Hello from the warmer parts of the world this is Steve.
It is time for a “what have we learned lately” blog. So here goes. Pretty much for the last 6 months I (we but in different ways) have been learning how to let God take control of my life. I guess it goes back even further than 6 months because when God switched us from France to Cote d’Iviore a year ago we had pretty much decided God didn’t want us to go overseas and when we prayed specifically for double the support we had and didn’t expect it, God provided. Even then for a moment we questioned because our minds were set on staying where we were, but when God gives you the sign you ask for, you should not complain. So we had to continue support raising which we had been doing for over 2 years at that point and were not excited about, but God provided and everything came together as he wanted it to.
For the year and a half before left both Jess and I worked, paid off all our student loans and started saving because that is the responsible thing to do. About a month before my job ended and in the middle of some uncertainty of when we would actually get to leave I felt God calling us to give the money we had been saving. It took me about a week to come to terms with this because without really thinking about it both Jess and I had made plans with this money and it was our security. So God, wanting us to depend on him for everything (like doing support raising wasn’t enough…), wanted us to give almost all of our savings to our future ministry. So then I had to tell Jess that God was telling me this, it took me another week to do that because it sounds completely crazy, right? But I did and at first she thought I was crazy, but then got on board since it was God not me. And after we did this there was more discussion about not leaving when we thought we would and maybe having to stay in the States longer, but we only had God to rely on so we knew it was his timing when we made it to Africa.
Another lesson I had to learn in the process of letting God have control of my life was with letting God have my appearance. So most people know (and some have very strong opinions) that I have my ears pierced and have gauges. I really like them and they are unique. So God starts picking on my earrings and telling me to take them out to fit into this culture and not be a stumbling block to others and just generally listen to him. So as usual, I put it off because I don’t want to change. At about the same time, Jess has a similar thing going on with her nose ring and when she felt herself getting an attitude about it with God she just went and took it out because she knew that is what she needed to do. The very next day she went and visited Centre Providence where Stephanie works and the girls there had an hour long lecture on nose rings (in this culture mostly prostitutes wear them), she was quite thankful she had listened to God when she did. As for me, I waited longer because I’m stubborn, but I finally took them out and they are closing up nicely (you were wrong about them never closing mom). I haven’t seen anything come from me taking them out, but I followed what God wanted which is what is important.
I am quite sure God will continue to show me areas of my life where I am still trying to keep control and really just need to let God have it because he has better plans. So I will leave you with Jess’ motto: “if I don’t want to, I know I should.”
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Monday, February 6, 2012
The Rest of our Team
And here is the rest of our team! Also, check back to the last blog post – I’ve attached each member’s blog, so if you’re interested in their ministry and what God has been teaching them here, you can check it out for yourself:
Kelly - Read Her Blog
Kelly is a business major from Indiana. She came at the same time as Tricia (see below) in August 2011. She has an amazing servant spirit and is interested in using business as missions here in Cote d’Ivoire. She started living with a host family in late November in Korhogo (3 hours north of where we are now) and is LOVING her family (seriously, she can’t wait to get back “home” when she’s visiting us here). She’s partnering with a church in Korhogo to study business practices of women in the church. She is currently sick with malaria, so please keep her in your prayers. She is planning on being here for two years.Tricia - Read Her Blog
Tricia is our little firecracker from California. She came in August 2011 and, like Kelly, was placed in host families in November. Cool story with Tricia: She came here to do sports ministry and didn’t know what that looked like (being a woman in this culture). She decided to volunteer at a school for mentally handicapped children. Steve and I went with her to tour it one day and they decided to figure out her schedule. Without her telling them that she was interested in sports ministry, they asked if she would want to help out with the physical therapy with the children, being an encouragement for them. I loved how her face lit up when she found that out. God is so good! Tricia is halfway through her year here in Cote d’Ivoire.Almut
Almut came after Tricia and Kelly in September and is planning on staying until June/July of this year. She’s from Germany. Funny Almut story – Almut knew that God was calling her to missions, but didn’t know where. Her only prayer was that she wouldn’t have to go to an English speaking country because she didn’t really like English. When God called her to Cote d’Ivoire, she was relieved, but then came to find out that she was going to have to learn English anyway, because most of the people she was working with are American. She’s amazing at both English and French and a wonderful, hilarious person. She’s in a host family in Korhogo also, working with the church to develop a program for handicap children at the church. Pray for her as this is a big job for one person and she’s learning as she goes.That’s our team! You can also be praying for Phil and Mimi, a couple who should be coming this year, and also two other team members (one from America coming for three months, and one from Germany coming for 3-4 months). The next “team” coming out is coming in October 2012 (Lord Willing). We’ll keep you updated as we know more!
Thanks so much for your prayers for our team. Much like anything else, there’s struggles and conflict when you throw 10 VERY different people together, but our prayer has been that “if it is possible, as far as it depends on [us], live at peace with everyone.” (Romans 12:18)
Thanks for praying for our team.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Well – we asked you guys what you wanted to know about living in Cote d’Ivoire and one of things you wanted to know was about our team – it’s a pretty sweet team, so it makes sense that you would want that information. I thought I’d start with our leaders – Rod and Angelika and then Stephanie, Alyssa, and Devin…
Rod and Angelika
Rod and Angelika are our fearless leaders – seriously! Who takes on a bunch of young kids who think they may want to live in Africa for two years. Fearless I say. Rod grew up in Cote d’Ivoire with his parents being the ones who directed the campus we live on when it was a MK school. He’s been doing missions forever and is probably more Ivorian then some Ivorians we know. He’s sarcastic and crazy and wonderful. Angelika is German, soft-spoken, and puts up with Rod – really what more can I say? They have a passion for people and have been ministering to us since we dropped down in Africa. Steph - Read Her Blog
Stephanie is a Painting and Art Therapy major from Pennsylvania. She came here in October 2010, spent the first year learning French and living with her host family here in Bouake and started working with Centre Providence, a ministry to young women (ages 12-18) who have a hard time with authority or have been involved in prostitution. She’s now doing Art Therapy with the girls each week. She’s planning on staying in Cote d’Ivoire through the end of the year (Lord willing) and then see where God directs her.Alyssa - Read Her Blog
Alyssa has been our culture guide and schedule organizer since we got here. She’s from California and came to Cote d’Ivoire in 2010. She lived with a family in Korhogo (about 3 hours north of here) and worked at the Bible Institute there. She went back in November and flew back with us in December to get us acquainted with Africa and everything here. She just left for the States on Thursday and we miss her SO much!
Devin is Steve’s nerd buddy (as you can see in the picture). He is a mechanical engineer from Pensylvania and came in October 2010. He works with the young people at his church here in Bouake (where he was in a host family), went to Mali to set up some solar…um…something, works in the shop here on campus and even tried to make a solar oven so that his host mom could make cupcakes (I think that was actually a selfish endeavor). He’s planning on sticking around for the next year (maybe doing some work with Trans World Radio or working with solar power projects and really being the BEST culture guide after Alyssa leaves us).
We'll tell you about the rest of our team - Tricia, Kelly, and Almut - in another post! Have a blessed day!
Steve and Jessica
We'll tell you about the rest of our team - Tricia, Kelly, and Almut - in another post! Have a blessed day!
Steve and Jessica
Saturday, December 24, 2011
What life is like in the eyes of Steve
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
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 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.
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