Birthday Surprise's and Updates

Greetings everyone! I hope while you are reading this that the Lord is giving you rest and peace from school and work since it is finally SUMMER VACATION!! Which, by the way, I completely forgot existed. So when I was in-putting the final grades for the pastors in training at Bethel Bible Institute and see a bunch of them leaving with suitcases, I thought we were being evacuated for something haha…yup…it’s summer! So there is just too many good things going on right now and I want to share a little bit about each one.

Koko Church
On June 13th there was a roof pouring project at AEBECI’s Koko church. People arrived starting at 5 am and working till about 8pm. Hundreds of people passing buckets of cement on scaffolds and sketchy beams. I literally do not know the words to say about how amazingly cool this day was. The unity of the church was absolutely phenomenal. My friend CJ, who attends the Koko church here in Korhogo, has some pretty cool things to say about the roof pouring along with a few pictures. So check her blog out!

Birthday
My 21st birthday! This was just another normal day at work in the morning and then I was suddenly kidnapped by my two friends, Devin and Chazz, from Bouaké. They literally picked me up and put me in the car (it scared me) and took me to our favorite restaurant in town. There the owner, Rodolph, surprised me with my picture on placemats, a HUGE cake, salad, yummy frozen fruit drinks and a photographer! I was blown away by all of the surprises! It was an awesome Africa birthday the best I’ve ever had :) and the cool thing about it is that it is totally something that my friends would do in the states and something they did for my brother George. [Happy birthday to you as well brother! Love and miss you like no other, you being here would have TOPPED it off]

IBB Guest House
The Korhogo Krew had a last meeting/lunch time with Rod before he and his wife leave for Germany. So I went shopping in the market and came back to the guest house and was able to cook American style food in an American style kitchen! It was delicious. Afterwards we just spent our team picking Rod’s brain, talking and just spending some time together before they leave. The next day Naomi started not feeling well and here in West Africa it is unthinkable to leave a sick person by themselves…so the Korhogo Krew came back to the guest house and just had a kick back day. It was an extremely needed and great day of rest. We were able to watch a movie and eat lunch together again.

Scripture of the Week:
“It is a change of heart produced by God’s Spirit. And a person with a changed heart seeks praise from God, not from people.” Romans 2:29b

God is continuing His path emphasizing that it is His Spirit moving and working in me, it is not by my works that things are accomplished. As always God is concerned for our hearts. He is also continuing to teach me about seeking His praise ABOVE all else. I always seek to please others, when the only thing I need to be worried and focused on is seeking my Father. Like the popular Christian song “How He Loves Us” says…He is jealous for me. He’s also jealous for you too…

Prayer Requests:
-I would be here and not distracted by things in the states or questions about what’s next
-Pastor Kéo, he is still in the states and the last time I heard, the presentations and his travels are going well and are being received well.
-EVERYONE is still sick!!! With rainy season comes mosquitoes, and with mosquitoes comes malaria please pray for our health, rest and energy
-As we are creeping up on our 8th month living here in Cote d’Ivoire, things start to feel normal, please pray that we would not become comfortable in our faith and complacent with our ministries. It is so easy to fall into a normal routine instead of being pushed and sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s leading

As always I really look forward to hearing about you and what the Lord is doing in your lives. Please know that I pray for my supporters every Friday night, so if there is ever anything I can be lifting up for you please shout it out. And also just let me know what’s new with your life. My favorite thing about my birthday was all of the encouraging notes and updates from my friends and family in the states…so I think we should keep that up! Haha. Take care and God bless you, can’t wait to hear from you! :)