nice to be home - see that there was enough water - the plants grew well - tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, apples and everywhere mint plants!

arrived 2h late in Brussels - missed my connecting flight - so I have time to write and drink coffee!!!

YU GO SABI P×›SIN IN TRAIB BAI DE WE I DE KRAI. (Mende)
You can recognize a person's tribe by the way he cries. (Sierra Leone) - that's quite true for "Kingdom" people too!

10eme jour - Cathédrale Saint-Paul Abidjan

Cathédrale Saint-Paul 

Three Men of God in our current Vineyard leaders training in Abidjan

 viewing this huge church and wondering

why so much money was wasted on a building! 

This discussion fitting in great to the topic of "doing Church"! 

9ème jour à Abidjan / 9th day in Abidjan

This morning I did some translating for the Rugby Team of Uganda. 

They are here for a tournament

but can't play because the field wasn't prepared. 

Further they don't speak a word of French and so 

have the hardest time getting transportation, buying water .... 

Now I need to get back to the management of the Vineyard leaders training. 

Rugby Team of Uganda

The two weeks so far have been very good. We've been able to model, teach, relate and share. As in many trainings - "what you see is not what you get". Now don't take it in the negative - we really saw the opposite ... there is so much we don't see - so much potential 

which each leader has and is developing!! 

So - now after translating - I see I can even learn from rugby :

This one rule of rugby could be helpful for leaders: 

Passing: The ball may be passed to any other player. However, it may only be passed laterally or backward, never forward. Players pass the ball to an open teammate to keep it in play and further advance it.

I'm sure the Kingdom of God would advance like this - one plays in teams, there is no attack forward - each move is passed, the game is continueous, the advance is to pass laterally or even backward. 

We have been doing quite some of that here too. We partner, become friends - is like passing laterally. Then we pass backward - we look into our family history - forgive those that have hurt and wounded us. Then we attack ... as a team, as partner - with the goal in sight! 

"Un vieillard qui meurt, c'est une bibliothque qui brûle"
"As an old man dies, it's as if a library burnt down"
proverb Ivoirian

road trip - 24.7.10

you'll find some more pictures to our trip yesterday in the following link of Boris
http://glaubenlebenteilen.ch/

Food market in Abidjan - Road trip 1

quite a place & full of surprises and very interesting

things to see!

Tonight we got a taxi late - had a hard time getting the prize we wanted - lots of traffic. We finally got home and when we got out - the taxi driver told us: - you didn't pray for me! Was a very nice little surprise.

God is our neighbour when our brother is absent. (Swahili)

practical teaching day -

We had a great day. We worked on coaching,

 finances and health issues! 

Nous avons eu une belle journée de l'enseignement! 

Nous avons travaillé sur le coaching, les finances et les questions de santé. 

Tout Paris

Paris is very present here - you see the sign of the shop in green!

all of our passions reflect in our purse!!

the boys were not here this morning

The contrast is harsch - as in many other countries. Do you see 

the mercedes star on the car ... while the boys sleep under the sign board

.... a harsch world - with many contradictions .... 

Sida - Aids and trafficking still a huge problem in Abidjan

Cote d'Ivoire is a source, transit, and destination country for women and children trafficked for forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation; trafficking within the country is more prevalent than international trafficking and the majority of victims are children; women and girls are trafficked from northern areas to southern cities for domestic servitude, restaurant labor, and sexual exploitation; boys are trafficked internally for agricultural and service labor and transnationally for forced labor in agriculture, mining, construction, and in the fishing industry; women and girls are trafficked to and from other West and Central African countries for domestic servitude and forced street vending.

An army of sheep led by a lion would defeat an army of lions led by a sheep. Arab Proverb

work-life balance in Abidjan

In life - you need the right work-life balance - for example on your head! 

le quatrième - tonight we heard about fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, boarding schools, abuse, pain, beatings .... and yet not in bitterness, nor in rage - with a heart of forgiveness! What blessing I can take along from that!!

3eme ' Abidijan - the ravens fly low ..........

a great start into the african training. more later - especially for africa - later is not bad!

bien arrivès - nuit insomnie - la lumiére du jour est venu! Isn't it nice how the sun keeps rising every morning a-new.

Abidjan - le premier

18.07.2010

Le voyage se poursuit cette fois-ci à d'autres sources!

The journey goes on - this time to other roots!