It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

You noticed I said that it is beginning to look (not FEEL) like Christmas! We went out yesterday to finish our Christmas shopping. The mall and stores are all decorated for the holidays. I even noticed the decorations that the city hangs on the light poles. Their decorations might not be what you would use......I even saw a purple Christmas tree the other day! Also, the stores are playing Christmas music (mostly in English). But, it is definitely not feeling anything like Christmas. The temp has been in the high 80s with it feeling like 100 with the humidity. Jon and Autumn went swimming Friday, that just seems crazy for it being a week before Christmas

This week will be really busy for us. Starting yesterday after shopping, Autumn and I spent the entire afternoon making cookies for our small group today. We are having a fellowship for Christmas. Of course, I said that I would bring some cookies like we eat in America and they thought that was the greatest thing. So, I wanted to be sure that I had plenty because there will not be any left! We are having a Christmas party for all the Africans that help us on Wednesday afternoon. So, I need about 200 more cookies for that! We will celebrate Christmas with the McAfees on Christmas Eve and on Christmas day we will have family time and make us a Christmas dinner. It will be the first time that I make dressing! We will see how that works!

Enjoy your family and friends this holiday season! Remember the reason of Christmas is the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Continue to lift us up in prayer especially during the holidays, it is much harder this time of the year. We appreciate and love each of you!

Teresa

Thanksgiving with our African friends

our language helpers
my friend with her baby girl
the guys table!!
Jolie tried to help decorate the tree!

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends! We spent the day with our team mates and some of our African friends. It was a great day of fellowship (all in french!) I don't know if all our friends was greatly impressed with the traditional Thanksgiving food, but they braved it anyway! ;) We feel blessed to have some great friends here! Continue to pray for our muslim friends to come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior.

The day after Thanksgiving we started some of our new family traditions. We woke up and made us a yummy breakfast with bacon (sent from the good-ole USA!), played Christmas music as we decorated, and drank some apple cider. It was a great day together as a family! We do miss our family and friends more during this time, so we are trying to make it as much like home as possible.

Ministry is still going well here in Abidjan. The small group is doing great. They are going out sharing their faith with the muslims in their community. We have been having women come the last few weeks, so that is an praise! Continue to pray that these men (and women) will grow in their faith and will continue to tell others about what God has done for them.

We had our language evaluation this past Friday and it went really well. I was really nervous, but gave it to the Lord and he answered the prayers of many people. We are at the level that we should be at this time. We will continue in french for about 3 more months and then will begin an African language.

Enjoy your holiday season, and remember the reason for the season: Jesus!

Love,

Teresa

So many things to be thankful for....

Wow, it is already almost Thanksgiving! This year has flown by! We are gearing up in Abidjan for the traditional Thanksgiving feast. Well, that is if we can find a turkey! Everyone has been leaving us here in Abidjan....so it will only be us and the McAfees for the holidays.

Nothing new with us.....except the usual french. We should be having an evaluation soon, so please keep that in your prayers.

We have so many things to be thankful for this holiday season........our family, our health, great friends, and the language that we have learned! God has greatly blessed us! Thank you to all of you who continue to lift us up in prayer, we wouldn't be here without you. Also, don't forget the Lottie Moon Christmas offering because this is what helps to keep all the missionaries on the field. All giving is greatly appreciated!

I know this is short, but I just wanted to let you know that we are doing well. Enjoy your turkey dinner and fellowship!

Teresa

We have been in Africa for a year....

On the 18th of October we hit the one year mark in Africa. It has been a year with lots of changes, lots of goodbyes and many tears....but it has also been a year with many blessings! We have been blessed with an extended family on the field......Autumn has more aunts and uncles than she can count! Our team mates are great and we are so happy to have them back with us in Abidjan after the birth of little Benjamin. Our relationships with the Africans are growing and we are finding ourselves busy with company, etc. The most important thing is that we can now share the gospel with these friends in their language. What a major blessing!

God is moving in the small group and it is really growing! Jon spends a lot of time with these guys and is pouring the truth into them. They are eager to go out and share the good news with their friends and with strangers they met. God is really going to use these guys! One of them has asked Jon about starting another group with 5 friends that he has lead to the Lord. Wow! Jon will continue to disciple him and show him how to lead a group.

Please continue to pray for my muslim friend, M. She has begun to ask a lot of questions. She told me the other day that she knows that you must have faith in Jesus and that she does. I told her that she must trust in Jesus alone, and she didn't know what to do with that. Today when I was visiting her and telling her the story of Nicodemus, she asked me why there was so many ways. She now realizes that Christians and muslims are not the same. I told her that only one of them can be the right way. She agreed. She said that she was going to pray that God would show her the truth and when he does that she will follow that truth. We know that God will show her so please continue to lift her up!

Bottle some of that cool weather up and send it our way! :) It sure is hot here....I think I am finally remembering to put the sunblock on. It took a couple of days of becoming sunburned before I realized the sun is back!

