Je vais très bien aujourd-hui, et vous?

I shaved!

I'm visiting my parents villages this weekend, should be fun! Also, next sunday I'm going to play drums in church! This shouldn't be a problem, but their music is very rhythmic so pray for me! :P Things are going well, I'm just in a mode of learning and observation right now. Attending Tyembara/French classes 3 nights a week, involved with the music team at church, establishing relationships. Today I laid down the guitar for "Nous Les Enfants" with Mêlée at Radio Sinai and I will begin tracking drums on my laptop today as well. It's in French right now, and he wanted to re-record it in Dyula and Tyembara for the radio.

This week has been spent with a lot of quiet time reading the Word and “Shadow of the Almighty.” Not that I am hiding myself in my room, but it’s that barely anybody is home during the day, either gone to school (if the prof isn’t on strike) or to “travaille au magazine.” Several evenings during the week I go to church for Senefo/French language classes, where I am also getting little lessons on Balophone playing as well and am building some new relationships. At times I have found myself questions what I’m doing here, feeling that because I’m not very active during the day right now I must be wasting my time. However, God gave me some encouragement this morning by allowing me to understand something which He wants to accomplish in my during this season. God has been opening my eyes to a lot lately – seeing the world more as He sees it – and I am finding much growth and inspiration in my quiet times. I have taken back to creating and studying music, and to memorization of the scriptures. God has been re-awakening in me a hunger to know the Word better, to “rightly handle the Word of truth” (2 Tim 2:15). Not that I am ignorant of the Word, but that I ought to know it better still. I know that at the Throne of God, there will be some of “every tribe, tounge, and nation” present, and if I am to do my part in making that happen, I would do well to be prepared “in season and out of season” as Paul says later in Timothy 4. I see this as meaning that I ought to know the Word well enough to speak into people’s lives correctly regarding any issue – whether a correction, rebuke, or an encouragement.

After reading about the life of Jim Elliot, a couple of different themes from the way he lived his life stick out to me. In my quiet time I did some study and some thinking on these themes, and here is a bit about what I got from that time:

Right now I am thinking of Psalm 37:4, “Delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” I don’t think this means that He will give us whatever we want, rather that our desires will be in line with His Will, and He will be faithful to give us those things. I like Jim Elliot’s commentary on this verse:

“It does not say He will give you what you want. It does say He will give you the want. Delight in Christ brings desire for Christ. He gives the heart its desires – that is, He works in us the willing (Phil 2:13). That is why we can say in John 15:7 ‘Ye shall ask what ye will…if ye abide.’ The branch takes its sap from the vine, the same surges the vine feels then become the surges of the branch. My will becomes His, and I can ask what I will, if I delight myself in Him. Only then can my desire be attained, when it is His desire.”

So what are my desires? Do they take root in a life-pattern of active submission and prayer, or are they my own lofty ideas? What does my daily routine look like? Do I delight in God, or do I find myself delighting in the gifts more than in the giver? Good questions to ask oneself while examining the heart’s motives.

In Matthew 10:37-39 Jesus says, “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

Again in Luke 14:26-27: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters – yes, even his own life – he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”

Both passages get at the same idea, and here is the essence of them both: carry your cross and follow Jesus ONLY. If I am putting anything in my way as an obstacle between me and a sold-out life for Christ, then I am not worthy of Christ. But that just demonstrates the beauty of the Father’s marvelous grace! When Jesus said these words He knew that nobody could ever actually be worthy of Him on their own power, since afterall, “there are none righteous, not even one (Rom 3:10).” However through our faith in Christ, we are dressed with His own righteousness and declared worthy before the Father. So, we are worthy of what? Just think of what He calls us! We become worthy of being called His children, His bride, His friends, His sheep, His heirs, His ransom-purchase, His alone! We are declared worthy to be in His presence, to enjoy His fellowship face to face, and to adore Him!

What does taking up your cross look like? Well that’s a different story for everybody, but I know that it entails death, because the cross was an instrument of death! And not a quick death either – but rather a slow, bloody, agonizing death. Jesus is calling us, as Paul phrases it so many times, to ‘put to death’ the things in us that are not the workings of the Spirit of God in us. This can be anything: immediate desires, hopes and dreams, habits, ways of thinking and attitudes, how we treat each other, and so on. It takes prayer and hard work and submission to God, just as Christ did, to carry your own cross. If our natural reaction is to get rid of that which harms us, then it can only be a supernatural reaction to intentionally bear the cross of Christ – that is, the desire to do so has to be because the Holy Spirit is working inside of us. God assures us that this life of “living sacrifice” is a spiritual act of worship, and that He will make sure it is worth our effort in the end.

