After living life at full throttle for a few weeks, we are now getting back to our regular routine, whatever that is. We have completed our research and so we are back to just homeschooling, learning French and making and maintaining relationships in our community.
We will soon be saying "see you later" to our good friends and supervisors for our first 16 weeks on the field. They will be heading off to do all of the exciting things a missionary in West Africa generally does. We will miss them dearly, but already know of 2 times that we'll be back together in the next six months.
Being a missionary means saying a lot of goodbyes. We had heard that already but didn't realize that was for on the field as well as off. Most of the missionaries here on our compound will be some where else in the next 6 months. That's quite an odd feeling.
We've had many joys in the last few weeks. I've enjoyed a growing relationship with Assiatou, a Mossi lady who lives close to us. She helped us make some connections for our research and introduced us to some new African foods. Fortunately enough, she is a very good cook. Please pray that she will continue to seek after God as we see her doing now. She is a Muslim with some animistic beliefs thrown in there, but she is open to talking about our faith. Pray that we will make the most of every opportunity. I've enlisted some help to get started storying with her, as I am not quite there yet in my French.
Mike has been cultivating more deeply a friendship with Alli, a local shop owner. He had been spending some time with him reading to him from the gospel of John before we started our research. On a good note, he has felt welcome enough to visit our house, but unfortunately he seemed to be under the influence of something when he came. Pray that Mike will have discernment to deal with him gently but help him understand that he can't do that.
I've also had some opportunities to go out with a veteran missionary to an area close to the church we have been attending. The people there have been so kind and inviting and are genuinely glad to see us come. We already have more little groups to visit than we can hit in one morning and we had a group stop us on our way out last time and beg us to come visit them next time too. My colleague got to share a full gospel presentation 3 times last week. Two people said they were interested in becoming a Christian, but my colleague felt it best to do a little more storying first. Some of these people come from backgrounds so bizarre that it is hard to know for sure if they really understand. At any rate, I am glad to get to be involved. Pray that God will work in the hearts of our friends at Vridi Canal, namely Elodie and Felicite.
We've also had some frustrating moments recently. Of course the internet has been out a lot. Not really a big deal if you aren't separated from all of your family and most of your friends by an ocean. We think we've been able to remedy our problem though and now we even have internet in our home. Our computer is online most of the time so if you'd like to get a free download of SKYPE and talk with us free computer to computer. We are mike.heather.mcafee.
Also as I mentioned before, Mike tried to get arrested. We had had a long day of research and were headed back home at about 8:30 at night from a visit with some local pastors. It was then that we were pulled over for the 3rd time that day. Police stops are a part of life here. Sometimes you get hassled, sometimes not. Sometimes they accuse you of doing something wrong and demand a bribe, most of the time they just look at our papers and let us go. This time, however, the officer decided that Mike's international driver's license was no good. He wanted to see his passport but we have a residency card that we carry now and were told that we didn't need to carry our passport. So, our researcher friend was with us and we set off towards home to get Mike's passport and our business facilitator to straighten things out. In a grand comedy of errors, I realized upon arriving home that Mike's passport was in a lock box and Mike was holding the key. We set back out to try to talk Mike out of trouble with a copy of the passport which was the only thing that I had. Oddly enough, after being such a pain, the officer let us all go home. Now we carry every official document we have on the off chance someone might want to see it!!!
One last hurdle for the past few weeks was getting our Ivoirian Driver's license. Let me just say that if you have complained about the lines, the wait, or the ridiculous way your local DMV handles things, you don't want to come here. After 8 hours in the sun, standing on concrete, bodies smashed up against each other in 95 degree heat, something awfully close to a riot, no food or drink, and an hour and a half round trip car ride, we walked away with our license application done, but still no license. Thanks to God alone after two more trips there, we had our licenses. So, if I wanted to hop behind the wheel of a standard transmission and get out in the crazy traffic here, I have an official Ivoirian license to do it with!! We won't talk about the picture though. Unfortunately they took it at the end of the long, hot, no food, too many people day!! It's not exactly something to write home about. It is probably the exact look that I give the officer when he stops us to ask us for a soda("You've got to be kidding me!"), so it should work pretty well in a routine traffic stop. :)
I don't know how or why, but even with all of that craziness, we love this place. May the Lord continue to impress on us His love for these people and their need for Him.
We do have some changes headed our way and we will all have to be patient to find out what those might be. There is significant, progressing work among the people group to whom we've been assigned. In the next few months we will be sorting out what that means for us, but for now, we continue French. Pray that we will know God's direction for us now. Please keep praying for the Mossi for now. Pray that the Lord continues His work among them.
On an odd note, if you click on the picture above that looks like a barren tree, you will see that it is actually a tree full of bats!!! Also the picture of a bus is a common way of travel from city to city here and apparently the top is reserved for luggage and/or livestock.
We love you guys!
Heather
No comments:
Post a Comment