The Wild and Crazy Month of May

The month of May came and went in a whirlwind which left me spinning. By the end of the month I had made three trips to Abidjan (5 hrs away), I had said goodbye to Angelika (as she flew off to Germany) and I had welcomed the 15th installment of the French LICORNE peacekeeping forces to our campus. Of course within the same month I tried to bring a close to a year of teaching at IBB (Bethel Bible Institute) in Korhogo (2,5 hrs away) and with the help of a great team from the US, put the roof on a church in the village of Dagba (at least 2 hrs away from Korhogo). All of that and I had papers to grade, packing to do, exams to write, and meetings to be at. In the end all got done or happened as it were and I find myself in Germany where I finally caught-up with Angelika!

One of the interesting things of note that happened the 3rd of June which in retrospect should have taken place at least 4 years ago, was a match between Côte d'Ivoire and Madagascar in the run off to the CAN (Africa Nations Cup) which took place in Bouaké. Our star player Didier Drogba was there along with the rest of the national team to trounce the Malagasy team 5-0! Of course it was a real celebration as for the first time since the beginning of the war we saw government troops along with the presidential guard sitting along side the former rebels cheering their team on for the win. It was exciting to see many faces in the stands who, since September 2002 have not set foot in Bouaké, there for the first time in five years to cheer on the national team. As one of the government officials said as they were leaving the stadium, “We Ivorians are made for celebration not for fighting, we do much better at dancing than shooting!” That was well said and we are praying that we will find more reasons for celebrating than for shooting.

Of course the roofing of a church is always a big thing in a village like Dagba. We were there for a little less than a week which meant early mornings and late afternoons. We worked solid from about 7h00 until 18h30 each evening. The team that came was composed of college guys all of which are in the middle of paying for school and looking for how to finish out their college years without too much dept. Not only did these guys raise the roof and the necessary funds for traveling to Côte d'Ivoire, but they also raised enough to roof the church again this year. That means that they raised $6000 extra each year to bring with them for roofing churches. Wow! And it was simply our job to welcome them and do a little organization and everything else happened just like that. Our national crew led by Nicodème was fantastic and they worked also like dogs to get the job done and safely. Our crane worked again lifting each truss without drop any on anyone which is always a good thing!

At the same time last month while I was with the crew in Dagba, Angelika was working with a couple of girls who had come to work with orphans. They had a great time painting and spending time with kids who otherwise have few distractions. Two American girls where an amazing distraction for them and we hope that through their time that the orphans were impacted with the love of Christ but also that the girls were impacted with the needs of kids in Africa.

All in all, I think that next year I am going to try to skip the month of May. Oh yea, I got a year older in May as well, another good reason to skip it next year!