Love,

Teresa

It's been a long time........

Sorry that it has been so long since the last post!! It has been the usual around here, we sometimes feel like we are never going to get out of french learning! Of course, that is probably right....even when we reach our level; we will still keep learning. As most people learning another language, we have days that we think, "Wow, I'm starting to get this," and then there are the other days (which we seem to have more of :) when we say, "I have almost been here for a year and this is all I can say!!" But we have to go back and look where we was when we arrived on the field.....we couldn't even say hi! But now we can carry on a conversation (sometimes it might sound like a 3 year old:), we are sharing the gospel, and can actually have a small conversation on the telephone (wow, that one is hard!). It may take us FOREVER to make our level, but God has been faithful to us and has allowed us to minister while we are learning!

Autumn has returned from the states. She had a really great time with family! I don't think she forgot the name of one restaurant that she ate at while she was there.....she rubbed everyone of them in! But we did send an empty suitcase with her, and she brought it back filled with goodies that we can not find in Abidjan. It was like an early Christmas present! I was told that I would be more homesick while she was gone, and they was right! I was a little jealous that I didn't get to see family and friends, eat all that good food, and go to Walmart! God willing, we will all be on a plane next summer and will enjoy the states for a short time!

We did have some excitement in West Africa this week! Our team mates, Mike and Heather, welcomed a baby boy, Benjamin! We haven't got to meet him yet because they had to travel to another country for the birth, but we hope they will arrive back in Abidjan within the next month. It will be exciting to have a little one around!

Enjoy your fall like weather! Wow, I miss this time of the year....it's my favorite! It is beginning to heat up around here, no chance of a white Christmas! :)

Love,

Teresa

Time is flying......

Wow, I can't believe it.....next month we will have been in Africa for 1 year! Time flys when you are having fun! :) I can say that it has been both a hard and rewarding time. The times of homesickness is becoming less and Abidjan is starting to feel more like home.

Hope everyone enjoyed their Labor Day weekend! Here in Abidjan it was french learning as usual, for some reason they don't celebrate all the US holidays! :) Jon and I are sitting home alone wondering what we ever did before we had Autumn. She is on her way to the states to spend a few weeks with her grandparents and family. I know they are very excited to see her, and I am already missing her! Being across the ocean from her is such a different level than sending her from Missouri to Arkansas for a week! But we know that God is good and He will watch over her! Any of you guys in Piggott that see her the next few weeks, give her a big hug for us!

As I said, french is continuing....we have a language teacher 5 days a week, 2 hours a day. The rest of the time we spend studying or out in the community practicing. The other day when I met a young girl I introduced myself and.....she giggled! Ok, I didn't say anything funny! Oh well, I guess that I will never loose that southern accent! You can pray for our upcoming evaluation in October, we really pray that we will be at our level by spring.

The storying group has been going well.......this past Sunday we had 9 guys! Wow, that was great! They are really getting out there and sharing their stories and inviting people. Pray that God will make it clear who is becoming the leader of the group. You can also pray as Jon is planning on taking one of the guys to a village in a month or so for evangelism.

Thank you for praying for my muslim friend. She has been real open to hear the stories. She has been visiting my house often lately, and I am thankful that she trusts me enough to call me a friend. Pray that God will work in her heart as I continue to tell her about the love of Jesus.

God Bless,

Teresa

Seeking God

Saturday started the month of Ramadan. This is where the muslim people fast and pray from dusk to dawn for the forgiveness of their sins. You can go all around Abidjan and see the many people that are seeking God as they pray and read their Quran. I am so thankful for the work that Jesus did on the cross! Please take some time this month to pray and/or fast for the muslims across the world. The muslims are seeking God during this time, and we pray that God will make the truth clear to them. Please pray for my friend who I story with each week, that God will open her eyes that Jesus is the only way.

Our small group is continuing to go well. Each week we are understanding more and able to communicate. This is very encouraging! It still seems like it will be forever before we will be at our level, but it is coming.

Many of you in Piggott will be seeing Autumn soon! She will be there in September. This is a early Christmas present for her (it may have to be for her birthday, next Christmas, etc :). She is very excited to see family, she also has a long list of restaurants that she wants to visit! Of course, she keeps rubbing it in, but Jon keeps telling her that he can change her ticket until we can all come! But she doesn't seemed to worried, I think she knows that we would be in big trouble from the grandparents if we changed our minds now! She will be speaking (well, this is Autumn...so it will be short:) at Emmanuel on a Saturday night at Eric Fuller's mission night.

Make plans to come visit us, we have room for you! Come in the months June - August, the weather is wonderful!

Au revoir,

Teresa

Life is becoming very busy!!

