Rachel in Africa

I'm back, and Merry Christmas!

2010-12-12T10:54:00.000-08:00

I'm back in America! Thank you all so much for your prayers and support these past two years. I praise God for allowing me to serve Him in Mali the past two years. Some days were definitely easier than others, but it is such a privilege to be used by God to share the gospel. Praise God for the work He is doing in Mali and all over the world!

This Christmas season I've been so thankful for my salvation and thinking about what it was like before people had Jesus. As soon as Adam and Eve sinned, they were promised that one day death would be defeated. God told the snake that Eve would have a descendent and that Satan would bruise His heal, but He would crush Satan's head! God called a people to Himself, revealed Himself to them, showed them their need for a Savior, and promised that one was coming. For thousands of years people waited for that Savior. They struggled to follow the law and have a right relationship with God on their own, but they failed terribly. We can't do it on our own, we can't be good at all, much less good enough for God. That was the point. Try as we might, we desperately need a Savior.

Can you imagine, after thousands of years of waiting, finally Jesus came! Most people didn't recognize Him, but those that did followed Him and many gave their lives for this message. Jesus is the only hope we have.

People before Jesus waited for Him to come, knowing they needed salvation, they needed help. Now, we live as a result of Jesus coming. We have salvation! Our lives need to reflect how great a salvation we were given, how much we were saved from.

What's heartbreaking is that 2,000 years later, so many people don't know. They know they need more, but they don't know what. All over the world we see seekers turning to false religions, trying desperately to work their way to a right relationship when we know that it's impossible. We can't be good enough but praise God we don't have to be! We live in a time of hope, but they don't know it!

Please pray for these people this holiday season. 2,000 years later and they still don't know that they don't have to struggle to find God, struggle to obey God, and still die not knowing where they will spend eternity. God came to them! They don't know that! Pray that they will receive the message of hope they need to hear. They don't have much time.

Here are they lyrics to one of my favorite Christmas songs, Oh, Come, Oh, Come Emmanuel

Oh, come, oh, come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!

Oh, come O Rod of Jesse's stem,
From ev'ry foe deliver them
That trust your mighty pow'r to save;
Bring them in vict'ry through the grave.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!

Oh, come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Oh, bid our sad divisions cease,
And be yourself our King of Peace.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!

I can't think of a title....

2010-09-06T04:52:00.000-07:00

My time here is really winding down! I have less than two months left. I extended my term by three months, so my term should really be over by now. I can't believe how quickly time has flown by.
Some really exciting things have been going on here in Mali. A few months ago, there was a training done by some men from Burkina Faso for believers here. The training was on how to share the gospel orally using Bible stories and was for any believer, not just pastors or church leaders. Believers came from all over the country to participate in this training and even put into practice what they had learned.
A couple weeks ago, two of the men who participated in these trainings decided to go to villages and train the people there as well. My supervisor and I went with them to these three villages to watch and help when needed. The people who are in this training first learn a "hook" story, which is really just a story to see if people are interested in hearing more or not. They also learned how to share their testimony and then the gospel, starting with creation and the fall and ending with what Christians do today as a result of our salvation. The believers are required to put into practice what they are learning at the training, and many people were able to here the gospel as a result. Please pray that these believers will have a heart for the lost in their villages and will continue to share faithfully.
Embarrassing story from the trip: Bathrooms in the village are outside and have no door. If you are lucky the walls overlap enough so that no one can see in but ofter times it's just an open space you walk in and you have to be careful to not accidentally scoot in front of it while you are bathing. I was bathing one night and some kids started acting like they were coming in. I screamed," Mogo be, Mogo be!!" which means, someone's in here. They started dying laughing and I realized they were being punks. It happened again, I screamed, they laughed, and I decided I was not playing this game anymore. No matter what happened I would keep my mouth shut.
A few minutes later I heard them say no one was in the bathroom but I didn't pay any attention. Shortly after, a man walked in! They told him to come in! He was mortified and ran out and I was less embarrassed but still a little. Those kids are lucky that I thought it was too funny to be mad!

