Orphanage Akawaba Video by David

Our soon to be very loved girls sang us a song "Akawaba," which means "welcome"

-david

Modeste church photos

See them at Mike's Facebook photo album

John teaching English

Three orphan girls learning English numbers by playing UNO with John

Hospitals in Abidjan

During one of our days, the first week in Cote d'Ivoire, Mike, Ashley, and I were given the opportunity to tour one of the public hospitals in Abidjan. Being in the medical profession I found it both encouraging and a bit sad at the same time.

During our interaction with several of the doctors we were able to see both passion for improving the health of Cote d'Ivoire and also the amazing needs that this country has. When a person shows up at the hospital with a condition, they are given a list of things that they need to go buy before they can be treated.

Coming from America where health care, especially emergency life saving health care, is given no matter what condition your finances are in, made the idea of prepaying/buying your supplies strange. This may be compounded when a patient shows up without family or is unconscious and therefore cant buy supplies. Trying to put this together in my head is a bit hard as health care as i have experienced is a quite different.

One thing is that I am now more thankful for what God has blessed me with, and secondly, given me a bigger heart for working outside of the United States when I graduate from college.

-david

Sarah praying at Modeste Church

From left: Christine, Ashley, Gavin, Sarah

From left: David, Sarah, Christine, Kira

Kira with orphan girls

Kira singing with the girls

Singing was one of the best methods we used to teach English to the girls. They loved all the sons, from Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes to Jesus Loves Me. I'm just day dreaming what it will be like next time I drive out to visit the children at the orphanage. I hope they don't knock me over with hugs!

-Mike

Gavin preaching at Modeste

Gavin Johnson and Mike Farho

Gavin did a great job preaching for the folks at the Modeste C&MA Bambara Church. It was a fun service for all of us, with lots of fantastic music and even gifts for each team member. The team is working at raising funds for this Bambara Church. It is exciting to see a church of meager means reaching out and building bridges of love to their Muslim neighbors. The primary ministry they've started is a tiny elementary school.

-Mike

Modeste church worship

Sue Farho leading the team singing in Bamabara

Team at Grand Bassam restaurant

From left: Stephen, Dina, Kira, Sarah, David, Joshua, Ashley, Gavin, John, Christine.

Everyone is playing cards while we wait for our food. This was our last supper in Grand Bassam. We ate at The Quai restaurant. The food and desserts were great. The owner of our hotel arrived and treated us to our soft drinks. Normally, we only drank bottled water. It was hard for some not to get their Diet Cokes for two weeks. We had to suffer a little bit any way.

-Mike