John Howland - RCI STInter

Ministry work in West Africa has proven to be as challenging as it is rewarding. My name is John Howland, and I am a STInter (short-term international intern) with Cru here in Cote d'Ivoire, Africa for the next year. I recently graduated from the Colorado School of Mines with a B.S., but I am excited to start off my real-world experience doing missions work with Cru. 

The times here have been challenging mainly because we are still trying very hard to find direction for our ministry mission to reach college students. Two of the main universities here have been closed down and will not reopen until next fall, but we are still going through the doors God has been opening in order to continue reaching college students for Christ. It has also been hard for all of us STInters to adjust to a new culture that we hope to somewhat assimilate into in such a short time. We truly believe though that it will benefit our mission the more we learn and can thrive in this new environment. 

However, the times have been extremely rewarding because God is still moving in the midst of this struggle, and has been revealing ways for us to minister. For example, we are in the process of starting a new partnership with the most prestigious high school in Cote d'Ivoire where we hope to be able to share the love of Christ with the students through English classes and other activities. Also, as of quite recently, we will be taking part in a huge Bible study of college students that has been going on in a recently discovered apartment complex. Our hope is to come along side them and help influence them to share the gospel more and grow their love for God. All of these things (and many more which I do not have time to share right now) have been undoubtedly thanks to God and what He's doing.

All this being said (written), I truly look forward to the day when I can look back on this time and see much of what God has done in myself, the other missionaries here, and the entire generation of college students in Cote d'Ivoire. I also cannot wait to see what He does as it unfolds in front of my own eyes.

Matthew Strautmann - RCI STInter

Rewarding and challenging….that is how I would describe my time so far in Cote d'Ivoire. My name is Matthew Strautmann.  I studied engineering at S&T in Missouri and now I am serving on the CRU Stint team in Abidjan. My journey to get here started about two years ago when my staff leader in college invited me to spend a year of ministry with him in Cote d'Ivoire, Africa, and so here I am reflecting on these first two months, actually living out my dream of college ministry in a foreign country. 
 
The most encouraging thing about ministry here is the relationships. The students are very welcoming and friendly. I have also experienced great freedom to practice my French with them. They really enjoy listening and correcting my very broken French, which has given me great encouragement in sharing my faith, building friendships, and learning how to be a bigger part of the culture.

The most difficult thing is not knowing where the Lord is leading our ministry. With the biggest public university closed this year, we have not had the luxury of focusing on one campus.  Instead, the Lord has stretched us to figure out where the students are and how to find where He is working already. This requires a lot of patience, but I am learning to leave the details and worries of how we will reach students to Him and moving forward with what He reveals to us.  While on this journey, we have sought the Lord to show us what doors He has already opened that we do not yet know and trust that He will be guiding our every conversation and interaction. His plan is good; His plan is bigger than anything I could ever dream.

Look, that you may see!

Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see!
Isaiah 42:18

Is this not often the case!?!  God is continually before us but we see him not.  He can be moving in amazing ways yet we wonder "Lord, where are you?  Could you come?  Please?"  Sadly there are many times where we don't even go as far as to ask to see him.  We plow forward in our daily affairs unaware of anything but our urgent concerns and comfort desires.

I feel like the Lord is convicting me greatly of this lately.  As I read through Isaiah I am encouraged, convicted and challenged to live differently and realign my focus.  While the Lord moves in my heart it is amazing how much it changes what I look for.

I recently heard a message at our church here in Côte d'Ivoire from a visiting Dutch pastor about a car that he longed to have.  It stood out to him because it was a color green that he had never seen on a car before.  He wanted that car so bad that he bought it.  As he drove home that day he saw 15 other cars that were the exact same as his, color and all!  Did the factory somehow produce a ton in one day?  I doubt it.  His eyes were open and he was more observant that he was able to see.

It says in Matthew 5:8 "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."

As I take time in God's word and delight in him asking that Christ would come and purify me from my sin the most amazing thing happens.  I begin to see God and his moving more clearly.  When I cry out to him in prayer and anxiously await his response I truly see him move.  Many times it is not how I expect him to move or at times contrary to what I asked for but somehow I see that it is in direct response to my prayer just weeks, days or even moments earlier.

God has been doing some incredible things here in Côte d'Ivoire.  The 2 Public Universities that total over 70,000 students have been closed since the war.  It has been incredibly difficult.  How do you do campus ministry when the 2 largest universities are closed?  Yet our God is the "everlasting God"!  He is opening doors for ministry in so many other places, from high schools to private universities to dorms to little apartments.  I am seeing God transform the way that "I knew" to do ministry almost daily.

I often ask my sons "Do we have a small god?  or do we have a Big God?"  They eagerly jump up in the air with their hands up and say "A Big God!"  Oh how true this is.  If we would just open our eyes and allow him to purify our hearts that we may see!

"It is not a cheerful thought that millions of us who live in a land of Bibles, who belong to churches and labor to promote the Christian religion, may yet pass our whole life on this earth without once having thought or tried to think seriously about the being of God.  Few of us have let our hearts gaze in wonder at the I AM, the self-existent Self back of which no creature can think.  Such thoughts are too painful for us."  A. W. Tozer The Knowledge of the Holy

Craig Hauquitz