Today's News from Ivory Coast and Emmanuel

I got an email from Marcellin today. He is Emmanuel's older, adoptive brother-in-law, with whom Emmanuel lives. Marcellin wrote in French, of course, but I'm going to translate his email for you. The translation follows: "The reason I have not informed you concerning Emmanuel's health is because almost as soon as I got him released from jail, the war burst out in Abobo. the suburb in which we lived. Since then, we have had to flee to another suburb to the home of my older sister. We are in great difficulty. We left almost everything when we fled. All of the brothers and sisters from the church [in which he pastors] have dispersed everywhere. We left before the end of the month, so we went out with empty hands [meaning he wasn't paid before they fled]. But thank God none of us were touched. God has protected us from stray bullets.

Concerning Emmanuel's health, he is a bit better. Robin [a missionary friend of mine working there] told me about a place where I could take him for treatment but right now our country is so insecure that I can't do that. He is taking his last bottle of medicine that I bought before we had to flee.

Auntie, please pray a lot for us. Things are not going well at all for us as far as our morale and finances are concerned. Our children can no longer go to school.

May God keep you."

How sad! Conditions continue to deteriorate. If you have access to my Facebook account, please read the article written by a journalist with BBC, concerning conditions there. May God work in that country to bring some measure of peace and stability. When I arrived in Ivory Coast 31 years ago, it was the most stable country in West Africa. Now it is one of the most volatile. Please continue to pray about the country in general and about Emmanuel.

With regards to my book, I have about five more months to write about. Please continue to pray. Lord willing, I'll be leaving for vacation on March 22. I pray I won't have to work on the book on vacation, as I had to do on my last one. I need some real R&R.

One other note: My housemate went before the Baptist Mid-Missions General Council today to be examined for her doctrinal position, as she begins application for missionary service. I knew she was prepared spiritually and academically. I had a few concerns about whether or not she would be able to express herself in English adequately while under stress, since she is from South Korea. I'm told she did very well. She will go through candidate seminar in July, Lord willing, and will then begin her deputation ministry. Pray for her, please. Her name is Hye Ree Park.