New hair, New president, Lots of Mangos

Bonsoir! Comment ça va?

Well I’ll be honest, I don’t really know where to start for this blog. I know that getting started is the important thing, so here it goes. What have I done this week? What has God been teaching me? Let’s start with what I’ve done.

Naomi and I just skyped with our new pastor at Clovis EV Free, Wil Owens! He is a really awesome guy, and his family seems so fun! We are going to attempt making a regular skyping schedule with him. It will be really fun to meet him in person when we get back in November! When we were done talking, he prayed for us over skype…this just blew my mind. To think God has provided a way for believers to pray together across oceans just shows His goodness.

Ok so backtracking, Sunday I got back in the night from Bouaké, and my family was happy (though surprised) to see me. They had thought I was going straight to Burkina, though I called mid-week to say that I’m not doing that until May, oh well. It’s been great being back with them after a week away. This week I’ve been getting to know my brothers and sister from Abidjan better, and have begun teaching them worhsip songs in English. They like to come in and ask (aka demand) me to teach them things and basically be their little american puppet usually when I’m in the middle of going through my daily prayer list, or doing a devotional, or journaling, etc. It’s pretty amusing sometimes actually, they like have a “Jason wants to be alone” radar gun I’m pretty sure, and they just shoot my room with it from the outdoor cooking area every 10 minutes or so. It’s all good, relationships with my family are important, and I can always come back to those other things right?

This week has been a good food week. My family is convinced I hate rice and suace (which I did before but am getting used to it now) so Monday after I had an amazing cheeseburger at a resurant in town for lunch, I came home and my mom boiled some potatoes for me, and then my dad came home with a HUGE burger for me! I think it was the first time I ever actually looked at rice and sauce with envy. Two burgers in one day equals heart attack. It was good though! I’ve actually been enjoying (a bit) some of the rice meals I’ve had this week. I’ve also had spaghetti a lot this week, which is a staple in Côte d’Ivoire thankfully! It’s not prepared with tomato sauce, but with oil and hot peppers.

Oh also, CJ and I rode over to Holly’s house to visit her and her family last night, and that was really good. She moved back to Bouaké today, though she plans to visit Korhogo from time to time. It was great to get to see her house before she left though.

God has been teaching me a lot this week, though the majority of it has been the last day or two. I read through first 1 Samuel over the course of a couple days and wrote down my observations about each character. I definitely see the overall theme (at least what God was trying to teach me through it) as being that of faithfulness. Have integrity and in everything put God first. Seek Him, obey Him, don’t think you can manipulate Him. Also, be persistent. Everyone in this book is SO persistent. Hannah in praying, Samuel and David in obeying, Jonathan in loving, Saul in pride and hatred. Persist in faithfulness, in prayer, and in integrity.

God has also been reminding me (through CJ’s blog yesterday) about being humble. Do you ever feel like being humble takes a lot of work? I wish it was just a natural condition of the heart, but it’s actually so contrary and unnatural because of sin. Personally, I feel like the art of humility is like walking a tightrope, it’s a balancing act, and my balance can be pretty crappy at times. You’ve got ego on one side, self-hatred on the other, and Jesus at the end of the line urging you to look straight ahead at Him. If you look down, then you are looking at one side or the other of the tightrope, and that’s how people fall the easiest. Turn your eyes upon Jesus and he will humble you.

Also this week has been one of just pouring out my heart and my feelings in prayer to God. As CJ so aptly stated in her blog yesterday, there is nothing magical that happens to missionaries on the plan ride over. Nobody becomes a spiritual superstar overnight. I brought my issues right on with me across the ocean, and they are amplified 7 times over in a foreign culture. Thank God for His faithfulness though, He is making us into a new kind of human, and through His power we can leave the old man behind.

So I can’t say that I’m this proverbial “missionary” that we imagine back at home, but I can say this: each day God is molding me and refining me like gold in the fire. As I surrender my life to Him, His very own life comes and lives through me. Romans 6 says, “Eternal life is not a gift from God, it is the Gift of God.” We have received the power OF the Holy Spirit, not power FROM the Holy Spirit – the power is the Holy Spirit Himself.

So praise God for His power being evidenced in our lives each day as we surrender wholly and completely to Him!

Amen!

PS

I forgot to take photos of my other family members this week, but I’ll work on that for another blog.

For the purpose of have SOME sort of picture to show you (I forgot to take any this week), here are a couple of my hair:

dont worry, she cut the rest

still pretty different though eh?