living hope ... again!

We were beyond blessed to have our home church (Living Hope Baptist Church - Bowling Green, KY) come again to Ayorou. In January, they came to conduct a VBS for the children and to prayer walk the 4 areas of Ayorou that are the most Songhai concentrated. For this trip, they focused in on those 4 areas and shared the Creation to Christ story with the men & women in those areas. They were able to see first hand how their prayers from January & continuing until now have been answered as so many were open to hearing the Gospel message. About 140 men & women were able to hear the C2C story and a handful of women expressed a deep desire to know Christ as their personal Savior. Isabelle & I have got a lot of following up to do with these women but we are very excited ... strap her to my back & out we'll go!

Here are some pictures from their time here. I will have to say that with the beginning of the week & actually the few days before they got here, it looked as if this trip was going to be the epitome of "flexible," but the Lord answered the prayers about our generator, healed those sick bodies & proved faithful as He opened the hearts & minds of the Songhai men & women. It was a fantastic week of ministry & life.

To Bryan, Bethany, Richard, David, Kelli & Christy: Mark & I cannot thank you enough for giving of your time & energy (in more ways than some people will ever know) to pray for & proclaim the Gospel to the Songhai. We cannot thank you enough also for ministering to us as you shared your hearts with us, let us share ours with you & spent many, many hours laughing with us & making us laugh. Thank you for loving on our little girl, too! We love you guys & miss you already!

To begin the week, the team unloaded suitcases full of food for us as well as gifts sent to Izzy by friends & family. This is only about 1/3 of the food they brought for us. Needless to say, we are a pretty happy bunch with all of these American goodies!!


The boys climbed Mt. Kendaji on their last day in Ayorou. Bryan and one of the boys who decided to hike it with the fellas just for the fun of it ... in 115 degree weather by the way!


And speaking of that 115 degree weather, Christy shows us all how to cool off a bit ... just make your skirt into a diaper!


Christy & Kelli with Mariama - one of the women who wants to follow Jesus.


The team, translators, Hassane and Izzy & I after they rode camels.


Bethany loves African babies!


Fact: White people walking down the street in Ayorou will always draw a crowd.


The team was very blessed with some unseasonably "cool" weather & late rains during the first part of the week. I guess "blessed" might not be the best word for the next day when the flooded streets created a little walking hazard.

more of the beach

Here are a few more pics from our day at the beach ...


Trying to teach Izzy how to hug a palm tree ... it's very important to know this!


Mark & Isabelle posing in front of the beach before we headed back to the city.


Izzy takin' it easy! It's a hard life!

day at the beach

We have been in the Ivory Coast for the last 2 weeks for our annual meeting with all West African missionaries. While there, we had a few days to ourselves before the meeting began and we took a day trip to a nearby beach. Of course, this wasn't Izzy's first time to the beach but it was her first time to try out a swimming pool. She didn't like it one bit ... I think the water was a little too cold. Unfortunately, we weren't quite talented enough to hold a baby & snap pictures at the same time. But we do have pictures of her recuperating from her pool time with her daddy! We have more pictures to post but our internet is acting up, so after 2 hours of trying to upload pictures, we were only successful with one. We'll try to do more the next time we're in the city.