So what about hating your family? That surely doesn’t sound like the Jesus we all know, and indeed, it isn’t. In Exodus 20, the Word of the Lord was given to Moses, which says “honor thy father and mother.” This apparent conflict is actually no conflict at all, because what Jesus is proclaiming in Luke 14 is not that we ought to hate anybody. Remember that Jesus Himself says that hate for another is the same as murder in the eyes of the Father. Rather, it is in comparison to the vastness of the love for God that you ought to have for Christ that your love for family (and anything or anyone else) pales in comparison, even being regarded as “hate” in light of how you regard Christ. This means also that when you, loving Christ and obeying Him above all else, are tempted by others to follow a different way that You should by nature reject that which is not of the guidance of God. No matter how tempting the idea, no matter how trusted the person who spoke it, the desire and decision to obey the voice of God overrides all else.

So how do the “desires of my heart” and these other two passages relate to my life right now? I know I must put to death my own desires, regarding them as hated compared to how I regard the Will of God in my life. I believe that when I am walking in the center of God’s Will for my life, that my desires will naturally be in-line with those of the Father. Thus, my desires can become His desires, just as the surge the branch feels becomes the surge the vine feels. So then how do I “discern God’s Will” for my life? I think that Christians, especially in the States, spend an awful lot of time trying to figure this out. In the end, it is the person who delights in Christ that is going to be walking in His will. Spend less time doing things to figure out the Will, and spend more time being God’s, and being with God. Not that the doing isn’t important, because it is, but it is secondary to the being.

God is a lamp for our feet, illuminating what is in front of us, and a lamp doesn’t light very far. God doesn’t give us a flashlight with which is expose the darkness way out ahead of us. Except in the case of divine, prophetic revelation, I don’t think it possible to “discern” the Will of God in regard to the future, because the future is not what we need concern ourselves with. Rather, we only need to know what the Will is for right now. If we seek the Will of God, we must believe Jesus (John 7:17) and be “transformed by the renewing of our minds” (Rom. 12:2), only then we will “be able to test and prove what the Will of God is” (Rom. 12:3). That’s amazing, it says we can be certain of His will. If there is one thing I learned from the life of Jim Elliot, it is what it looks like when a person walks in the Will of God for their life. He lived Romans 12:2 out in his life with great success, and is a great role model for others seeking to do the same.

2 weeks down, 8 1/2 months to go!

(Here is a pic of some of my brothers)

Wow, it’s been two weeked already since my last update! Time has gone by so fast. Since you last heard from me my life here in Côte d’Ivoire has changed in some pretty radical ways! I am living with an Ivorian family now in the part of town called “Nouveau Quartier” at the base of “Mount Korhogo” (it’s just a big hill really). The family consists of 4 parents and 10 children (of whom I can say most of their French names, and but a few Senefor names) and with the multiple friends passing through each day it makes for a realy full house! My dad, Soro Zana, is a commerçant and a pretty wealthy one at that. That has afforded him to buy two houses in the quartier so he and his wife can live at one house with the 2 oldest children (late 20s), while the rest of the kids live at my house with Zana’s brother and wife. The kids range in age from 2 up to 28 and are a lot of fun. I spend my days doing a lot, though a lot less than the girls have to do that'’s for sure!

I bath in the morning and at night, eat 3 times a day like normal (though the food isn’t normal for me), and spend my day reading, studying, creating music, entertaining the kids as they have a dance party in my room, go on a bike ride to IBB to use the internet, etc. Three days a week I go to a French/Senefo class (so I can learn Senefo), which proves to be of little value for me at this point, since translating a language which I’m just starting to comprehend a bit into one I know basically nothing about is a tough envoirnment to learn in!

Church each Sunday proves to be a really good experience, especially the music! The music is SO awesome! I attend the first service which is in French, with on average 2 to 300 people. There is about the same amount for the second service in Senefo as well.

I’m having some fun experiences here, sometime this week I should be going to Radio Sinai to record a song in Dyula and Senefo with Melée. A couple days I got a lesson on how to drive a motorcycle, and I should probably be pretty proficient on that soon here. Keep in mind that the motos here have 1 cylinder, so they are not very powerful, the best ones have maybe 250cc engines.

I experienced my first sickness here last week, I had a little parasite in the intestines which gave me much trouble. I’m 95% better now though, so praise God for that! One thing that is insteresting, is that at church on Sunday, the Pastor though it’d be good to tell everyone about the symptoms I was having, so no 300 people know about it! Granted, I’m sure most of them knew already, since news spreads like wildfire here! I went to bed sick one night, and the next morning 7 people were in my room visiting, one of which I had never met! And I’ve had visitors every day since, from pastors to friends, all wishing me well just passing by to say hello and “bon guerison.”

Language has been good, at first is was almost all Senefo, but now the families have been talked to and they speak mainly French with us journeyers now. So since that talk, I’ve been getting a lot of practice, and that’s been good. It’ll come in time, it’s already beaucoup mieux! If I just stick it out and keep exposing myself to conversations and new experiences, I’ll be fluent in no time. It’s only been two week and I’m already worlds beyond where I was when I arrived in Korhogo!