Prayer Request: Right now Muslims are observing Ramadan, which is a a religious holiday where they fast during the day for 40 days and at the end they pray all night for power from Allah. Please pray that as they are fasting and praying that God will show them the Truth.

I'm Back

2010-05-20T08:27:00.000-07:00

I am officially the worst blogger ever. I can't believe it's been six months since my last post! Well, a lot has happened since then. I can't talk about everything, so I'll start in April, the busiest month ever! I had one volunteer come who wanted to stay for three weeks among the people her church has engaged. It was pretty brave of her because April is one of the hottest months! We left Good Friday with the intentions of celebrating Easter weekend with them. It's already an eight hour drive to this village, plus we had a major tire blow out that required buying a new tire (thank God for protecting us and providing someone to change the tire!) so we didn't get to the village until pretty late. The believer there had no idea we were coming, and he was definitely surprised to see us (I'm not sure if it was a pleasant surprise or not). We talked to him and found out that he and the other believers were planning on celebrating Easter the next day, from Saturday night until Sunday morning. In true Malian fashion, they would celebrate with food and dancing.
The next night, we got dressed up in our nicest Malian outfits and started the party. Peter, the leader of the believers spoke to them about Easter, then we got started dancing. We danced the exact same dance to different songs from 9pm-1am. Everyone stands in a circle and walks around doing two steps with their left leg, then two with their right, then back to left, back to right, and so on. No one really kept in beat and some people went faster than the other, so it kind of created a domino effect with all of us in such a crowded circle. There was a lot of tripping and falling into the person in front of you, then pushing them into the person in front of them, and so on. Anyways, after a couple minutes of this the music starts to pick up and the dancing gets a little faster. At this point you turn to face the inside of the circle and your left leg stays semi-still while your right legs does two steps in the front then two in the back. I say semi-still because you're still moving to the right in the circle. Honestly, it's not difficult at all, but I'm a terrible dancer, so it was a little challenging for me. I was the weakest link in the dancing circle and no one liked to be behind me because they would run into me so much. They did, however, like to watch me from outside the circle; they laughed and laughed.

Easter morning we were all tired, but about 20 believers gathered together to hear about the resurrection of Jesus. It was a privilege to celebrate with these new believers, but heartbreaking to know that the rest of the village has no idea what or why we are celebrating.

The rest of the trip went really well. We went to many new villages and found a lot of people interested in hearing more. We even were able to train Peter in going to other villages to share stories from God's Word. Although we have a car and could have driven, we wanted to show Peter that you can go to villages and share the gospel even if you don't have a car, so asked him if we could walk to a village and share the gospel with him. He picked the village and told us that it was 6 kilometers (about 3.5 miles) away (we went back and drove it and it was definitely 9 kilometers!) Our visit went really well and about 50 people heard the gospel. On the way back, Peter told us he wanted to go to another village, this one would be a 15 K (about 9 miles) walk.
"Round trip?" we asked. "No," he replied, "each way." We didn't want to squelch his enthuiasm for sharing the gospel in other villages, so we agreed. That's 18 miles! Oh my, it was a long walk. I was terribly sore the next day, but it was completely worth every step. We were all able to share the gospel and Peter presented a powerful gospel message. He told them plainly that they had to roads to choose, one led to heaven and one to hell. He is a very timid man by nature, but the Holy Spirit has given him incredible boldness in the last year that I've known him.
God is really working among this people group and it is such a privilege to be a part of it!
Please pray for them for two things: First, they are facing a lot of persecution, so please pray that God will give them strength to bear it and that He will continue to grow the church through it. Also, here at the end of dry season, food is running out. It will not be until the fall that the harvest comes in and they will have food. Please pray that God will provide food for them.

After the three weeks in the village, I went on vacation! We went to Paris, Mersaille, and London. France was fine, but London was freezing! I was actually looking forward to coming back to the 110+ temperatures of Mali!

