My dream since freshman year of college has finally come true. I have helped start a Micro Finance Project in my church (Tiekelezo) to help women in need in that church. There are about 1,000 people who go to that church and many need help. We had originally planned on making this a project solely for women who have lost their husbands through his death or abandonment. Now, we extended it to include any women in the church in need. The Tiekelezo Church Committee choses who to accept into the…

Last Saturday I took my older sister Rachel to the swimming pool. It was her first time ever being in one. In the beginning I had a hard time getting her into the pool. She was very scared and I wasn't sure she would get in.  Finally, she got in but she stayed on the low end and held onto the pole. Linda (new Journeyer from Germany) and I tried our best to explain to her in French how to swim. Not easy. Thankfully there were other Ivorian there who were swimming/learning how to swim who…

The Journey Corps slogan is “Everything will change”. It’s prophetic, because everything has changed for me and this is why… Six days ago my host mom asked me if I wanted to go to a funeral in the village. This is the first time she had asked me to go and I really wanted to because she was so excited for me to see it and dance with her. That morning though I was feeling a little off color. I had a little diarrhea and my body ached a little bit. I wasn’t sure what I had. I thought it might be…

Lately God has been teaching more about the Holy Spirit and his role in my life; how he guides and encourages. That he is the power of God living in me. I have surrendered my will over to him and have been asking him to use me to glorify Jesus. Last night a cousin of my host family came over to visit. He goes to school and is about the same age as my sister Bintou. His English is pretty good, but could use some help. So, I offered to practice English with him so he can get used to my accent,…

Here are some questions Carrie McNew's students had for me and I thought they were really good and wanted to post them here.

What kinds of food/drinks do you eat there? Food: Ivorians eat a lot of rice and sauce. I eat rice and sauce almost every day. There are different kinds of sauces. One of my favorite sauces is like a peanut sauce. Many Ivorians love to use a lot of oil in their sauces. They really like to eat fish because it is cheaper than beef or chicken. They…

Almut, Tricia, and I went to church this last Sunday by ourselves. We got there a little late but got a seat in the back. The church service was extra long. About 3 hours in Tricia passed out in her seat. Almut and I caught her. We had no idea what happened. Her eyes were still wide open but you could see she wasn’t there. Her face got really white. We were scared for her, but didn’t know what to do. Thankfully she was only out for maybe a minute if that. Then, the three of us went to sit…

It looks like we will be moving into our families after Thanksgiving. We will spend Thanksgiving in Bouake on campus with other missionaries in our area. We are all looking forward to that. Then we go up to Korhogo the 28^th of this month for orientation with our families that have been chosen by the church we will be in. Almut and I will be in the Tiekelezo Church. Then, I believe we will move into our families on the 30^th. The first month of living there I think we…

Tricia, Almut, and I went to our first African funeral several days ago. It was for Pastor Eli one of the first pastors of the Baptist Churches in Cote d’Ivoire. He had died a month ago and they waited until now to have the funeral so that people could make it to the veille. A veille is an all night party celebrating the life of the person who has passed away. Also, in this case since this man is a Christian we celebrated that he is now with the Lord.

   We went to this veille the day…

One day this month Angelika helped us shop for food we needed. We bought many things we needed in bulk. On this day she also took us to the meat and chicken markets. We had never really bought meat before and she showed us how it was done. I have been to the meat market before where they sell cow meat. Every morning they slaughter the cows they need for that day so that the meat is fresh. We buy the meat we need in the morning when it is fresh, so it hasn’t been sitting out all day. They…

I wanted to send this blog out to encourage my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. When people think of missionaries what usually comes to mind is someone who lives and works overseas serving the Lord. However, I know that every Christian is a missionary. God has called all of us to go out into the world and be a light. We are to live our lives for Christ where ever we are and in whatever occupation we are in. You may be retired, a business owner, factory worker, preacher, waitress,…

One night Tricia and I went to visit Clana and his family (they are an Ivorian family living on the ICA campus). When we get there we found out that a man was staying with the family and we were introduced to him. He is a Biochemistry teacher from Abidjan and he is in Bouake to administer an exam for high school students. Clana and he both know English pretty well. The man told us about himself and then asked us questions. He asked us what we plan on doing after we leave here. Tricia…

In this culture it is customary to go and greet the parents of a new baby. So, a few days ago I went with Angelika (my directory’s wife) and Tricia (my fellow Journeyer) to go and do this. Angelika had met the father not too long ago outside one of the orphanages where he was selling art. He is a really good artist and dancer. He had invited Angelika to come and greet his new baby on a certain day. She decided to take us along with her. Now, we have gone and greeted new babies before. It…

God has given me the desire since college to help the poor through starting a Micro Finance Bank. This bank would give out small loans to the poor and small businesses to help them start/expand a business. They would be charged an interest rate to help cover costs of running the bank and so more loans can be given out. I feel this is a great way to empower the poor and give them a way out of poverty. However, if this is going to work Jesus must be the reason it is all being done. This can’t…

We have been taking French lessons with an Ivorian lady named Awa who lives on the mission campus with us. She has a hard time speaking English so she will talk to us in a mixture of English and French. I thought for a while I was doing pretty well with the language but now I am starting to struggle. Our Journey Corps leaders want us to learn French as quickly as we can so we can get into host families. So, we have been having French class with Awa every day this week. Today, in French class…

A couple of days ago I had to opportunity to go and visit a widow and her son at the hospital in Bouake. The widow goes to the church I have been attending here and her son is sick. He is 4 years old but looks like he is about 1 year old. He is mentally handicapped, has a heart condition, and is always sick. The widow is poor and has a hard time taking care of him and getting the special medicine he needs. When we got to the hospital we had to wait in like a waiting room before we could go…

I have been here in the Cote d’Ivoire for about a week now. I have learned so much about the culture from asking questions and observation. I have decided to not try and fight against the culture but instead to try to understand and accept it. I have learned a little more of the language, but have been told we will take off in the language once we are placed in a host family. I can’t wait until I am able to break through the language barrier. This is going to take lots of practice and…

I have been here in the Cote d’Ivoire for about a week now. I have learned so much about the culture from asking questions and observation. I have decided to not try and fight against the culture but instead to try to understand and accept it. I have learned a little more of the language, but have been told we will take off in the language once we are placed in a host family. I can’t wait until I am able to break through the language barrier. This is going to take lots of practice and…

This is the first week I have been in Africa. The trip went really well with no problems. So far I have been learning a lot about the culture and language. We live on the mission campus right now with other jouneyers who have been here for 9 months. They have been very helpful in telling us about the culture and helping with the language and just getting around town. One of the very differnet experiances I had was on the bus ride to the campus the bus stoped to get people go to the bathroom…