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

Happy seminary boys

Photo by Christine

John pool surfing

From left: John Farho surfing, Gavin Johnson after launching the boogie board.

John, Gavin and David enjoyed a new sport at the Hotel Assoyam in Grand Bassam. they took running jumps onto a moving boogie board. David Bebee posted a video on Facebook. For now, it is only available to Facebook members. Come back again, I'll see if I can get a public link from David.

-Mike

Blue boy bogeyman

Painting on the cafeteria wall at the girls' orphanage in Grand Bassam. We asked about the mysterious blue boy. The girls told me he's the boy who sleeps in the teacher's office. I guess he's their version of the bogeyman.

-Mike

Big angry crocodile

Crocodiles don't like it when you poke them in the ribs.

We had a lot of fun looking at the crocodiles. As you can see in this video, a crocodile is fast. When he snaps at the wood stick, he is just a flash of fearsome muscle. It really gets your adrenalin pumping. The guide points out that a crocodile uses his tail as a weapon. Can you make out the source of any of the screams.

-Mike

Kira tug-o-war

Kira is playing tug-o-war without a rope. They were having a lot of fun and having a good workout too.

It makes me wonder how the girls are doing today, two weeks after the team has gone home. Are they bored, lonely, having great dreams about the team or still having a lot of fun with each other? Probably a combination of all of the above. Most Ivorian orphanages only function during the school year. Nearly everyone has aunts or uncles that can take care of them, but attending school could be impossible. So the children only live at the orphanage during school months. When school is over, they return to live with family.

-Mike

Happy Ivorian kids

Christine took this joyful photo of kids playing after church at the Abobo Abidjan Baoule and Bambara Church.


-Mike

David Bebee masking seminary windows

David Bebee is working hard

We went through about 20 rolls of masking tape. It really made the painting go fast. The students who were painting followed with wide and narrow rollers. Others were trimming with brushes.

-Mike

Finishing up at the seminary

Professor Randy Harrison, John, Gavin and Christine

I took this photo during the last hour of work at the seminary. Maybe that was why everyone was so happy. The work was difficult. I'm not sure what Gavin has behind his back, but I know Christine has the dustpan full of paint that was peeling off the wall. We didn't get the paint done in this reception office, but we did get it prepped for the painter. The team left enough cash with the seminary to pay a local painter to finish up the remaining work. We actually did much more work at the seminary than we had planned. The team worked so hard and fast that they finished the planned project, the student dormitory halls and staircases in only two days. The last two days were spent painting the administration and classroom building halls, conference room and a couple of smaller rooms.

The next day, Friday, we drove to Grand Bassam to start work at the Modeste Church and the orphanage.

-Mike

Cookies at orphanage

English class

It is very rare for the girls at the orphanage to get to eat cookies. Two of the girls mentioned that to me at the beginning of our week of ministry there. The last day of our ministry there, we purchased three cases of cookies. Each individually wrapped package contained six cookies. It cost about $17.00 to buy enough cookies for all 150 children and staff.

-Mike

Building benches at Modeste

David Bebee and John Farho

We just noticed that we don't have any photos here at the blog about the building of the 28 benches. Our goal was 30, but we ran out of wood. One of our boards split down the middle since we bought it. The guys did a great job. The benches came out beautiful.

-Mike

John's departure to USA

Abou and John

John said goodbye to Abou. He flies out tonight at 10 PM on Air France Flight AF0703. He arrives in France in the morning and then makes his Delta Flight DL0029 connection to Atlanta. He should arrive at Omaha Eppley Airfield on Delta Flight DL4604 at 4:52 PM.

-Mike

Lunch at orphanage

The team and Joshua at the lunch table

The talented cooks made us AFC, African Fried Chicken with rice and attieke, a fermented product made from grated manioc root. It looks similar to couscous.

-Mike

Ashley at Boulay and Seminary

At the Beach at Boulay Island

At the Seminary in Abidjan

Ashley and a seminary student in Abidjan

Photos by Christine

Dina and Kids at Seminary

Photo by Christine

Kira's photos

Kira posted a lot of fun photos for us to enjoy. The links below will take you to her photo albums at Facebook.com. She did a great job organizing them by category. Hope you will enjoy them as much as we do!

Africa un 39 photos of our flights, Bateau Bus, Boulay Island beach, and the Abobo Abidjan CMA Church
Location: Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, Africa

Africa deux 59 photos from the Alliance West African Theological Seminary
Location: Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, Africa

Africa trois 38 photos of days at the girls orphanage
Location: Grand Bassam, Cote d'Ivoire

Africa quatre 42 photos at the Modeste Village/Assoyam Hotel
Location: Grand Bassam, Cote d'Ivoire, Africa

Africa cinq 30 photos of last day at the orphanage
Location: Grand Bassam, Cote d'Ivoire

Africa six 22 photos at the crocodile farm!
Location: Assini, Cote d'Ivoire, Africa

Team photo at Modeste CMA Church

The team is singing a song in Bambara for the congregation. They also sang a song in English.

