Ministry Update

Hello Everyone,


We can’t believe we’re now hitting our month and half mark with our family. Family life has been going wonderfully and it’s been interesting to find out that moving and getting settled into a new community/church is almost the same whether you’re in Africa or the United States. We’ve been trying to figure out the opportunities and needs of our church and community to see where God would want us to serve.

We wanted to have you join us in prayer and update you on some ministry opportunities that we see here in Niakara:

• English Clubs – each high school (and middle school) here has an English Club. Because English is part of their ACT/SAT –type test, it’s important that the students here know how to articulate themselves in English as well as French. In these English club, they mostly start with a topic (Polygamy, Birth Control, What is a lie?, Economics, Politics happening around the world) and talk about it in English. Both Steve and I think this is a good opportunity and opening for us to communicate Christ with these students – we need to get the permission from the school to do this, so pray for an opening to talk to the English teachers in the schools and for good reception.

• English Bible Studies – people here really want to learn to speak/write English, so an English Bible study would be a good way for people to do that (and hear the Word of God at the same time!)

• Church Involvement – we would like to get involved in the worship teams (both instrumental and vocal), but need to learn African instruments (Steve wants to learn Djimbe) and songs (we’ve been working with the youth on learning the songs). Since there’s not really “lessons” or a songbook, this is easier said than done. Steve’s having his guitar sent here this week, so that may be an opportunity too. Also we’re wanted to get involved in the Sunday School program – assisting at first, then teaching if there’s a need.

• Working with young people – Steve has started working at the moto shop of the president of the Juenesse (the youth/young adult group) two or three times a week. There he’s able to get to know other young people in the church and community. I have made it a goal to visit 2-3 young women every week. Young women here don’t really have time to hang out as the guys do, there’s too much housework to do, so I’ve decided to meet them where they’re at. Going and hanging out while they work, do laundry, or make food has been really good to get to know the town (where everyone lives) and also to improve my conversational French.

• Farming/Work – most people in the church (including the pastor) have a farm or garden that they tend. It’s a lot of work and they pretty much think we’re breakable, but as a service to the people in the church, we’re trying to convince them that we can actually work on these farms or in the garden. Pray for opportunities to serve in that way.

Well, that’s it – the things that we’ve been praying about and trying to figure out where God wants us here. There are also going to be other projects the church has for us (mostly building/construction work). Pray that God’s name would be given the glory in everything that we do!

Also, pray that we don’t just become BUSY. That’s so easy to do – pray that we’re intentional about each ministry and that God would close/open doors so that we’re doing what HE wants us to do, not just becoming busy!

Thanks!

Elephant Fun!

We got chased by an elephant yesterday.  Yep – it felt like one of those moments in a movie where there would be a freeze frame and a caption that read.  YEP, THIS IS MY LIFE.

Life in a Family after 2 weeks

Front of our house (former storage room)

So we’ve been here 2 weeks now, what can I tell you about it.  We are living with the pastor in the church courtyard, we have our own little apartment around the corner from the pastors house but still in the same building.  Our apartment used to be a storage room with a metal door and window but they built a wooden wall in the middle of the room separating our bedroom from the living room.  Each side is about 6ft by 10ft (whole room is 10ft by 12ft).  They built us a nice awning right outside our door and I believe they are going to make it into a cement porch at some point but it is nice to have a shaded area in front of our house to sit (I’m sitting there right now typing this).  Our shower/peeing room is right next to our room and the pooping hole is around the corner (back side from where the pastor lives). 

Pooping hole

Shower/Peeing room

 
As soon as we got here the young adults in the church took us in and have been showing us around town, taking us to work with them, and just hanging out with us in the church courtyard most days.  The pastor is in charge of 23 other churches in this area and I’m not sure if there are other pastors for those churches or not so he is quite busy with traveling, because of this one of the guys in the church has been our guide. 

Team visiting in courtyard

Our church building

The church courtyard is a pretty busy place, people visit quite often in the evenings after work and sometimes during the morning and day as well.  People are always passing through the courtyard on foot or bike and many women come to our well to get water every day.  We have learned some greetings in one of the local languages and everyone from the church comes up to us and greets us to watch us do our trick and then laugh whether we get it right or not.  

Praying for Peanuts

The Big Game

I was talking to my mom on the phone the other day and was telling her about a seminar we just attended on the Values of Traditional West African Culture.  She made a comment that stuck with me at the end – she said “I like when you tell me this because I keep asking myself what you guys have really been doing these last three months.”

That really hit me.  I realized that many people don’t understand what we’ve been doing these last few months and I thought it would be good to let people know.  Many of you are supporting us financially and want to let you know what God has been doing with that money.

As I thought about this, the first thing that came to mind was my high school basketball season.  Two months before our first game, we would get together for captains practice, then daily regular practices to be able to learn how to work together as a team, get (back) into shape, learn our drills and plays, and prepare for the first game.  When we went into the first game and were able to successfully work together, we never thought “man, why did we practice for two months?”, we realized that it took those two months of practice to prepare for the real thing.  It’s hard, but necessary.

It’s the same with what we’ve been doing the last few months.  We’ve been preparing ourselves in every way for the work we’ll be doing the next year and half.  Just a few things we’ve been up to:

•    Language training – 2 hours a day with a local college student here
•    Team building – getting to know our ‘support system’ and team members.  Learning how to work together and to build off each other’s ministries and the ministries of the former journeyrs
•    Self-care- we’ve learned a LOT about culture shock and just overload and how to take care of ourselves on the mission field.  Burnout is very common, so making sure we know how to deal with stress is key
•    Relationship building – with people on the campus we live on, families that other journeyer’s have stayed with, youth group/young adult group participation, and even relationships with women in the market (I have a lady I like to buy green onions and parsley from who wants me to take her back with me to the states, or a potato guy that always tells me that potatoes are 600CFA – way too much- but that he’ll give them to ME for 500CFA – the actual price).
•    Seminars – we’ve been able to do two seminars one on “Creation Care in West Africa” and one on “Values of Traditional West African Culture” bring us into a deeper understanding of Christianity in the context of West Africa.
•    Most importantly – culture training.  We’ve realized that if we would have just dove straight into host families, not only would we not be able to communicate, but would probably be highly offensive in areas that we wouldn’t even think about.  That’s a whole other blog on its own, but seriously, we would have not well represented the name of Christ without first taking 3 months to learn about this culture (which is where the seminar that we went to fits in perfectly.

Going back to the basketball analogy – we also had “scrimmage games.”  We stayed a week in Korhogo with a family there (we’re going back to visit them tonight).  There we were able to experience firsthand what family life will be like for a shorter period of time.


For our second scrimmage game, we will be living in Niakara with a “surrogate” host family for two weeks before we move onto the big game - what we've been practicing for -  Living with the pastor and his wife right next to the church (no excuse for missing anything at the church) and getting involved in ministries through the pastor and in the church.  All of the work we’ve been putting in until now (with language, culture, and ministry) have been building up to this, but we know that we’ll never be fully prepared for these next 9 months!

God has used these last few months to build us up quite a bit.  Not just physically, in language, or in culture learning, but in trust in Him.  It’s been a roller coaster of emotions – frustration, elation, home-sick-ness, culture shock…but it’s been good that we can hold on to Him in this wild ride.