21st century...

This is our boy, John Moody. He's a real gangsta, straight from the streets of rural Arkansas. He's a great guy. He was our supervisor for a while while Mike McAfee was off tending to his pregnant-soon-to-give-birth wife, Heather. They went to Dakar, Senegal for the delivery.
I want to apologize. We live in the 21st century and we haven't put one picture on our blog. Unbelievable.

Here is a picture of the resort where we had a little getaway. We spend 24 hours there and it was a real treat, as you can tell. God really blessed us with some time away from Abidjan for a while.
Here, we are with Bertrand (left) and some of his buddies. Since then, we have not pursued Bertrand anymore because he does not ever meet us when he says he will. But we pray that he will come to know the Lord sometime in the future. Please pray for him and Sara, the other girl we shared with.

The Chronicles of Africa: Rejoice for Dany :)

Rejoice with us, our brothers and sisters in Christ! Dave and I had the opportunity to share the gospel with Dany again today and He believed our message! Praise God! Pray for his perseverance, that he would be kept from the evil one and his evil world. We finished speaking with him about forty minutes ago. As I detailed in our last blog, we have shared the gospel with Dany once before. When we spoke with him today, he told us that he had been thinking about our first discussion. He told us that he spoke with his girlfriend the day after he spoke with us, and he told her that he wanted to stop being intimate with her because it was wrong! This was exciting to hear, but as he continued to talk, Dave and I realized that was not trusting the gospel yet. He told us that he wanted to stop his sin. But he explained that he wanted to stop sinning so that he could please God, and God would, in turn, bless him with money, cars, food, the things of this world, etc. This was a clear marker to us that he was not yet worshiping the True God. Dave and I told him that he was only using God to get what he wanted, i.e. the things of this world. He seemed to understand this well. So we continued to explain to him how glorious God is, and that He created all things to bring Him glory. I think Dany really grasped this part. As we continued to try to explain the gospel, we than contrasted God's greatness with man's sin and hopelessness. We explained the justice and wrath of God against sin, and even how this too brings God great honor and praise. Dany confessed his fear of death and of hell. Having a Catholic background, he knew what hell was. Then, after sharing all the bad news, we got to share the good news! We told him of God's love and mercy, that He would kill His own Son to save us; that while we were still sinners Christ died for us; and though God could have justly crushed Dany a long time ago because of his sin, God didn't. Instead, He is patient wanting all men to come to repentance. Dany started to grasp. When we were talking about sin, death, wrath, and hell, Dany's eyes were starting to well up with tears. And then as he continued to dwell on the good news of Christ's death and resurrection, Dany was very thankful. He shook our hands twice because he was so thankful, and he expressed his thanks verbally as well. It was such a privelege to share the gospel. Our God is so good. He saves sinners for His glory and then uses them for His glory. And in heaven we get to enjoy all His glory and goodness. This is a joyous day. Rejoice with us in the salvation of our God! Please pray for Dany to be kept from the evil one and the sinful world he is surrounded by. We are hoping to follow up with him soon. Thanks for reading, and I hope this refreshes your soul, bringing you joy all day. :) Dave and I love u all.

The Chronicles of Africa: Bertrand, Sarah, and Mory

Well, fam and friends, it has been too long since we last wrote or posted a video. Sorry to all of our dedicated fans, but I was sick for about a week…with worms. I know, gross. Be happy you’re not me. Anybody want to sign up to be a career missionary to West Africa? Nonetheless, thank God I am better. In an effort to catch you up on the past few weeks, I am summarizing some of my journal entries. So here they are:

