NOT FUNNY!!! Preach the Word anyway.

2 Tim. 4:2.
Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season;

This passage was never more clear than today. With all the time we have had trying to learn French, the last thing on my mind was to preach. We have been in Africa for almost 4 months. Everyone we meet knows that we are just trying to learn the language. Two weeks ago we visited a church when we were doing our survey work among the Mossi people. We found a church that held their service in Moore. They asked us if we would join them for worship. We were more than happy to come to their service. Pasteur Benjamin even called us during to the week to check and make sure we were coming. On our way to the service today, he called again to see if we were coming to church. We told him that we were on our way and should be there in 5 minutes.

When we arrived at the church their service had already started, yes they started early. they ushered us in and sat us in the front row. I thought hey this is great because I don't have to sit up on stage like normal. African culture says that all Pastors sit on stage. Anyway we sat there for about 2 minutes when Pasteur Benjamin came to me and told me that I have to sit on stage. I thought it was no big deal because I do that a lot here, so I went on stage. We sang, in Moore, for about an hour when the Pasteur reaches over to the man on my left who speaks a little English and tells him to tell me that I am preaching after this group finishes. Have you ever tried to prepare a sermon in two minutes? I told the man that I wasn't ready, so he said just say a small greeting and that will be fine. That seemed great and I thought I was not going to have to preach. So I got up greeted everyone (in French) and read a passage of scripture and thanked everyone for coming and sat down. Then the guy who spoke English came over and said that wasn't enough that they wanted me to preach a short sermon. My first thought was You have got to be kidding me, but after a quick prayer and very fast search of the scripture I agreed. Thankfully I remember some of my last sermon from Coker and I went at it without any notes at all. I just hope that God can use whatever I said and whatever was translated in some way to draw more Africans to Him. No it was NOT FUNNY!! So stop laughing.
Mike

Back to the Basics

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

Life in the Fast Lane

The last three weeks have passed in a complete blur. We've been living life in the fast lane. We've had a team of 26 college kids come through who will spend a semester in West Africa to minister and see what it would be like to be a missionary out here full term. We helped as best we could with them to relieve just a little stress from the missionary family assigned to that task.

After that we met a new (to us) member of our West Africa mission family. We've had a house guest for a week and a half that has been helping us do research on the people group we have been assigned. He is fluent in their heart language and has been a tremendous asset to us.

He has brought into our life meetings with Mossi believers, worship in Moore, and a host of insights into African culture. We have now experienced tou and sauce and African beans and rice. We've eaten guinea now. I have to say there's nothing quite as amusing as eating fowl with about a dozen chicken running in and out from under your table while you do so!

We even have our first ever near arrest story, but that will be for another post. For now just rejoice with us that we walked away an hour later with laughter and thanksgiving that life is never boring here!

Please pray with us about our ministry. We will be faced soon with some decisions about direction. We want to walk solely in the path God has laid out for us.

Heather

New Year in a New Land

These are some pictures of our gathering on the 24th.
The new year is here and and we are getting back to our normal routines. We are still spending most of our time every day learning French. It is fun to actually be able to put some sentences together to make a mini conversation. Of course the listener has to be willing to do a little piecing together of incorrect structure and it helps if they are very good at playing charades too for when I get to words I don't know!
We've noticed some odd behavior already in our little MKs! As you'll see below, Koolaid has become a much cherished posession. Someone sent us some packets from the states and you've never seen two kids more excited about a packet that flavors water!
Life in Africa is life that is lived in community. The little church we've been attending wants us at all functions now. They seem to be enjoying having the white people at their church. Mike and Karis have joined the little dance group during our praise time twice now. I got invited last week to join, but they just don't know that this little Baptist white girl has two left feet!
Below also is my friend Asatou and the little girl with the drum is her daughter, Faritah. Her husband has died and she lives with her daughter with her father's family. She is a Muslim like many people here in Abidjan. She thinks that we worship the same God and how we worship him is just different. Please pray that I'll begin to know how to show her that Jesus is the only way. She came with us to church on Christmas and I visit her many times a week. She's very patient with my French and is anxious for me to finish French so that she can teach me Moore.
The new year in West Africa brings with it the necessity to bless all of our friends and acquaintances with wishes for them in the new year. Fortunately enough the same blessing can be used over and over. I can't imagine what I would have done if I needed to remember many different blessings. I wanted to bless all of you as I have our African friends. In the coming year we wish you much happiness, good health, prosperity, peace in your family, and the blessings of God on your life. Happy 2008!

New Friends

Karis has met a new little friend. Bethany is 7 years old and lives down the street from us. She only speaks French, so right now she just comes over and she and Karis play without talking. It is quite interesting.

As you can see, our Christmas tree is more complete now. Thanks to help from missionaries here, we painted ornaments, made snowflakes and tied bows on our tree to make it look more festive. I'm really going to hate to have to take it all down.

We've done all kinds of Christmas festivities this weekend. We went to a kids Christmas program at one church and a Christmas day program at another. Here you either go to church on Christmas Eve night really late or you go on Christmas day. It was quite fun to get to worship the Lord corporately on the day we celebrate Jesus' birth.

