Another week in Africa

We’ve had a good week. Learning French is very tiring and frustrating, but we are having a good time anyway. There have been several sounds in words this week that my American mouth just can’t seem to form. After many, many attempts with my tutor’s corrections, he’ll just smile shake his head and go on!

Caleb and Karis got their bikes this week. They had needed a new bike in the states, but we just put it off as we knew that we could not bring it with us. So we headed off this week to make the purchase. We couldn’t find anything worth buying in the stores, so we headed off to a little neighborhood that has open shops along the streets where you bargain for goods. We found some pretty good bikes for them, but Karis’s is a bit large for her. They didn’t really have her size, so we had to go a little big. After much discussion in Frenglish, we had the bikes and were on our way!

Mike and I both had some pretty neat encounters this week. Mike went out with one of our missionary neighbors and our night guard to do some street evangelism in our neighborhood with local shop owners and neighbors. Mike followed the conversation as best he could and prayed and joined in where possible.

I had an arranged meeting with a lady that sells fruit about a half mile down the road from our house. One of our missionary friends walked with me early in the week to ask if it would be OK for me to come and sit and listen to her talk with her customers because I’m trying to learn French. She quickly agreed that not only could I come and sit, but that she would have her sister come and walk with me up and down the street to talk to people. When I arrived on Friday, all alone and very nervous, the sister was there waiting for me. She walked with me to some nearby vegetable stands where she told me all of the names of things and made me write them in my notebook. Then we continued down the street for nearly a mile, all the while I’ve got no clue what we are doing or where we are going. She took me to a huge market and paraded me through the whole thing, talking away as we went about what things were. Finally we headed back to the fruit stand where I took my leave. I was so appreciative to God for bringing this kind woman to teach me things. I understood very little of our conversation, but that’s OK for now. My new language helper’s name is Wassa and hopefully I’ll see her again this Friday.

One of our missionaries here had a funny experience this week, at least funny after the fact. Greg and Laura have been in Abidjan for 4 months now and attempting the whole time to get their Ivorian driver’s license. After much frustration they finally got it last week. On one of their first trips out with their new licenses Laura got pulled over in a routine traffic stop, very common here. By the way, the police here have no cars; they just stand on the side of the road and point you out and motion you to stop. Anyway, upon this officer’s examination of Laura’s brand new license, he told her it was no good and that she’d have to be arrested. He said that he knew this because he had seen on TV that the new licenses are no good, only the old ones are good. Because Greg and Laura had their little one with them, Greg got the officer to take him rather than Laura. After a call back to our office, one of our office workers here came and managed to get Greg free. So that was it for their morning of ministry. Apparently God had in mind for them to be ministering to police officers rather than Hausa people that morning. There’s never a dull moment around here.

We are very thankful right now for God’s provision here as well as in the states. All of our language and other needs are being met in exciting ways. Thank you for all the prayers you are lifting on our behalf and for the Mossi people.