Gospel For Africa

For those of us who are abiding in Jesus Christ, our world is coming closer and closer to perfection. (1 Thess 4:15-17)  But for those who reject Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, their world is coming closer and closer to destruction. (1 Thess 5:1-10) 

It is difficult for us, here in Cote d’Ivoire, to keep up with the Presidential election in the USA and the economic crisis around the world. It seems that we have been far removed from all of these things. When I read news about what is happening the reality of it seems distant, like a story about some far away place that may not even exist. We have only been in Africa for a little over one year, how could so much happen so fast here and around the world? As the time of the return of Jesus for His Church approaches the Bible tells us we will see even more rapid changes in the world and the world system.

We have been reading about how home prices world wide have fallen dramatically, devastating people’s life savings. The banks are failing all over the world and food prices are rising. Gas in the USA rose to almost $4.00 a gallon and then went back down to $2.55 within several months. People are scared and beginning to save their money instead of buying everything they see on television commercials, which is actually a great idea. All of this seems strange to us now, because what we used to think was normal has been completely altered in our minds and hearts forever.

Living here in Cote d’Ivoire, we see that gas is about $6.00 per gallon, a new car would cost you 200% more here than in the USA. Mortgages are not an option unless you have over 100% collateral or over 50% down payment and then you must pay in full in 5 years. Everything is paid in cash here. If you can’t pay cash you do without until you can.

Pictured here is a 5000 Franc CFA note. It is worth about $10 U.S. Many Ivorians make between $15 and $30 U.S. per week.

If you ask the average person here about losing their retirement savings they would probably think you were making a joke. Officially there is a 13% unemployment rate here in Abidjan, but when you ask people if there are any available jobs they will tell you no. There are large groups of young men and women standing or walking about in every area of town who have no jobs. University graduates can’t find employment and often seek to leave the country to find success in their chosen field of study. Most people make a living buying some small items and reselling them on the streets.

When you go to the doctor here you must bring your drugs and other items like bandages with you so the doctor can treat you. The hospitals do not have enough drugs to offer to the patients. You must pay in advance before the doctor will see you, even if you have insurance. Then you will wait for many months before you get a refund, that is, if your insurance company decides to cover your prescribed treatment.

I now know that the life I led growing up in the USA was a truly blessed life. I wish I would have traveled earlier and lived in places like Abidjan or Accra so I would have appreciated all that I had.

We all need to pray that the Lord will balance out these differences somehow. The Lord said we would always have the poor with us, but we must always make an effort to help the poor.

We believe it all must start with the Word of God. We are here teaching the Word of God to all who will listen. We believe that the Word of God will change hearts so radically that the person being changed will have a completely new start on life. The new life they receive is eternal in nature and therefore not limited to human ways of thinking and dealing with problems and issues. The person who is born again is a new creature in Jesus Christ. The old things have passed away and all things have become new.

Jesus Christ living in all of us who are born again is the answer to every problem facing our society today. Our financial situations may never improve, but Jesus will enable us to survive and thrive even in the midst of the worst economic conditions until He comes to take us to heaven with Him.

Student Christian Fellowship:
For the past 5 months we have been teaching the Word of God to students at the University of Cote d’Ivoire. We have been asked to lead the Student Christian Fellowship on Campus. The University has also asked us to consider helping them establish a student resource center. This will be a large undertaking for us but it is a small thing for Jesus to accomplish.

The student resource center will serve several purposes. We will use the facility to continue teaching the Word of God to the students and faculty. The University has asked us to help supply a computer lab and a library. For example: the English Language Department has about 7,000 students enrolled. They have two computers for the entire department. They need english books and multimedia resources. They now have one bookcase with about 75 books which are outdated for the entire department. So, we want to supply computers and a computer network for them. This network needs to be supported by someone who is called by God to be a full time missionary network administrator. We also want to provide a library, with a full time missionary librarian for them. We will also provide other staff for the resource center as needed.

