Youth Week in Abidjan!

This week has been designated for all the youth in the district to put on the activities in the church, so our team has been working with them all week! On Wednesday we spent time staining pews, painting, and cleaning a Nazarene church with the youth. The process of cleaning the concrete floor was really different from the U.S. We started by using a palm branch handheld broom to sweep out all the sand and trash, then spread soapy water all over the floor. Next we used the handheld broom to "mop" the floor and scrub up all the dirt. The dirt is slowly pushed toward the front door and down the stairs, then two buckets of clean water are added to continue pushing the dirt and suds out the door. Finally, damp cloths are used to get the suds, and then towels to dry the floor... and all this is done by bending over and doing it by hand! It was quite a process!

On Thursday we attended a youth service and soccer game. Sarah and I got to giggling in the service when the little girls on our laps fell asleep... Her's started snoring, then my little girl twitched and her hand landed on Jordan's thigh! It was pretty hard to get ourselves back under control after that.

This morning I'm writing after an all night service!! We got to the church we cleaned around 3 yesterday and waited around for 5 hours without really anything to do... We tried our hand at singing, practiced some of our dance moves, and made friends with some of the children. Around 8 we joined the hoards of people walking along the highway and made our way to a restaurant to share dinner with the NYI council! We had chicken with tomatos and onions and aticca (similar to rice)! The service began at 9:30 and the church was packed! It was mostly youth, but several adults attended, too. The routine was - pray, sing & dance, worship, listen to a preacher, pray... repeat three times! That's right, it was a 9 hour long service!! The singing and dancing was definitely my favorite part, especially since I'm starting to recognize some of the songs, even if I don't know what they say! The sermons were difficult to stay attentive to, between listening thru an interpreter, it being the wee hours of the morning, and each sermon going over an hour... The first preacher, however, completely stopped a song to walk to the back of the church and tap a sleeping couple to wake up, then the song started back up! The last preacher had a tough audience, there were only about 5 people awake!! By the time the sun came up and the service ended around 6:30 this morning, I felt pretty accomplished!

We spent two hours walking around downtown Abidjan after the service this morning, then got to see the President's quarters here - the equivalent of the White House. Tonight we eat with Pastor Djédjé's family! Please pray for safe travels as we finish our program tomorrow, come back to the U.S. on Wednesday, debrief at El Paso, then come home on Sunday!!!