Now I need to share with you two "compliments" I've gotten from Malians.
1) "Oh, Lala (my Malian name), you went to America and you came back big!" It's a compliment to tell people they've gained weight, it means America was good to you.
2)"I want to gain weight so I can be like you, big but not too big"
I realize this is a genuine a compliment as us telling someone they're beautiful or they've lost weight or something, but please keep your compliments to yourself, people!

That's all for now, hopefully it won't be 6 months before my next post!

Bainbridge and Baptisms

2009-11-19T08:39:00.001-08:00

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!

New Teams

2009-10-18T07:48:00.000-07:00

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.

One Year

2009-08-10T08:32:00.000-07:00

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.

Family in Africa

2009-06-29T05:09:00.000-07:00

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!

Desert Elephants!

2009-05-21T07:54:00.000-07:00

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

Easter

2009-04-16T12:44:00.000-07:00

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.

6 months later...

2009-03-28T09:18:00.000-07:00

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!

Sahara

2009-02-24T02:09:00.001-08:00

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

2009-02-15T03:07:00.000-08:00

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?

New and Exciting

2009-01-31T14:14:00.000-08:00

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.

Christmas in Africa

2008-12-26T03:10:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas Yesterday! We celebrated Christmas African-style this year. This means I got my hair done (in cornrows with a weave and a huge fake bun), my feet dyed black on the bottoms and part of the top, and matching Christmas outfits with the other Christians in the city (there aren't many). We had been out in the village learning doing language, but we left the 23rd to go to another city to celebrate Christmas with two journeygirls here and their African family. We got there the 23rd so we could get ready (it took me four hours for the hair alone and the feet is a 2 night process). We started the party Christmas Eve afternoon and it lasted through Christmas Day. Pastor tried to show the Jesus film Christmas Eve night but the projector broke. The cool thing about the way they celebrate here is they truly are celebrating Jesus's birth. It is not at all commercialized the way it is in the United States. They used it to witness to their neighbors. The Muslims have their big holidays that they celebrate so the Christians were able to show them that this is our Christian holiday and this is why we celebrate. It was incredible to see the way these African believers were reaching out and sharing Christ with their neighbors. Before that we were out in the village learning language. Amy Carmichael said that God could make a donkey talk and it would be about the same for her to learn Tamil, and that's how I feel about Bambera. It's not such a complex language, it's just nothing like English. Some things are funny, like they call a bicycle an "iron horse". And the word for year is the same as rain (because they have one rainy season a year), month is the same as moon, and day is the same as sun. Our "brother" in the village is teaching us Bambera. He wants to learn English so we're teaching him English while he teaches us Bambera. Africans are geniuses as language learning and he's learning English way faster than we're learning Bambera. It's embarrassing. We are doing a lot better though. I'm able to understand a lot of what people are telling me (after they repeat is slowly a few times and use hand gestures). We're back in Bamako because we had Christmas with everyone here last night. We're headed back to the village next tomorrow and will be working on language for the next couple weeks. Hope all of you had a great Christmas!

This is a little girl in the village
and this is our hut in the village.

