LET ALL THE LITTLE CHILDREN COME TO ME

 Mark 10:13-16 "People were bringing litlte children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them.  When Jesus saw this, he was indignant.  He said to them 'Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.  I tell you the truth, anyone who will not recieve the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."  And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them."

You don’t have to pay attention to her, she’s a child. 

Seriously, this phrase has come out of our mouths more times than we would have ever thought possible.  In a place where the infant mortality rate shows that many children will not make it to their 10^th birthday, the culture encourages families not to get too attached to their young ones.  Sad, but it’s a way to cope.

When I read this passage I think of how bizarre this would be in Ivorian culture.  An example:  while building the church roof in Niakara, a short-term team came to help out.  In that group was a young man who LOVED kids.  It was apparent.  As soon as he came, he sought out the kids and started building relationship with them and they loved him.  It was wonderful for our team, because the local kids weren’t getting in dangerous situations with the construction.

However, the Ivorians in the church just DID NOT understand him.  They kept asking about the boy who is “amused by children” and asking how old he was and why he wasn’t working.  For weeks after the construction they kept asking questions about him.  People just DO NOT do that in this culture.  Children are truly background characters in life (and people you send on errands).  It was totally mind-blowing that he would give that much attention to the kids.

I think the disciples felt the same way.  There were SO many adults to talk to, heal, and “network” with that it really wasn’t unusual to shoo the kids away when they came to see Jesus – they’re just kids!  Unlike our Western mentality that aging is bad, most Africans believe with age comes wisdom, power, and honor, so why would Jesus pay any attention to dumb, weak, unimportant children.  It just doesn’t make sense – and then, they get chastised!  They get told that they need to be like these children.  What a disgrace! 

Those words from Jesus’ mouth “you must become like a child” is really saying that you must give up the respect you crave, the glory you may think you deserve, and the wisdom this world has to offer and only then can you enter His kingdom.  What a humbling proclamation.

 

FEET WASHING

“He poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.” John 13:5

As I write, it’s 10:12am and already my feet are almost black.  In a world where most roads aren’t paved and are covered with sand, dirt and garbage, keeping your feet clean is an impossibility.  Even staying home all day, with the wind bringing dust in the window, walking from the shower to the bed coats your feet with a fine layer of dirt.

All that to say…in Africa, feet are DIRTY.  Think camping for a week and living in flip-flops dirty. 

Many of you know that I teach a manicure and pedicure class at the Ruth Center (a center for girls in difficult situations).  I honestly didn’t really think about the foot part of the class until we got to the part where we do the pumus stone.  I told the girls to scrub hard the first time to get all the calluses from years of wearing too small shoes, flip-flops 24/7 and walking everywhere.  They got started.

About a half and hour later, most still weren’t done and were asking me to come and see if “this” can come off.  “This” could be deep, small holes in their foot from I don’t know what (almost like Swiss cheese), big long cracks up their heels, missing toe nails, molds, fungus’, infections and bleeding scrapes.  As Steve Priebe (our visitor this month) said “these people put a lot of mileage on their feet.” 

All that to say – feet here are not pretty. 

After being here, the picture of Jesus washing his disciples feet looks much different and the picture of washing Jesus’ feet with HAIR (!) is even more appalling.  These aren’t pretty feet or pedicured feet.  These are feet that have walked with him through dust, dirt, animal dung, and garbage…these are feet that have farmed, fished, and worked.  These are feet that have scrapes and holes, missing to nails, fungus, callous’, and cuts.  These feet, when you get down to it, are disgusting.  The water in the bucket (or the hair) must have been black and who knows what was in it.   

And this is what Jesus does to our hearts and lives.  He reaches in to the “filthy rags” of sin in our lives and cleans it (Isaiah 64:6).  Put salve on our hurts and our fears, buffs off those callous’ and rough spots, and then looks at us and says He loved us even when we were dirty and ugly (Romans 5:8).

THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED

Matthew 7:13-14

“Enter through the narrow gate.  For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

This passage was harder for us to understand in the US.  Maybe you could make a connection to hiking – hiking a wide, well worn path is much easier than one that you have to make a path for yourself.

Coming to West Africa has given us a much clearer picture of this phrase in the Bible.  In Cote d’Ivoire, there was one main road that headed north and south and EVERYONE used that road.  To try to find other ways around was dangerous and took much longer to navigate.  You had to seek out the right direction, pay careful attention to which way your headed, the potholes, and also thieves that wanted to take advantage of you being on a back road on your own.

The same with many of the streets.  As you can see in the picture, most roads are worn down by overloaded trucks and the water from rainy season.  For most roads, you can see the path that the motorcycles use and the part of the road that is not used because it’s too rough.  Everyone (both directions) follows the same path and if you don’t, it hurts.  It hurts the motorcycle and your bum. 

Many times driving down bumpy back roads or unfortunately choosing the “path less traveled” on these back roads, I’ve thought of the Christian walk.  It’s easier to chose the smooth path that most people travel on.  If you try for the other path, it hurts sometimes, you have to pay much more attention, and have to realize that people are going to look at you and laugh a little (really only white people would choose staying on the correct side of the road over a smooth path).  You also have to search hard to see where the path goes, unlike the smooth road that you can really just follow without thinking. 

I feel like Jesus is saying a hard truth about the Christian walk when he talks about the “broad road” and the “narrow road.”  He’s giving us the reality that it’s not going to be easy, there will be some bumps and bruises.  We’re probably going to lose traction and get off track sometimes, it will be hard to find our way back, and it will probably hurt, but  He says it’s an important road – the road that “leads to life.”

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