Dear Parents and prayer supporters:
I hope those of you who have internet access were able to check ICA's
website for daily updates and pictures of our ministry in Sikasso the
past 5 days.
For those who do not have internet access, let me give you a quick
update.
We praise God for the safety in travel. It took us about 12 hours on the
road going up to Mali and about 10 coming back. Although they were
long days, we praise the Lord that we did not have major problems at
the border crossing. You can imagine all the paper work involved in
getting 64 people's passports stamped!
We praise the Lord for the great accomodations even though we were
camping in tents. The African church ladies from Sikasso cooked all
our meals for us. They even heated up water in the mornings so that we
could have warm bucket baths! On one occasion, they even prepared
French fries for over 70 people! Just before we left, we had a time of
sharing with these ladies and our hearts were warm as they told us how
much we had blessed them through our encouragement and enjoyment
of the food, as well as our vision for evangelism.
We praise the Lord for the opportunity to minister to over 1600 people
during our evangelism campaigns. Although we didn't see very many
direct results, we praise God for the seed that was planted and we rest
on the promise that God's Word never returns void. The missionaries
there told us that they were amazed at the way the local Africans were
so attentive during the Gospel presentations. Our E.E. teams also
reported about lengthy conversations with people who showed intenses
interest in the Gospel, even though only a few took the final step in
responding to the Gospel.
We praise the Lord for the times of FUN that we had as we were able to
have as we attended 2 of the African cup matches. Dressed in our
green, white, and orange t-shirts, we filed into the stadium to form an
Ivoirian flag and then proceeded to blow our whistles and join the many
Ivoirian fans who were there to cheer for Les Elephants. We received
many comments from the Ivoirian fans of how pleased they were to see
us there supporting the Ivoirian team. The president of the national
committee for the team supporters sent a representative over to talk to
us, telling us that we were very visible and how pleased he was with our
participation and support. He took our school name, address, and
phone number. Pray for an opportunity as a result of this contact!!
We praise the Lord for the way that He touched our lives and gave us a
renewed vision for sharing the Gospel. There's no better way to spend 5
days than in proclaiming Jesus. That's pretty hard to beat!!!
Thanks for all your prayers. Please continue to pray for the lives that
were touched and the seed that was planted.
In Christ,
Evan
Last updated 23-Jan-2002.