Hunt for the Red Bobo

2008-12-13T07:44:00.000-08:00

We just got back from our first research trip by ourselves! (with the help of another journeygirl, Katie, and a translator). We were researching the Bobo people, and it was really fun! We got to our city on Tuesday, and we started asking people if they knew where Bobo villages were. Wednesday we rode out and started talking visiting the villages. Let me tell you something about African roads. Sometimes (usually not) they're paved. The ones that aren't paved are usually in bad condition and very bumpy, but you can still tell that they are roads. Out in the bush however, it is neither. The only way you can even tell you are on a road is the faint tracks from where donkey carts have been traveling. Other than that, there's no way to know. None. So, we would stop at a village and ask them our questions, then ask them where another Bobo village was. They would say, down this road, so we would go down the road. Pretty soon, we would lose the road, so we would have to stop and look for tracks, then follow them again. Thank goodness for GPS's and helpful Africans. God always provided us with someone to help us. We were able to get a lot of good information. Surprisingly, most of the Bobo people were not Muslim, there were a lot of Christians! We found a lot of little churches and got to talk with church members and pastors, it was a really great experience.
One village we went to, they took us to the chief. Imagine the oldest man you've ever seen in your life and add 50 years. That is how old this man looked. His wife looked even older. They were both sitting on the ground in a t-shirt and absolutely nothing else. Halfway through our conversation with him and about 15 other African men, the chief layed down on his side so that he was mooning all of us. I had to keep telling myself to be mature and not laugh. After we finished our questions, our translator said for us to ask how old the chief was. So we did, and this started a huge discussion. Apparently, it's ok to ask people's ages here, it's not considered rude, they just don't know. Many Africans don't keep track of birthdays. Well after a long discussion (of which the chief had no part) they finally came up with 200. Now, he looked about 200, but obviously he wasn't. They discussed it some more and said maybe not 200, maybe 180. It was so funny. Finally, they said, "he's old."
We're back in Bamako for a couple days, they we're headed out to the village for language training and we come back for Christmas. I hope all of you have a very Merry Christmas!!

Back from Guinea!

2008-12-06T06:11:00.000-08:00

I got back from Guinea yesterday! We took Amanda and Brittany to their new home in Guinea. It was a 2 day drive from Bamako. The first part had paved roads, and you don't know what a luxury that is until you move to Africa. The rest (probably 2/3) was horrible roads. This picture shows a little

but not the full extent. You may think that is the side of the road, but that is the actual road. I drove for hours and hours, and only was in third gear for 5 minutes. The rest was between second and first. It was really fun and a little scary.
I had no idea of what to expect from their town. All we had heard was it was out in the middle of nowhere and you can't get anything. Africans were telling us it was out in the middle of nowhere, if that tells you anything. We did see a lot of animals, though. We saw a huge warthog (just like Pumba but black), a bushrat, and monkeys! Wild monkeys on the side of the road! We finally got there after 2 long days of driving, and it was so funny. Tons of Africans were all around us, and they were all speaking English! It was night and I was tired and I had no idea who was who, but they were all talking to us and getting stuff out of the car. They were really nice and excited we were there. We went to bed and the next morning we went looked around and met people. They town is incredible, but people are great. There is no electricity or running water, so we used a generator and went down to the pump to get water. The pump is a good ways away and you have to carry the water in bidons on your head! Oh my goodness, it's hard. The Africans can balance it on their heads, but I had to use my arms and it was still really hard. I thought my head was going to break, but fortunately, it didn't.
We stayed there a few days and got them settled, then we went on our first research assignment. We had to find information on the Kono people, like how many believers there were, were any mission organizations engaging them, etc. We drove to the town and stayed the night at a guesthouse, then the next morning we were going to a place that studies chimps to see them then to see the Kono people. I was so excited. Well, I woke up that morning and didn't feel good, but I still went. We got to the research place, and I threw up. The people found the monkeys and our guide took us up a mountain in primary forest (which means none of the trees have ever been cut and there aren't really any trails). I'm not great at climbing mountains anyway, and this was hard, and I felt awful. When we got close, I threw up again. How much grosser could I get? We finally found the chimps, and they were way up in the trees. I just layed down on a log while everyone else took pictures. Of all the days to get sick, I picked the worst one. They went and found some more and I stayed on the log. We finally started to go down the mountain, and I fell down it 3 times. I would like to say it's because I was sick, but I probably would have fallen anyways, my balance leaves a lot to be desired. Unfortunately for our guide, I was right behind him, and when he graciously tried to help me, my feet slipped out from under me and I knocked him over too. After that, he kept a safe distance away from me, sometimes I couldn't even see him!
It turns out that he was Kono! This is how nice Africans are, he took us to a Kono village! He didn't even know us and he did this. It was really far, but we drove there and he introduced us (or them, because I was still throwing up and laying down in the car) and they told the story of the demonic man and Creation to Return. The story of the demonic man really means a lot to these people because most of them have witnessed demonic possession first hand and they want to know the God who has power over this. The Creation to Return story is a run through of the Bible, highlighting man's need for God and how even though we sinned God promised a Savior and sent Him. The people were so grateful that we came and told us that they wanted to be changed like the man in the story. They gave us lots of gifts, like a live chicken, banananas, rice, and money. Christians in the town came and greeted us and took us to their church and we all worshipped together. They kept coming and coming and it was really cool. It's amazing how God works out divine appointments like that and leads you to where He wants you to be and puts the right people in your path. The next day, we went back to Amanda and Brittany's city and then we came back to Bamako. On the way, we thought we had car trouble. We stopped the car and had tons of Africans
rush to our assitance. We were their morning entertainment, as you can see.
Tuesday, Rachel, another Journeyman named Katy, and I leave to search for the Red Boba and research them. Please be in prayer for us that God willl lead us to the right people and that we will be able to witness to people along the way. Pray for safety as we are driving.