Hi everyone! Sorry it has been so long since the last time I blogged! We have been very busy lately. Autumn started 9th grade this week. She is enrolled in an online school, Northstar Academy, and we have stayed busy getting it all figured out. It seems to be a great program, she actually has teachers that send her all the work and I send it back to them. I am hoping after this first few weeks, that it will become easier on me! :)

Our small group has been going very well! As I told you, the guys has decided to start meeting on Sunday afternoons so the people that they invite may come. Last Sunday we had a total of 8 guys! They seem really eager to learn the stories and share with others. They keep Jon busy and always have many questions. We all are currently learning Creation to Christ. After about 8 weeks, the group will have a summary from creation to the return of Christ that they can go out and use for evangelism. Continue to pray for their growth and that we can get some women involved! You can see some pictures above from the past Sunday.

I have been telling the weekly stories to a muslim friend of mine. I didn't know at first if she would let me share with her. But she has let me tell her the stories and this week when she came to visit me she asked if I had another story for her. Please pray for an open heart has she hears the word of God. Again above, I have posted a picture of her with her newborn baby girl.

Thank you for the prayers concerning our language learning! We have seemed to finally hit a point where we have more good days than bad. Continue to lift us up!

Our health has been pretty good. But there has been a lot of mosquitos lately, so pray that we continue to stay healthy. We don't have time to be sick! ;)

Send us a comment to let us know how you are doing!

Teresa

Vacation to Ghana

our cabin at the beach
the view from our room

Autumn riding the waves
Jolie enjoying the sand

Hi everyone! We are home from vacation. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves at the beach in Ghana! We didn't do anything exciting except resting our minds and enjoying the oceanview. As you can see Jon and Autumn enjoyed riding the waves at the beach. Jolie and I enjoyed digging in the sand! :) The resort was really nice and best of all we got to speak English all week!! But I have to tell you, I think Jon is forgetting English. For some reason he couldn't understand anything the people at the resort was saying, so I was his translator! :) We did enjoy our time off from french, and have felt so refreshed since returning. Before we left we was at a point that we wasn't able to understand or say much because we were exhausted, but we have came back and it seems like the rest was exactly what we needed.

While we was gone, the group that we have been storying at decided to change their meeting times from Tuesday to Sunday. They decided this time would be best for them, and also for people that they have been inviting. This is a step in the right direction! So, starting next Sunday we will be worshiping with these new believers. This will be an learning experience for all of us. Pray that this group will continue to grow in faith.

This morning we visited a church in the city with another missionary. It was a good service (we even had our own translator). But, we did have our first....we was pulled into the dancing line.... All of us, even Jon! Wish you could have seen Autumn's face when the guy pulled us out! Well, we made it around one time and then escaped back to our chairs! We try to tell them that these white people can't dance, but I think it amuses them! I was in front of Jon and Autumn, wish I could see how they was moving! ;) I think we all just clapped our hands and followed the line.

Well the summer is almost over and it will be time for the kids to get back to school. Autumn will be beginning her freshmen year. Wow, where has the time gone?? As you have been enjoying the hot weather :), we have been enjoying the cool season; but I hear that it will be ending around September. Can't say that I am ready for that heat again!

Thank you for the prayers!

Blessings,

Teresa

Upcoming trip to Ghana

Jolie's visa ;-)
Autumn, Louise & Jolie
Jon & Autumn

Sorry that it has been so long since we blogged! Nothing new and exciting has been happening in Abidjan. We are still in french classes and it is still raining! Sunday we are going to the beach in Ghana for 5 days. We are really excited to vacation in a English speaking country! 8 1/2 months of French and we are exhausted! (mentally and physically) We have hit a time where we can't seem to get caught up on rest and our brain is mush (when you are studying french in your dreams....it is bad ;-), so we decided that it is time to relax. After all the work just to get into Ghana, we are going to need a vacation from our vacation! First, we had to get visas to Ghana and then we needed updated visas to get back into Cote d'Ivoire. And since Autumn doesn't think we can go on vacation without the puppy....there was a vet visit for a certificate of health (we call it Jolie's visa;), buying a dog carrier and supplies and giving her a haircut. There was tons of paperwork for the vehicle, etc. We are very thankful for our missions office that completed alot of the paperwork for us! Now, if we can make through all the road stops then we are beach bound!

We are beginning to build some relationships in Abidjan. We still have the Tuesday afternoon storying group and it is going well. Jon has been doing a great job learning the stories in french, and I even took a week of telling the story last week! My story wasn't long...but you can only imagine how hard it is to memorize a Bible passage in another language! But this is greatly increasing our Biblical vocabulary. Above you can see a picture of Autumn and Louise. Louise is a friend of ours that makes some really great African meals! She loves Jolie and believe me Jolie is always waiting at the door for her! Most Africans are scared of dogs, and Louise was a little afraid of Jolie at first until she realized the most Jolie would do is lick her to death!

