{"id":112,"date":"2004-09-29T19:05:34","date_gmt":"2004-09-29T18:05:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/greetings.gillespiesonline.com\/?p=112"},"modified":"2004-09-29T19:05:34","modified_gmt":"2004-09-29T18:05:34","slug":"icas-raison-detre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bobgillespie.org\/?p=112","title":{"rendered":"ICA’s raison d’etre"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.
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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’.
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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.
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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.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-first-term-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobgillespie.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobgillespie.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobgillespie.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobgillespie.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobgillespie.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobgillespie.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobgillespie.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobgillespie.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobgillespie.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}