Abidjan, finally!!

Our first Christmas tree in Africa!

Snowflake

Day at the beach

It feels great to finally be in the city that God has called us to! We really like Abidjan. It is much different than Bamako. When we got off the plane we saw grass, it was great! It is much hotter here because of the humidity, but they say we will get use to it someday! ;-)

As many of you know, Jon got sick the second day we was here and spent most of the day in the emergency room. He had malaria symptoms but the test came back negative. The doctor said it sometimes takes 24 hours for the results to show so he went ahead and treated him for malaria. After losing two days (he can't remember much about that weekend), he was doing much better and we had a good Christmas with the other missionaries.

It was a very different Christmas this year. We were homesick to see family, but God was faithful to send us a great group of people to spend the day with and Autumn even got a rabbit for Christmas! On Christmas eve our guard found one roaming down the street so he put it in the yard to see if anyone came looking for it. Well, no one has and now Autumn has her first pet in Africa! She named it Snowflake (wishful thinking!), and the silly thing is already spoiled!

The day after Christmas we headed to the beach for the day! I bet most of you didn't get to do that! ;-) Abidjan is a coastal city on the Atlantic Ocean.

Abidjan is huge and the driving is just as crazy here as it was in Bamako. Jon says it is better because you don't have all the motos, but there are many more vehicles here! And there is no lines on the road...people just drive where they feel like it. I just don't know if I will ever get use to this! We have been learning our way around (with the help of our teammates) and can finally get to some places alone. We will start back with a french tutor next week, this week we are shopping around for all the things we need to get settled in. I was amazed the first time we went shopping! Abidjan has malls and they have about anything you would like!

When we get our home set up we will post some pictures. Leave us a comment to let us know what is going on with you.

Happy New Year,

Teresa

Moving to Abidjan

This seat gets really hard after about three hours!

Lipton, citron, and beaucoup sugar (delicious!)

Making tea, a true art in West Africa

Our village sunrise

Hello everyone,

We will be moving to Abidjan in the morning (Thursday) which will be about a 90 minute flight. We hope to get settled in before Christmas and start making this city our new home. However, I want to update what has been happening here in Mali.

The weather has been nice with much cooler temperatures. This past weekend, our family went to a village with our leadership to spend time with the village pastor and a couple of missionaries who are living in the village. It was good to spend a couple of days and experience village life and fellowship. We stopped and picked up two live chickens on the way and the pastor's wife did an excellent job preparing meals of chicken and rice. The pastor and his family are a very small minority of believers in the village. There were less that ten people at church service Sunday morning from a community of around five thousand people. It was a blessing to see this pastor's faithfulness in a less than accepting environment of the gospel. (See Autumn's blog for pictures and more info on our village trip)

Teresa had her first experience of a moto hitting the vehicle she was riding in. Teresa wasn't driving but she had gone to a village with two other women and was returning home when a moto smacked into the side of the vehicle. The driver of the moto was not hurt so he kept going and did not stop. If you could experience the driving here in West Africa, you would wonder how we are not in an accident every day. Thank you for your prayers of safety.

I am posting a picture of my friend Joseph making tea. Joseph is a believer and has been so helpful and graceful in my cultural transition. It's hard to explain but he has suffered a certain amount of cultural rejection because of his association with me. Joseph makes sure that I understand the motives and hearts of people, both good and bad. There is so much potential for Joseph to be such a powerful witness to his own people. Please pray that God will continue to work in his life and Joseph will become a faithful laborer in the field where God has placed him.

Other prayer request:

1.) For our travel and transition to Abidjan

2.) For God to send more laborers to West Africa.

Lastly, we want to thank everyone (especially our parents and Emmanuel Baptist) for the care packages that were sent. We feel so blessed to be supported by all of you. Our ministry is truly a ministry of the entire body of Christ.

Blessings,

Jon, Teresa, & Autumn

First village experience

Sorry we are late blogging this week, our internet has been very sporadic. Our time in Mali is coming to an end soon, we will arrive in Abidjan next week. We are excited to arrive in the city that God has called us and get settled in our home. We will miss the friends that we have made in Mali and continue to pray that they will seek the truth.

I had my first village experience this past Saturday. Along with two other ladies, I went to a nearby village to do a storying group. It was harvesting day for the village so we were not able to tell a story, but we spent three hours building relationships. Of course, I couldn't understand a word they said because they do not speak french in the villages. The local language of Bamara is spoken in most villages. It was neat to sit under a tree and talk about what is going on in their life. I got my first village tea experience (yes, we all drank out of the same glass!). As you see, I got lots of pictures of the children. They were so excited to get their picture taken. I also posted a picture of the machine that was in their village that day to harvest their rice. We will go as a family to stay overnight in a village this Saturday. We are excited about the experience!