On Christmas eve we had a little yard party and invited the people that work for the mission and other neighbors and friends. We had about 60 there to eat rice and sauce, cookies and other assorted goodies. I was in charge of making cookie bags to give out as a small Christmas gift. Needless to say, I'd rather not see another cookie any time soon. Caleb, Karis, Noah and Bethany did a little skit of the first Christmas. They mostly acted out their parts while a narrator read. It took a little practice though as it was all done in French.

We had a great Christmas, but of course we missed you all. We opened gifts, took a friend to church with us and then gathered together as a mission family to eat. We got to sing carols together which is great because it's the only time we get to sing in a group in English. I don't think the Africans are big on Christmas songs as I haven't been able to pick out a Christmas theme in the songs we've heard recently.

I have lots of pictures right now, so if I am still posting Christmas pictures in the next few weeks, you'll know why.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

December

We are getting some routines established here which is nice. I remember thinking back in July that it would be a long time before there was a normal again.

The missionary women all get together for Bible study every Tuesday night. The men, not to be outdone by their wives and sisters in Christ, get together to pray that their favorite team wins the football game that was recorded over the weekend that they watch while we do Bible Study! So it is Tuesday night football in Abidjan.

Fridays have become another silly ritual for us. We all get together in the kitchen and make chicken nuggets and fries for dinner. The kids pretend to be little chefs and dip and bread the meat. Then they pretend to take orders for the family waiting in the dining room for dinner and set their table. Then we all sit down when it’s ready and say how glad we are that we didn’t have to cook supper tonight.

Our tutors come most mornings of the week, so between them and home school we are pretty busy until lunch. We usually head out in the afternoons to run errands or find people with whom to speak French. The kids here are out of school on Wednesdays, so this week we found a few kids to come over and kick a ball around and play jump rope in the afternoon.

Almost every evening we go out to speak French with our night guard. He’s gotten very accustomed to us coming and seems so happy to have someone to talk with. He fusses when we are late or miss a night. It makes bath and bed time a little hard to get our evening routine done, but gives us some practice we need.

On Friday mornings Mike goes out with a group of men to share the gospel with whoever they find. He really enjoys getting to be a part of this although he can’t share much yet.

We’ve been to the same church now for several weeks. We are beginning to figure out how the service works and what to do when. They have just poured a cement slab floor which is nice for keeping the sand out of your sandals.

We are now waiting for a season here called Harmattan. It is a period of only a few weeks here where we are that dust blocks out the sun and makes it look cloudy. Since the temperatures are really heating up now we are looking forward to this blessing/curse. We understand that everything is covered in a thick layer of dust, but the cloudy look lowers the temperature in the day and night.

Mike got to go to the bush this last week. He enjoyed his time visiting in the village and took this great photo of a termite mound. Hopefully we can all go next time.

Our missionary friends here have helped us make ornaments for our tree so that we’ll be all ready for Christmas. It is still very odd to think that Christmas is on its way when it is so hot and green. We are missing Christmas Carols too, but our city of West Africa does a pretty good job of decorating for Christmas. We hear that is highly unusual here. The malls, grocery stores and airport all have their Christmas decorations up. They use all sorts of colors to decorate with, and it is pretty cute. It seems that the brighter things are the more they like it!

The missionaries that are still here on Christmas will get together to eat and celebrate the birth of Jesus. Of course we will miss you all, but are thankful that we have people here with whom to gather.

Mike and I will celebrate our 12^th wedding anniversary on Sunday. It is crazy to think that it has been 12 years already. I am thanking the Lord for this special gift in my life. I pray that God will give me the grace and ability to be the helpmeet Mike deserves.

Thank you for your prayers. We love you all and Merry Christmas to you.

It's Christmas Time!

Whew! Sorry it's been so long since I posted. We had a little malaria scare last weekend as you know and it threw us off for a few days!

We had a lovely Thanksgiving. We hope you did as well. The kids made gingerbread cookies for our celebration with Aunt Barbara. We got together with all of the missionaries here and ate chicken, dressing, cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes along with a whole bunch of other things! We thanked God for our new friends and all of our friends and family back in the States!

As you all know Caleb came down with Malaria the weekend after Thanksgiving, but the malaria battle seems to be over. He has made a full recovery and is busy as usual! Thank you for your prayers for him. Just as I posted that he had malaria and it was know big deal, Karis ran over to tell us that he was throwing up. His fever went very high and he lost all of the contents of his stomach, but very suddenly the vomiting was over as quickly as it came. I can't help but think that was due to the prayers of those getting our email. By all accounts from others, that should have lasted a few hours. His fever remained high through the night, but he was able to sleep without having to get up to toss his cookies! It's funny that you can get so excited about someone not throwing up!

We had a great prayerwalking experience on Wednesday. We went to the little neighborhood where we've been attending to walk and pray. We had a volunteer team here that went with us. Many got to share the gospel although none responded. We were able to pray with many individuals about needs in their lives. We also got to meet the chief of the Mossi there in that area. That was a scary and fun thing. He is a Muslim, but allowed us to pray for him. He did not stick around while we did it, though. He sent us on with his blessings saying that we serve the same God. We pray that the Lord will open his eyes to THE TRUTH.

It is in the 90s and yet we are putting up our Christmas tree today! The kids are so happy to be putting up the tree today as it means Christmas time has come again. The stores here are decorated in really bright colors and lots of tinsel! It's definitely Christmas and this is definitely Africa!

We pray that the Lord blesses you as you begin your preparations for the celebration of the birth of our Savior.

Heather