As we start Staff Orientation today, the yellow flag of caution is flying outside the main office here at ICA. In addition to today being a national holiday so that workers are idle, the US Embassy has asked that all Americans stay at home until the response to a TV broadcast last night can be known. The broadcast was very critical of both the past government officials and the present government and showed graphic details about the massacres of last October. Most here are not even sure how the broadcast got past the censors to be put on TV.
Being in a country where from day to day, we don’t know the political and/or social climate makes us appreciate America all the more. But we don’t feel threatened or ready to come home. We are where we’ve wanted to be for a long time in spite of all those we’ve left behind.
The two families involved in last weeks hostage and robbery situation, Thompsons and Niehlsons, are letting God heal their hearts and give them peace. Amy Niehlson, the hostage, was to have spoken this morning during our devotion time, but followed the embassy order to stay home in Bouake. She called and shared verses from II Cor. 1:21 and I Cor. 2:5, and how that in the midst of evil men where at times her continued life was questionable, she remembered the verses she had been planning to share. She said the time was almost sacred and that God has used it in her life to draw her closer to him.
We’re on the front lines where the missionary stories are happening to people we know and work with. It certainly changes one’s prayer life!