Meet the Team

So I have been in Bouake for a week and half! We all have learned so much, done so much, experienced so many new things that the first week felt like an entire month! This week is proving to be a little more manageable. I really want to introduce the team to you all. We have Americans, Germans, Ivorians and even a Frenchman. I will start with the ones I have known the longest, the Americans.

Haylie has a heart for justice and human rights (especially for woman and children) and is a sweet, quite but fun personality. Eric is interested in sports ministry and is a fun outgoing very very tall guy. Emily has a heart for women’s ministry and has a sweet, outgoing and caring personality. Drew isn’t really a journeyer, he is a mid-term missionary with World Venture who is into video production for missions and he just needs to learn some language and culture with us before he embarks on his missions video production trek through Africa.

Haylei, April (comes in the Spring), Me, Emily, Eric (in Colorado)

The Germans have been super amazing to get to know also, there are 5 of them. There is a bit of a language barrier here though. Even though they know English pretty well, there are still quite a few words they are not familiar with. So it has been a little harder to get to know them well. Julia (my room mate) is a sweet funny and smart young woman, and she has a heart for children’s ministry. Karina is a kind, fun but soft-spoken personality; she also has a heart for children’s ministry especially with the handicapped. Lina has a fun, spontaneous personality, and she enjoys working with children also. David, who I call little brother (same name as my Dad and other weird stuff like that), is a caring individual who enjoys leading worship. Lucas has a fun personality and also enjoys worship.

One of the best moments we have had as a team (in my opinion), was when Lucas and David started playing worship songs they enjoy… that we all knew! That’s right two Germans knew and loved several contemporary worship songs that we all know, so we all worshiped God together, just because we could and we love him. There was so much unity in Christ in that moment.

Angelika, Lina, Julia, Carina, Emmanuel, David, Lukas, Haylie

We have many people on the leadership team. Six of them are Journeyers who have been here for a while (between 7 months and 2 years).  A few of them have gone back to their host families; they were just here for our first week. Now it is just Steph, Tricia and Devin here with us. There is also a Frenchmen, Ben, who sort of falls into this category, he hasn’t really been through the program though, I think. It has been really good learning from their experience and life lessons. We also have two Ivoirian twenty-somethings living with us: Maï and Emmanuel. They are both fun loving and very very helpful. They also have been very quick to make friends with all of us, which has been amazing. There were also five older adults with us last week (one of them is Ivoirian) who have taught us various things. I am running long in this blog already, so I will introduce them in another entry.

Steve, Kelly, Jess (back), Devin, Tricia (front), Steph (all journeyers that have been here for a while)

I have only been here since last Saturday, but it feels like I have been here a whole month. It has been one of the best weeks of my life but also one of the hardest. We have done so much, learned so much and have met so many new people, and we have all left so much behind. I have absolutely enjoyed progressing in French and learning a new culture, but none of these things are easy. All of the stress piles up, until it just bubbles over. The best thing about that is, God has provided for this also. He has provided people to counsel us wisely, he has and will continue to draw us near to him, give us understanding and grace to get through the tough times and be there for each other through it all.

For those of you who are in Texas, be jealous (jk ;), it has rained six times since we arrived and they have all been torrential downpours. It is so beautiful here, and all of the fruit (like bananas, grapefruit, tomatoes and papaya) that grow here have such a wonderful potent taste. It will be the dry season soon though. They tell us that everything is really brown and dried out during the dry season (sounds like home). This is hard to imagine when the campus looks like an absolute Eden. There are things that we have to watch out for here though, like driver ants, mosquitoes, unfiltered water, pot wholes ect…

Also internet is not readily accessible here. I haven’t been online since we were Abidjan, until just now. That takes some getting use to for me lol. On the other hand it has it’s very nice moments…

So this is what my life will be like for the next couple of months as I learn how to communicate and interact with an amazing people before I move in with a host family.

Blown away by His provision

I cannot believe I am sitting in the airport waiting to go to Côte d’Ivoire with my 3 teammates! This past year has been such a great learning and growing year for me as I waited (trying to be patient) for the call that the Lord has given me. Now that I am here, on my way there, I am finding it really hard to believe that the wait is over. God has been so faithful in every way. He has taught me more about trusting him for every need; trusting his provision, trusting his timing, his wisdom and even trusting him to teach what I need when I need it.

