One Living Room, Five Continents

When we were in Dakar, some co-workers who used to live here told us about their favorite Abidjan restaurants, including a great little nems stand we are now big fans of. Nems are mini spring rolls, and this place -– which is just a little take-out stand on the side of the road -– also sells fried rice, beignets (think shrimp in a thick layer of batter –- not New Orleans style beignets) and other Asian food. We can feel the grease clogging our arteries as it goes down, but we love it!

So last night we sat eating Asian food in a friend’s house in Africa, watching USA vs. Italy in the World Cup, complete with a South American referee who was VERY liberal with his red cards (those of you who don’t know what we’re talking about probably don’t really care, so we won’t bore you with an explanation). That’s flavors of five continents, all in one living room! Where else but on the mission field?

In case you’re getting concerned that all we’re doing is watching the World Cup, we assure that we ARE actually working this month. Deron has been:
-- e-mailing new missionaries to address concerns or questions they have before arriving on the field
-- calling people he already has friendships with or has counseled
-- preparing presentations on “how to keep your marriage alive on the mission field”
-- helping with media projects, particularly a website and photo directory for our annual regional meeting, which is coming up the end of July

My main tasks right now are:
-- preparing prayer guides, programs and other paraphernalia for the regional meeting
-- creating materials to recruit more missionaries, prayer support and short term volunteers
-- developing updates and additions to the West Africa website
-- working on our internal newsletter, which is sent once a month to all West Africa missionaries to keep everyone informed of what’s going on in the region

If you are interested in getting a bi-monthly newsletter with stories and prayer requests from West Africa, you can sign up for it at www.gowestafrica.org/pray (by the way, I don’t produce this newsletter but it is good!).

Also, in early Nov. there will be a West Africa Summit in Missouri. If you and your church are interested in helping reach the millions of lost people in West Africa, please consider attending to learn more about opportunities for involvement. You can find out more here: http://www.mobaptist.org/home/WestAfricaSummit.