Well I should get going, but I hope that helps you all get a bit clearer idea of how life is going! I miss you all, covet your prayer, and wish to know how I can pray for each of you! Leave a comment with prayer requests if you wish!

Pounding Ignames

My Mom and two of my bros
My House

My Room

Les petits enfants

My sis doing laundry

Capturing The Coolness of Korhogo

In Town

A lot has happened this last week in Korhogo! Walking into the market to visit churches and buy groceries and explore took up a good part of our first few days. Nema, our amazing cultural guide, has showed us all around town. There is a really cool looking (and HUGE) mosque that was built several centuries ago here, it makes for a cool skyline! There are lots of mosques here, with those big bell towers you would expect to see. My favorite part about our walks was discovering little vegetable markets in the different parts of town – it feels like finding a buried treasure each time. It is good to get out and meet people, and I love when they recognize me and wave and say “Ça va?!” as I walk by. Getting acquainted with people, that’s step one to building relationships right?

At IBB

I have had a great time getting to know the pastors and pastoral students here at IBB (Institute Biblique Béthel) and living with them. They are wonderful people, so hospitable and great to spend time with, a blessing from God for sure! I had a great bonding experience with them when we spent a night in La Meckah, a small village outside town about 10 miles. We shared the gospel door to door, and had a night of dancing and singing in the streets! There was a great harvest that night, God was bringing lots of people to newfound faith in Jesus! Amen! After I got back to IBB, I found that the other Journeyers had come up to be here for orientation. It’s been so great seeing them all again! We had a fun experience rappelling at a big rock hill outside town the other night.

I think my other favorite part of being here has been the power outages (C’est Gbagbo!) that we experience every night. We bust out the candles and it makes our fellowship a bit more special. Also I’ve been taking the opportunity to gaze at the amazing night sky full of stars. There basically isn’t a light on for a couple hundred miles (other than headlights) when the power goes out, so it’s DARK. I’ve been using the time to teach Pastor Simon about stars, the solar system, the vastness of space…it’s been really fun. I love seeing when God blows his mind as he realizes what a huge universe we are in, and that God holds it all in the palm of His hand! We also had a fun time talking about the moon, and how it reflects the SUN, and how likewise we relfect the light of God into the darkness when we are aligned with the SON. (Thanks Mr. Shabaglian for that analogy!)

The Prayer

There is one other experience I should mention, as it is having an impact on me. After our daily morning chapel service, I was invited by a team of pastors to go and pray for a girl (maybe 22 or 23 years old I’d guess) in town. I couldn’t tell what was wrong with her when we got there – since they were speaking in Senefo – but God was definitely whispering in my ear. I could tell that she was paralyzed from the waist down, and possibly demon possessed. I’m not sure about that second issue, since I couldn’t ask in Senefo, but as I looked her in the eyes I could sense the presence of demons. She had this glare that was so intense, creepy even, like no look I’ve ever seen before on a person. She wanted to know my name, so I said “Soro Bé Navigée” (my new Senefo name) to which she just gave a loud yell and then sat quietly, staring me in the eyes with that cold, vacant expression, head halfway tilted back and to her right. Like I said, I don’t know what the need was for certain (and I’ve never prayed to cast out demons), so I hope I’m not making the situation into something it wasn’t. All I know is what I felt my spirit telling me – the same quiet, discerning voice that I’m used to hearing when God is laying something heavy on my heart. Anyways, when it got to me I prayed over her in English, proclaiming the power of Jesus to reign over her life, for the assignments of the enemy to be broken down and cast away, and for healing to come to her body and mind and soul in the name of Jesus. I’d like to say I prayed as bodly as this all sounds, but please don’t overestimate me here. I’m just glad that God gave me the strength and the wonderful opportunity to pray for her. And thank God that the Spirit intercedes on our behalf when we don’t know what to pray! I am praying that it was all just me overreacting, and that she is a believer in Jesus who needed prayer for something.

Other than all of this, we have only one day left of orientation with Rod, Bakary, and our families. I have met my new Ivorian father, and I go to live with his family tomorrow after our final orientation meeting.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

Here is the prayer requests section I included in my newletter I sent out last night. If you still are not receiving that and would like to, leave a comment with your email address please!

“I want to take this chance to thank each and everyone of you for your continued support through prayer, finances, and encouragement. I am so blessed and honored to be called into this partnership with you. Daily, as God stretches us and molds us into new creations, lets remember to lift up in prayer those who have yet to come into this new life in Christ. I ask also that you remember me in your prayers, as well as the rest of Journey Corps. We have many difficult challenges ahead of us here in Côte d’Ivoire, including but not limited to: language learning, culture, sicknesses, political turmoil, and most of all the epic spiritual battle for the very souls of men and women. As well, pray with thanksgiving for the good things that God is doing. He is drawing people to Himself in the biggest revolution the world has ever seen – that is, that invasion His Kingdom into the world!

“Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ.” – Romans 1:7

In Christ,

Jason Dietmeyer

Serving in Côte d’Ivoire”