We had a great 4th of July! We attended a picnic at the US Embassy on Saturday. We met many other Americans, and lot of them was missionaries from other agencies. Autumn also met another teenage girl. They hung out for about 3 hours and I think Autumn is going to spend some time with her after we get back from our vacation. That is an answered prayer!

Prayer requests:

1. Our border crossings

2. health

3. and of course.....french!

Thank you for all the prayers!

Teresa

A boat is needed!!

Nothing new is happening in Abidjan. Just more of the same: french, french and more french! We couldn't wait for the rainy season to arrive so the temps would cool down and it has been so much cooler! I think you in the states are suffering much more then we are now. As you see from the pictures, our street doesn't drain well (not well at all!:). We need a boat to go to the office!

Autumn has completed her 8th grade year and will be a high schooler when August rolls around. She is enrolled in an online school and will be able to communicate with her teachers by email. This is good because she is beginning to get into some hard subjects!

Enjoy the 4th of July celebrations! I would so like to be there for the big Piggott picnic! We have been invited to the US Ambassador house on Friday, July 3. Don't know yet if we will attend, but it would be a good way to meet other Americans in the city!

Prayer requests:

1. Continue to pray for our french learning.

2. Pray that we will continue to stay healthy (with the rains comes more mosquitos!).

3. Pray for the small group that we have taken over on Tuesdays.

4. Continue to pray that Autumn will find a close friend.

Blessings,

Teresa

Crazy week!!

Hi everyone! It has been one of those weeks! I came down sick last week, and was out of commission for most of the week. I put off going to the doctor as long as I could until I was up most of a night sick (kept Jon up also...that didn't go over well;-). So the next morning, I called the doctor and she came to the house. I didn't even have to go sit in the clinic for hours (which is what is normal here). You can't beat that! Finally today, I can tell that I am on the mend...but then what do I go and do?? I fell this morning and jammed my big toe! So, now I am hobbling around and nursing a swollen toe. Great way to start the week! But, God is good and He is increasing my faith that even though we will get sick here (with things that you would never imagine in the states); that He is in control.

Jon, Autumn and I have taken over a Bible storying group in our neighborhood. The missionaries that started the group are moving to another country. Our team mate, Mike, is helping us until we get confident in our french. You can see in the last post the men that have made professions. Jon storied for the first time in french last week. He did a great job! We will be learning the Bible stories in french weekly now....they say this will greatly increase our language skills. Also, pray as I have been learning Creation to Christ in french. It is going well. Pray that God would put the women in my path that he wants to hear of His love.

You all need to consider getting a team to come over for a mission trip next year! (It doesn't take a large group, 3 to 5 people is a perfect size group) By that time we should be at our level in french and eager to reach this city. Pray about it and see where God is leading you!

Miss you all,

Teresa

Baptism in Africa

Kevin and Lubin
Lubin and Rogere
Lubin and Justen
Lubin and Raymond

Hello everyone,

Here are a few pictures of a recent baptism that was conducted in the lagoon surrounding the city where we live.  These four men have made recent professions of faith and are attending a small group study every Tuesday.   The missionaries who have been discipling this group will soon be moving to another West African country so pray for us as we begin teaching the scriptures and working with these men.  We appreciate your prayers and wanted to share with you the fruits of the Lord's blessing.   Have a good day.

Blessings,

Jon

Happy Mother's Day!!

                                                       Jon with the small croc
                                                        He had lost his mind here!
                                                       Autumn holding the small croc
                                                       standing on the back of a big turtle
                                             Jon wasn't brave enough to hold the bigger croc!

I hope all you mothers had a wonderful, relaxing day!  Jon and Autumn were very good to me. They cooked me breakfast this morning and then are taking me to my favorite restaurant tonight. I have been blessed with a wonderful daughter and husband!

I also thank God for my mom and mother-in-law, Carol.  They mean so much to us and we really miss being with them today.  Have a wonderful day, we love you!

I have attached the pictures that Jon promised on the last post.  I don't understand him!  Who in their right mind would hold a crocodile, and on top of that a boa?!  Well, apparently his daughter takes after him....but she wouldn't hold a snake.  Yep, I wouldn't touch a thing!

Blessings,

Teresa

Rainy season is here!

                                                    Jon and Autumn in the ocean
                          Jon caught a gecko in our room at the beach!
                Jon trying to get the gecko down so he can catch it..
                                                   Jon and Autumn 

Hello everyone,

I hope all of you are having a good week.  We are just starting our rainy season so that means the heat will be replaced with downpours.   We will have more mosquitoes with the rain which causes thousands of malaria cases each year in Africa, we are currently taking a weekly malaria medication that helps keep us healthy.  We have had three families leave in the last week or so and move to another part of Africa.  The mission board is going through alot of changes right now for future church planting strategy so several people are relocating to other places. 

