Cote D'Ivoire

I want to start out telling the a brief glimpse of my dinner with a 'legend'. On our drive down to Bobo we passed village after village after village and my heart broke over the people, people who might never hear. How can the Good News be good news unless it's told? My heart longed to share with these people. We got to a certain point where I started to see churches emerge from the bush, church after church, all looking the same. And apon arriving in Bobo we were invited to dinner at Madame Kim's house. Madam Kim, a little korean lady who has commited her and her family's life to serving in Burkina has spent the last 5-10 years planting churches, building schools, encouraging, discipling, and training the next generation of Christian leaders. I quickly found out that these chruches I had seen over and over were all built by her, financed by her church in Korea and were reaching the unreached. In less than 10 years she has planted, built, encouraged, and discipled over 200 churches in the unreached areas of Bobo, along with 2 schools and countless other things. How could one woman have such great impact? I was baffled and amazed at the things she had done, and then I realized in listening to her speak a language completely unfamiliar to what she had ever known before, she had counted the cost and considered all else loss when it came to Jesus Christ and her surrender has given Him the means of changing a nation. I left inspired, sweetly broken, and praying my life would be such sweet surrender as hers.

This beautiful waterfall is found among many in the Burkina region called Banfora. Banfora is one of the regions on the list of unreached areas to reach through the new STMO program. (Let's just say I would not mind one bit serving in this area).

Banfora gets a great multitutde more of rain each year and is lush with sugar cane fields, corn, and rice. "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are very few. " Matthew 9:37

This picture pretty much explains the entire trip to Cote D'Ivoire, car sickness is an understatement, especially when riding with Pete. Reading, sleeping, and sitting were nearly impossible on this trip, but what an adventure. At one point when we were actually in the city of Yamoussoukro we got lost trying to find a 'short cut' and ended up on roads full of holes, and piles of dirt placed right in the center (very common in africa), with bushes growing up in the center of all driving areas, and I couldn't help to contain myself, laughter was all you heard for nearly an hour trying to find our way back to 'civilization.'

This is a very common road side food in Africa, corn cooked over an open fire. It's delcious and makes the perfect road trip snack, especially when restaurants, stores, and fastfood are non-existant.

The drive to Bobo was 4 hours and then from Bobo to Yamoussoukro was nearly 12 hours, once over the border of Burkina and Cote D'Ivoire we encountered 26 police stops. Police stops are not quite the same in Africa. Usually people are stuck at these stops for an hour or so due to the fact that the police who work there have no pay so they only way to pass through is to bribe them or wait it out, and waiting can take a good deal to time. Thankfully Pete, with his connections, got us a lassier passe, basically a permission slip (meaning literally to let pass) from the which said that no one had a right to stop us. When we arrived in Bobo the first night we immediately pulled up to a Marina market and out of no where this man comes over to the van and starts talking in hushed tones with pete and hands him a piece of paper, it was almost like a drug deal in our eyes.

The Ivorian Civil War was a civil war in Côte d'Ivoire that began on September 19, 2002. Although most of the fighting ended by late 2004, the country remains split in two, with a rebel-held north and a government-held south. French troops were brought into Côte d'Ivoire to help resolve the situation. Hostility increased and raids on foreign troops and civilians rose. As of 2006^[update], the region was tense, and many said that the United Nations and the French military had failed to calm the civil war.

Driving down the road in Cote D'Ivoire, we had to be super careful about taking pictures because every city, or village was swarming with soldiers.

We finally made it to UJAC the conference for all west African CMA youth, it is held every 2 years. Youth in Africa is considered to be between the ages of 15 and 35. There were students from Burkina, Mali, Mali, Cote D'Ivoire, Liberia, Gabon, Guinea and even Senegal.

There were over 1,000 youth at this conference, and what an Incredible sight it was. Words do not come close to explaining what it is like to Worship with brothers and sister unknown until this moment as you stand in awe of the Lord together.

This is the complex that held all 1,000 students. The conference was held at a very nice University in Cote D'Ivoire.

A group from each country had a play, song, or dance to perform This was a group who did a really funny and powerful skit that related to the theme, "What will you as a Christian do for an African in crisis."

I think the most powerful and indescribable part of this entire time was the worship, and the freedom I saw in the eyes of these people as they danced their hearts out to the Lord. Everytime the songs began people jumped out of their seats and without shame, no matter where they were, in the stands, in the chairs, in the center of the floor, in the hallways, they began to dance. Alone or surrounded by a group of people all you saw when you looked around was pure and honest worship to our Great and majestic God. My heart envied the joy and freedom they felt as I felt parts of my heart held captive to the 'cultural norm' of the American church which says clapping is the extent of what is acceptable, anything beyond is ludicrous.

One afternoon was planned as sight seeing, we were supposed to go to the Basilica, which is a Roman Catholic church constructed between 1985 and 1989 costing over $300 million, making it the largest Basilica in the world to this day. We headed out to the buses at 2:30, but due to the African way of life we were standing outside waiting until nearly 4 until anyone got on a bus. It was complete chaos getting on, there is absolutely no organization here and people were pushing and shoving and waiting for their name to be called. Finally our bus was full and ready to leave, then out of no where the engine turns off and people start to unload. Apparently the bus drivers were upset with the conduct of the students so they wanted everyone off, this happened 2 times and by 5:00 we left and gave up on the idea of getting there, only to see a bus pull out at 5:30. The cultural way in Africa is very different and sometimes stressful.

After our failed attempt at the sightseeing of the city we settled for sightseeing of the campus. This was a grand idea minus the fact that everywhere we went, every person at the conference wanted their picture with us and our contact info (Because we were the only white people). I am not over exaggerating when I say that we took nearly 800 + pictures with people. After 2 days my face literally hurt, something I never thought possible in my life. I have determined to never be famous after those 2 days and now have a great compassion for all who are.

The school had this incredible wall mural covered in tiles that was a hot spot for pictures, amidst the chaos of pictures with everyone else we were able to sneak a few of our own, as proof on our own cameras that we were there.

Jumping pictures were a hit, we even managed to get one guy to jump too, they loved watching us try to get the perfect picture.

Every night's worship formed into a 'congo' line for our King. Somehow no matter the song, regardless of the country every person was out of their seat, step in step with each other, united by the bonds of love and the desire to give praise to our King. This was one of my favorite dances, in which I participated (none of those pictures turned out at all). Letting those walls drop in my heart that said 'you're an american you can't go out there, you dont' know the steps, you will look like a fool,' was like throwing a 10 ton rock off my shoulders. I am free in Christ, because of what He has already done for me, who am I not to give Him the praise due to His name. This was a night of liberation, a night of Praise, in a language I didn't understand I found such unity and joy amongst my brothers and sisters who's hearts were focused solely on the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings, God eternal.


Through this entire week I learned multitudes about who I am in a culture unknown, I have thanked God for the ability to adapt and the patience needed to do so. I have been given a longing to learn the language so much more, something I have been praying about for quite some time. I have learned what it means to stand out and to be observed at every second, what a witness truly is and what it means to break down the walls of cultural traps to let freedom reign in my life wheter in the familiar or the absurd. I am beyond thankful for this experience and know that this is a time that has left an impact on my life.