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!!!