Thursday, November 19, 2009

Bainbridge and Baptisms

I just got back from a great week in the bush! I got to go out with one of out teams from Georgia to one of the more southern people groups here. This people group has been notably hard to reach, but God has been so faithful to lead us to a few seekers. One man, Peter told them on a previous trip that he had been waiting 30 years for believers to come. Shortly after, his best friend, Paul, got saved. We have had the privilege of watching them grow and share their faith with people in their village and nearby villages. Both of them have experienced a lot of persecution, especially Paul. He told us the day he became a believer that he would be persecuted, and he was right. He was kicked out of his village and had nowhere for him or his family to live. They told him that he had too much influence on the young men
and they did not want the young men to stray from their muslim faith. He was eventually let back into his village, but he had to promise that he would not try to share Christ with anyone in his village. A couple months ago, he was on a trip to a different city and when he came back he found out that his one-year-old daughter had died of malaria. Because he was a believer, no one was with his wife. She had been alone there with the little girl's body and no one even cared.Through all of this, though, the church there is growing. They now have 50 believers who are meeting together regularly! Praise God! We talked to them on this last trip about the importance of being baptized, and they agreed. Baptism is hard here because it opens them up to even more persecution as they are truly abandoning the muslim faith, but they bravely went forward with it. Please continue to pray for these Christian leaders as they continue to endure through persecution and evangelize their area. They told us that they knew the only way to get through the persecution was to continue to witness. They needed more believers so
that they could encourage each other and work together. Pray for more believers to be added to this number!

Other news, I'll be coming home in a month for 2 weeks for Christmas! I'm so excited to get to see my friends, family, and America for a little while!

Sunday, October 18, 2009

New Teams


It's been forever since I updated! A lot has happened, we've had some great teams come in and have seen God do some amazing things. One team was a dental team that came in. They spent entire days pulling teeth (it was really gross). I tried to stay as far away from the blood as possible, so I just cleaned instruments and loaded shots. You would not believe how scared the people get when they have to get their teeth pulled. They were hollering and trying to get away from the dentists. One lady had 16 teeth pulled! I'm not sure how may she had left after that, probably one or two. It will really make you remember to brush your teeth!
Last week we had a group from the Tennessee Baptist Convention come. They have adopted the south eastern part of Mali, so we showed them some villages there. We had to go out the week before they came and make sure we could find the villages and make sure the villages were ok with a bunch of white visitors. We made it to the first village fine, but when we went to look for the second, we couldn't get to it. The road had turned into a river during rainy season. We decided we would take them to another village, but we didn't get to go out there. The team got here and we were taking them to the village, but we didn't end up in the village we had planned. The other car and I got separated and when we we finally found each other, we were at a different village and just decided to stay there. It's funny how God has to work pretty hard to get us where He wants us! We

found a believer in the village and spent the night with him. He had lived there for over 25 years but had only once shared his faith with anyone in the village. We asked him to take us to a few different places and we shared stories from God's word there. The people were really open and seemed hungry for God's word. The second village we went to was a little different. The people were friendly, but it was clear that the chief and was not open to hearing the gospel and was not willing for anyone in his village to become a follower of Jesus. We were a little discouraged until the second day when a young man who had been hanging around us a

lot told us that he wanted to become a follower of Jesus. The second night we went to greet the chief, but didn't plan on staying there until he told us that more people had come and wanted to hear stories from God's word. He told us that 2 men had wanted to follow Jesus, but that they had sent someone in there place to hear the stories. We stayed there for a while and then went back to bed, not really knowing what to think about these two men, or knowing who they were. The next morning as we prepared to leave, it started raining. We were a little impatient to leave because we had crossed some creeks on the way in and wanted to get out before the water got too high, but our translator wouldn't come out of the hut until it stopped raining. We waited and waited on him, and finally he came and told us that the two men had come to talk to us. We talked to them for a while
and they told us that they wanted to follow Jesus even though they knew they would face persecution.These men understood the gospel, but they knew little else. It's awesome to see how the Holy Spirit's power to draw people to God no matter how little they know. They begged us to come back and teach them more, but they said don't go back to the chief's, teach them somewhere else. Once again I was reminded that the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. God is doing all the work, but we have to be obedient to the great commission and make disciples of all the nations.
Please pray for these new believers as they will be facing a lot of persecution in the coming days. Pray that God will give them wisdom beyond their knowledge and strong backs to face the struggles coming up. Pray that they will have a heart for evangelism and share the gospel with those around them.