Continue to pray for our language learning and our move next week. We will try to post some pictures of our new home and neighborhood next week.

Enjoy the cool weather ;-)

Teresa

Weekend at Segou

Not for sure how long this has been here

A picture of one of the mud huts we saw in a village along the way

yes, that is a goat on top of that truck....crazy!

fishermen on the Niger River

Autumn enjoying the pool.........

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We got to enjoy the traditional Thanksgiving dinner with ham, turkey, dressing and pumkin pie on Wednesday. I would have never thought we would eat this well in West Africa! Of course on Thursday things were as normal, we washed clothes and then ate tacos. For some reason the people here don't celebrate Thanksgiving! ;-) I have to admit it was a little hard talking to family on Thursday when they were all together enjoying the time eating and watching the football game, but God was faithful to give us His peace. We have to remember during these times that God has a work in store for us here and we are to be faithful to that call.

On Friday morning, us and two other couples packed up and drove 3 1/2 hours to Segou. This was a great accomplishment for us since we aren't fluent in French yet. We made it thru all the roadside police stops without any problems. The only problem is there wasn't any rest stops or gas stations with bathrooms on the way!! This made for an interesting trip. The things we will do in Africa that we wouldn't never thought about doing in America! ;-)

We stayed at a hotel that had a pool and a restaurant with American food. The rooms was very nice, not as nice as Ramada but nice for Africa. They even had wireless internet, I was impressed! They also had satellite tv, of course there was only 6 channels and 5 of them was in french! We ended up watching a lot of CNN. The pool was a nice getaway for Autumn. We got to eat all the cheeseburgers, fries and pizza that we wanted. I was actually getting tired of french fries by the time we left! We went shopping at the market by the Niger River. It was nice and we bought us a wall hanging for our bedroom. I am really excited to start decorating our house when we arrive in Abidjan! (Which is just a little over 2 weeks away!) We got to practice a lot of our french this weekend while we were out. It was really encouraging to see where we have come in 6 weeks! I have attached some pictures from our weekend.

Enjoy the cool weather for us because it is still hot here! I am wishing for a white Christmas, but some reason I don't think I will get it! ;-)

Prayer Requests:

1. Continue to pray for our french learning. I know you hear this every blog but this is the most important thing right now. Without being able to communicate in french, we can not share the story of what Christ has done for them.

2. Pray that we will stay healthly.

3. Pray for the people that God has placed in our life here in Bamako. We only have a short time left here, so pray that we will be able to communicate clearly the hope we have in Jesus.

Miss you all,

Teresa

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, just want to let everyone know I will not be going out to the village as planned on Monday but hopefully will get another chance later. However, our family will be on the road for a few days traveling and would appreciate your continued prayers for safety. I will try and post a few pictures from our trip when we get back. Have a good day.

Blessings,

Jon

Thanksgiving in Africa

Hello everyone,

I hope all of you are fine in America as we are doing well in Mali. I (Jon) have had a sinus infection due to the winds and dust of the Saraha desert, I am told this is not uncommon for many people this time of year. In Mali, you do not need a prescription for medication so I just walked a couple of blocks to the pharmacy and bought what I needed. However, you do have to consult with the right people and make sure you are getting the right kind of antibiotic. Teresa and Autumn have not had any major sicknesses and are fine.

French is going as well as can be expected. I have been told that a person will only learn as much of another language as they need and I believe that. There must be some sort of motivation other than just wanting to know another language because of the difficulty in learning. In our case, the motivation is being able to share eternal truth with others in a language that they will understand. Some day, the fruit of our learning and your prayers will be evident.

Thanksgiving will soon be here and we will be celebrating with other missionaries here in the city. It sounds like we will be having somewhat of a traditional dinner as everyone is bringing something to the table, we are taking a couple of homemade coconut pies and cranberry sauce that we brought in our suitcases from America! As to the weather, it does not feel like Thanksgiving here because of the heat but we have so much to be thankful for. A few years ago we started a family tradition on Thanksgiving where we have a time of prayer, the prayer only includes thanks to God for His blessings. It can be a challenge to pray without asking for something but I would encourage you to try it with your own family this year. It is amazing how the Lord inhabits our praise of thanksgiving and reminds us of his blessings.

