Empowerment

One of the main thigs that I have been learnign in this trip is that it is not about me and not about doing everything myself. It is about giving as many resources as possible to people who can do more with it. I definitely think God stopped the Kimini trip from happening. God is so sovereign and so good. I have had a long past week and I have loved God so much for every second of it.

I want to apologize for the sporadic posts and not keeping you updated as often as i would like to. Internet can be hard to come by especially when a clutz breaks an internet stick (me). IO will give you some highlights of the past week.

Sunday, Mike headed out to the US to be with his family after his younger brother died. It was sad to see him go because I won't be seeing him for at least 9 months or so. I then got to spend a lot of time with my good friends Cassidy, Kimberly, and Becca. I really love all three of them and love their hearts for God. I am excited too because Cassidy and Becca live in Missouri so hopefully I can visit them sometime this year! Monday was a busy day where I went to one of the boys village with another missionary named Sarah and Sarah got the story of Marcel and his mom's life. It was so interesting hearing first hand of how a couple of the kids ended up in the orphanage. Marcel's dad was a cook and was pretty wealthy and one time when his father came home to visit his fmaily, one of the family members poisoned his dad's drink out of jealousy. And his father died a few weeks later from something wrong with his heart. And then Marcel's mom married his uncle and is now living in a small village. She did not have enough money or resources to send Marcel and his siblings to school so they went to the orphanage. And that is where they have been staying for awhile now.

It is so cool hearing stories like that! And seeing how God can work through difficult times! After going to Marcel's village Sarah and I headed to Pastor Valentines house and talked about what I can do with some of the money I had received for this trip. I was going into the meeting thinking of what I can do, where I can go, and how I can be actively involved in something. And then because of some wise words from Sarah my mind changed. I realized that it would be a waste of money if I went on a trip and just tried to do something in a couple days. I realized I should let Pastor use it in the wisest wa possible. And it turns ut he is the head of evangelsim in this region. And he needs new equipment for evangelism. Evangelism here is done by setting up sound equipment and a video screen and showing movies that show what God is like and how He can save. And their equipment is so old that sometimes when they get to villages they can't go through with the evangelism because the equipment doesn't work. So Pastor is going to be using the money for new equipment that will be used for many years to come and will bring about many salvations! I am really excited!

Tuesday, Wednesday and today have been spent either at a town called Ziniare or travelling to or from there. It has been crazy but good! The trip was organized by some French girls who have been here before. They are not Christians but really love the kids and the orphanage. They are taking each age group on a special trip to an area to do site seeing and fun activities. And I got to go with the youngest kids to an African zoo and also look at sculptures. It was interesting to see the difference between an African and American zoo. I can't explain it as well as pictures can show. But I got a lot of time on the trip to think about life as a missionary and what it is going to look like in the future.

I am so excited to get back home and start my future work as a missionary. Since it is only 5 or so years away. I can start now! There is so much to do. THe main thing that I want my missions in the future to be is empowerment. I want native people to be running things and me just helping. I want to make a difference by showing the way and then encouraging. I want to have a base orphanage and base church that I help start and be a part of and then I want many orphanages and churches to be built out of that by natives! I want God to be glorified and I want to be dependent on Him.

So I need a name for my future missions ministry. Anyone want to help come up with a name?

Please be praying for the French girls that they would come to believe in Jesus.

For me as I prepare to preach tomorrow at Pastor Jean Maries Church.

For Becca and Cassidy as they travel home to the states tomorrow.

And that God would move in evangelism Sunday night!