By Al Boesenberg, a former Alliance missionary to Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
I have completed the most amazing trip I have ever taken—anywhere, anytime—to Ivory Coast. I wanted to return to places where my wife, Betty, who passed away two years ago, and I served for 28 years. We worked with a large team that lovingly labored in this land, where the first Alliance missionaries arrived in the late 1920s.
My trip’s purpose was to meet and encourage believers and to get a sense of how our Alliance networks of churches are doing in Ivory Coast since our missionaries were evacuated in 2002* due to civil war.
Encouraging Developments
- When Betty and I arrived in Ivory Coast in 1967, there were only four ordained pastors; now there are more than 400.
- The number of Alliance believers in Ivory Coast is greater than that in the United States. This is the way missions should work—daughter churches outgrowing their mother church.
- From the 8 churches Betty and I left in the city of Abengourou in eastern Ivory Coast, there are now 35.
- I am blown away by the number of people in ministry I encountered who are the fruit of the ministry Betty and I and other missionaries faithfully exercised over the years. For example, a former high school student we knew in 1973 is now pastoring a growing church in Bingerville, a suburb of the country’s capital city, Abidjan. He has translated the entire Old Testament into the vernacular language, Baoule—a phenomenal feat.
Generous Praise
Finally, I am overcome with the outpouring of love and generosity expressed by so many—to the point of taking love offerings for me. (The average family makes little more than $9 a day.) I was also crowned as the symbolic king of one region, and I received kings’ robes in five other places.
These humbling outpourings were the people’s way of expressing to the many who had labored among them how grateful they were that we came and pointed the way from spiritual darkness to the light of heaven through Jesus Christ. To God be the glory!
*Currently, two Alliance international workers serve at the West Africa Alliance Seminary (a.k.a. FATEAC) in Abidjan.
Learn More
- Al, 80, plans to serve as long as the Lord enables him. Read his story and that of other Alliance retirees in “Retirement Is Optional” (Alliance Life, September/October 2017).
- Watch a video about West Africa Alliance Seminary (FATEAC), narrated by Alliance international workers Drs. Deanna and Randy Harrison. (10:14)