Where did the past month go? We hope it was a fruitful time for you, in service to the Lord. For us, it was exceedingly full of “busy” work, not our favorite kind of activity, but necessary. Nonetheless, there are answers to prayer and progress to report.
Answered Prayer
- In our last update, we asked you to pray for Romeo, Corbin's French tutor, who had begun a Bible study. He has since made a profession of faith in Christ, praise God, and declares he wants to do whatever the Lord wants him to do. On the other hand, he is struggling to make his decision public and reluctant to break unhealthy ties from his past life. Keep praying.
- Cara has received ALL the funds for her E-Team trip, is finishing her school year early, and flies to the States on June first. It takes a bit of courage to send our sixteen-year-old daughter on international flights alone ( Cote d'Ivoire , Belgium , New York , Tennessee ), but she is a sensible young lady and in the final analysis, we are not the One who keeps her safe, anyway.
Three Funerals and a Wedding
The CHE team in Goumere had a slow month because of 3 funerals and a wedding, but will hopefully be back on target this upcoming month. One of the discouragements for American missionaries in the African culture is how much time funerals and weddings take up for all the church members, not just the immediate family and close friends.
In the case of the wedding, the Goumere church assisted a young Christian couple from a nearby village with only a few believers. They took the couple under their wing and helped with everything, since there is no pastor in the village. For those of you interested in African culture, at the very end of this email we have two paragraphs about Christian weddings and how we participate.
Tool Time
The 40 days of work on the house of our CHE partner, Alice Smith, are coming to a close. The workers will finish on time or even a couple of days early, a near miracle! Verlin has supervised the work on average from 3 to 6 hours daily, six days a week. “Monsieur, I broke a drill bit. Madame, we are out of soap to scrub the floors.” It is a HUGE blessing to live so close to Alice 's house, allowing Verlin to “pop” in at any time to check on progress. We are happy to help, and look forward to our American CHE team being together in the same town for ministry. Alice hopes to move to Bondoukou the first week of June.
Every repair project also affords opportunity to share Christ by word and lifestyle. Most of the masons, carpenters, metal workers, painters, plumbers, and electricians in our part of Cote d'Ivoire are Muslim. Some on this job site are new to us; others, like Yaya, have heard missionaries witness for years. We earnestly pray that Christ's gift of salvation will penetrate their hearts before they pass into eternity.
Our family has been burdened for the Muslims in northern Cote d'Ivoire since we arrived in July, 2000. Pray with us that a CHE team will develop to reach Muslims, as well as the one we are training to reach Koulango and Lobi villages. The need for Christ among Muslims is as great now as when our mission first came to Cote d'Ivoire in 1958. Some individual Muslims have been saved occasionally through witness, but not one church has been established among them in our northeast region. Only one other American mission group has one couple working among Muslims in our whole quadrant of the country. We know of no African Christians making a unified effort in this area, and yet Bondoukou is a town filled with mosques.
Heave Ho, and Where did the Water go?
In the past 3 weeks, Verlin has also spent over 40 hours getting a mission house in Goumere (20 minutes south of Bondoukou) ready to donate to the African National Association of Free Will Baptists on June 1st. Our field council received stateside permission to do this, so the property had to be cleared of mission items and paperwork transferred. A leak in the water main was found in the process, and so that had to be addressed. And of course, several times the government workers who were needed to handle the paperwork were not in their offices. WAWA ( West Africa Wins Again).
Other activities this past month included our missionary field council meeting, the ordination service of Pastor Adou at the Bondoukou church, CHE meetings, preaching, visiting neighbors, and investigating the school situation for a possible Bible class in the elementary school down our street.
On the Construction Crew
We have listed hours spent doing different jobs in this email, not to complain or boast, but because many people do not realize how time-consuming daily life is here. If you need a screen door for a home, you do not run down to Home Depot and buy it. You find a metal worker of good reputation, provide him the metal, screen, and pattern, and he builds it for you, hopefully within a week or two. If you want hamburgers up country where we live, you bake the bread, buy the beef at market, clean it, grind it, fry it, and clean the lettuce and tomatoes in diluted bleach water before eating.
On rare occasions, life and ministry seem to crawl, but usually the pace is so fast that we can hardly catch our breath. The important thing is that Jesus is building His church, and we are blessed to be on the construction crew! Thank you for helping send us to His work site in Cote d'Ivoire .
Hammering and sawing at His command,
Verlin, Debbie, Cason, Cara, and Corbin Anderson
PRAISE
- Romeo made a profession of faith, but still has numerous barriers to living the Christian life. Pray for courage.
- Cara's funds are raised and she has met her school goal.
- Peace in Cote d'Ivoire . Elections are supposedly to be held this October again, but many are saying it cannot be done. Things are very calm locally, for the moment.
- The CHE team in Goumere, that they will be able to complete their village research this upcoming month and move on to choosing a village.
- Missionaries (teams of American and/or Africans) to minister to Muslims in Cote d'Ivoire .
- Safe journey for Cara as she travels alone to the USA next week.
- Healing for Verlin's left ear. An infection keeps recurring, causing pain and fatigue. We are trying the home treatment an ear specialist in Nashville recommended, hoping that will be enough. Verlin had several major surgeries on that ear in his youth.
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