:

We’re in our host family for the next two months, which will finish off our first year. I (Jessica) have gotten the wheels turning to focus on the youth girls and to organize “girls nights” where the youth girls have a time to come and talk and get counsel on things going on in their life, do some discipleship, and really get them connect with the pastor’s wife (our host mom) .

Steve has been working at the moto shop and talking more and more with Muslims (the shop is right across the street from the Mosque). He also wants to start working with one of the carpenters the we know in the community and another moto shop of a Muslim/Animist friend. Mostly just making connections and starting conversation.

After our months here, we’re going to head up to Ferke, where WorldVenture runs a hospital. Steve may be able to do some much needed repairs for their medical equipment – we’re planning on being up there for a couple weeks.

Then (Lord Willing), we’ll be headed to Benin to work with TransWorldRadio. Steve will be able to do Electrical Engineering there and get a good look at the need in Benin. We’re taking a “vision trip” up there in October, just to see what opportunities there will be for both of us in Benin.

God has been showing us to not be anxious or stressed over the future, so we’ve been really holding our future with open hands (and writing on our calendars in pencil). At this point, we only have enough support to last us through June/July of next year, so that’s been another thing we’ve been giving to Him.

Please pray that God will continue to MAKE us trust Him. I know that’s a risky prayer, but it’s so worth it. Pray that He would be able to work in our lives so that there’s NO DOUB T that it’s Him doing the work and not us!

Thanks for your support. We’re reading Philippians and I could totally understand when Paul said

“I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now…”

Thanks so much!

Steve and Jessica