The day after Thanksgiving, we will be traveling about three hours to another town with two other missionary families for two days of relaxing and hopefully a pool for the kids. It will be really good for Autumn because her time is so limited with other kids her age because we do not see each other except for once or twice each week. It will be quite the adventure because we are all amatuers in the language and you can forget about mapquest helping you over here! We will be back to the city on Sunday afternoon and then I will be taking my first trip to the village on Monday morning with a missionary who has several years experience. I am looking foward to the experience of sleeping under the stars and my first introduction to eating typical village food. If the Lord brings it to your remembrance to pray on Monday afternoon, I will probably be sitting around a campfire with several West Africans from about 3:00pm to 6:00pm your time as the other missionary shares the truth of the gospel in their heart language.

Lastly, I just want to tell you that I had my friend over for dinner last night (supper is not a word here) and afterwards we watched ICE AGE (in French). It was quite entertaining to see him laughing so hard over an animated movie. I am not a big movie person but ICE AGE ranks in my top ten favorites.

Well, that sums up what we have been doing here in Africa. Please keep praying that God will open up a door for witness, I was able to share a few nights ago for a couple of hours with a man who believes Jesus was a good man and prophet but nothing more. I was able to communicate because the man spoke and understood quite a bit of English. It is not uncommon to catch myself speaking back and forth between both languages, they call in Frenglish!

Hope you have a blessed day in Christ,

Jon

Bonjour from Mali!

We are doing the usual here: french, french, french! We can now have a small (very small) conversation with the people we meet. Our professor said we are learning at the normal pace. I want to be able to speak more, but I have to realize that we have only been here for a month. Pray that we would retain what we have learned and can pick up more quickly.

We had our first African guest over for dinner last week. Our neighbor came over and ate peanut sauce and rice with us. This is a very common dish here, and Jon and Autumn think it is the best. They compare it to a Sonic burger. (it doesn't compare!) We are blessed to have this family that has taken us in and is teaching us the culture and language. On Saturday nights, Jon goes out and drinks tea with the men and their dog, Bob (such an american name for a dog;-) from 10 pm to around 1 am. I don't know what he can talk about for 3 hours since he isn't fluent in french, but you know Jon, he can talk! Of course, it does help that the neighbor knows some english.

Autumn is homeschooling and learning french along with us. I am glad that they have her attend all the french classes because she will be a vital part of the ministry. We haven't married her off yet! The other missionaries ask us if we have received any marriage proposals for her, and we say no, well not that we understood anyway! Autumn says, "If anyone is talking about me, always say no," to be safe.

Jon has been taking me out and teaching me to drive a stick shift. This is not something that I am excited about, but our leaders want the women to be able to know how to drive in case of an emergency. I am driving around the soccer stadium parking lot and am not in any hurry to get out on that crazy road! We really need to get a video of the driving to post on here!

We went shopping today for some skirts and the man at the shop made Jon try on an African outfit (he actually put the shirt over his head). In the end, Jon bought the outfit. I have posted a picture of Jon wearing it. It looks like pjs to me. I am proud of myself though, I was able to buy myself a dress and bargain the price. The man gave me a price, and I offered him half. He said no and I said ok, I don't need it. He waited a little while and decided that I meant it and came back and said I could have it for my price. That is how you shop here, they see a white person and put the price way up there, you have to be willing to walk away if they won't take your price. I have also posted a picture of me and Autumn dressed for church on Sunday.

Oh, we got to eat at our first fast food (not too fast though) restaurant this past week. We ate at the Broadway Cafe and had cheeseburgers, philly steak, fries and a CHOCOLATE milkshake. Yum! I think we will be going back soon!

Thanks for all your comments and prayers. Keep them coming!

In Christ,

Teresa

Drinking tea in West Africa

Hello everyone, all is well in West Africa. I just finished boiling some peanuts in salt water and may end up roasting them to give them more flavor. I had roasted peanuts and tea last night with a few of the men in our neighborhood which lasted until about 1:00am. The typical scene of friends and fellowship in West Africa are often formed in outside courtyards or under a shade tree around a small pot of tea. You may wonder what people talk about until 1:00am in the morning and I wish I could tell you but I didn't understand most of what was being said. However, I do know West Africans are like everyone else in that they have lives of joy, hardships, pain, and love. It is around a pot of tea that many of these issues are discussed, I do not know the language very well yet but I was able to communicate and recieve friendship in a language that is common to us all.