Our days are still full of language learning.  It is really encouraging to know that people are starting to understand these strange sounds that are coming out of our mouths.  It takes the average person at least a year of full time study to obtain a good level of conversational French.  I think we are on track but it will also take years of living here to become fluent in conversation and understanding.  I usually just throw out what words I know, most people laugh but it is a gracious and understanding type of laugh, many people here have had to learn a second language themselves.  

I have been able to share a little with some of the men who live close to our neighborhood.  Many are Muslims, many are religious, but many do not understand how to "know" God.  When you share the gospel, the conversation usually turns to personal good works as a way of salvation.  There are also many who fully understand but just aren't interested in our message.  However, it is very encouraging to find several people who are truly seeking to know God.  I had the privledge of seeing the fruits of another missionaries labors when they prayed and made a public profession of faith in Christ.  The missionaries who are working with this group will be leaving next month so our teammates will help us transition into helping this group with discipleship and the goal of eventually reproducing churches.  Tonight, I am meeting with a young Muslim man for tea and Saturday night I am meeting with another young man who wants to know how to follow Christ.   You can probably imagine what some of these encounters look like with my limited French but God is powerful and able to save.  

Please pray for a man named Sedou who is Muslim and a young man named Raymond.  These are two men who I will be having weekly contact with in the near future.  The prayer is for me to communicate the gospel clearly and for them to understand clearly.  I have also enclosed a few pictures from the beach we went to a couple of weeks ago.  I will try to post pictures in the near future of our trip to an alligator farm.   Thank you for checking in with us, we are encouraged by you always.

Blessings,

Jon

Easter in Africa

                                               Jon & Autumn before Easter services
                                                          Autumn & I with Jolie

Hey everyone!

I pray that you had a blessed Resurrection Sunday!  We worshipped with other African believers at a local church and afterwards enjoyed a fellowship meal.  We were the typical American Baptists...we went to CFC (Country Fried Chicken...real close to KFC;)  and bought some good fried chicken!  The chicken didn't last long!  We were talking last night about our attitude when we first arrived at church.  Truthfully, none of us was real excited about going because we knew that it would be another long service in french that we wouldn't understand.  But during worship God showed us these Africans had such joy (shown in their singing and dancing;-); and that we could worship even if we don't understand all that is being said.

This is a sad month for us here in Abidjan.  We have 5 families that will be leaving the next few weeks.  These people have become family and we will miss them greatly!  They have taken us in and made us feel welcome.  They will be serving in different areas and we hope to get to visit them someday.  They told us in ILC that the life of a missionary is a life of goodbyes....I really didn't realize how true this was until arriving on the field.  But now some good news, we have learned that we will be having an addition to our team this October.  Our team mates, Mike and Heather, are expecting their third child. We are very excited for them, and hope to get the opportunity to babysit! ;-)

We are going to the beach for a couple days in the morning.  We excited for this time to relax.  We will take a lot of pictures and will post them next time!

Send us a line to let us know how things are with you.

Blessings,

Teresa

Bedrock Bowling!

Looks like Fred Flinstones

It's a long way to the ground!

Chopping the seeds from the pods

All that work for these!

Hello to everyone,

Just wanted to give you an update on our progress here in the city. We just had our first language evaluation and everything went fine, we have a better understanding on how they work and where we are at in the process. It is encouraging to know how far we have come but the evaluations also serve the purpose of showing us what we must do in the future to learn the language well. We appreciate all of you who helped us by praying for our evaluation time.

I have posted a few pictures to give you a visual on how things are somewhat different here in Abidjan. The bowling ball at the top has a small chunk missing but believe it or not, it still shot down the lane fairly smoothly. Several of us celebrated a friends birthday at a hotel on Thursday night, the hotel is closed but they still have their bowling alley open. There are about ten lanes but only about four of the lanes work (or I will say they are"workable.") The distorted bowling balls, uneven lanes, and the fact that you could order a horse burger made the night a blast for all of us (I passed on the horse burger).

I took the next three pictures in our front yard. The man climbed the tree with only a machete and a vine. I thought he had a rope around his waist but later realized it is a large vine tied in a knot that he used to scoot up the tree with. He would have surely died if the vine had broke. It cost about two dollars to have him cut down the two large pods and inside the pods are hundreds of "seeds." The seeds are processed and smashed in a wooden bowl using a wooden mallet until it is mush. The mush is made into a sauce and is served over rice. We had fish (the whole fish, head and all) in ours and I kind of liked it but Teresa and Autumn didn't seem too hungry that day!

We have a week of church planter training coming up soon and as Teresa posted in the last blog, we are hoping to go the the beach for a couple of days after that. We really miss all of you so much but I am so thankful that God provides all that we need here in Abidjan. We are not in short supply of anything here including friendships. God had been so faithful to Autumn as well and has heard all of your prayers specifically for her.

Earlier today, I was reminded of our hope in Christ as I listened to the song "Days of Elijah." We used to sing this song all the time at Emmanual Baptist and what an encouragement to know that this world is not our permenant home. Jesus is coming back and what grateful hearts that should give all of us. Thanks for being our co-laborers as well as our friends.

