Fathers, Fellowship, and Fun

Gosh there is so much to write! First off, I had no clue yesterday was Father’s day! So happy father’s day to all you dads! But most importantly, I want to thank my Father in heaven, my God and King, for all You have done for me and the ways you continue to guide my steps! Please mold me after your Son Jesus, and go with me and before me so I can be a part of you grand adoption plan! To those of us who know what it is like to know Him as our Abba Father, we are his sons and daughters because of Christ! I think the best way we can honor our great Father is to simply love him through obedience and trust, and through letting other people know that He wants them to join the family.

Also, this is was first Father's day since my Dad passed away...I miss him a ton! I am so thankful for the wonderful Dad he was, love you Dad!

So moving on to this last week, here is a few highlights split up into topics:

COMMUNITY:

Last week, the big happening was the building of the second story roof/third story floor (it was a giant concrete slab) for Koko church on Monday. It was an incredible thing to participate in as 500 to 700 men, women, and children from the church and surrounding churches (and at least one Muslim I know of) came together to pour the roof like a big symphony of bucketeers!

The men mostly were involved in filling wheelbarrows of dirt and rock and then depositing those contents into 3 giant concrete mixers. They then added water and mixed the concrete, which was passed in buckets up the three scaffolding systems to rows of people, mostly women and children, who were passing the buckets and then dumping them on the roof.

Next the empty buckets were passed down a different line and thrown off the roof to attentive kids waiting on the ground to retrieve them. You have to be quick as to not get nailed by a heavy bucket bathed in concrete. The buckets were next filled with concrete again and this process repeated itself over and over, until after about 14 hours of work the staircase and roof were complete.

There was of course lunch breaks that people took in shifts; a group of about 50 or 60 women were working on preparing the rice and sauce for everyone….and it was tasty too! As far as work goes, I tried my hand at everything, but definitely enjoying passing buckets up the scaffolding the most! It got a little interesting though when all the guys started dancing on the scaffolding! Let’s just say I’m glad I didn’t fall 20 feet from the shaky tower of pipes and narrow boards while the Ivorian guys got their groove on to some great Balophone music. In the end, I think that whole project was definitely one of the coolest things I’ve ever witnessed! Here are a few photos (thanks CJ for the pics!):

hanging out with the other monkeys

the one in pink is my host sister, Martine

the one in black (below) is CJ's host sister, Madeline

Our JCWA program director, Rod, Hard at work (as always)

FOOD:

Tuesday was Alyssa’s 21 birthday, so we surprised her by taking her out to lunch at the chwarma place, La Columbdore. Rodolph (the owner) had set everything up for us including placemats that he had printed (at a very high quality) the words “Joyeux Anniversaire Alyssa” and a photo of Alyssa that he probably had taken with his phone on an earlier date. He brought out a huge chocolate cake, that had these delicious layers of fruits inside of it, a big Lebanese salad, freshly sliced bananas, and of course the staple Moroccan mint tea. We also ordered chwarmas and fries of course. It was such a good meal, and Rodolph is such a fun host! As a thank you for our group, Heidi and CJ baked a coffee cake for him, which was really flattered to receive.

In further news:

I took my brother Zumbulé (he’s 10) to get malaria medicine the other day, and on the way back he got sick from some meat he ate and vomited all over the floor of the restaurant we were at. I had a front row seat and narrowly avoided becoming like the splash section at sea world. Good thing I’m a ninja.

Oh and my Maman thinks I hate rice and sauce (and she’s right but I won’t admit it) so I only have to eat it for 2/3 meals a day now instead of 3/3. They make a bunch of whatever else for me at night now, but at least it’s enough for me to share it with my Zachary and my host Dad; I wouldn’t want to be the “special” one who get’s his own stuff.

Here's a photo of sauce arrachide I found online (mmmmmm), the only sauce I really like (peanut sauce):

MINISTRY:

I’ll keep it short since this blog is getting lengthy.

I finished the song I’ve been working on for Radio Sinai! In French it’s called “Nous Les Enfants” (we the children), and it’s about children’s’ rights. However, I redid it and had some girls sing in Dioulla and Cebara. After way too many hours of work it’s ready for the radio. It’s still an annoying song, but I’m glad with the end product.

Go HERE to hear the song in Dioulla

If that doesn't work try HERE

On Friday’s CJ and I now go with our two pastors to visit families from our church, and every other Sunday we go with them to other villages and meet our sister churches. It’s a cool opportunity to meet new people and to get an idea what the state of the church is like in other areas.