Monday, August 10, 2009

One Year


It's hard for me to believe I'm already one year into my term! It seems like time has flown by, but when I think back to where I was a year ago, it seems like a long time ago. I think my favorite thing about being here is seeing how God is working everywhere, even where (or especially where) no one is joining Him. We have had so many divine appointments, driving around (probably lost) until we found a random village, only to find that there are people there who have wanted to hear more about Jesus, but there has been no one to tell them.
I probably write about this over and over, but the work really is the Lord's! There are people groups here that have absolutely no believers, but what a promise that one day there will be believers from that people group, worshipping around the throne with us! God made that promise, He has to make sure it comes to fruition, He cannot lie! It is a privilege for us to be apart of the completion of that promise.
However, there are definitely times since I've been here that

I have not seen it as a privilige. It's awful how I can get distracted by little things, like, it's too hot here, I can't find anything I need, misquitoes are biting me, I'm sick of having to explain why I don't want to marry the men, etc. It's so easy to get caught up thinking about what I'm missing at home, how much easier life was there, but I forget it doesn't matter.
I want to ask you to pray for the last people groups of Mali without any believers, especially the Moors. They are a nomadic people who live in the desert. Getting the gospel to them will be hard. but Praise God not impossible. There will be Moors worshipping the Lord one day, and let's pray that that day comes quickly!

Things I have learned so far:
-Bambara! My Bambara is terrible, but I can usually say what I need to (using hand gestures to clarify!) and have only made a few major language mistakes (that I know of)
-How to eat with my hands. You might think this sounds simple, little kids do it all the time, but it's hard. I don't know if it's because we got in so much trouble as kids for doing it or because we're out of practice, but it's hard. Especially when the food is so hot it's burning your fingers, Africans can pick up red hot coals, so they don't understand why I can't touch boiling sauce!
-How to drive a stick shift in Bamako traffic! No kidding, one of my biggest fears about coming here was driving a stick shift. To say I got off to a rough start learning is an understatement. I think I killed the enging about 90% of the time (that's not an exaggeration, I was actually that bad). Fortunately, I have only hit one non moving object and no moving ones since I've been here! And I rarely stall anymore either. Clearly that is not my own skill, God knew I would need special grace to drive here!
-How to eat wierd food. I've eaten rat, wart hog, pigeon, and surprisingly, all of those were better than the worst food of all, "to." Especially cold to. Gag.

That's all I can think of for now, but surely I've learned more than that. Who knows what I'll learn in this next year? Maybe Bambara with no hand gestures? Doubt it. Maybe I'll figure out what I'm going to do when I get back to America. Right now, I have no clue! I doubt my parents are going to let me live with them the rest of my life, so I better work on a plan!

On a different note, yesterday we all went to a friend of ours' baby naming party. They had really wanted us to come, and there were 7 of us white women there, which has to be some sort of record. The dad had borrowed a friend's camcorder and insisted on keeping it really close to our faces for most of the party. We stayed for a while, ate (the food was delicious, I didn't know lamb was good until I came here!) and finally asked if we could leave. The dad said that a friend of his had wanted to come meet us, and we had to wait for her. We waited and waited and waited and waited, finally she came. Apparently she was a griot, because as soon as she came, she started singning. She then asked our names, then would sing a song about our names, the command us to stand up and dance, and one by one we each had to dance for her with the camcorder recording our every move. The thing about griots is, they sing for you when they want to, we never asked for this, and you have to pay them! I actually paid the lady $2 for her to sing a song about my name and then she made me dance. That's a rip off. She then would make us get up and dance in groups that she chose, then she made us all get in a circle and dance around. Finally, she made us get in the middle of the circle "one by one" and shake our butts at everyone then point to the next person who had to do this. All of this was caught on film. How mortifying.