The University will provide the building, utilities, maintenance and security. We will utilize the resource center to provide english language instruction, computer training and Bible teaching throughout the week. We will also offer special training classes for those interested in some more in depth Biblical study. We see the resource center becoming a powerful tool in the hands of the Lord to bring many of this nations youth to Himself. It will be a place for the Student Christian Fellowship to meet.  They will be able to provide a place for christian entertainment and fellowship. There is nothing like this in all of Cote d’Ivoire right now.

Calvary Chapel Abidjan-Riviera
We have started meeting as a church named Calvary Chapel Abidjan-Riviera. Our group is small but growing. One of the difficulties we have discovered as we meet on Sunday afternoons at 4 pm is that in this culture, Sunday afternoons is a time for family relaxation and fellowship. We are meeting in a local church and can’t meet there in the morning as the other church is already meeting there. Pray that we will find a new location to meet in soon. We also meet in a small home group on Thursday evenings.

Evangelism Update:
We have started evangelism outreaches in the local neighborhood where the church meets. The first day we went out door to door 25 persons prayed to receive Jesus. Two of the men attending our church have taken an interest and are now developing a regular evangelism outreach schedule. At the University we have been blessed to see over 100 students pray to receive Jesus as Lord and Savior. Some of them attend our church service but many of them live too far away and can’t afford the taxi fare to come. Pray for them.

Translation Update:
Praise the Lord for He has supplied several new volunteer translators. A brother in France, another in Ghana and two more in Togo. Pray that the translations of Pastor Chuck’s through the Bible series will be completed soon. We want to see the Word of God go forth in french speaking Africa via daily radio programs and also produce a printed Bible commentary for french speaking Pastors.

Trip to Ghana:
As I write this newsletter to you my friends, I have just returned from a trip to Ghana. Cote d’Ivoire borders Ghana to the west. We were led to go to Ghana for two reasons. I was invited to attend a conference at the Calvary Chapel Bible Training Center in Prepease and I also needed to find someone to repair the 13 year old transmission in our Jeep. The trip was a complete success thanks to Jesus. He led us to all the right people and everything worked out fine.

The drive was quite long. It took 15 hours to get there and 13 to come back. The roads were very rough at many points and the going was slow. We traveled a total of 900 to 1000 miles over the entire trip. The conference was great. The school is sponsored by two Calvary Chapel Churches in the USA and there are now about 95 students attending. They learn the inductive study method and also go through the entire Bible with Pastor Chuck Smith on cassette tape. Ghana is an english speaking country.

I was blessed to see the school in operation because it is very similar to what the Lord is directing us to do here in french speaking Africa. I hope to be in close contact with the brothers running the school so I can lean on them a bit for advice as things progress here in Cote d’Ivoire. There were several young men who have graduated or are about to graduate from the school who live here in Cote d’Ivoire. We will be meeting with them in the future to see how the Lord might want us to work together.

Many of you have been praying that we would be able to repair the Jeep transmission. I am happy to say that it is repaired and running very well right now. We ended up going to a city called Koumassi. It is the auto repair capital of Ghana. When we arrived on the outskirts of the commercial area of the city I was amazed to see lot after lot of used car parts. Some lots have stacks of auto and truck engines 5 or 6 engines high for about 20 square yards. New parts are very hard to come by so everyone buys used parts. You will find one lot with nothing but engines, another with transmissions, another with drive train parts, another with front and rear axles and so on.

We went to six places before we found the transmission we needed. If I hadn’t known the part number we would have ended up buying the wrong part for sure. We found the exact model and it fit right in place. The mechanic was known as the Master. Everyone we talked to said he was the best transmission mechanic in all of Ghana. He repaired everything in 1 1/2 days.

That’s all for now. Until next time, thank you Jesus for guiding us and providing for us. And thank you my friends for loving us, and supporting us with your prayers and finances.

Chris, Noelle and Louis Jones

Filed under: Notes to myself