Is His Word Enough?

In Nehemiah chapter 8, we see the importance of God's word. So let me ask this, "Is God's word absolutely enough? Think about in the church, if we take away the air conditioning, the comfy seats, the cool lights, the rockin' music, is solely Gods word enough?" The answer is YES.

This summer I spent 2 months in Ivory Coast, Africa where every Sunday I was in a different church. No air conditioning. No comfy seats. No smoke machines or colorful lights. No crazy band and rock Christian music. None of that. All there was were the native Africans and their voices singing... dancing and praising God and studying His word together.

This summer through church in Africa God showed me His word is more than enough. None of the other things matter, His word is what matters. We put on a show in our churches of cool music and lights when none of that matters but our voices and spirits being lifted up to Him and studying His word. Because it is enough for us and it is what matters. 

Sitting in an African service, all in French with no translation half the time, drenched in my own sweat, I was happier than I have ever been. Because God showed me His word was enough for me and my soul. Through His word and the Holy Spirit, He spoke so much to me. Also, think about all the people who have to meet in secret to have church. They do not have anything except Gods word. I pray that we could all realize how important Gods word is and love His word like those risking their lives around the world to study it do.

-Hailey
Ivory Coast

Six Girls in a Hair Salon

I met six girls in a hair salon while evangelizing in S on Thursday. I shared the gospel with them. After I shared, they asked me questions: What about my past? Can I really begin to change my life?

I shared my testimony with them, being very open and honest. I shared verses from Scripture with them, such as 2 Corinthians 4:16, which says, "So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day."

As I was leaving, I invited the girls to our True Love Waits event on Friday and Saturday. Their boss told them that they had to work, so I invited them to church on Sunday. They hesitantly agreed to come, none of them even owning a Bible.

As church started on Sunday, I didn't see any of the girls. Discouraged, I tried not to think about it. At the end of the service, as I stood up to sing and pray, I saw two of the girls sitting on the back row. I could not stop smiling. My heart was so full of joy and excitement to see them.

After the service, they talked with the pastor and Ruth, the leader of the youth, who told them how they could get involved with the church and offered them Bibles!

My heart is so full knowing that, even after I leave, those girls are new in Christ, and that they have a church to call home.

-Hailey

Four Ways to Pray for Abidjan

Kids team

 We've been in Abidjan for almost four weeks now, and we have about four weeks left. Here are four ways that you can be praying for us:

1. Pray that God would draw people to himself as we share the gospel in different neighborhoods of Abidjan. "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him" (John 6:44a).
2. Pray that many young Christians would come to know and embrace a God-centered, Christ-exalting vision of marriage and its consummate act through our True Love Waits trainings. "'Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.' This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church" (Eph. 5:31-32).
3. Pray that we would be a blessing to believers here, both to the missionaries and to the natives. "For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ...Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing" (1 Thess. 5:9-11).
4.  Pray that God be glorified in all that we do—the worship of his name, the building up of his church, and the calling of those he came to save. "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Cor. 10:31).

Thank you for your prayers and support.

Student team

"For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen" (Rom. 11:36).

A Month in Photos

Carley teaching African youth

Lee and kids at a neighborhood fútbol match

Hailey in the neighborhood of Vridi

Carley, Hailey, and Lee with the youth of Treichville Baptist Church

Everyone from girls' night (except Lee)

Two Ivorian women in native garb

Carley teaching other African youth

What role are you going to play?

Why do we put so much emphasis on our calling to go? We ALL are called to go and to finish the great commission. Everyone of us has a part to play in the great commission. it is not whether or not you are called to go... it is whether or not you have a special calling to stay! If that is you, then you need to be praying and giving and supporting earnestly while staying. But if you are not called to stay then why aren't you going? Why aren't you playing your part in finishing the great commission and going to the nations? Isaiah 42:6 tells us to be a light to all the nations. Acts 20:24 says our life is worth nothing unless we finish the race and complete the task of testifying to the gospel of gods grace. Romans 10:14 says how can they hear without someone preaching to them?
 
So what is hindering you from reaching out and going? What is stopping you from being obedient to God's calling for you to GO? What is so important that you can not obey the Lord and go? 

We are so focused on materialistic things that we ignore and put off Gods calling for us to go to the nations because we are scared to make the sacrifices that are ahead of us when we do take the step to go out to the nations, living a simpler life, being away from relatives and friends. But in the end it all is for HIS GLORY! So that people of every tribe, every tongue, and every nation can worship and fellowship together in his kingdom for eternity. 

So... here is my question to you: What are you doing to play a part in finishing the great commission?
There are enough people alive today to finish the great commission. What role are you going to play?

I challenge you to pray earnestly about Gods plan for you and be willing to go wherever the Lord wants you and do whatever he wants you to do. Be obedient to what he invites you to do.

-Hailey

He Used to Confess Allah

“What do you believe?” Bamba asked the third woman. She said she was a Muslim.

Since it was the second day of Ramadan, he began to tell her that he used to confess Allah, that he would pray five times a day, and that he would make sacrifices to atone for his sins.

But he always felt empty, never being sure that Allah heard his prayers or accepted his sacrifices.

One day, someone shared the gospel with him, and God saved him.

He came to see that his righteous deeds were like a polluted garment, and that “none is righteous; no, not one.”

Yet he also came to see that “a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ," and he now lives in peace because of the freedom he has in Jesus.

I am thankful to have had Bamba as a translator. He loves the Lord and is a faithful evangelist. I am thankful that he was able to share his testimony with this Muslim woman after I shared the overarching narrative of Scripture—creation to Christ—with her and several others.

Pray that God would continue to draw Muslims to himself here in Abidjan, all for the praise of his glorious grace.