Monday, June 29, 2009

Family in Africa

Yay for my family coming! Eight months is by far the longest amount of time I had ever gone without seeing them, so it was great to have them here!
They got here on a Saturday night, but none of their luggage made it, so that was bad. Sunday we rested and hung around Bamako, and fortunately Sunday night all of the luggage came in.
Monday morning we headed out to the village. In Mali, it is VERY important to have a Malian name, which no one in my family had. Within minutes of entering the village, they people in the village realized my family didn't have Malian names, and sent out to find the right people to name my family.


We were sitting talking to someone and a tiny, energetic, old lady ran up to my mom and started hollering her new name ( Bintu something). Poor Mama had no idea what was going on so we explained to her that this was her new name. Then the lady started dancing and singing "Togoma! Togoma! Togoma!" which means, namesake. Mama was then forced to get up and dance with the lady and they danced around and clapped for a while. If there was anything from the past 8 months that I would like to have on video is was that.Then is was Sarah's turn (not as funny, but she had to dance) then Elizabeth's. 3 different women were chosen to name them then their family members came up and told them things like, you're my mom because you were named after my mom, it was quite a big deal. Daddy and Jonathan got new names too. The weird thing was that they did not

give any of them the same last name, even though we're all family. Every person has a different last name. I guess they wanted to give as many people the chance to be "togomas" as possible.
The first village we were in was incredible because God is really, really working there. 2 journeygirls lived there for 2 years and when they left there were six believers. In the eight months since they left, that number has grown to 55. The believers are so bold and passionate. They are going around and sharing the gospel and forming their own church. They are desperate to have someone come teach them so they can know more. Unfortunately, in this village, my mom fell and fractured her wrist and Elizabeth got a stomach bug. Too bad.
We only spent one night
in that village, so the next afternoon we headed to the next village. Fortunately for us, this was a big week for that village. Not only did they have a new baby, so there was a baby naming party coming up, but there was also

a wedding! To make it even better, both parties were for one man. His first wife had just had this baby, and he was about to take a second wife. Big week for him. Everyone was really excited. They had a pounding party complete with a singer. She sang for us, "White people can buy cars, white people can buy cell phones, white people can buy food, white people can buy (anything you can think of) but they can't buy children." I have no idea why she sang this, but she did, and made us all to dance to the song.We spent 2 nights in that village, then came back to Bamako. The Africans
were all very impressed to meet an entire white family, it was really funny. It was such a great time, I'm so glad they came!

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Desert Elephants!

It's been a long time! I have lots to tell. First of all, God is really working in Mali! You get so used to people being stubborn and resistant to the gospel that when people are actually receptive, you almost don't know what to do! In April we had a team come out who is working with one of our people groups in the south. These people have been really resistant to the gospel for a while, but God is really showing His power there. We were sitting in a village talking to the chief just making small talk when a man (who none of us had ever met before) just asked us how to become a follower of Jesus! Nothing we had done, just God working in his heart. We shared the gospel with him and he said he wanted to learn more so that he and his family could become followers of Jesus. We went to his village on a later day and shared stories from God's Word and answered his questions about what being a Christian meant. After talking a while, he told us he wanted to change his name to Paul, meaning that he wanted to become a Christian! Malians commonly change their names to Christian names when they decide to follow Jesus. Please keep Paul in your prayers as he continues to follow the Lord with only one other believer near him. He told us how he knows he will be persecuted by his village but he still wants to follow Jesus.