I graduated from college in May of 2011. At that time I thought I would live in my hometown for a total of 4 months, maybe 8 or 9 max. Haha! My timing was not God’s timing. Looking back at my year and 4 months in my hometown, I can see that God’s plan was way way better! I was planning to get a great job and earn what I needed there. God had me do a volunteer job instead with small jobs on the side. It was such a blessing to serve him there and watch him provide for my every need instead. His plan was what I needed, not mine. He provided some amazing friends there also, people I will dearly miss. People, that through His grace and healing, I actually let into my life. I am thankful for the pain of loss I feel now in leaving my friends and family. It shows me that I actually have allowed myself to love them.

Looking back, I can see how amazing my Lord has been to me. He has healed me in so many ways, freed me from so many things and kept me from falling in so many ways. I am thankful for his everlasting steadfast love. So thankful that he is not done with me yet though too!

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. Romans 5:1-5

Looking forward, I have no delusions that this is going to be easy. In fact it will probably be one of the hardest things I have ever done (if not the hardest).  Yet, I trust my God. He has told me to do this. He knows the plans he has for me, even though I really don’t. His love is steadfast and perfect and so I trust him. I trust him with my very breath, even though I tend to hold on to my delusion of control often. I know that any hardship I go through will only teach me to trust him more and place more of my hope in him. So please don’t expect all of my blogs to be sunshiny and happy, but do expect to hear about God’s amazing grace in this broken and terrible world.

P.S. I am actually posting this from Abidjan though it written in transit (internet in the airports cost too much) but I am too tired to write about my really long day here. God is good, we are here and safe! Also the last time I checked (Tuesday) I only had 76% of my monthly financial need met. Check out my about page to see how you can help, if the Lord so leads you.

Coming soon...
What is it like in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire? Who is on the team I will be working with? and what will I be doing for the next couple of months?

PDX Training in Denver

It has been  quite a journey already to get to Côte d'Ivoire. This week I was in Denver for Partner Development training called PDX. World Venture has training for their members for Partner Development. They put on a special one for the Fall 2012 Journey Corps team, mostly because there weren't enough people signed up from outside Journey Corps to have a full one... Anyway, it was amazing! All of us Journeyers met and got to know each other (except Shasta, who we all missed dearly). So many prayers were answered. I saw God move in many ways, some of them were subtle and others not easily missed. We all had a blast and I now have a couple of brothers and several sisters. One of my prayers was that He would help us all be ourselves and bind us together. We saw that! A ton of questions were answered too.

Specific Stories:

For me, a long standing problem was resolved, so let me brag about the Lord for a minute... My computer has been in trouble several times since I returned from Kenya a couple of years ago, the logic board was replaced a couple of times and I had to redo the whole thing one other time. I have talked to Apple so many times I could be an Apple repare person myself. Anyway my computer stopped working on Tuesday at PDX. I mean it wasn't even turning on most of the time. So at the leader's insistance, Chazz took me and my computer to the Apple store down the road. They ran a test, said it was amazing that I was using it at all in the last month and kept it to replace the hard drive. I got it back the next morning. Everything worked out so well, it could have only been God, he is literally the only explanation! There is no Apple store for miles around were I live. So what did he do? Made it last until I was just down the street from one. I was going to miss work time for my presentation in PDX, so what did he do? He had me start on it months ago, so it only needed to be refined. The repair would have cost me money I don't have to spend now, so what did he do? He had me extend the warranty a year ago. I was going to loose everything on my computer, so what did he do? He had me back up my hard drive May 2, something I rarely do. It is about the only time I have been so happy to see my computer go out, because God is so good and now the problem is fixed! Yay! All things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose. Anyway enough about that.

 We all met an Ivorian living in Denver. His wife made us an Ivorian dinner. As we ate and talked with him he told us a lot about Côte d'Ivoire: the politics, about life there, the food. Between he and Chazz (a journeyer from the first team) I learned a ton about the country and culture. He was so blessed by our visit too, I was so glad we got to go!

Oh and an important detail, we are shooting for a departure date of Sept 14th. It is all so much more like reality now and I am excited to see God work and move through the work he has set for us all to do from now until we leave Côte d'Ivoire in particular.

Prayer Requests:

That the team would continue to grow together over the summer
That we all would bless our friends and family with our stories as we share what God is doing in our lives and what He has called us to in Côte d'Ivoire
That we would have the time and motivation to work on partner development

Thanks for reading! Blessings!