Blessings,

Jon

Life in Abidjan

We just completed 5 days of One Storying Training. As tiring as it was, it was a great time of learning! Most of the people in West Africa are oral learners, so we learned how to take the scriptures and tell them in story form. You think no problem, I know these stories, but don't realize how much of the stories you don't remember. We went out in a local neighborhood and shared the stories (with a translator). Through this time we made many new relationships. Please pray for Raymond, he seems to be really seeking. He has agreed to allow Jon come back and tell him more stories. We prayed for an interpretor and met a man the next day that has agreed to do this. This man may know the Lord, if he does then Jon will be training him how to share God's word and if not he will hear the stories also.

The day before our training started we went to get our Ivorian drivers license. Wow, was this a process. We left the office at 7:30 am and returned at 5:30 pm. We spent 9 hours in line! Must I say, outside in the heat! We didn't realize that it would take this long, so we didn't take any sunblock, water, etc. So, I was cooked when we got home.

On Thursday we will be starting back in our French learning and two weeks after that we will be having Church Planting training. After our CP training, we are going to take a few days vacation and go to the beach. We have been very busy and are ready for a break!

We are so ready to be able to have long conversations with the people we meet! Continue to pray for our language learning and the relationships that we have made.

As always, we love to hear from you. Shoot us an email to let us know what is going on in your life.

Blessings,
Teresa

House church

We just enjoyed a great time of worship at home! One Sunday a month we have family worship. The other 3 weeks we attend an African church, but currently can't understand much of the sermon. This morning we listened to a sermon online from Adrian Rodgers and was greatly encouraged by his words. He spoke about being real toward God and others. God knows our hearts and we need not to act like something that we are not. God blessed us with his presence and a wonderful time of praise and worship!

Everything is going well in Abidjan. We have got ourselves on a schedule and are beginning to make some relationships. Please pray for my friend that I go sit and practice my french with 4 days a week. She is muslim. She loves for me to come and talk "small talk" with her but I don't know yet how open she is with me sharing Christ with her. Pray for me as I am trying to learn Creation to Christ in French so that I may be able to share with her soon. Jon is making some contacts in the area that we think God is leading us to labor first. Pray that God will show us that person of peace that will open his/her house for a Bible study, etc.

Our homesickness is getting better, but we still would love to come and visit you! This has made us even more eager to learn french because we can not leave our region until we have reached our level in the language. We pray that we will be able to visit you about this time next year. I know, that is a looooooong time; but, you can come and visit us at ANY time, we don't have to be fluent in language for you to visit! ;-) Seriously, if any of your churches would like to come for a mission trip to Abidjan, let us know. We would love to have you!!!

I hear that most of you got some snow yesterday.....boy, am I jealous! I wish you could just send a little of that cooler weather this way! The hottest time of the year is here, but the rainy season will be here in a couple of months. Hopefully, the rain will cool us down a little!

You can pray for us tomorrow as we met with the West Africa homeschool consultant. Autumn will be in 9th grade this upcoming school year (wow, I will have a high schooler!), so we need to look at what we need to do to be sure her schooling is done through an accreditated program. Our other option currently is the missions school in Senegal, and none of us is ready for that just yet! It looks like a great school, but we are still adjusting to being in Africa and aren't ready to be separated. Continue to pray that God will send Autumn a friend. We went to the American Embassey (very impressive) this past Wednesday to get our Ivorian drivers license and found out that there are several americans in the city. They gave me an email address to contact concerning things for teenagers. Pray that this contact will lead us to a friend for Autumn. She is very content right now, but we all know how important it is to have a friend your own age. God has blessed her with other younger MK's that she can get out and play basketball or a board game with. We are also very thankful for the internet. Autumn talks to her friends daily on Facebook and they stay up late every Friday night to talk over skype. All these little things have been a great blessing!

I want to leave you today with a song that we sang this morning:

Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary
Pure and holy, tried and true
with thanksgiving, I'll be a living
sanctuary for you

To the nations, we follow you Lord
be exalted, be adored
Come Lord Jesus and lead your people
to the nations, to all lands.

I pray as you go to church this morning that you will open your heart to the word the Lord may have for you.

Blessings,
Teresa

A trip to the Basilica

The Front Door!

Autumn and her friends

Autumn and me

Teresa and Autumn

Looks small from a distance but the columns are the ones pictured above.

Hello everyone,

We have recently finished our two weeks of urban church planter training and are now back into the swing of learning French. We visited several areas of the city with a veteran missionary from Mexico City and discussed so many possibilities in seeking God's wisdom for our work here. The city is divided by a lagoon into different sections so the layout is somewhat different from most cities. Our top priority this first year is to learn French well enough to do what we need to do, the city of Abidjan is second only to Paris in the number of French speakers in a city. Teresa and I have chosen one area of the city called "Treichville" and will spend time each week walking the area, praying, meeting people, practicing our French, ect... Treichville has a few hundred thousand people but I'm not sure the exact number. I was in the area today just looking and seeking God's specific will, we also are looking for those who are searching for truth. It is amazing to think that there are non-believers today who will be saved by God's grace and be future leaders for this city.