Another cool thing is the research trips we've been doing. The Tennessee Baptists are adopting the area near Burkina Faso and Cote d'Ivoire, and we've been researching the area looking for villages for them to go to. The first village we went to we asked if we could share stories from God's word.He said yes, but he wanted the whole village to be invited! We said of course that was fine. The chief began hollaring at a man, and our translator said she heard him tell the man to get speakers and a microphone (keep in mind this is a village with no electricity or running water or anything). A little bit later, men are setting up sound equipment! Lots of people from the village began arriving and a man got on the microphone and told the rest of the people to come "right now, right now, right now!"
Lots of people from the village came and we actually had to use the microphone or not everyone could have heard us! Lots of people were able to hear the gospel and they really seemed to get it. One man kept insisting that there were many ways to God, including Jesus and Mohammad. I asked him if got that from the story and he said yes, that Jesus had said he was just a prophet. Another man said, "No! Jesus said that he was God! That's why he was whipped and beaten and killed! You weren't listening!" Now, for a Muslim to say Jesus is the same as God is a big deal, so that was really cool to hear.
The next day we went to a few more villages, but we couldn't seem to find the right one. We got to our last village of the day and 20-30 people were listening to our stories. After presenting the gospel (the Creation to Return story, an overview of the entire Bible with the theme of Jesus as the promised Savior) we asked them if they wanted to become a follower of Jesus. After an awkard silence, two men raised their hands! We asked them questions to see if they understood and they really seemed like they did. They told us that they were ready to be baptized and that their was a church a good distance away but they would go there to be baptized. Being baptized can mean a lot of persecution for people here, but they insisted that is what they wanted without any prodding from us.
Hopefully the Tennessee Baptists will be able to work in these villages and disciple the new believers. Can you believe that there are people who really want to follow the Lord, but they don't know how? How can they believe without being told?


Now, the coolest trip I have ever taken: to see the desert elephants! Now, people ask me all the time about the cool animals I see, and you have to understand, West Africa doesn't have cool animals. That's East and South Africa. Seeing monkeys here is a really big deal. The only animals I see reguarily are cows, goats, and sheep. Occasionally camels. So, seeing elephants is a really big deal. This is a migratory herd of about 400 elephants that travels from Burkina Faso to Mali every year looking for water. The last watering hole before dry season is over is a little south of TImbuktu, so this is where most of the elephants are. Unfortunately, by the time we got there is had already rained, so some of the elephants were headed back to Burkina, but we still saw about 90-

100 elephants. They were hard to get to because they were completely wild (or "savage" as the French say) and they kept running away from us. At one point, one of them actually started chasing one of our cars. The people in the car were pretty scared, but it was really funny. There was even a week old (I don't know how we knew it was a week old) elephant that was only about 2-3 feet tall! We had 3 or 4 trackers with us, and they were so scared of the elephants! They were so funny, if we tried to get too close they freaked out. They kept telling us to get away because they were so scared the elephants were going to attack. It was SO much fun.
Finally, here are a few common Bambara blessings:
  • For a new marraige: May swindles not interfere
  • For a new baby: May he be a moslem and may he have more younger brothers and sisters than old ones
  • For a sickness: May it be a sin expiator
  • For a death: May his resting place be cool
  • For a holiday: May worms not alter it nor termites

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Easter

We celebrated our first Easter in Mali, and it was so much fun! Much different than how we celebrate in America, but then again, everything here is different : ). First, we have a new Journeygirl here! Yay!!! It is always wonderful to see God send the laborers we are praying for. She came Friday and we took her out to the village Saturday morning, not easy when you're suffering from culture shock and jet lag, but she did great!
The African Christians here get fabric made for different occasions, such as Christmas and Easter. Africans just get fabric made for any occasion, actually. They have fabrics supporting AIDS research, celebrating Women's Day, for their school, supporting their president (complete with his picture all over it) and, as I saw today for the first time, one supporting OUR president. It was black and light blue with large pictures of President Obama's face all over it. They love that man. Anyways, our fabric for Easter was green with the bible verse "A virtuous woman is a crown of peace." What that has to do with Easter I do not know. For Christmas our fabric had a Christmas verse and pictures of the nativity, which makes since. I don't know why they chose this one for Easter.