I have made friends with one man in particular who is from the Bobo people here in Mali. He has been very patient with me in my learning of French and he is eager to teach me the culture also. I included a picture of us from our study the other night. I have also included a picture of Mali and where we are located in the city of Bamako. Mali is landlocked and we are just entering what they call the Harmatten season. The Harmatten happens when the winds sweep over the Sahara desert and brings in waves of dust over the country of Mali. It leaves dust on everything and at times limits visibility to just a couple of blocks when it gets really bad. On the bright side, it blocks the suns rays and could get "cold." When this happens, everyone starts building fires so the smoke mixes with the dust and gives us a different atmosphere than what we are used too.

Being here is so different from America but I have such a peace and contentment knowing we are serving the Lord. I cannot wait to communicate the gospel where they can understand! Life is good wherever we are so long as God is leading us. I have sensed his watchful eye and protecting hand every day, that is why He is the great Shepherd.

Our main prayer concern is still that we will learn the French language and be saturated with God's presence and grace as we go. Thank you so much for your praying on our behalf.

Blessings,

Jon

We have survived two weeks in Africa!

Yes, that really is a lizard Autumn is holding! It was huge (according to my calculations!) and alive! Crazy girl!

Wow, it has already been two weeks! Sometimes it seems just like yesterday that we arrived, and other times it seems like we have been here for months! :-) We are doing well, we have our episodes of culture shock but are making it. There is such a very different worldview here! Every time we leave our courtyard we are a the highlight. The children run up yelling "Toubaboo", which means white person. We do definitely stick out!

If we haven't already said it enough, the driving is CRAZY here! I hold my breathe whenever we have to go anywhere. To top things off, I have to start learning to drive a stick shift this week! Please pray for that!

We have realized how much we have to rely on God here..........in the states if someone gets sick, you call 911 or get help from a neighbor; here, we can't speak the language well and they definitely don't have a 911 service. Our trust is in the Lord, He brought us here and He will take care of us.

Language learning has been good. We have tutors come in 4 days a week to teach us. Mondays are our busiest day with 4 hours of French. By the time the day is over our brains are mush! We think that we are doing really well saying certain phrases, so when we go out in the neighborhood we try them on our neighbors. We get a lot of laughter, I wonder if that Arkansas accent comes over in our french! :-)

Everyday living just takes longer here. To wash dishes (yes by hand, no dishwasher!), I have to boil water. When we go to the market and buy fruits and vegetables, I have to wash them well and then soak them in bleach water for 20 minutes. We only wash clothes once a week at the office, so we do have to do some by hand. (I can't wait to arrive in Abidjan so I can buy a washer and dryer!)

But overall, I have to admit the experience has been much better that I had anticipated. Our apprentice leaders are wonderful and have been a great help! We had to laugh the other night when we was looking in our medicine cabinet.............we brought enough medicine to last our entire term (and we have more in our air freight to Abidjan!). I guess we are prepared if any missionary in our city gets sick! ;-)

We did find out that we will be leaving Mali two months earlier. We will be going to Abidjan a week before Christmas. We are excited to meet our team mates, they have been a great help!

We will be going out to stay in the village this month, so keep this in your prayers. Also, pray that we will stay healthly physically, emotionally and most importantly spiritually.

Send us a comment or email. We do love to hear what is going on it your life.

In Christ,

Teresa

African Church

This morning we attended our first African church service. Everyone started gathering around 9:00am and we left around noon. The singing lasted well over an hour and it was good to see this great amount of hope in Christ in a very difficult place to live. Many of the people we meet on a daily basis are not concerned about tomorrow because they are trying to figure out how to survive today. Life is lived day to day and who knows what tomorrow brings but for the few Christians here, they have confidence in Christ for their future. During church, men sit on one side of the building and women sit on the other side. The preacher was speaking in French but there was also a Bambara speaker who was translating. The Bambara have a large population over Mali and they are the majority where we are staying right now. Over the last few years, there have been several Bambara who have come to Christ and a grass roots movement is starting among their people.

We are starting to get settled in and expect to have a busy week learning and practicing French. Tomorrow, we will have two different language teachers come at different times to teach us for a total of four hours, then we will practice with each other and in the community. Autumn is learning with us so we have a good time in the evenings with our role playing and practicing as a family. You just learn to laugh at each other and yourself.

When we were coming to West Africa, we had limited space in our suitcases. Last night, we were discussing what item has been used the most since arriving in Africa. Our top three were a 220 surge protector and adapter strip, an ipod (for worship we understand), and a gigantic insulated mug from Wal-Mart with a lid. The least used items we brought were socks, there is no need for them here since everyone wears flip flops and sandles. I'm guessing we will have to pack some of these same socks some day when we visit the states.

