Author name: Lois Gillespie

IMPORTANT…IMPORTANT…IMPORTANT…IMPORTANT…IMPORTANT

Please discontinue using the following e-mail address:
bobnloisgillespie@hotmail.com
bgillespie@ica.ed.ci
lgillespie@ica.ed.ci

Mail sent to our hotmail account takes much longer to download; the other two addresses will expire at the end of the year.

Instead, use the e-mail address listed below). We can also receive e-mail at lgillespie@ica-ed.org or bgillespie@ica-ed.org; use these e-mail addresses if you want a backup.

In addition, if you haven’t visited our website lately, we invite you back! I recently sent some new material back to the states with a friend, so that content should be available sometime next week. 

We’ve had a few days lately when the ‘yellow flag’ of caution has been flying by the front gate. This means we should only go into Bouake if absolutely necessary. Yesterday we even saw the ‘red flag’, meaning ‘Do Not Leave Campus’. With the French military living among us, we don’t feel threatened in any way. Here in Cote d’Ivoire, tensions are rising as another deadline has come and gone without any real progress towards peace. Another important date is this Friday – the beginning of disarmament – which is unlikely to happen because of the lack of progress in trusting each other. Please pray for peace in Cote d’Ivoire.

This week the French troops will be ‘changing guards’. Those soldiers who are here will be replaced by different soldiers. Please pray that the seeds which have been planted in those who are leaving will bear fruit, and that we will have many opportunities to sew more seeds with those who are coming.

As we approach ‘long weekend’, when all students and a lot of staff leave campus for other locales, we find ourselves reflecting on this past month and the re-opening of ICA and/or the beginning of a new school year. This past weekend, exactly two years from our emergency evacuation, especially gave us the opportunity to reflect on God’s handiwork in our lives.

We took advantage of the opportunity by inviting a classical guitarist and his wife, the Dossmans who are French missionaries in Abidjan, to hold a Saturday evening concert to which we also invited our French ‘neighbors’ (the French military). At the concert, we formally thanked the French military for coming to our rescue 2 years ago and for their continued protection of us and our campus. In the colonel’s remarks, he thanked us (Americans) for having come to their (France’s) rescue many long years ago, and for continuing to stand against tyranny in the world and especially in Iraq. We were pleasantly surprised by his comments. During the evening’s concert, the French guitarist shared how he and his wife searched for peace and where they had found their ‘raison d’etre’.

To finish the evening, our French neighbors invited all of us to a pig roast. We enjoyed a pleasant evening of socializing and bridge building. We have been encouraged by the Dossmans that our reason for being here this year is bigger than the re-opening of ICA; that we have a unique opportunity to live Christ before an audience which cannot leave, which would not normally take the time to observe Christians, and who would certainly never conduct a public search for truth. He says the French are private seekers, but that they are watching us. One soldier’s comments seem to bear this out: he remarked that it was good to be with people who still believe in ‘something’ and whose lives bear that out.

So if you’ve prayed for our encouragement, God is answering those prayers. Thank you again for your support of us at the throne of grace.

Here at ICA, we are rejoicing in the fact that we have had 10 days of school! I know, it seems like a small thing, but for us who wondered if we’d ever see classes begin at ICA, it is special.

At the same time, we are planning a special time together for the weekend of Sept. 25, the time of our original evacuation. We will be blessed through a concert given by a Christian classical guitarist from Abidjan to which we are inviting our French neighbors. Please pray for this time of outreach.

Our French neighbors have also been invited to our Sunday services here on campus, and a few have attended. So again, pray that we can share Christ in a way they will understand.

Today, as you think of us, please pray that we will soon have a phone line (and therefore e-mail) here on campus. It is consuming a great deal of Lois’ time to go into town each day to send and receive e-mail – sometimes as much as 3 hours. (In addition, she is not completely comfortable going in to Bouake alone.) To many who have left aging parents and/or college-age children in the states, e-mail is a vital link. Having it here on campus is also important for security reasons; many of you have commented how much you appreciated our updates during the week of ‘lockdown’ in 2002. We need to be able to communicate with the outside world (in multiple ways) from here on campus.

Speaking of security, in a few minutes we will be having a test of our new siren system. These things (including phone line on campus) are recommendations made to us by an international crisis management team who was brought in to evaluate our situation.

As always, thanks for your prayers!