Unfortunately, we didn't get our hair braided and our feet dyed black, ha. I was so happy, my head ached for days after that.
We did however have AMAZING food. The pastor's wife in the village is an amazing and she outdid herself. People always talked about how bad food here would be, but it is not. Ok, some of it bad, but when it's good it's sooooo good. That night, we had an African dance. We all danced a little, but when we left at 4 am, they were still dancing! It was my first real African dance, and it was so much fun. They are amazing dancers! Easter morning, we went to church and the Pastor preached on the passover and Easter, and I had my first African Lord's Supper. It was pretty much the same, except we drank coke instead of grape juice.
Being here really made me look at Easter differently. Before, Easter represented the hope that I had, that I had always known of and took for granted. Probably for most of my life I cared more about my new Easter dress and candy than I did what they holiday represented. Now I can see that it represents not only the hope I have, but also the hope that these people don't know about. Jesus died for them, and they have no idea. Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice for their sins, and they don't know. Doesn't God deserve the glory for what He has done? They are worshipping their made up god who can do nothing for them now and nothing for them when they die. How is it possible that 2,000 years later, they still don't know? I am so surrounded by lostness here. You are constantly seeing people facing Mecca, praying to their false god, bound by rules and lies. Many of them are honestly seeking the One True God, but they don't know where to find Him.
People at home often ask me how they can support me, what they can do. They usually want to send money or gifts, but there is something that would be so much better. God has commanded all Christians to go make disciples of all the nations. Don't wait for a special call, it's already in Scripture. Please actively seek where God wants you in His plan to reach all the nations for Him. Right now it might mean walking down the street and telling your neighbor about the gospel, it might mean going on a mission trip, working with internationals, or even moving overseas. Please be open. Don't waste your life living for yourself, be where God wants you to be, do what God wants you to do, no matter how scary it is. God deserves the glory for who He is and what He has done, and millions of people are dying without ever hearing the gospel. That would be greater support to me than any money or gifts or encouraging words.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

6 months later...


Here I am, in Mali for almost 6 months, and I am amazed and all the Lord has done. He has proven Himself faithful time and time again and has showed Himself to be the great provider and Lord of the harvest. Before I came, I sometimes had doubts about my faith. Not serious doubts, but sometimes I would just wonder if I only was a Christian because that was all I knew, and if I had not been born into a Christian family would I believe something else? And would it matter? Here, I never have such doubts. I see God work in ways that only He could. He takes care of all of our

needs. A few weeks ago we had our second flat tire of the week. We were using our spare and no way of getting a new tire. We prayed that God would send someone to help us and within minutes the only Christian living in a nearby village came by on his donkey cart and helped us get the tire fixed. When it got too late for us to leave that night, he allowed us to spend the night at his house.
Last week we were researching a certain people group that is kind of hard to find but we really needed information on them. We were looking for a village that were purely that people group (there was only one) and God sent the chief's son to us while we were in a different village so he was able to help us get the information we needed. Even when we are in difficult situations or remote environments, God has taken care of our every need.


Another evidence I see of God's work here is the large number of seekers. So many people here are not content with their Muslim religion and are searching for answers. I even know a girl here who comes from a strong Muslim family but when her sister was demon possessed, she took her to Christian pastor and God used him to cast the demons out of the girl and now she is fine. Evidence of God's power is undeniable, even to unbelievers. Now the girl is carefully searching the Bible, struggling with whether or not to become a Christian. It may seem like it should be obvious that she should, since she knows that God healed

her sister, but it's not that easy for them. Many people here know the Truth but are afraid to commit because of the persecution they will experience. Many of them will lose everything if they decide to become Christians, their families will shun them, they will lose their jobs, be kicked out of their villages, some may be physically attacked, but there are still so many seekers! Even though it would be so much easier for them to remain Muslim, there are many who are convinced there is something better and they are willing to risk a lot to find out. We go to villages and teach them about the Bible and salvation and you can really see the hunger. We are not offering anything but the Gospel and they know that but they want to know everything they can. God is really working here and it is impossible to live here and not see it. I am so thankful that He called me here and is allowing me to be a part of the work He is doing here in Mali.

I don't know how well the picture of the camels shows up very well, but it was so funny when it happened. We were out in the village spending the night with a Maian family there. Lots of kids were around staring at us (as is almost always the case, not only are we white but we have all these strange things with us and are doing strange things) and then about 7 little boys (like around 10 years old) rode up on their camels! They were so small and they just sat there on the camels watching us. It was just like little boys in America would have ridden up on their bikes. I think they were wanting their picture taken because most of them just stayed there lined up for a while until we pulled our cameras out. Camels were a pretty popular mode of transportation up there, I was told you can buy one for about $30. What a bargain!

