Dear Friends and Ministry Partners,
I started writing you four nights ago from a hotel room in Ghana, where a newly restored computer enabled me to communicate easily for the first time in weeks. I enjoyed the first of four nights of calm rest.
Monday night was not so quiet. I slept in Bondoukou in a blacked-out house, listening to sporadic heavy and light arms fire between 6 PM and 11 PM. The next morning, 
a new government controlled the town, but all remained calm. The former rebel soldiers, now called the Republican Forces, who support the president elect, Ouattara, were joined by loyalty changing partners from the sitting president’s forces of defense and security. They moved through our town after overcoming government forces earlier that day at Laoudi-Ba, in much fiercer conflict. As I left on Tuesday, the borders remained open. Trading resumed and this new Republican Force moved south quickly to oust Gbagbo from power. Thursday and Friday, Abidjan has endured the heaviest fighting, with much heavy arms fire, looting, and pillaging. Residents take shelter or cower, just praying that it will be over soon. A UN worker died of a stray bullet hit. When I talk to our believers there, some have not been sleeping much at all because my Monday has been their Tuesday – Wednesday – Thursday, perhaps even Friday. Today, payback atrocities happen in the west and center of the country as certain ethnic supporters of the new government exercise their perceptions of justice. Bouna and Bondoukou, thanks be to God, remain calm.
Our family spent February in the divided country as events spiraled into greater division since the unresolved November election. Some old physical problems of Debbie’s reappeared with extreme symptoms so, on March 9, she and Corbin returned to Nashville. We thought she would need a simple hysterectomy to treat excessive bleeding and endometriosis. Because of the violence in Cote d’Ivoire, she was not able to safely seek medical treatment in Abidjan, as is normally possible.
After sending Corbin and her from Accra, Ghana, I returned to carry on ministry hobbled by a dysfunctional computer that could not print or connect to the Internet. 
Additional Sunday School and Community Health Evangelism materials were input to Microsoft Word format, and plans for some training as well as coordination for ordination and education committee meetings happened. Perhaps the greatest daily impact I was able to provide was keeping contact with our pastors and other faithful to encourage in seeing God’s hand in the conflict, as well as to take every opportunity to speak hope into the lives of other Ivorians - Christian, Muslim, and pagan.
After Debbie completed some tests, though, it became clear that her required surgery on April 4 will be more complex than anticipated. She asked that I join her for a 4 to 6 week recovery time. So, I’ve canceled meetings and fly to the U.S. on April 3 to help her. We were planning anyway to be home and all participate in Cason’s upcoming wedding in May, so it’s a three week advance on a planned absence.
By the Lord’s grace and help, we anticipate returning in separate flights to ministry in Cote d’Ivoire between the ends of May and July.
Remember our Ivorian brothers and sisters. Pray that the conflict will end soon. Where there is fear, there can be hope, love, and steadfast witness. Pray a hopeful witness our brothers possess overcomes the fears of reprisal and intimidation.
- Pray for the FWB congregations in Abidjan. Churches in other areas have continued mostly unmolested, but several Abidjan worship services were cancelled or interrupted. One the four fellowships did not meet during the entire month of March, due to violence in their Abobo neighborhood.
- Pray for refugees, numbering over 1,000,000 according to recent statistics. They seek a safe place to stay or asylum, as in the case of fleeing military and police I helped Wednesday. In western Cote d’Ivoire and Abidjan, there is an enormous need for clean water, food, and medical attention. Ask the Lord to indicate any further part of ours to meet this need.
- Request the Lord's blessing upon the 2011 World Mission Offering for Free Will Baptist International Missions (IM) during April. IM has faced many changes and challenges recently, a time when positions have been eliminated. Budgets are cut to the bone. We implore the Lord of the harvest to allow ALL ministries on EVERY field to be able to continue unhindered. Thank you for sacrificially giving to the WMO, which funds the majority of every missionary budget, helps field projects like Bible Institutes, and keeps the national office functioning and able to promote missions across the USA.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment