First Term Updates – Cote d’Ivoire/Senegal

I’m not sure when you’ll get this since the phone lines have been working off and on here in Cote d’Ivoire. We’re told they’re working fine, only to loose them again in another half hour or so. Hopefully, this will slip through the pipeline.

What a whirlwind weekend. Five vehicles with some trailers and 48 staff and students left the campus at 5:00 am on Friday morning. About 7 hours later we came to the end of the road – the paved road that is. We had another hour and a half on dirt road through little villages until we got to a village in the middle of nowhere. There were paved roads, lots of people and animals but very few cars – and a gas station?!. We arrived at the school for Liberian refugees who were all standing by the gate singing songs to welcome us.. They were so happy that we got there. That afternoon after pitching our tents for the night, some of us went to the school rooms to work on the roof. We had to fill in the floor with dirt and ready the roof for the tin. That evening there was a big rally in town. An African choir made up of people from the area churches sang and people started arriving from ‘nowhere’. By the time our team got up to sing there must have been 1500 people gathered around. There was singing, drama, preaching, and a gospel film. It lasted about 3 hours. Lightning was flashing all over that night but not a drop of rain fell; one African pastor was sure it wouldn’t since that’s how they had prayed. The next morning was full with efforts to finish the classrooms. Everyone worked very hard. The African men were impressed at our girls who shoveled dirt all day just like the guys. (I was impressed too!) That evening the rally crowd was about 2000. Our sound system got the message out and there were about 90 decisions for Christ between the two rallies. The next morning was church at 7:00 AM and then on the road by 9:00. We got back to the school in time for evening service to share the whole thing with everyone at ICA. 

Lois and I took off Saturday afternoon and drove back to where the paved road starts. There we found the home of Jim and Rosie Johnson, missionaries supported by our home. It was good to fellowship with them and see the church that was built with the Thanksgiving offering from our church. We went to their church service until the caravan drove by and we joined them for the trip back.

We can tell that there were prayers sent up on the team’s behalf. There are so many things that can go wrong and destroy all the best laid plans. We could see God?s hand in guiding all things to work for His glory. We feel fortunate to have been able to help these African school children who have nothing, and we thank you for your partnership of prayer for this past weekend.

Today, our most ‘urgent’ pray request is that we have no water! There was a main waterline break in our supply from the city, and our water tower/well which we use as a backup is dry because of the dry season. We are told that ‘specialists’ are coming from Abidjan (4 hours south) to fix it and water should be restored sometime later today – but we will be very pleasantly surprised if this happens. Needless to say, this creates some hardships as well as creating health problems. In the states, school would be canceled – we don’t have that option. And there is nowhere around with ‘safe’ water…

As mentioned last week, we are presently preparing to take about 48 staff and students to a town called Toulepleu which is located on the Cote d’Ivoire/Liberia border. We have a busy schedule ahead of us, but God has blessed us as a school and we are looking forward to passing on that blessing (which started with you) to other schools which have far less than we do .We are going to be building as well as doing evangelism. This will be a very unusual outreach weekend for us because we will be able to minister in English. Our focus will be the Liberian refugees in this area. There are at least 5000 in the Toulepleu area. There are also two Liberian refugee schools who are members of ACSI (Association of Christian Schools International). We have already sent some text books to these schools. This weekend we are taking up some more books and several computers and we will roof a number of classrooms at the Christ the King School. Right now most of their classrooms have thatch roofs and they have to cancel school when it rains as the roofs leak badly. Since this school is located in the rain forest region of Cote d’Ivoire and the rainy season is approaching, this project will be a big blessing to them. 

There is a lot of planning that has to go into this weekend since we will all be camping and we will not have any missionaries in the area to get everything ready like we did at Sikasso. Four staff men will be going up today to get things ready for the majority of the group that will be leaving Friday morning at 5:00 to make the long trip. We will be taking vans and four wheel drive vehicles. There are about 60 kilometers of dirt road so please pray that our travels will be safe and that we will not get stuck.

Bob and I will be deviating from the weekend schedule slightly to visit with Jim and Rosie Johnson, missionaries supported by our home church in a little village about 1 1/2 hours east of Toulepleu. We hope to attend Sunday morning services in their village. We covet your prayers for this weekend.

Although the ‘yellow flag’ of caution was flying earlier today (indicating that we should go into town only if necessary and then with caution), it has been lowered now. Apparently there were student demonstrations earlier which have been known to get out of hand in the past. We at the school are thankful for those in town and at the embassy who keep us informed. As our director recently stated in his State of the School address, “We praise God that here at ICA we have not had a single instance of loss or harm to our students or on our campus, other than occasional petty theft.”

When sharing his vision for our school, our director continued, “I want ICA to be a school that is professionally challenging, that cares for its staff, (and) that helps them (students and staff) to appreciate their vital role in carrying out the great commission …And certainly my vision for ICA is for a caring community of believers who demonstrate a supernatural love for one another to the extent that visitors to our campus comment on the loving atmosphere; the care and concern for one another that they observe.”

To that end, this week our students are not only taking their SAT tests (or online aptitude and abilities tests for seniors), they are filling out evaluation forms for teachers and dorm parents. All in all, this is a time of evaluation as we look back so that we can better plan ahead. Our pray would be that students will take these tests and evaluations seriously and that those tallying the results will accurately interpret them so that we can continue to offer a quality program here at ICA. Please pray with us toward that end.

Also continue to pray for our outreach next weekend near the Liberian border. We are busy with plans and practices. We will also be involved in building a church for their worship. (I’m even scrounging up computer parts to come up with a few working computers to take to the refugee school there.)