A tiny mud-wattle four-room dwelling with a packed dirt floor. A ramshackle outhouse just outside the front door. No electricity. No running water. No car. Only a battery-run reel-to-reel tape recorder and a propane gas stove to challenge the simplicity of life in a remote rainforest village in south-central Ivory Coast. But Carol was excited to arrive among the people for whom she hoped to help create an alphabet, reading books, and eventually translate the Word of God into their language. Over the early years, working with her colleague, she would write letters home describing her life: the challenges of learning a difficult language, the joy of making new friends, the spiritual and cultural discoveries, and the physical suffering—twists and turns at the start of a lifelong career focused on Bible translation. Now in Seven Years in Ivory Coast , she shares her honest and transparent communications from 1972 to 1979. And most important, God’s sustaining grace, protection, and blessings.