Ghana Field Journal — Missions With the Consfords
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Bonjour, We had a big storm a little before midnight last night. Just before the storm hit, the breaker box was back to its old tricks. The main…
Bonjour,
We had a big storm a little before midnight last night. Just before the storm hit, the breaker box was back to its old tricks. The main breaker kept tripping all night long. Danny slept all night, but the rest of us didn’t sleep very well.
This morning, we left the house around 8:00 to head to Bassam. When we got to the Posts’ house, Joe and Dan headed to Bonoua.
Gilbert and Danny had fun playing with the boys. Gilbert was worried about Nathan and “the big band-aid” on his leg. Nathan broke both bones in his leg five inches above the ankle. His cast goes up past his knee.
I helped Justin and Isaac with a couple of their school papers. Then, I played some games with Nathan.
Joe and Dan got home just in time for lunch. I’ll let Joe tell about what happened in Bonoua.
Dan and I had a list of ten major offices we wanted to visit and give a Bible to the head of that office. The first stop was the mayor. He was very friendly, and we had a good visit with him for about two minutes. He had his assistant come into the office and take our photo with the mayor. The mayor recommended that we go see the chief of Bonoua.
The chief of Bonoua does not call himself the chief; he calls himself the king of Bonoua. That was the first thing we found out when we got into his reception office. Then, the receptionist let us know right away that we were not welcome to start a church in Bonoua because he knew that we would preach against their traditions. He showed us a list of fifty charismatic churches that had moved into the city in the past twelve months. He told us that all fifty of those churches in his opinion were a waist of time and space. He said that the land those churches had would be put to better use as farms. We could not agree with him more and said that is why we wanted to come to Bonoua and start a church that was based on the Word of God and not emotional hype. He told us that in any case he was against starting new churches and that he would not even allow us to see the king. They are lost in darkness, and the light of the gospel has yet to shine in Bonoua. We were expecting Satan to fight, and he did not disappoint us. I still believe that the Lord wants us to do a work in this city, and He will do the fighting for us.
When we left the royal court, we went to the telephone office. The boss man had gone on vacation; so we just left the Bible and a letter of introduction with his secretary. The guard at the phone company was very glad to see us. He had been saved and baptized in a Baptist church that was started by a fellow missionary. He knew the national pastor in Anyama, and he was very interested in attending any Bible study that we start in Bonoua.
We left there and went to see the mayor of the county. (I don’t think that this position exists in the United States.) She was very friendly and offered to help us in any way possible. She is the one in charge of signing the papers on land that is to be bought. We told her that we are not interested in purchasing land at the moment, but in the future we would like to do that. We had a nice long visit with her, and she asked a lot of questions.
Missions With the Consfords
Ghana Field Journal — Serving the Lord for Over 25 Years
These daily journal entries document the Consfords’ missionary life across Ivory Coast and Ghana. Over 1,630 entries capture the church planting, the hard days, the answered prayers, and the everyday reality of following God wherever He leads. Browse the full archive or join the Consfords as a prayer partner.
We left there and went to see the Commandant of the Gendarmes (the state police). He was a little surprised that we would think of coming to see him and bring him a Bible. He promised to come to our first service. He was so proud of his Bible! He took it out and showed it to all of the gendarmes and told them that he had his very own Bible.
By the time we finished all of those visits, it was lunch time. Here all offices close from noon to 3:00. So, we had to call it a day. All in all, I think the Lord blessed today, and we are excited about what God is going to do in the coming weeks!
We had a good time of fellowship. We all moved back to Nathan’s room after lunch; he was feeling a little lonely. We talked and told stories for about an hour before we had to leave.
On the way home, we stopped to buy a better breaker box. Joe installed it when we got home. The main breaker was still tripping. By the process of elimination, Joe has narrowed it down to one breaker. He turned that one off for tonight until he can locate the problem tomorrow. The power has stayed on since he did that. As Gilbert says, “Fooray for power!” For some reason, he has been saying “Fooray” instead of “Hooray.” Danny even gave a “Yeah!” when the fan actually stayed on. He kept looking at it to make sure that it was still on.
A demain,
Joe, Laura, Gilbert, and Danny
To read our daily e-mail or our monthly prayer letters, click here.
To view our webpage, click here.
Our phone number is (936)755-4888. It is a U.S. number, but it rings on our computer here in Ivory Coast. Feel free to call us as often as you wish; it is free for us to receive these calls. When calling, just remember that we are five hours ahead of Central Daylight Savings Time.