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Sahara



We're back from the desert! Number one myth about the desert: it doesn't rain. Guess what, it rained on us twice! Not a lot, but it is dry season, and it hasn't even rained in Bamako since October. So, if anyone ever tells you it it doesn't rain in the desert, tell them nope, it does. There's a new project the IMB is starting called the Desert Triangle. It's a 2-3 year project for journeymen (or young singles). They will be strategically places in this desert triangle area and working with the people there in their local language. It's really important because

among the three people groups, there are about 45 known believers. This are literally millions of people with 45 known believers and little to no access to the gospel. One of the poeple groups has no believers and if anyone were to become one they would be heavily persecuted. We drove around the area for 6 days and met the people and came across no believers from the people groups. Anyways, this project is really important. The people who sign up for this job will be living with and working among the people and learning the language and creating an oral Bible for them (since the majority of them are uneducated and can't read). This will be the first access most of these people have to the gospel. One thing that you think over and over when you're out there is how will these people ever here?

They are in such remote places. It's hard to live there and hard to get to. Who would even go there? Someone has to. Do they not deserve to hear the gospel just because they live in a hard place? Who is to say that only the easily accessible people get the gospel? They do they need it less than we do? Please pray for these people, that someone will go tell them. Pray that they willl search for the True God and the only Way to Him.
P.S. I got to ride a camel! We stopped at a "village" (it belonged to a nomadic people group to it was mostly tents and camels and cattle) and Judy got out to take pictures. We were sitting in the truck and a man rode up on a camel and got off. The camel was just sitting there so I thought I should ride it. I asked them if I could (except I don't know how to say ride in Bambara so I really asked if I could sit on it and it would go) and they said no, I had to pay mil franc (about $2). No way!
I said, I have no money, and kept scooting toward the camel. We argued back and forth. A nice man said, no, she doesn't have to pay, but the owner continued to ask me to pay. The funny thing was he was helping me get on the camel as he was asking for money and I was telling him no. Ok, I was not bargaining for how hard it would be to get on that camel. He made a step with his hands and I was stepping on it's neck, but I was wearing a skirt and it was hard. It took a group effort to get me on and keep me on. Finally we got up and it took steps and sat down. So that was my big camel ride. I am not much of a camel rider, I have discovered. Oh well.




Sunday, February 15, 2009

Research Trip


Hey! Right now we have a small break in between research trips. We went on a one day trip on Tuesday and a two day trip Thursday-Friday. This one was a lot different from our last one. First, the last one was farther away and took five days and this last one took two. Second, there were hardly any Christians in this area and there were a good many in the last one. Third, this one was out farther and there was nowhere to stay (except in the village) and last time we stayed in the hotel. Thursday we headed out and went towards south-east Mali. We would stop from village to village and get information, such as what people group they were, what people groups were around, what religion were there, if there were any Christians, etc. We then ask if we can tell a story from God's Word and if they say yes, we tell them the demon possessed man. This is a good story to start with because it gets their interest, because demon possession is such a big part of their lives. It is good to show them that we serve a God who heals and has power even over demons. If they seem to understand and seem interested, we ask if we can tell another story, this one a little longer. If they way yes, we tell them Creation to Return, which starts with Abraham and goes all the way to the early church, explaining how we have turned away from God and He promised a Savior, sent one, and how Jesus died for us and was the sacrifice for our sins and then what we are to do as a result of that. We got to one village on the first day and knew we needed to think about stopping and spending the night. We told them that we were very far away from home and could not get back tonight and did they know a place where we could stay? Maybe a hotel (obviously there was no hotel around, we were out in the middle of nowhere) or a place we could camp because we had tents. The chief's son gave up his hut for the night so that we could sleep there. We told them the story of the demon possessed man and started to ask them questions and they said they didn't understand the story. This was a little discouraging because it's not a hard story to understand at all, and it wasn't that they didn't care, they just didn't understand. They wanted to hear another story but we told them that if they didn't understand this one they wouldn't understand the next one so we needed to help them understand it. We told it again and they understood it this time, and they wanted to hear the next one. We said since we were spending the night we would have plenty of time to tell it later and that they needed to think about the first story and we would tell the next one later. Well, we washed (in the little latrine that barely came up to my shoulders, very awkward) then waited for supper. We waited around and talked to the people and then found out that they were nervous about feeding us because they thought we would think their food was dirty. We insisted we loved african food (we were really hungry) and they served us 3 different forms of millet. Millet cakes, which was cooked over the fire in something that looked kind of like a muffin pan, millet to (to is the worst african food I know of, it's like thick mushy bread dough) with slime sauce, and millet moni (kind of like porridge). They gave us lots of peanuts too, they were so nice. People kept coming up to us and asking us when were were going to tell more stories and we kept telling them after we ate. After we ate they told us to tell more stories, so a large group formed and we asked them to first retell the first story. They were able to retell it with very good accuracy. We also told Creation to Return many times, and the people were able to learn both stories. One man told us that he wanted to become a follower of Christ, but he needed to know more. He wanted a Bible and someone to teach him. This was something we heard many times in these villages. We did not go to one village that had Christians (there was a town with a church, but not a village). These people had more than likely never heard of Christ before. They were amazed at how powerful Jesus was, and desperate to hear more. Unfortunately, there is no one to tell them more. I heard the gospel consistently from birth, I had no choice. These people do not have that privilege. They are asking for people to come and teach them about Christ. What are we going to do about that? Please pray for them, pray that God will raise up people to teach them. This is happening all over the world, people need and want to learn about Christ but there is no one to teach them. Don't Christians care? Don't we care about God's glory and the gospel being preached everywhere? How are these people being overlooked? Please pray about your place in the Great Commission, does God want you to go to a place like this? How can they believe without someone preaching to them?

