One week left!

Time is almost up at the International Learning Center. We have one week left and will be leaving next Thursday. It is hard to believe that we will soon be on African soil and starting from scratch learning a new language and new culture. Last week, we asked you to pray for our Washington DC trip and that God would send us witnessing opportunities. We had a great time and the Lord give us many situations that we were able to share the gospel or leave a tract. Teresa witnessed to a Buddist from Vietnam who was open to conversation and also a woman from Guinea (West Africa) who started reading the tract before we left her on the subway. I was able to speak to several people from Ghana, China, and Ecuador as well as one man (Larry) from America. Several others, we only had time to put a tract in their hand before they dashed off in the busyness of city life. Several of these encounters were no doubt provided by the Lord so thank you for bringing us together with them through your prayers.

We had lunch at a small West African restaurant that was owned by a couple from Ghana. The food was authentic and represented what we will likely be eating where we are going. The food was good but there was one item called Fufu that was a large ball of fermented cornmeal. You dip a piece of the fufu in a peanut sauce before eating. However, the peanut sauce did not cover up the taste of fermented cornmeal. I have posted a picture of Autumn at the restaurant and our visit to the White House later in the day.

Hope you have a great day.

Blessings,

Jon

Going to Washington DC

Hello everyone,

We have just completed our busiest week since arriving at ILC. We had security training which was intense but very good. There are very practical things to learn but what a blessing to know that we are ultimately in God's hands. It is easy to recognize Jesus during times of refreshing in our lives but do we see Him in the storms? He is the same but our perspective may change unless we are looking in faith. My hearts desire is to trust Him in all circumstances because He is so trustworthy.

Our training continues this week with a trip to Washington DC in small teams to seek out a West African dining experience, ride the metro, and spend the day sharing our faith with multiple ethnic groups that we encounter in the DC area. We will also finish up our round of several immunizations, mainly yellow fever which is a problem in West Africa. We also recieved our malaria medication that we will have to take once a week because of the malaria infested mosiquitos in our region. They want us to start the medication before we leave ILC because some people have bad side effects like outrageous nightmares that border the psychotic. (Teresa may sleep with one eye open!)

Southern Baptists should be proud of what is going on at this training center and what God is doing throughout the world. He has blessed our churches cooperation in giving and the Lottie Moon offering every year. I would encourage you to go to www.imb.org and see all that is happening around the world concerning mission work.

Our prayer request this week would be for the Lord to give us opportunities this Thursday when we are in Washington DC to share the gospel boldly and clearly to people from other nations who we meet during the day. Please pray for the Lord to send us to those who are hungry for spiritual truth and are truly ready for good news! In return, we will pray the same prayer for you this week. This prayer is God's will so be ready! Thank you so much for your support.

Blessings,

Jon

Has it already been 4 weeks????

We have been in Virginia for over 4 weeks now, that means we are over half-way done! It has been good, but the excitement is rising over the reality that we will be arriving in another country in a few weeks. We have the excitement of the different country, culture, etc.; but there is also that fear of the unknown (mine-what will I have to eat?? ;-).


The Lord has really shown us alot the last few weeks, He is teaching us how to abide in Him in all things. We realize that we will be arriving into a dark area spiritually and we will need to be walking close to Christ. This last week they taught us how to teach the Bible through storying. This will be one of the main ways that we will minister in West Africa. I am excited to be able to tell the women stories on how important they are in the eyes of Christ.



Autumn and I decided to prepare for West Africa yesterday and wore bandannas. I think I'm going to like this, bye bye curling iron! Jon wanted to see what he looks like in one (quite amusing!).



This next week is Security Training! This could be a very interesting week.......we will be seeing Scott. Have a great week! We hope to see some of you in a few!!!!


In Christ,
Teresa

Cooking from Scratch

We have recently completed our cooking from scratch and no electricity weekend. It was a little hot one night but we decided to have fun with our assignment. The first morning, I instinctively turned on the light when I woke up so Autumn taped down all of our switches. We also had to take a shower with no hot water and that was probably my most tempting moment to cheat (but I didn't!) We had two "community meals" with our quad mates that we all helped prepare and the other meals we fixed together as a family. We were allowed to use our stoves because they did not want us to build a fire in our quad aparment so we made homemade biscuits with gravy for breakfast and pimento cheese spread for dinner. The purpose of the weekend was to give us a small glimpse into the time, energy, and inconvience of living in West Africa.

In our classes, we have been learning about the persecuted church around the world. Christians are suffering in many places simply because they bear the name of Christ. This is not new in our history and I have been personally encouraged to hear how God pours out His grace and presence on those who are going through trials and suffering because of the gospel. God remains faithful and that gives us great assurance.

Our prayer request for this week would be that the Lord would give our regional leadership in West Africa specific answers and wisdom concerning the many unknowns of what we will be doing in our city. We know that we are going to be part of a new team that will consist of our family and one other family already in Africa. Our task will be to look at a city of six million people and discern what God is doing among them and how to effectively reach as many as possible through church planting with the gospel. Overwhelming to us but not impossible with God. Thank you for praying for the city of Abidjan.

Blessings,

Jon