We also got to visit many of our friends during our visit to Abidjan. Our teammates were wonderful as usual. They allowed Autumn to hang around and invade their home....and they were gracious to have us over for dinner many times so we wouldn't have to cook. We will miss them alot. Please pray for a family to join the McAfees to reach Abidjan.
We visited many of our Ivorian friends, with these visits came many sad stories. I will share of few of the stories with you:
-Our guard was stopped one day by some youth. He had just cashed his paycheck and he gave them all the money he had so they would spare his life. This was very difficult for many, since food had become very expensive and you had the chance of being robbed when you left the house.
-There were some people groups that were in more danger than others. Certain people went into neighborhoods looking for these people from certain ethnic groups and they would kill them if they found them. In these people groups, the women usually left the house to go looking for food since it was more dangerous for the men. They would do unspeakable things to the women, but they usually wouldn't kill them like they did the men. We had one friend from one of these ethnic groups that almost lost his life. He was stopped and they made him strip and was going to shoot him. While he was standing there the officers got into an argument and he escaped. Thankfully, this saved his life.
-As the McAfees guard set inside the gate one night, a bullet went by his head and landed in a post in the house. There was bullets found in all our yards. After the crisis they had to reroof our house because our guard said bullets went through the roof and started leaks. There was a lady in our neighborhood who was in her apartment and a bullet came through the wall and killed her.
-One of our friends and language helpers went out with his cousins one day during the worst of the crisis to search for food. They got stopped and was told to say their last prayers because they were going to die. They made one man get on his knees and shot beside his head, missing on purpose to scare them. Then they told them to each pick up a tire and carry it up the hill. Our friend told his cousins, "They are going to burn us!" This was a common occurance called "ringing". This was when they would put a tire around a person's neck, fill it with gasoline and light it. They burned many people alive this way. We are thankful that they spared our friend, Olivier, and his cousins.
This is a small part of the many tragic things that happened in the Ivory Coast. Please continue to pray for these people. On our visit we saw that they are starting to get Abidjan back to "normal" but the people still have many nightmares of all that happened. We saw one of our friends Saturday before our departure. He just didn't seem like himself. Jon and I both decided that he was mentally tired and depressed. Jon spoke to him and he said this is true. He sent his wife and children out of the country when the troubles started and they are still gone. He doesn't have any work and there is not telling how many horrible things he witnessed. Many people spoke of all the bodies that was laying around on the roads around the city. Pray for the emotional healing of the people of Ivory Coast.
Our only prayer request this month is for our friends in Ivory Coast. They are very special to us.
Blessings,
Teresa