Meeting Daniel on the Beach

Our first day at Grand-Bassam we stopped by the beach to see what it was all about after we put our things in our rooms. While I was sitting on a bench a few vendors walked by trying to sell their respective items. I started talking to a few and ended up talking to Daniel and his friend. Daniel is the one on the right of the picture and his friend is on the left. Daniel is a Christian living in Grand-Bassam selling soccer jerseys along the beach to people that are at the local resorts. His friend is a Muslim, but agreed with all that me and Daniel said about the grace of God and what the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ means to us. Overall it was a very interesting conversation and I invited them both to come see the Jesus film, which we were showing the next night in a nearby village, Modeste. The next night Daniel came by to see the Jesus film and brought another friend of his. I encourage you to pray for the Christians in Cote d'Ivoire, that they would stay strong in their faith and be willing to share what they believe with those around them.

-John

A legacy in our lives

Thank you all for your prayers and support of the 8:08 Cote d’Ivoire team! The trip went extremely well. Our time was filled with everything from painting at an Alliance seminary to building benches and repairing walls for a village church to teaching English at an orphanage to Evangelism in the city. It was a great trip filled with great ministry. I’m especially thankful for our friends in Abidjan, Mike and Sue Farho. They did an outstanding job arranging the details of the trip and hosting the team. They worked hard to plan out every detail, ensuring that this trip would be a legacy in the lives of the students and the lives of those touched by their ministry in Cote d’Ivoire.

I have many stories to share about the great things the team saw God do and would love to share them with you if you’d like. However, I must say that the most rewarding part of the trip for me was to see 8 extremely gifted, intelligent, mature college students come home with a new passion for missions and God’s heart for the world. I can’t wait to see how God will use them all and their educations from civil engineering to culinary arts to nursing to further His Kingdom in the future!

Grateful,
-Gavin

dina and i made it back

Dear Farhos,
dina and i made it back yesterday safe and sound. thanks again for being such incredible hosts and my parents really enjoyed the card!! i'm still processing stuff but its been really great to talk with everyone about the trip. we had so many people looking at the blog. my dad printed it out for my grandparents and they really enjoyed reading it. tell the fam i say hi :)
have a great day!!

-christine

reflect on your trip - photos

Hey everyone! Its been a day and a half since our plane touched down at epply airfield and 5 of our team returned. Please keep Christine, Dina, Ashley, and John in your prayers as they return in the next week.

This has been my fourth time returning from a missions trip and it always is the same. You find yourself caught somewhere between a very intense and exciting situation and what you feel is a normal life. This has always been difficult for me as it has for others. It, however, is a key time where you reflect on your trip and draw upon lessons learned, deciding what impact that has on your life here in Omaha. Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we all transition back to the states in the next several weeks!

As promised, here are some more links to pictures:

Album 6 - 51 photos of the highway sights, orphanage, and the work at the Modeste C&MA church

Album 7 - 28 photos of Modeste C&MA church, beach and pool at Grand Bassam hotel

Album 8 - 51 photos of the orphanage

Album 9 - 33 photos of orphanage, crocodile farm, Modest church benches and highway sights

Album 10 - 21 photos of ice cream, baptisms, streets, airport

Finished Modeste Church Pulpit and Walls

John and I went to Modeste today with Pastor Daniel to finish the work there. We also needed to pick up my generator and Daniel's carpenter tools. John and Pastor Daniel worked on the pulpit, while Dramane and I repaired all the rotten parts of the walls. Daniel was grateful for the speed square that Gavin left for him. We worked hard, hot, and non-stop to our late lunch at about 1:30 PM. Then we washed up and ate lunch, rice and cabbage sauce with hot peppers. It was yummy!

Daniel and John are nailing the first side piece to the pulpit.

The finished product. There still may be some varnish or paint work.
Left to right: Pastor Daniel, Dramane, John and Mike Farho
Don't believe the clock on the wall. It was actually 1:30 PM

Favorite photos of Gavin

Just posted 12 favorite photos of Gavin at Facebook.

May 2008 - 808 college mission team ministry from Christ Community Church

In this album: Gavin and Sarah Johnson (photos), Christine Gerhart (photos), John Farho (photos), Ashley Schmidt (photos), david bebee (photos), Kira Marino (photos), Mike Farho (photos) and Stephen Matychuk (photos)

Team is back in Omaha

Most of the team is back home in Omaha. We're praying that they make it to church today!

John is still home in Abidjan, until June 9th. Dina, Ashley and Christine are taking some time to visit Europe!

Christine and Dina arrive on Monday, June 02, 2008 on flight DL4604 at Omaha Eppley Airfield at 04:18 PM.

Ashley arrives on Monday, June 09, 2008 on flight DL4214 at Omaha Eppley Airfield at 09:26 PM.

John still needs his itinerary from the travel agent, but he leave here on Monday, June 09, 2008 and arrives in Omaha on Tuesday, June 10th.