Man On The Run

Oh la la, c'est la sixième de Juin maintenant! Mon cœur est plein de joie a cause des choses que Dieu a me béni ces sept mois passé. Je comprende la Français beaucoup mieux que plus tôt; j'étais très inquiet avant Mai! Mais, Dieu a me donné un cadeau de la compréhension. Ma soeur, Martine, même a dit que je parle très bien actuellement! Si cela est vrai - je ne sais pas - mais j'apprécie le compliment! Vraiment, mon accent (la prononciation des mots et des voyelles) a besoin de beaucoup du travail. C'est vrai pour chacun de notre équipe, surtout moi. En plus, j'ai fait des erreurs dans ce paragraphe, probablement! Mon espoir par rapport à la langue de français est que je puisse parler et comprendre presque tous que j'écoute est lire!! C'est possible avec Dieu! (J'ai essayé la subjonctif là, c'est propre, n'est pas? Faut me corriger si tu voir une erreur!)

Ok I'm done, I'll type in English now. I was just talking about the french language and such there, hopefully google translate will be your friend and translate that somewhat well for you, if you need it to!

So this last week has been an adventure!

Stephanie had her 23rd birthday last wednesday! She was kinda bummed that we couldn't all be together (she lives in Bouaké), so we all bought bus tickets and surprised her! We showed up at the ice cream place there, and it was perfect. Her back was facing us, and so we walked right in behind her before she turned around - definitely a great surprise! Thursday night we had an awesome costume dinner/dance party for her with the old drama costumes we found from when École Baptist was a school. I'll get a photo of that up here if I can find one later.

In Bouaké, I worked hard with the Cedarville team and Chazz in gym cleaning 8 years of bird poop, dust, and cobwebs for a few hours. I even had this awesome broom tied to the end of a 25 foot long stick with which I could sweep up cobwebs nearer the roof. The rest of the time there was relaxing, and then Friday morning we took a bus back to Korhogo (except Heidi who was sick that morning).

Back in Korhogo, I went straight to my host dad's shop and then home for 5 minutes to change my clothes. Zana (my host dad) and I , along with 2 others, left immediately for NioFoin. So basically Friday was a day of constant traveling for me, and I was happy to get to bed that night.

Saturday we went to this big animistic "we're gonna build a huge cotton factory here in 2012" celebration. Actually, I'm pretty sure that was the official title of it. Or not. Anyways, it was really interesting to see the traditional beads, cowry shells, mirrors, fetishes, straw, etc that they wear to ward off evil spirits. The dances they did and the different rhythms they played were so impressive!

True "African American" balophone players:

Awesome hats, awesome facial expression:

This is Eagleman (or so I call him), Ivorian superhero:

Here are the ladies costumes, a panya, crazy hat, straw shield thing, and no shirt (which is why I took a facing away photo to show you):

These guys are, in my opinion, the equivalent of Ivorian power rangers. They do awesome acrobatics and scare away evil spirits (aka Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa).

Here, we are eating family style in N'Ganon (the village Zana grew up in):

And this is my friend Eliza (who used to live with us in Korhogo) and her little sister Sara, having a good time:

And this last picture is of someone who thought it wise to have a load on his car many times taller than the car itself. I almost didn't capture it!

Ok, have a great week! Hopefully I won't be on the run so much.

Bouaké, Brownies, Beads, and Amoebas

So this last week, there has been a short-term team visiting from Cedarville University, they are on a "vision trip". We picked them up in Ouagougou, and then hung out with them in Bouaké for a week during our seminars there. The week in Bouaké was great - I did a "birthday egg hunt" on my birthday, in which the girls had hidden 27 plastic eggs filled with encouraging notes and poems and paintings and candy. We also had funfetti brownies for dessert after dinner! Friday night we had a big bonfire and I had a really great talk with Stephanie about some things I think we both needed to get off our chests.

Anyways, we had a lot of fun hanging out, and were pleased to bring the CVers (cedarvillers) to our families in Korhogo! Two guys, Jake and Spencer, stayed with me Saturday through Wednesday. I'm afraid that they didn't "take in" as much as they "let out" Sunday and Monday since they had amoebas from something they ate in Burkina Faso. One of the girls on the team had it too. Fortunately the medicine I gave them helped and on Tuesday they were able to experience a bit of what my life is like here in Korhogo. The six CVers and us five Journeyers went together yesterday to the weavers village to see how they make hand-made clothing, beaded jewelry, and bags. This morning we said bye to the Cedarville team as they were leaving for their last week in Bouaké, and I'm getting back into the swing of things here. Had a great lunch with my host dad and his best friend today, which was a really fun time talking with them about soccer, Jesus, Bin Laden, basically everything! Thank you Jesus for helping me to understand French more and more! He is so gracious and good to us, and this is just one small way that I can see his hand at work in my life.