I am posting a few pictures of the Basilica in Yamoussoukro, Cote d'Ivoire. We traveled there with our team and our friends from Mexico City. Guinness World Records list it as the largest church in the world. The church cost 300 million dollars to build and has air-conditioned pews (which were not on when we visited!) The visit in itself was amazing because of the sheer size and design. The place is amazing but what a reminder that God does not dwell in buildings made by men but dwells in those who are born again by faith in Jesus Christ. A spectacular thing we saw but no comparison to the eternal life that is within us.

It has been some time since all of you have heard from us but please know we are quite aware of the blessings we receive because of your prayers, we have "breakthroughs" of various sorts and we know it is because the Lord has heard the prayer of those who belong to Him. My prayer for you is that God will strengthen you in these days ahead to pray and enjoy His presence. I know that you have many of the same struggles and the same enemy as us, but what refuge we have found in Christ. Hope you have a great week.

Blessings,

Jon

New addition to the family!!

Autumn got a early birthday present this morning.....a Yorkie puppy! Jolie ("pretty" in French) is 2 1/2 months old and a bundle of energy. Everywhere we walk she is at our heels....even when I am washing the dishes she is snipping my heels! I have to admit it makes Africa more like home with a dog running around.

We have been in urban church planting meetings the last two weeks. They have been very good and we have received a lot of wisdom on how to reach the city. We would love for you come and visit to see the city God has called us to labor in!

We have been out of French class for the last couple of weeks, so we are afraid of what we have forgot. We are eager to get back this Thursday so we can be sharing the gospel in french soon! Continue to lift our language learning up, we covet all your prayers.

Nothing much exciting has been happening in Abidjan...the heat is back after a week break! They say the hottest time of the year is just beginning! Wow, I thought it was always hot! Rainy season will start in April, maybe we will enjoy a little cooler days then.

I better go...the puppy is trying to chew on my computer cord! Send us email and let us know how you are doing.

Teresa

Life is busy......

Sorry that we haven't been as good on our blogging the last few weeks! We are finding that life is getting busier as we are settling in. We are still deep in language learning. Today I am really encouraged with our french, of course that is today...we will see what I say tomorrow! ;-) My mind changes everyday whether I am learning anything or not! We are out of our regularly scheduled language classes the next two weeks, we are spending these weeks learning about urban church planting. Pray that we will remember all that we have learned to this point!

I think culture shock has finally hit me...the last few weeks have been tough. I have a day where I am really homesick and then have a good day. Thankfully, we all have our days at different times. I realize this will be part of it, but the good days are always a blessing!

We are starting to get our house set up. We finally got a table and chairs and a hutch for the dining room. We also got a lazyboy recliner from a missionary that was leaving. Now we all fight over it! In the next couple of months, we will be getting a couch and the remaining furniture that we need. It will be good to finally get the house set up.

Continue to pray for our language learning and for Autumn a friend. There are two other teenage girls in the city for the next two weeks. Autumn has been having a great time with them. We know that God will provide in just the right time.

Teresa

Life in Abidjan

I know its small.....

Hi everyone! We are settling in well. Our teammates have been great, always willing to show us around or take us shopping. We are back to a schedule with about 6-7 hours a day of french. This consists of 2 hours with a tutor and then the remaining hours on our own studying or out in the community trying to practice what we have learned. I have a friend in the neighborhood that has a vegetable stand at the end of our road, she lets me come and sit with her to practice my french. Its feels good to actually be able to have a conversation (well, a small conversation;-). French is a tough language to learn but it is coming.

We had our second visit to the medical clinic this week. This time it was Autumn. She started running a fever on Monday night and it continued to get higher, so Friday morning we decided to take her to the clinic. She had a virus that caused blisters on her throat. After the visit we got her some medicine and she is doing much better today. I don't know what is wrong with her and Jon, they are usually the healthly ones and I'm usually the one always sick! Of course, I'm ok with staying well! ;-)

Our excitement for the week was a snake in our bathroom. It was small (ok very small, but a snake is a snake to me!). It was about 2 in the morning when I saw it. It looked like a worm, but it moved around like a snake. I went and woke Jon up....of course he said, "It is only a gecko." Well, when I finally got him up to look at it, he decided it was some sort of snake. After searching the internet, we found that it was the worlds smallest snake called a flowerpot snake. Of course Jon didn't want to kill it...he just wanted to let it go outside. You can see a picture of how small it was above.

