What We've Been Up To

The problem with blogging is that when there's not much going on, there's plenty of time to post, then when there's a lot going on, there's no time to post. That's where we find ourselves this month. Busy busy busy...but in a good way.

The kids and I finished up school on July 11th. That was a relief! Now I'm frantically getting lesson plans ready for the 2008-2009 school year starting at the end of August. We're bound and determined to get started on time this year and finish on time. Check with me in a few months and ask how well we're doing. Ü

Our teammates, the Bledsoe's hosted 5 summer interns this year and we spent some time with Casey, Amber, Scott, Teresa and Melissa. We enjoyed having them around, especially for our annual Jones 4th of July complete with tug of war, 3 legged and sack races and all the fixin's of an American picnic. It was great fun. We had them over for dinners on occasion and movie nights and got used to seeing them at the clinic, or on our couch in the afternoon playing with our kids. They all left this week, and we were sad to see them go.

We also hosted a team from Springfield MO through Extend Global. Erin, Debbie, Nicole and Jeff spent two weeks with us and were such an easy team to have around, we wonder if they really "got their money's worth". They helped us visit our Djoula Muslim friends and invite them to Tess' baby naming ceremony on the 20th, then they helped us prepare for the great event. I use the word "prepare" loosely, as we invited 25, "prepared" for 40, and ended up hosting between 60 and 75 people. Talk about making a meal stretch!

Tess received the Djoula name "Rokia" rhymes with "Nokia" and although i'm not really keen on the name, we were able to host our Djoula friends, share in one of their traditions, and at the same time share the gospel with them, as one of our church leaders shared a message from the Bible before the ceremony began.

While the Extend Global team was here, they did a LOT of praying. Everywhere we drove, everywhere they walked, every courtyard we visited, they prayed. We were able to see some amazing fruit to their prayers, one of which has to do with the Bible storytelling sessions with Salifou and Sansan at the car wash. I'll let him tell you more about that later, but God is working and it's amazing to be a part of it.

If you're interested in reading about the team's trip, their blog and photos can be found at http://www.web.mac.com/john_erin. It was great to have them and we hope they went away touched blessed from this part of the world.

Coming Saturday July 12th!

Do you remember that we had begun Bible storytelling with a group of HIV+ patients who are members of a support group? They're part of a group known as ''People Living With AIDS'' or PLWA. Well, we've been reorganizing our storytelling group since our return from Ghana and having baby Tess. A new group will begin meeting this coming Saturday! Eight people signed up in June and we're going to try to meet every-other Saturday. To make it easier on them, we'll plan to serve a little meal before everyone heads home.

Please be praying for this group. One of the original members will be joining us, and this is a mix of about 2/3 Muslim and 1/3 Christian. We'll furnish you some names once we see who attends. But pray now for their hearts and their homes touched by this awful illness. Thanks!

Our Lopsided Bible

Monday morning's chronological Bible storytelling session with SALIFOU went well. We were in Exodus 19 & 20 and taking a good look at the ''decalogue,'' aka the 10 Commandments. Thank you for praying because it became a good lesson on the foundation of the whole Old Testament, or Alliance as we call it in French. Read Ex. 19:3-6 and you'll see what we're talking about.

The Bible is, admittedly, ''lopsided.'' A good three-fourths of the content talks about the old covenant formed with ancient Israel and how they were incapable of fulfilling their part of the covenant agreement, i.e. obeying the law. In a nutshell that's the story of the Old Testament: God chooses Abraham and forms a chosen people, gives them the Law through Moses, and Exodus through Malachi shows how they messed up royally.

So I was trying to help Salifou, Kassoum, and San-San see something very important for people with virtually no Bible background: if three-fourths of the Bible talks about the old covenant, what's this last part in the back, the ''new testament,'' for anyway?

Pray for us as we meet again Wednesday morning, about 5 am Missouri time. Thanks!

It's July 1st! Happy Canada Day, to our Canadian friends up north!

Bible storytelling with Salifou continues to move forward. Since we meet outdoors the rain poses a problem some days. But yesterday we listened to the parting of the Red Sea. It might surprise you how many people living in Ivory Coast have never actually seen the coast, nor the ocean. Nevertheless, this most famous of miracles from the Old Testament is still pretty impressive when people hear it for the first time.

We're moving toward the 10 Commandments, of course, and the importance of God's covenant with a (dis)obedient people. Please pray that our Muslim listeners will begin seeing that human effort to be good can only take us so far. Pray they understand that salvation is free and it's only found in the spotless Lamb of God.

Attending Monday 10 am June 30th was Salifou, Kassoum, Stephan, and a new guy named San-San. He's Lobi, a people group up north who is Muslim-background. He was very interested and wants to attend the next session. Lord willing we'll meet Thursday July 3 at 10 am GMT.

On a personal note, this past Sunday, June 29th, was a big day for me (Damon). It was my 30th ''rebirthday.'' (You would have never guessed I was ''thirty-something'' huh!) The day gave me a chance to tell the kids how I became a Christian, why and how I was baptized at Gasconade Christian Service Camp, and how the Lord has been so faithful. It also made me think of people who had such a big impact on my life: Mom and Dad, Crocker Presbyterian Church, Gary & Linda Squires, my best friend Little Gary who took me to the Christian Church, Mac & Reva McMillan, Charlie Worstell, and others. What John 1:16 says, ''From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another,'' seemed especially true on Sunday as I thanked God for the significance of 6/29/78. It's part of my personal story of what Jesus did for me, and part of why I'm here in Africa.

Thank you for helping us tell the Old, Old Story of Jesus and his love!