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.

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?