Peace of God…shall keep your hearts

Thanks to all of you for making it possible for us to be here at International Christian Academy in Bouake, Cote d’Ivoire, West Africa, this Christmas season. Although we will miss our loved ones very much during this time, we have the peace of knowing that we are where God wants us to be. We are experiencing what Paul talks about in Phil. 4:7: ‘…the peace of God that passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.’

Your prayers for the safe arrival of our container were answered in a wonderful way. The truck with our container arrived and was unloaded for us while we were in town celebrating our 25th anniversary. How special it was to come home to all our ‘stuff’; we were able to spend our anniversary unpacking some of the ‘memories’ from our life together.

We have finished our first trimester here at the school. During our 5-week break, we will be traveling about 18 hours northeast to Gao, Mali, (near Timbuktu) to meet a work team coming from our home church. God has helped us arrange all the details so that we can be a part of this missions trip and spend time with people from home during this holiday season.

It has been an interesting few months here. Learning to communicate in town has been and will continue to be a fun and interesting experience. For a while, there was a number of robberies at gun point involving many missionary families who live in town. The police have since caught a ring of thieves, so things have quieted down. The religious tension with the terrorism has prompted the US Embassy to issue notes of concern. Also the political situation in Cote d’Ivoire is still tense at times, but life seems to go on as normal.

Our ministry at ICA has been rewarding. The students are normal kids and have good, cooperative attitudes. They seem to share in the mission of their parents and feel like they are part of the team. I am working with junior high which is a change and challenge for me. One of the classes I teach is US History. This is interesting since most of these kids don’t feel like US citizens or citizens of any one country. They have a broad understanding of the world and quick minds to discuss issues. We recently spent a week in the mountains at a camp in the rainforest with some of them during eighth grade outdoor education. This is a favorite annual happening and the location couldn?t be better, with mountains to climb and waterfalls to swim in.

The challenge for Lois is to keep the campus network running smoothly. One Saturday morning last month, she received phone calls from several different dorms who couldn’t connect to the network, and thus could not send and receive e-mail-a very big deal! As she and the Technology Coordinator researched the problem, it soon became obvious that more than a few dorms were involved; in fact, 7 different locations were without network connectivity. Ultimately, they found that a rat had chewed through the cables buried in a hole in the ground behind the central building. Since these were fiber cables, patching them was tedious work. Those locations were disconnected for about a month as we had to wait for supplies to come out from America with the next visiting team. Not all days are as bad as that Saturday, but keeping technology functioning is definitely a challenge in this environment.

Being here at ICA places us in the hub of missions activity for West Africa. Right here in Bouake, there are some good gospel-preaching churches. One Baptist church averages around 300 people. Even though Boauke is over 60% Muslim, there are many works here, ranging from a seminary to translation work to church planting, as well as the international christian school. It is great to be right in the center of where God is doing great things. A lot of missions teams to West Africa travel through here; in fact, this past Sunday we were blessed with a concert from a good ole’ southern gospel quartet-right in the heart of Africa.

In answer to your prayers, we’ve been able to purchase a vehicle just in time for our Mali trip. Since we sold our house in the states, we were able to purchase a Suzuki Samurai, a small 4-wheel drive ‘jeep’. With a luggage rack on top, it is perfect for the two of us. We also had a grill guard made since hitting one of the potholes or goats in the middle of the road could disable the car. We don’t have tow trucks or AAA, repairs are expensive and good work is hard to get.

We ask for your prayers for the following: 

  • continued political stability and domestic safety; 
  • safety as we travel from to and from Mali during the school break; 
  • our efforts to communicate in the French language; and 
  • special outreach the weekend before Christmas when all the staff men build a church for a local community. The entire staff then joins with the nationals for the first Sunday service in the new church.

A different kind of Thanksgiving

Our first trimester is officially over today and everyone is breathing a sigh of relief. Students are excited as parents are arriving to pick them up for a nice 5-week break. They won’t return until after the new year.

We leave at 4:00 in the morning tomorrow for a missions trip in Gao, Mail, and should be traveling all day on Thanksgiving day. We won’t even be in touch with anyone by phone or e-mail – not the way we would choose to spend Thanksgiving. But since we are caravanning with others, we need to fit in with their schedule. I’m not sure if we’ll be anywhere near e-mail for the next 2 weeks, although I will be able to check my mail if I can find an internet connection. You know I will definitely be looking. If you don’t receive a Wednesday Update in the coming 2 weeks, you’ll know I wasn’t successful.

Thank you for thinking of us and for praying for us at this time. Please pray for our safety as we travel, as well as the safety for all the students and their families as they will also be traveling in the next few days. Some of them have 3-day trips ahead of them before they reach their remote stations.

Fun Times

Once again, no news is good news. We’ve had no new muggings or political unrest, and most everyone is beginning to feel ‘safe’ again. 

This is a very busy time for the students. They have 5 more school days left in this trimester, so final projects are due, and final exams are being given. The computer lab is constantly occupied with students working on papers. Although everyone is tired, anticipation of the coming 5-week break keeps us all ‘sane’.

Here’s a glimpse into our lives today. Bob is working with his 8th Graders who are making ‘ancient artifacts’ out of clay. I don’t know who is having more fun – Bob or his kids. I am overseeing some local technicians from whom the school has purchased 3 computer systems as they assemble and load these new systems. Kids and computers are the same all around the world.

Pray for students and staff as we finish school work and prepare for different ministries over the break. We thank you for these prayers; we get a ‘warm, fuzzy feeling’ when we think about your praying for us. Those prayers reach across the miles.