Chronicles of Africa-3: Prince Malaria

Having finished our training, Dave and I were ready to fly to Abidjan. (And, praise the Lord, God had also provided, in less than the week, the visas that Dave and I needed to get into Abidjan. It is so amazing that He takes notice of His children!) We checked in at the airport in Niamey…and had to wait in the foyer area of the tiny airport. Fortunately, we sat down next to a gentleman we had spoken to earlier while we were in line. Dave began talking with him, as he was from an English speaking country in East Africa. We talked for a while, hoping to find an opportunity to share Christ with him. But as we began to discuss religious issues, we only got sidetracked. Then another gentleman jumped into what was now a group discussion: Dave, myself, these two men, and some other listeners. The first gentleman had a moralistic religious mindset. The second gentlemen, the one newest to our conversation, told us that he was a priest. He was posing some questions about Scripture and appeared to have a more liberal mindset. When our conversation had finished two things were apparent to me. First, these two gentlemen, one moralistic and one a liberal Catholic, seemed to agree in a relativistic way. Secondly, and more importantly, when the conversation was over I realized that I had never presented the glorious gospel of Christ. I realized that in our half-an-hour conversation, I had managed to continually get sidetracked with topic after topic. I never got to the gospel! How foolish of me. Repentance was at hand. Hopefully, a lesson learned. All the more, if you have a moment pray that these two men would come to trust in the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ.
After a short flight from Niamey to Abidjan, Dave and I were finally glad to get settled into our more permanent location. We had been anticipating Abidjan for at least 6 months. Finally, we arrived! We were welcomed by our blessed friends and missionaries, Mike McAfee and John Moody. Mike brought along his adorable daughter Karis, who is seven. Mike also has a son named Caleb and a wonderful wife (and cook) named Heather, who is also about 7 months pregnant! They have lived in Abidjan for 2 years now and work with the Moody’s, who have been here for almost a year. John Moody is married to Theresa, and they have a 14 year-old daughter, Autumn. Both families have been such a blessing to Dave and I. A third family here, Trevor and Kimberly Youakim, and there four children, have also been a tremendous blessing to us. Since we have arrived, these families shown us around town, taken us to some local groceries stories, taught us many of the cultural do’s and don’t’s, and provided us with many meals. It is truly a joy to know and fellowship with them. Dave and I are sooped to be working with them.
To catch everything up to date, so far Dave and I have spent much of our time learning French, as you might of seen in our video . Besides that we have been busy with seminary homework, and, thank the Lord, we have already been able to get out into Cocody, a commune in the city of Abidjan, in order to start our ethnography. We have interviewed about a half-dozen people already! As many of you already know, I had malaria after only being in West Africa for 10 or 11 days! Big surprise! Like everyone didn’t see this coming. The missionaries have informed that I have the record for catching malaria the quickest! Unbelievable. Thank the Lord though; it was only a mild case. My main symptoms were fatigue and random lightheadedness. Thankfully, I have fully recovered, and back in full swing to continue our missionary gospel adventures. I also wanted tell this story, which just happened tonight, Sunday 8/30/09. This evening, just before dinner time, a young man who interviewed with us for our ethnography, Junior, told Dave and I that he has malaria. So, we were able to help him out by bringing him some medication. From our short conversation with this new friend of ours, he is a Catholic, which is pretty popular here in Abidjan. And us being able to serve him in this way is great because it has widened the already open door of our friendship. So please pray for Junior’s physical health and especially for his spiritual health. That we will have the boldness and opportunity to share the gospel in great depth with him, and that he will see that salvation is not by works but by faith alone in Christ. 