Trip to Abidjan

We recently had our annual meeting in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. There all the missionaries in West Africa got together to discuss various strategies for effective entry, effective discipleship and church planting. We had time for worship and time to get together as teams to discuss other matters of ministry. Overall it was a great time to be encouraged by meeting other missionaries, hearing their stories, and sharing a little about my work with others.
Some highlights of the week include getting to meet many of the other journeymen. There are various teams of journey girls who live in remote parts of West Africa and work together to tell stories. These ladies are my heroes. They live in extreme conditions for several weeks at the time, teaching lessons in the native tongue of the people. I live in a village, but the living conditions are nothing like what these ladies deal with every day. And it was great to get to hear how they are making the stories come to life to their people.
I also enjoyed time with Erik, my other fellow journeyman. Erik's quite the character, and being around him always lifts my spirits. We got to talk about his classes and we discussed most nights what we talked about in large group that day.
One day all the single journey guys and girls went to the beach. I really enjoyed the trip to the beach-to wade in the dirty water, to throw frisbee, and collect sand dollars. We also had a nice lunch and had a good day together to rest. The only problem was that after the day in the sun I was so exhausted that I missed the next morning's session.
Another highlight was playing pool with Elliot, my supervisor. We have been talking about playing pool for awhile now. Finally we found a table to play on-although it was not a good table at all. The cushions were falling apart, the sticks did not have good tips, and the pockets were falling apart. But despite the conditions we were competitive and had a good time. Yea, I beat him bad one day. The next day he beat me. We're going to have to find another place to play here in Senegal.
I really enjoyed meeting all the missionaries that I came across in Abidjan. I made some friends that will last a liftetime and look forward to renewing those relationships when it is possible. My prayers are with you all!