Sunday - Prayer Requests and recap

Sunday

I am putting the prayer requests first - feel free not to read the rest of it.  

Tomorrow is the big day as we finally get started.  They've had four months to pass on their previous training. 

• Pray that they all show up - maybe even on time. 
• Pray that they come both having passed it on and with their homework done. 
• Pray for us as we have a bunch of updates to their French version  - but yet it's not fully updated so there may be some confusion. 
• Pray for our translator - I saw today what a big deal it is when the translator isn't great. 
• Pray for our health.  We both are feeling pretty good but it doesn't take much to mess you up here. 

I slept great.  I have a big fan in the room and it is a life saver.  Wow! I love it. I got up at 6 because we had to leave the house by 630.  I took a cold shower (they offered hot water) and it felt good. I ate a banana (they offered more) and then we were off. 

The first Church is where Pastor Ann usually preaches.  She is Pastor Daniel Saheens wife. It's not big and was a 15 minute drive from the house.  They had power issues for most of the service so the little bit of music was acappella. Eric preached in the dark from Psalms.  Simple and great. Towards the end of his sermon the electricity came back on. For the worship and offering time they really went big.  They have some worship song that gets really loud after a bit - almost like introducing a starting line up for a basketball game. I wondered if should be cranking up those kinds of tunes for the offering back home.  Anyway.  

After that service Eric and I split up.  He went to another church to preach and I came back to the church that is where we stay.  We only had a piano player but he was pretty good and the piano had a drum machine so he added that in. He only plays in the key of C but he transpose the piano.  Probably only 40 to 50 people or so. I preached on Romans 12:1-2. The translator they gave me was not good. It was rough. Thankfully a guy there ended up taking over and it got better.  It was a struggle at first. 

After that Pastor Daniel and I ate lunch together - rice, beef, and a red sauce that was a bit spicy but very good.  

Then it was off to KFC to celebrate Esther's 9th birthday (just family).  They bought a bucket of chicken and some pop and fries. I felt bad eating it as they almost never eat there.  It was fun to see the kids love it. 

After tha we adults went to a once a month song service.  Pastor Daniel had found out I play bass so they got a bass for me.  Same piano player as previously and no drummer or anything else. We had fits with the electricity but finally it got going (they started singing without instruments).  They had one tune - 2 lines long. The lyrics were always one line repeated. And every 5 minutes or so he'd make up new lyrics. It was the simplest chord progression - 1 - 4 - 1 - 5 - 1.  We did that for over 90 minutes. I truly almost fell asleep while playing bass. Wow. I much prefer a different tune, song, and chord now and then. Still, it's amazing to think about every tribe, tongue, and nation worshipping God together.  I hope there are multiple chord changes when we do that for eternity. 

We came back here for a quick supper (usually it's just Pastor Daniel and Ann and Eric and I).  Supper was lots of fried plantains (amazing), some beef, some fruit (African bananas are so good), some sauce.  I am drinking a lot of water. 

Then we each got gifts out that we'd brought for the family.  They were super appreciative. It was really fun to see the kids get their gifts - almost speechless a few times.  I hung out a bit then Eric and I spent 15 minutes talking about tomorrow's lessons and praying.  

And here we are at the end of the day. 

I am so thankful for free texting with T-mobile and for the 2G data I get free.  I downloaded the Google map of Abidjan and it was super fun looking at it with the family (not sure they've actually seen a map of the city before).  

I can't believe God let's me do this ministry.  I cried over that thought today. It's a lot of fun and can be incredibly rewarding.  

We have a bunch of updates to their French version  - but yet it's not fully updated so there may be some confusion. 

Pray for our translator - I saw today what a big deal it is when the translator isn't great. 

Pray for our health.  We both are feeling pretty good but it doesn't take much to mess you up here.