Bouake

Our trip to Bouake was absolutely incredible!!! We loaded up two nine passenger vans with students and the kiddos and drove through the potholes for hours on end until finally we were in the town of Bouake! The kids did great in the car which was such a blessing and the ministry that we got to do while on the campus there was refreshing and gave us a new passion for campus ministry once again since the campus here in Abidjan remains closed. We were able to meet with the English students and share the Gospel openly numerous times which was so fun as well. We were able to encourage the students that lead the ministry up there since there is no staff on that campus and that can be challenging and they communicated over and over how much they appreciated the recasting of vision and training that we were able to do while we were there. Craig did a great job leading a seminar about stress that was written by our good friend Tom Dorsch and with that we were able to have Gospel centered conversations with the springboard of how the Lord controls all and deeply cares for our every need. It was great to have deep conversations about the Lord once again especially for me since most of my ministry is home with our boys or with students who are already connected in the ministry here. We all really really loved our time up there and plan on traveling up there a bit more often when we return to work more closely with the students there and hopefully watch the ministry up there flourish!
On the way up we go through another town Yamoussoukro and it is tradition that we stop at the campus director's house there for drinks, to share the news, and to pray together. Here is Keenan playing with Bill their son.
Here is Craig teaching one of the seminars
The boys patiently listening to their Dad :)
Another picture back in Yamoussoukro. The lady that I am talking with is the directors wife and the sweetest lady with the most generous heart! She was absolutely delighted that I was pregnant again and even more so that it was a girl. She nicknamed our little one Blessing which turned into Bennie which is french for to bless.
Me sharing with a group of students while Keenan colored quietly beside me. The kids did so great as we were in conversation groups with students and wondered from group to group hanging out but not in the way at all. I loved having them there to hear the gospel being shared and at one point Keenan was with Shane's group and he repeated to the whole group, "Jesus died for you. For your sins." Amazing little boy.
Elliot making the rounds to Matt
Keenan leaning on Micheline
Keenan decided on this trip that he wanted to use the camera himself. A lot. There are about 500 pictures of ridiculous things but every once and a while he caught something great like this sunset. He was so proud of every picture, good and bad.
Elliot hanging out with Dad
One of Keenan's masterpieces
And another
And another


And another
The most flattering picture of me with all the thanks going to our little photographer :)
The boys were very much loved on the whole time!!!


This was a fun trick that I found on a blog. I put the camera on timer mode and then spun the kids around and around to catch their little faces. Many were blurry but a couple came out.
The cheering section for the soccer game that the students had. This was a funny moment because Shane asked if there were any cheers or chants that they normally did to cheer on your team during soccer games and Im pretty sure it was all lost in translations because the Ivoirians just started singing praise songs, dancing, and clapping. I was just laughing but they all loved it.


At the place we stayed there were turkeys everywhere and the boys thought it was great fun chasing them around the property


We all arrived home safe and sound, refreshed and tired all at the same time. It was a wonderful trip to have before the chaos hit with the next post :)