Pictures are at a minimum right now because we have been told it will be wise to wait on taking a bunch of pictures since we are trying to establish ourselves with the locals as Christians and not as tourists. So for now I have included a couple of pictures of the neighborhood and the roads. Once you see these pictures, you will have a good idea what every neighborhood looks like. Everything looks exactly the same here.

Well, thank you for your visit and continued blessings of prayer and support.

Blessings,

Jon

First Week in Bamoko

Hello everyone,

We are about to finish our first week in Bamako, Mali and I know everyone is interested to know what life is like here. First, let me say we would have blogged sooner but we have not had internet access except when we first arrived. There is so much to tell so I will break it down into travel, food, ministry, and personal thoughts.


Travel - We left Memphis on Friday and flew into Atlanta, then to Paris and on to Bamako. The entire travel time took about 30 hours with layovers from the time we left Arkansas. We were traveling with other missionaries that we had trained with in Virginia and we were all met by the missionaries already here. This was a HUGE blessing! It was good to see another American holding a sign with our last name (we then knew we landed in the right country!) From the airport, we loaded up into private vehicles and started for our new home. I used to laugh about how bad the traffic was in Africa, my laughter has turned into prayer. There are taxis, moto-scooters, buses, pedestrians, animals, and me all trying to go somewhere in what seems to be mass disorganization. It will take time but I will get the hang of it.


Food - There is a good selection of food here in the city. However, the taste may be a little different from what we are used too. For example, milk is bought off the shelf without refrigeration and will last 20 to 30 days after opened but the taste is quite a bit different. We have found one "modern" store that sells meat if you catch them at the right time. There are also small market type stands everywhere to buy fruits and vegetables. These must be scrubbed and put in a bleach soak to kill any undesired organisms. I was frying potatoes last night when two small grasshoppers somehow make their way into the pan, Teresa was not ready for this type of recipe (yet!) so I had to dig them out. However, a pan of potatoes is so time consuming to prepare from the market stand to the table that we decided two little bugs couldn't hurt the whole batch. All in all, we will probably be eating healthier because of the abundance of fruits, vegetables, and all natural ingredients.


Ministry - We are just starting to learn the French language and this will consume a large portion of our week (about 40 hours). However, this 40 hours includes time spent out in the community practicing so we will be able to meet many people. It is of course difficult to communicate but we have met a few people who speak some English. I have met one in particular from Timbuktu (yes, this is a real place and is in Mali). He is a Muslim so I will have soon have the opportunity to share the gospel with him and a group of his friends.

Personal thoughts - It is hot here! Many people have asked if this is what I expected Africa to be like and it is exactly what I expected. What I didn't expect was the adaptation process. I thought that since I knew what to expect everything would be well. However, you can expect something and still not be totally prepared until you have the actual experience. For example, I knew that it would be hot here but my body has had some physical issues adjusting, I am told this will be better after a couple of weeks. Thats just one example but the principle is true for many circumstances. The people here are very friendly and give us a smile wherever we may greet them. These are the people that God has sent us to share good news with and we are blessed to finally be here. It seems like our physical bodies have caught up to where our hearts were planted some time ago. Teresa and Autumn are doing great. Thank you for your support and prayers. I will close with our prayer request and a reminder that Autumn has a bloglink at the very bottom of this blog. (She has posted pictures of our home there) If we have your e-mail, don't be surprised if you get this exact blog because we are going to try and do a bulk e-mail for those who don't check the blog.

PRAYER REQUEST
1. Pray that we will learn the French language and have the joy of the Lord as we learn.
2. Pray for "B" who will be listening to the gospel and translating to his Muslim Friends. A
specific prayer would be for a clear presentation and for light and truth to penetrate hearts.
Pray for a whole hearted decision to follow Christ
3. Pray for initial culture shock to be saturated with the presence and grace of God.

Blessings and Au Revoir (Good Bye!)

Jon

We made it!!!!

Hi everyone, we are on Africa soil! It was a very long flight, not sure I want to do that again anytime soon!! The Mali airport was interesting. After they stop (they don't pull up to the airport), you get on a bus and they drive you across the road (it is just across the road), and then you go in and face the chaotic crowd! It was disorganized to us, but normal to the people here. After getting our luggage (we received all of our luggage!), we made it out and met an amazing welcoming group.

They tried to warn us before arriving how crazy the driving is, well, you can't imagine until you see it! We will be driving tomorrow, so please pray for our travel around the city.