Thursday, we went to one of the poorest cartiers in the commune of Cocody. It was good to visit this area and see how different life is in this part of Cocody. Here they live in houses made of mix of cincerblocks, some form of cement, pieces of wood, and aluminum scraps. After walking around for about twenty minutes we spoke with three gentlemen who were working on a nearby hill. They were in the process of building small single-room houses using concrete blocks. The three of them had worked all day and confessed to us that they were tired. Still, our conversation with them was very detailed. They patiently sat and let us ask them questions for over an hour. It was great to get their perspective on Cocody because they are some of the poorest in the commune. They are in much more need than everyone else we have previously talked with. The impression that I got was that they were pretty desperate. We did give them a little bit of money too, but most importantly we got to share at least some of the gospel with them before we had to leave. We told them that we would try to return next week to see them, so Lord willing, there will be a follow up recorded in next week’s journal. One gentleman in particular, Bertrand, professed to be Catholic and seemed very responsive when we spoke with him about Christ. (Skipping to the next journal…)
We followed up with Bertrand this week. As we spoke with him and shared the gospel to him, a friend of his, Sarah, was listening intently to our conversation. As a result we invited her to join our discussion too. Overall, things went great. After talking with them for about an hour and half, they said that they believed our message and wanted to follow Christ. Praise the Lord! I really think He is working in them. (We posted a 2 part video about this visit with Bertrand and Sarah titled “When we are weak, he is strong”) Before leaving we made plans to visit with them again, which we did this morning (i.e. the morning of the day I wrote this in my journal). When we arrived Bertrand was not there, but Sarah was. After talking with her today, it was clear that she did not fully understand our gospel because she was repeatedly emphasizing the importance of good works in relation to pleasing God. Upon further discussion we realized that she still thought that man, on his own, could do good things to please God. And this happened while she was reading Romans 3! It was very clear to us that we needed to again communicate the gospel to her and that only God could open her eyes. Though the message was vivid to us, Romans 3 still did not click with her. We knew we needed to continue to share God’s truth and let Christ be formed in her. This caused us to pray more while we continued to share the good news with her. All things considered, it still looks like God is drawing both Bertrand and Sarah to Himself. I am eager to talk with them again. Until then, they will be on my mind and heart as we continue to ask God to regenerate them. Additionally, I really struggled today to find the words to communicate the gospel. It was honestly very humbling. The whole experience reminded me how meager I am and how much I need to abide in Him. Apart from God I can do nothing. This morning before we left the house, I was prepared to explain some passages to Sarah and Bertrand. But when I began to communicate with Sarah, I really struggled to think clearly. I am wondering how much of this confusion, if any, can be attributed to demonic or spiritual warfare. I really do believe that God is calling them to Himself. In my opinion, all signs seem to point in this direction, especially their genuine hunger. Consequently, I am all the more convinced that spiritual warfare is involved in some way.
(Skipping to another journal…)
Though I have been physically sick this week, my greatest excitement this week was in following up with Bertrand and Sarah again! It was such a blessing….I really believe the Lord is calling them. They are continually interested and very honest with us. And this is important because in West Africa, it is more important to polite to your guest than it is to be honest. On top of this they continue to ask questions that demonstrate they are thinking through the gospel message. Furthermore, they have been reading the Scriptures! I definitely praise the Lord for our conversations with them. They are such a blessing! This last time as we talked about the gospel, we focused on faith, works, and the demands of the gospel. We defined faith for them and its relationship with works. We are still concerned, because of their Catholic background, that they are focused on works. So we tried to make sure that they grasped that our works only flow from and follow after salvation. When we spoke about the demands of the gospel I was especially blessed by Bertrand. Right before I was about to ask Bertrand to read the passage in Luke where Christ says that to be His disciple you must pick up your cross, Bertrand stated that he wants to commit himself to following Christ! I was so stunned by how appropriate that was. Then after having Sarah and he read that passage in Luke, he seemed to glow with more excitement, and he agreed with the commitment involved in salvation. It brought such joy to my heart and face. I really believe the Lord is saving them! Next time we are hoping that they will be able to articulate the gospel to us. O Lord, keep them. (Skipping to my most recent journal entry…)
Yesterday, Dave and I were able to meet up with our friend Dany to share the gospel with him. I was surprised that we were even able to meet up with him yesterday because we did not contact him until the early afternoon. But he was available to meet. And thank the Lord, when we did talk with him, we were able to do so with very few interruptions, which can often be a problem here. At first, our conversation was not going well with him, for he is strongly rooted in his Catholic upbringing as well as in his culture. Because he was grounded in the former, he was very self-confident. He saw himself as a good person and not a sinner. And he was very slow to take Biblical reproof from us on these matters because he repeatedly stated that he knew all that we were telling him already. And because of his culture’s emphasis on solidarity, he was very slow to say that anyone else could be wrong. But after about an hour an half of loving but serious discussion, I think he understood that he was not in good standing with God. As Dave and I continue to pray for him and plan on meeting up with him next week, I am excited about the work God seems to be doing in him. Toward the end of our discussion, I think he could tell that we were very serious; and it seemed as if he was starting to come under conviction for his sin. O Lord, Holy Spirit, convict him of sin, righteousness and judgment. We will continue to pray that the Lord saves him.
We have been so amazed by God’s gracious hand upon us here. Please pray for Dany, Bertrand, and Sarah. I have high hopes, but we need to be very attentive or the Devil and this world well easily lead them away. Pray that they persevere. Pray that we have opportunity to follow up with them. We are overjoyed to be sharing with them, and yet weighed down by the burden of their souls. Thanks for your prayers. We miss you all.