Saturday, January 31, 2009

New and Exciting

Ok, big news of the month, there is a zoo across the street from my house! I am so shocked by this. One day Rachel and I were sitting outside talking to our neighbors, Usman and Mamadou, and they made us to over to Mamadou's house. Much to our surprise, there were about 10 gigantic turtles

and huge lizards. Well, they take us farther in and they have alligators, snakes, rabbits, rats, cats, dogs, fish, and other unidentifiable animals. Apparently Mamadou works for the zoo and keeps the extra animals or something. Their was a snake so big that we thought it might eat people but they insisted it didn't. I'm not sure if they meant it didn't or couldn't. They then showed us a video of it eating a whole sheep. It was disguesting. Then a little boy brought out a snake for us to hold. I held it, but it started moving and it was terrible. Still, it's really exciting that there is a zoo across the street from us! Mamadou said he would take us to the real zoo sometime.

We finished living in the village. It was kind of sad to leave, but it is nice to be around electricity and running water again. Apparently we left at a bad time because they were having a family reunion that day and were killing 2 cows! (they told us this over and over). I've never been anywhere were they killed

2 cows, but oh well, I missed it. And for those of you who don't know, according to the people here,

President Barack Obama is going to change thinks a lot, so be ready. According to the people in the village, he is going to change the crazy law that President Bush made and allow men to marry more than one woman (I didn't know that President Bush had decided this and I don't know how President Obama is going to change it but that's the word here). Also, the Africans are going to become American citizans. So there you have it.
More new news, I just got back from the village with my first volunteer team! They all made it back safely, and I really don't think I endangered their lives once. We drove about eight hours south of

Bamako and worked with people in the surrounding villages. For those of you who don't know, the roads in Mali are AWFUL. Really, words cannot describe how bad. Well, we were in a really bad
truck with no shocks or air conditioning. I am sure that the prayers of the people back home is only reason the truck survived the trip. The people in the truck were counting the times they hit their head on the roof. When we got back to Bamako, I was told that their was miscommunication and that the truck wasn't supposed to leave Bamako because it was in such bad condition! The trip went really well, we went to a lot of villages they had been to before and new villages as well. At two of the villages the chiefs told us that the things the church had prayed for had been answered and that they were very interested in learning more about Christianity. One village was so excited we were there that they gave us a live chicken (because it is very rude to give someone the gift of dead meat) and fed us a lunch of peanut butter sauce! I love peanut butter sauce and told them over ane over. They then pulled out a huge basked of peanuts and said that since I liked peanut butter sauce so much they would give me peanuts so I could make my own. Nothing like African hospitality.