Have a great rest of the week friends! Here's a few pictures from the week:

This is a guy hand-weaving a shirt at the weavers village.

Redneck pic of the year: Me in a sleevless shirt with an unkept beard holding a pigeon I just caught bare-handed. I'm eating it tonight.

From left: Spencer, Adama, and Jake

Kate, Naomi, and their taxi driver looking very safe and happy!

Jammin at "repitition" aka worship practice Saturday

CV and JC together (from left): Liz, Spencer, Jake, CJ, Me, Chelsea

The first Senefo bible, in Tymbara

Journey Corps Family Vacation!

This has been an incredibly eventful week; it has been exhausting, frustrating and joyful, and has brought about many good stories and lessons for me. Saturday, May 7^th, we all got together in the land cruisers and drove up to Bobo in Burkina Faso where we stayed overnight. Coming into Burkina, which is much more developed than Côte d’Ivoire right now, was a culture-shock experience. Fields with irrigation systems, streets with curbs and stoplights, lanes painted on the road, people driving inside those lanes and not on the wrong side of the road, and more. We left Sunday morning for Nazinga Wildlife Park in southern Burkina Faso, just north of Ghana (it actually goes all the way to the border). There we stayed until Tuesday morning and did safari trips around the park, counting the animals we saw and when for the park records. We saw elephants, baboons, lots of different gazelle type animals from little things to water bucks the height of the land cruiser. We saw crocodiles, warthogs, monkeys, and tons of beautiful birds. There was one fun experience where an elephant was caught off-guard by us at night (in camp) and was threatening us to stay away, another when 2 elephants came into camp while we were eating and walked within 10 feet of us in the restaurant area, eating leaves off the trees over our very heads – so exciting! Anyways, Tuesday morning we left and drove to Ouagadougou to pick up a short-term missions group. On the way we stopped at Clarks place (he used to own Nazinga), where he is raising lots of wildlife. He showed us his porcupines (freaky things!), a chimpanzee, an ostrich, gazelles, HUGE warthogs up-close and ugly, giant rats things, and my personal favorite, the cute little bush babies! They are these tiny little monkey type things with HUGE beautiful eyes.

Here is the short of my time in Ouaga: attended a great songwriting seminar, slept in a different bed every night, made a great contact with Mary Hendershot (an ethnomusicologist), and had the best vanilla ice cream of my life. I literally had to pass it around while I mentally prepared for the next bite of bliss that awaited me when it came back. It was that good, I could barely breathe from the pure awesomeness. On Friday I was supposed to leave for Bouaké again, but the nearest spot on a bus available was with SITO (instead TCV which I originally planned to use) on Saturday at 3:30pm. I got there at 2:30 Saturday, we left at 4 and had an 11 hour drive to the border. The man at the border didn’t believe my VISA was real, but let me in without the 1,000cfa fee that everyone else paid. Then the guy that wanted to see my immunization card (which is in CA) let me by with paying the normal 200cfa instead of the 10,000cfa penalty for not having that card. Thank you Jesus for your help at the border! Anyways, we sat at a crossroads town from 5:45am to 10:30am while they did “repairs” to the bus, and after that frustrating and hot wait we hit the road, arriving in Bouake at 5:30pm-ish, making it nearly a 26-hour journey. Oh and on the bus I sat next to a very large woman who took up have of my seat sometimes, and had 4 kids with her. She was a feisty woman who argued a lot with some other passengers, but was pretty nice to me. When I got off in Bouake, I was very tired, VERY smelly, frustrated, and was pretty sure I’d never want to sit down again or take another bus again. It still hurts to sit down lol. I had not slept or eaten (a meal) in 2 days, and had not showered in longer. I had been sitting for 25 plus hours in a cramped area on a bus ride that would never stop. But here we were! I thanked God for getting me to Bouaké, got my bags, and hopped on a moto-taxi. There was this drunk guy insisting I give him my hat, and when we tried driving away he tried stealing it. I shouted to him that it’s not polite to try stealing, and he responded by grabbing me by the throat! I just grabbed his arm, ripped his hand away from my neck and pushed it away from me. I’m just thankful that God gave me the grace in that situation to keep my cool, because I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to punch some in the nose so bad before. I was very angry that he had the gall to do that. People who steal get beaten publicly here, even stoned in places in Africa. I just shouted that he “wasn’t a very nice person” and we drove off. The moto guy said he (the crazy guy) was drunk so not to sweat it. I dunno, I don’t spend enough time around drunk people to know that I guess.

