Bedrock Bowling!

Looks like Fred Flinstones

It's a long way to the ground!

Chopping the seeds from the pods

All that work for these!

Hello to everyone,

Just wanted to give you an update on our progress here in the city. We just had our first language evaluation and everything went fine, we have a better understanding on how they work and where we are at in the process. It is encouraging to know how far we have come but the evaluations also serve the purpose of showing us what we must do in the future to learn the language well. We appreciate all of you who helped us by praying for our evaluation time.

I have posted a few pictures to give you a visual on how things are somewhat different here in Abidjan. The bowling ball at the top has a small chunk missing but believe it or not, it still shot down the lane fairly smoothly. Several of us celebrated a friends birthday at a hotel on Thursday night, the hotel is closed but they still have their bowling alley open. There are about ten lanes but only about four of the lanes work (or I will say they are"workable.") The distorted bowling balls, uneven lanes, and the fact that you could order a horse burger made the night a blast for all of us (I passed on the horse burger).

I took the next three pictures in our front yard. The man climbed the tree with only a machete and a vine. I thought he had a rope around his waist but later realized it is a large vine tied in a knot that he used to scoot up the tree with. He would have surely died if the vine had broke. It cost about two dollars to have him cut down the two large pods and inside the pods are hundreds of "seeds." The seeds are processed and smashed in a wooden bowl using a wooden mallet until it is mush. The mush is made into a sauce and is served over rice. We had fish (the whole fish, head and all) in ours and I kind of liked it but Teresa and Autumn didn't seem too hungry that day!

We have a week of church planter training coming up soon and as Teresa posted in the last blog, we are hoping to go the the beach for a couple of days after that. We really miss all of you so much but I am so thankful that God provides all that we need here in Abidjan. We are not in short supply of anything here including friendships. God had been so faithful to Autumn as well and has heard all of your prayers specifically for her.

Earlier today, I was reminded of our hope in Christ as I listened to the song "Days of Elijah." We used to sing this song all the time at Emmanual Baptist and what an encouragement to know that this world is not our permenant home. Jesus is coming back and what grateful hearts that should give all of us. Thanks for being our co-laborers as well as our friends.

Blessings,

Jon