Adapted from a story by Carley

The Old, Weathered Canvass

Salif brought out the old, weathered canvass, proudly displaying his Styrofoam art. Holding a piece of foam, he poured gasoline on it, showing us how he shapes the material before he paints it.

Salif (right), his wife (middle), and sister-in-law (left) with Salif's children

Salif is an artist, and has been for at least twenty years. When we visited him, unfinished works, bottles of paint, and pieces of foam lay on his porch, scattered by his process and his five children.

Almost every week, one of the missionaries visits Salif at his home in Vridi, telling him a story from the Bible. During our visit, he learned about Nehemiah and the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. Afterwards, he retold the story in his own words, remembering most of the details.

Since he became a Christian two years ago, he has depicted several biblical stories in his work—the Good Samaritan, the birth of Christ, and the crucifixion—while also continuing to make distinctly African, tribal art.

Echoing Paul's words to the Corinthians, theologian Francis Schaeffer writes in Art and the Bible, "A Christian should use...arts to the glory of God, not just as tracts, mind you, but as things of beauty to the praise of God. An art work can be a doxology in itself."

Not all of Salif's works are overtly Christian, but they all depict some aspect of life—creation, coming of age, and community, to name a few, reminding us of the words of another theologian, Abraham Kuyper, who once said, "There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!"

As in all things, pray that God be glorified through the art of Salif and that Salif continues to grow in "the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence."

By Lee

And He said to the people, “Go forward."

Joshua and the Israelites marched around the walls of Jericho for seven days, and on the seventh day the walls fell. As the Lord did in that city, we prayed that he would do the same in B.

We went prayer walking this past week, starting at a church in B and walking to a church plant in A.

As we begin walking, I soon realized my eyes were not prepared for what I would see, my heart wasn’t prepared for the break it would feel, and my feet were not prepared to go into the streets where we went. There are no words adequate enough to describe the brokenness that I saw and the oppression that I felt. It was very, very dark, and the many physical and spiritual needs of the people were obvious.

We prayed for different things as we walked—that witchdoctors would have no power, that demons would flee, and that the Holy Spirit would call sinners to Christ.

We were overwhelmed at the poverty—the physical and the spiritual—of those who worship spirits, Allah, and other false gods.

When we reached the church plant in A, we went into a member’s house and began to praise the Lord like Joshua and the Israelites did.

We want the Lord to tear down the walls of Abidjan, one neighborhood at a time, and to rebuild it for his glory and his glory alone. Pray for this end.

-Carley

True Love Plans

Let me start off by saying that the Lord is amazing! He is so faithful and so good! This week, we met with pastors from two of the churches that we will be working with this summer to plan and to prepare for what's ahead.

We discussed True Love Waits, a series on biblical sexuality that we will be teaching to youth groups. Both pastors welcomed clear, scriptural teaching on this subject.

We are thankful that the Lord has given us this opportunity. God put us here for a reason and this is it—"testifying to the gospel of God's grace."

Pray that God would give us words to share and that he would give the youth understanding, that they might walk in greater conformity to his good, perfect will.

-Hailey

The Flooded Church

The rain fell rapidly, washing away the ground beneath us. The men struggled to keep the tent from collapsing under the weight of the pooling water.

Minutes before, we were in the car with one of the missionaries headed to a church plant in an area of Abidjan. I wasn't sure what to expect. It is the rainy season here in Abidjan, and it looked like the sky was about to burst.

When we arrived, I saw something I was not expecting. The church was a tarp held up by metal poles, full of scattered plastic chairs. It was beside a concrete wall—the wall of someone's house. I am not sure how to describe what I saw; it was an eye-opening experience. I saw the true church, the called out people of Christ who have been flooded with grace upon grace.

Together with our Ivorian brothers and sisters, we worshiped the risen Christ. We sang, danced, and shouted "amen!"

I did not understand most of what was said—the service was in French. God did, though, and our time was but a shadow of heaven—people from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation gathered around the throne of God in glad-hearted worship.

Pray that God would continue to draw people to himself in Abidjan, that he might be glorified through the worship of those whose sins have been washed away.

By Carley

The Man Behind The Bars

The man behind the bars stared blankly at us. We knew we needed help.

We had gotten settled in our neighborhood for the summer, and decided to venture out. We walked up to a boutique, asked the man behind the bars for a baguette, and received a blank stare. The little bit of French we learned at orientation was not enough; we needed help.

Thankfully, Momma Kassou, the wife of a local pastor and a close friend of our supervisors, agreed to give us lessons for a few days from 9am-3pm.

We quickly learned the difficulty of learning a new language. We weren't allowed to speak. Much like how a baby learns to talk, we simply listened to Mama Kassou as she pointed at objects and told us what they are.

The Lord is teaching us patience. As we struggle with language, we are growing as a team—we are growing in the Lord together. Frustrating language lessons have led to long talks and moments of vulnerability.

We are determined to share the gospel with the people here in their language. We have learned commands; we have learned the currency; we have learned greetings and simple questions. We are learning about and adapting to the culture of Abidjan, all with the hope of making Christ known among the people here.

Pray for us as we continue to learn French.

Au revoir!

-Hailey

Bonjour from the Abidjan Students Team!

Lee (left), Hailey (middle), Carley (right)

Team members

Carley - Florence, AL
University of North Alabama

Hailey - Atlanta, GA
Charleston Southern University

Lee - Hernando, MS
Southern Methodist University

 

• Pray that God would create white-hot worshipers of himself in Abidjan.
• Pray that local believers would be encouraged by the sure, sovereign coming of God's kingdom. 
• Pray that we would boldly share the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit with all gentleness and respect.

Soli Deo Gloria!