I had a great reunion, giving everyone big hugs and relaxing the rest of the day here at ICA in Bouaké. It’s good to be back to familiar territory; Ouaga was an adventure, but I was all alone and just wanted to get home.

God gave me some really cool experiences this last week. One was pouring water on a man’s heart where seeds had been planted before. This Muslim mechanic that drove me around a couple times was talking with me, and I started singing a song in Swahili and French about how there is no one like Jesus. God used that as an icebreaker for Mary to talk about Jesus with him, and it sounds like he is really interested in following Him. He needs to understand the gravity of his situation though, and I think he does and that’s what is making it hard to make that decision. Thank God for using me in such a small way to make an inroad for the gospel into that man’s life! Another cool experience was playing electric guitar with this gospel group in Ouaga, they sounded just like Israel Houghton. The drummer and bassist especially blew me away. It’s so amazing that God knew I needed a good musical jam session like that; I’m so grateful for that opportunity!

Anyways, that is a small (but verbose) look at last week. This week will see my 27^th birthday (on the 19^th), I will officially me starting my late twenties! I’m in Bouaké until Saturday, and hopefully I can take one of the short termers with me to meet my family in Korhogo.

Oh by the way I have praise, I feel like I have smashed through another wall regarding understanding and speaking French. It’s been really encouraging (and fun!) lately as I have been understanding most of what I hear, and have been a bit better able to express myself to people as well. I had no trouble finding my way around Ouaga, getting taxis, shopping, finding a bus station and getting the ticket, lodging, talking with people at the seminars, etc. Almost all of it was in French, and then today I even did some translating for the first time! Proof that God answers prayer!

Ways to pray for me this next week:

· Don’t let business get in the way of my #1 priority: loving Jesus well

· To be intentional about the way I love others this week, to be thinking about it.

· To take things in the right spirit, keeping the Spirit as a filter for everything I take into my mind, and everything that comes out of my mouth.

Love you all, have a great week!

Au Revoir Mes Copains

As of the 28^th of April it’s been 6 months since I came to the Ivory Coast! I need to take an inventory of how I’m doing in every faculty. That will take a bit of time to process. Ok so this week….

This past week has been difficult for me to be honest. First off, I had to say goodbye to both Beckie and Jamie, as they headed back to the States. I do ok with goodbyes, though it is still hard to see them go. On top of that I have been dealing with a terrible case of acid-reflux, which has seen in me the shedding of a few pounds I’m pretty sure. I could barely swallow anything for several days because my throat had become so inflamed. Finally I visited a doctor friend of mine up north an hour and she gave me some medication that “makes Tums obselete” which I will be taking twice a day for a month. Already my throat is better and I can eat well again, though my stomach is pretty sensitive so I cannot have caffeine or hot spices until I’m done with the medication at the end of May.

Other difficult things this week has been due mainly to cultural and and laguage differences. For example, in Senefo culture men are supposed to eat a LOT of food at meal times. Last night I ate 5 baked potatoes, and as I was cooking them they asked if I’d need some rice & sauce too, and maybe some spaghetti also. I said no thanks to the extra food, 5 potatoes is plenty (already a lot!). So right after I finished those, my sister Martine brings in a HUGE plate of spaghetti and hard boiled eggs and insists I eat it all. I’m talking like enough for 3 people who are hungry. I made it clear that it was a physical impossibility for me to finish that, but when I realized I was going to make a big deal out of it and start an argument (I had afterall said no thanks to more food), I just started eating it. I finished most of it suprisingly, but unfortunately it had a lot of piment (a hot spice similar to jalapenos) in it so my already sensitive stomach gave me some pain last night. This was a leson in patience I think.

One big difficulty for me has been working with Ivorians at the studio, in that they don’t know how to plan in advance. This makes is next to impossible for me to be able to be there when I need to be, and one time I got called 20 minutes before they wanted me there and I couldn’t come due to a prior commitment. This is a problem that happens a lot. I had a meeting with one of the JourneyCorps leaders Saturday, Bakary, and he is going to talk to the radio guy about this issue for me; it would be inappropriate for me to do so since he is older than me.