When we are weak, he is strong: Part 2

When we are weak, he is strong.

Rains down in Africa...

The Chronicles of Africa 4- The Drivin', the Witch, The Double Imputation

9/5/09
Well this week held my attention. We had not stop fun. Yeahhhhhhhhhhh! Monday afternoon, Dave and I started the week by interviewing two young sisters, and by young I mean in their twenties. They are Evangelical Christians and attend the same church that Dave and I have been attending here in Abidjan. It was really a joy to speak with them. But just to give you all some fun yet serious insights into some of the cultural differences, here is part of the account of our conversation with them, almost verbatim. Keep in mind of course, they speak French and so all this was told to us by our interpreter and friend Olivie.

Dave: Do u believe in a spiritual world?
Sisters: Yes.
Dave: Can you tell me about the spiritual world?
Sisters: We know that God exists and is above everything.
Dave: Are there any other beings besides God?
Sisters: There are demons. There are some evil spirits. And we know as Christians that we should not fear these evil spirits because we know that God is more powerful than these evil spirits.
Dave: You mentioned witchcraft earlier in our conversation, do you believe in witchcraft?
Sisters: Yes. We heard about that but also witnessed a fact. Most recently, we had house girl here and she was a witch. We did not know this, but we discovered that she was a witch. And she admitted it. And we asked her to leave, and she did.
Dave: How does that relate to your Christian faith?
Sisters: That helped us grow stronger in our Christian faith because she was doing bad things to the family but she could not do anything to hurt the family here. And God revealed it to us. And that helped us grow stronger in our Christian faith….
John: You said that God revealed to you that she was a witch, what did you mean by that?
Sisters: She was doing abnormal things, and everybody knows that she was doing witchcraft. For example, when she served the dishes for the soup she would pee in the dishes. And when she was cooking in the kitchen she would poop in the kitchen.