Continue to pray for our language learning and for us to find Autumn a friend. She is suppose to go play soccer with a girl that lives down the road this afternoon. Please pray that it will go well. At the end of this month another missionary is coming to train our team for two weeks in urban church planting. He will be bringing his two teenage daughters. This should be a good two weeks for Autumn.

I have posted a couple pictures of the outside of our house. We love the screened in front porch! When we get some furniture, I will post some pictures of the inside.

Enjoy your cold weather! If it gets too cold for you, get on a plane and come to Abidjan! ;-)

Teresa

Settling into Abidjan

One view of Abidjan

Hello everyone,

It has been some time since I have done a blog. We have been trying to get into a regular routine (not really possible) and everything is going well. I was sick my first night in the city and spent most of the next day in the emergency room, the doctor ultimately treated me for malaria but they were not for sure the exact cause of my sickness. Many of you want to know what an emergency room visit is like in Africa but I will say they took good care of me and I was thankful in my distress that the hospital was here. You would not find this type of medical care in much of West Africa but Abidjan is very modern for the region.

The past couple of weeks, Teresa and I have been setting up house for the long term outlook. We are in a nice and spacious home and are using furniture, ect, from the mission board that they have allowed us to use. We will soon have everything replaced with our own stuff. Our teammates have been showing us around and teaching us all about Abidjan. Mike and Heather have two children and arrived one year ago, we will join them in what they are learning and doing in urban church planting. They have also just finished their one year of French learning and will soon start learning a second African language which we will also do after one year of learning French. As you can see, much of our first three year term is about learning the city, the people, the culture, and the language. That seems like alot to learn but all of this will be saturated with opportunities to share the gospel.

We hope and pray that all of you had a great Christmas fellowship with family and friends and again want you to know that we covet and appreciate your prayers on our behalf. I know many of you have given to the Lottie Moon offering this season which makes such an impact on our lives and ministry in Africa. We are able to live, drive, eat, set up our home, educate our daughter, and share Christ because of your giving. Thank you for this support that we see everyday and also for the spiritual support through your prayers that make so much difference.

I will blog again soon and give more insight into a typical day here in Abidjan. Have a great week.

Blessings,

Jon

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

Life at International Learning Center

Hello everyone,

We have started our second week at ILC and we are doing well. A typical day begins at 6:00am and we usually get to bed around midnight. We are learning things every day that will help us with cultural shock and ministry in Africa. Some of the emphasis has been on the priority of keeping our relationship with Christ first and foremost. We have had three days on spiritual warfare and the reality of adversity and opposition in the Christian life. We are being taught by passionate, godly men and women who have spent much of their life on the mission field themselves.

We are living in quad like housing which means we have an apartment that is attached to a large living area which connects to three other apartments. Everyone in our quad housing will also be going to West Africa so we all have something in common. Our church on Sunday morning will be in our living area with these other missionaries and their families. We all take turns leading in devotions and worship time through the week also. The cafeteria food here is good but we also have the option to drive off campus which we rarely do because of time considerations. We have many assignments to complete before our eight weeks are over such as living a weekend without electricity and cooking from scratch the entire time. There are also many homework assignments that include reading several books. I enjoy reading but Teresa is finding it challenging to fit into her busy schedule. There is no T.V. here on campus but I do not consider that a bad thing especially since we have all 10 seasons of Little House on the Prarie that can be watched on the computer!

Many people ask us how we feel about going to Africa now that the reality is just around the corner. We know it will be hard saying good-bye to family and friends, we are also learning day by day what the cost will be on the mission field. But the truth is, we knew this ten years ago when the Lord called us to follow Him. We have no regrets and believe the great promises of God's word. We are grateful that the Lord has given us eternal life and called us into His service.

We will blog again soon, perhaps Teresa will do the next one. Have a great day.

Blessings,

Jon

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Hello everyone. We want to give you an update on our first ever blog! We hope to use this as a tool to keep you updated and informed on what is going on in our lives as we serve Christ in West Africa. As many of you know, we left Midwestern Seminary in June and have been staying with Teresa's parents back in Arkansas. Central Baptist in Kansas City gave us a great send-off and Emmanuel Baptist welcomed us back to Piggott with open arms.

We were appointed by the International Mission Board in late June to serve in Cote d' Ivoire. We have been busy visiting with family and friends as we also prepare for our move. We spent a few days at the lake with Teresa's family and just returned from a trip to Florida and Mexico as we spent time with my brother and family. We are leaving in the morning to spend a few days with Teresa's brother in Nashville and then we are off to the Missionary Learning Center in Richmond for eight weeks. We will then come back to Arkansas for a final two weeks with family before leaving for Africa in mid-October.

We hope to keep everyone updated on a regular basis as we begin this next step into God's will. Feel free to leave a comment because we would love to hear from you. Also, check out Autumn's blog at http://autumn.westafricajourney.com/

Please pray for our travel the next few days, we will keep you updated throughout the next eight weeks as time permits.

Blessings,

Jon