I’m trying to get involved at church more, so Bakary is also going to talk to the Pastors at my church for me. I want to encourage the church body to be more active in reaching out to the people in their community with the gospel. Ivorians seem very content to live-and-let-live religilously speaking, and other than the pastoral students I haven’t seen much effort to share the gospel with something more than only “lifestyle.” I want to organize a community outreach to encourage the church body in service evangelism. Maybe we together can identify a community need and meet it. We’ll find out!

Spiritually, this month has been all about putting things on the altar – as I mentioned in my last blog. It has been especially difficult doing this, and has been very much an emotional roller-coaster for me. I’ve struggled with feelings of lonliness, frustration, homesickness, jealousy, etc…a whole range of negative emotions. On the flipside, there have been times where I reveled in God with joy, thanksgiving, contentedness, and so on. I promise I’m not bipolar, I’m just a normal person, if that exists! Ok maybe a bit crazy, but thank God for his gracefulness in dealing with us crazy people. I’m just glad that I have discovered the joy of keeping a journal, because I am able to vent things that I just can’t say to anyone here. God is my councelor in much more meaningful and real ways to me these past months; He is my thread of sanity amidst an enviornment that would otherwise make me literally crazy. I don’t think I’ve ever had it on my mind to thank God for my very sanity before, but I do now…so thank you Jesus!

Oh! Before I forget, Sunday was the annual baptisim day at my church, and 54 people were baptized! It was a fun day of dancing and celebrating at the church….here’s a few photos:

CJ and I before the baptism

Balophones are a central part of celebrations here

Rockin' CJ's sunglasses (so awesome!)

Love it! Just Baptized!

Material For Sacrifice

Bon soir encore de Bouaké! Tous les choses sont vert et beaux ici; mais il fait plus humide que Korhogo. Good evening again from Bouaké! Everything is green and beautiful here, but it is more humid than Korhogo. (Guess it’s a tradeoff!)

Quick update, I am in Bouaké to bid a bittersweet farwell to a couple friends who are heading back to the States on Wednesday. Good to be together, though suffering a bit from an overly introspective mind today and a bad case of acid-reflux. Praise God that all days aren’t like that though.

Saturday I biked about 25 kilometers around town in Korhogo, in the hilly terrain – my legs are drained. Went to a baptism at one church and in the night (at my church) there was a big all-nighter dance party. That was awesome, though I left early and slept for 3 hours so I wouldn’t be dead at the 8am service. Sunday morning service was interesting and really beautiful with the way the church was decorated. Not sure why the sermon talked more about Pilate than about Jesus though, I was a bit frustrated with that lol.

So how am I doing this week? Hmmmm….

This week has been a bit of a struggle in dealing with cultural differences. Ivorians don’t know how to plan in advance, and it’s very frustrating for me sometimes. Also I don’t get how they think sometimes, why they say certain things that in Western culture would be really offensive.

God has been teaching me a lot lately, but especially pounding my heart with one word this week: altar. Take the things that I am struggling with and put them on the altar. And it’s a sacrifice, so it’s not going to be fun - sacrifice is meant to cost something. What sane Jew ever wanted to burn up his best lamb? In fact, because my life should be a living sacrifice, that implies continuity, not a one time deal. There will always need to be intentional surrender of things that I’d rather just hold onto. In Romans 12, people love to quote verse 2, “do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world. Then you will be able to test and approve his will.” Sweet! Standing out and not conforming sounds great…independent, so American! We love our independence, heck yeah…down with the world’s ways and up with Jesus’, we won’t conform! But what does it mean to “offer yourself as a living sacrifice” in verse 1? That part was included in the discerning his will clause too. Hmm, sounds like hard work (and it is)! It’s not an automatic response, I’ve got to actually make an intellectual, rational decision to surrender and obey.

But does it end there? No, thank God. We aren’t meant to be spiritual masochists, but humble servants. There is a reason for sacrifice, it’s not just there to make us give of ourselves – God has made promises too. Like giving us life to the fullest, mercy and grace, correctment, or wrath if we disown him. So my lesson is to sacrifice it all, and don’t keep some hidden hope that you’ll get your way in the end. Don’t sacrifice the lamb but keep a leg for yourself – give it all away – set the whole issue on the altar, or it’s not an acceptable sacrifice at all.

These lessons I’m getting lately have been inspired from the books of 1 and 2 Samuel, and Elizabeth Elliot’s, “Passion and Purity.”

Here’s a couple ways to pray for me this week if you wish:

Better understand when people speak French to me.

More patience, selflessness and a loving and humble demeanor towards people.

The right words to speak into people’s lives, and to work with Ivorians well.

To put it all on the altar, withholding nothing.

Here is a fun photo from lunch on easter, with my little siblings here:

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?