Any thoughts? Just to be clear, Dave and I did not see that response coming. You see in the states, when someone poops and pees in the kitchen and in your dishware, we deem them insane. But here in West Africa, with these folks we interviewed, there was connection between witchcraft and this unusual behavior of their housemaid. Interesting, this is something for us to meditate on. This only reminds me how much I have to learn about my friends here in Abidjan.
Continuing with our week, we interviewed the mother of those two sisters and then Pastor Beni, a middle-aged man who is starting a church in Cococy (in case you forgot this is a subsection of the city of Abidjan). We actually interviewed him twice this week, and both conversations were very beneficial. We then concluded the week by going to share the gospel with a Catholic friend of ours, Mory. This was a follow up meeting. However, there was an insane amount of traffic because a portion of one of the main highways was blocked off. This road block on the highway was because there was a soccer game at the nearby stadium. Cote D’Ivoire was playing Burkina Faso in a qualifying match for the World Cup next year!! I am a big fan of the world cup, especially Portugal, in case you were inquiring. Anyway, back to topic. Because of the traffic, our 10-15 minute ride turned into over an hour. But honestly, Dave and I were glad to see the city life here in midst of so much busy-ness. Still it was our taxi ride that we were most excited to be a part of (I’m smiling right now). Our taxi driver was not stop fun! He was very persistent about finding a way around all the traffic, which we greatly appreciated. He probably cut off about a dozen other cars in order to immediately get into a lane he wanted to be in. Keep in mind that cutting people off is not necessarily rude here, as it is in the states. Cutting someone off here is usually quite acceptable. And all this driving was done within inches, and I do mean inches. Sometimes, it was less than an inch. Really his driving was very, very impressive. And this is coming from someone who learned how to drive in the streets of Fall River. This pattern of driving continued on in streets with 4 lanes of traffic, in what we would certainly consider a 2-lane street. And the cars were usually all going in their appropriate directions, each on their appropriate sides. This was usually the case, not always the case. But getting back to my original point, our driver was very adamant about not being stuck in traffic. So whenever he felt like he had no where to go, he would just look around and then find a way out. Sometimes this would involve him getting out of the car while we were stopped in traffic so that he could run ahead and examine the traffic patterns. Other times, about 7 times…it involved him driving on the sidewalks to pass traffic. This was very enjoyable for us. We got to our destination quicker than everyone else, and our ride was more entertaining then everyone else’s. Unfortunately, sometimes the sidewalk was not smoothly paved or, for that matter, paved at all. This resulted in a few grinds on the bottom of vehicle. Then there was that one time…one the driver got a little to close a concrete pole on the sidewalk and accidently rubbed the passenger side of his car. However, the car needed no immediate attention. Still, the most enjoyable moments of our ride might be when our driver was trying to decide whether or not he wanted to ride up onto the sidewalk. I think mainly because this is illegal here too. So, if you could just picture us, riding in the back seat, watching him look around. And then he sees the sidewalk on his right. Then he looks back to his left, scanning the traffic. Then he looks back to the sidewalk. Okay, you get the point. Still, one thing we did not expect was that we would run into traffic on the sidewalk! It was like we were playing “Follow-the-leader.” I know u remember that childhood favorite. Needless to say, this is a great memory. 
On a much more serious note, it was divine that Dave and I took this taxi ride, especially that we got their quicker than most people. Amazingly, God had a plan! Upon finishing our taxi ride, we visited our friend Mory and, in greater depth, shared the gospel with him. He too does not speak English, and so our communication was all through our blessed friend Olivie. After the four of us shared brief stories of our short lives, we started to explain the crucial difference between Catholicism and Christianity. This involved us trying to find many verses in Mory’s French Bible, because we foolishly forgot to bring an English one. Still, the Holy Spirit was ever at work in Dave and I, enabling us to recall the references of the necessary Scriptures. We pointed to passages in the French Bible, Olivie translated them for us, and Mory read them. This is what some might consider modern-day tongues. After speaking with him for about an hour, we address mostly salvific issues. We aimed to make it clear that salvation is only found in trusting that Christ suffered the Father’s wrath for our sins, and that His righteousness is given to us. Then, when God sees us, we are hidden in Christ. We look like Him. This is the only way one is justified before God. We responded to some of his thoughts by trying to make it clear that Mory must put no faith in his own works or, in any way, depend on help from the saints or from Mary. Praise the Lord our conversation went well. Pray for Mory. It seems that God is calling Him to Himself. Thus far he believes what we have shown him in the Scriptures concerning these things and is eager to attend church with us today. We are planning on continuing our gospel conversation with him at some point this week. Pray that he will be meditating on these things in the meantime, that we will paint a Biblical picture of the call to discipleship, and that God will save him. I am so encourage by this turn of events and reminded afresh that God is working His perfect plan. With a God like this, what worries do we have?! None, praise him!!!