We absolutely love our new home! Autumn had to move to Africa to get her own bathroom. It is very spacious, and it has a tall wall around it. Yes, it is hot, but we do have a air conditioner in the bedroom to use at night. We have a very pretty garden in front of our house. We will post some pictures soon.

We unlocked our gate today and the children swarmed us. Oh, it was awsome. Pray for us as we start our language learning that we may be able to communicate to the people.

Teresa

Crazy week!

Wow, this week has been a whirlwind!! We have been shopping, packing (and more packing) and running around trying to get all the paperwork completed for the sell of our car. You would not believe all the little things that you have to finish before you leave the country for 3 years! :-)

Our commissioning service on Sunday at Emmanuel was great. We spoke (all of us, even Autumn) on Sunday morning about our call, and then Sunday night they had a potluck meal and a question and answer time. It was a great day, we are blessed to have so much support from Emmanuel!

We will be going to the airport early Friday morning and will arrive in Africa around 4:00 central time on Saturday afternoon. Yes, it is a 24 hour flight with layovers!

Please remember our travel in your prayers.........pray for a smooth flight! Praise.......our car will be sold tomorrow (Lord willing!).

We want to thank everyone for your prayers and support. We love all of you and hope to have you come visit us in West Africa soon! :-)

Teresa

It is coming fast!!

We have completed our training at the International Learning Center and have returned to Arkansas. It was a great eight weeks, they put alot of knowledge in our heads........now if we can remember it all when we arrive on the field.

We took the long way back to Arkansas through Kansas City. It was great to see all of our friends and Central family again! It was a blessing to see how God is working at Central, two people made a profession Sunday morning! There were so many new faces........God is not done with Central, He is going to touch that neighborhood through their labor!

Our home church, Emmanuel Baptist, will be hosting a commissioning service for us this Sunday. It is going to be a great opportunity to tell them how God has worked in our life and prepared us for the mission field. We are thankful for the support we receive from Emmanuel!

We have only 10 days left in the states! Wow, I feel so overwhelmed at times! But I know that God is faithful, He has brought us to this point and will continue to go with us. Keep us in your prayers as we pack and finish up the last minute items that need to be taken care of. Also, remember us as we say our goodbyes, there have been many lately but they have not got any easier. We pray that the name of Jesus will be glorified in all we do!

In Christ,
Teresa

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

Back on my feet!!

Praise the Lord, I'm walking again! I was afraid Jon was going to kill me in that wheelchair! :) Seriously, thank you for the prayers. My foot is doing better, I am still dealing with some swelling but hopefully by next week I can be out getting some exercise! They actually want you to exercise here, can you believe it??

We have been learning some amazing things the last couple of weeks, they have demonstrated how fast churches can multiply. It is amazing to see how many people can be reached if you go out and train believers and teach them to train others! I pray that we can remember all the info they are putting in our brains when we get to Africa!

We have small group worship every morning (Tuesday - Friday and Sunday). We begin with praise to the Lord and then take a scripture in Acts and discuss it. Everyone in our group is also going to West Africa, so it has been a time to get to know each other.

Autumn is having a great time here! We hardly ever see the girl..........she stays busy with her friends. They all made plans Saturday to hang out at the mall, so us and 3 other parents had to go sit around for a couple hours while they shopped. There is 17 youth in her class and they are all bonding well. They are all going through transition and understand each other. (and of course Julie is here, so that makes everything better:)

This weekend we have our no electricity/cooking from scratch weekend. This should be interesting! They said we could use our stovetops because they don't want us to build a fire in the quad!:) Jon and I have looked up some recipes, so we will tell you next week how they turned out.

Continue to pray for us, and if you have a prayer request that you would like for us to pray about, email us at jonmoody@yahoo.com.

In Christ,
Teresa

Bad Things Happen

Teresa is now sporting an ankle brace for the next five days. She twisted her foot while walking down a set of stairs on Monday after class. Her ankle is swollen but the x-rays show that nothing is broke. There is alot of walking here at ILC so I have been pushing her around in a wheelchair and she is getting on crutches around the apartment. I have been praying to be a better servant so I guess Teresa is an answer to my prayer - I never realized how much she does until she quit doing it! We are thankful that the foot was not broken and would appreciate your prayer that the sprain will heal properly.

My goal is to blog at least every Tuesday or Wednesday if the internet permits. The service here is sporadic but I would like to develop some consistency for those who lift us up in prayer during their mid-week service. Thanks and have a great day.

Blessings,

Jon