Village

2008-11-25T03:34:00.001-08:00

Hey! Here are some pictures from the village. We had such a good time. We got to visit a lot with a pastor and his family and their church. There are so few Malian Christians so it's really cool when you get to know them. Not that I could really talk to them much, since they don't speak English and my Bambera is "small small," sometimes pick out words and figure out a little. We ate peanut butter sauce 4 times! my FAVORITE! Life out there is really nice, I think it's better than Bamako. It's not so dirty and stinky. They live in cute little huts and there are lots of trees and mountains and not so many cars. We went to the little market everyday and I even carried something on my head. They can carry anything on their heads and they make it look so easy. It's deceiving. I just carried some fabric on my head and all the people wend "Eh?!?" They make that noise a lot, it's like "What?!?" I got about 5 steps before I had to fix it. It's really hard. Maybe one day. They carry huge buckets of water without spilling a drop. It's amazing.
Yesterday we went to this waterfall! It was really hard to find and the roads were terrible, but it was worth it! We swam and read and worshipped. It was wonderful.

2008-11-17T02:46:00.000-08:00

We just finished up our homestay with our family. They were so great and I'm really going to miss them, even though they live close to us. When we left, Assaita sat us down and told us how much she enjoyed us staying with them and how we are now part of their family and welcome over there any time. She said we were just like daughters to them. The amazing part is she said it in Bambera and I understood!!! Not every word, but enough to put it all together! She translated it after and it was what I had thought she would say. Granted, it was kind of expected that she would say something like that, so I wasn't completely guessing, but, I still was excited. The African people are so gracious. Most Americans have an idea that houseguests for 2 1/2 weeks is too long and you're ready for them to leave, but they said it wasn't long enough!
Our last day there, their daughter Zainab took us shopping at the "Big Market." It was huge. Well, people told us a thousand times to watch our purses because there are pickpockets, so, I was guarding my purse with my life. These men started pointing to this old man and telling me something. I looked up at him and he was holding my phone! (it's a pink razor, and I haven't seen many africans, much less men, with one). I panicked and started yelling at him to give it back and hollering that it was mine and tried to grab it from him. Everyone around was looking at me oddly and Zainab came up to me and told me that it wasn't mine. I looked in my purse and there was my phone. I pulled out my phone to explain to the man my mistake and everyone started laughing really hard at the stupid white girl. I tried to play it off by casually walking away but when I casually walked back they were still laughing. A man told me (in English, while laughing hysterically) that I was "crazy" why did I think that many had taken my phone? It was mortifying. But other that that, I had fun and we're going back again today. Hopefully no one will recognize me.
Tomorrow we leave to our to the village for a week, so that should be a lot of fun.

Tubabu

2008-11-14T04:23:00.000-08:00

Tubabu. This is what I get called every day. It means white person. When Rachel and I walk down the street, children yell, "Tubabu, Tubabu!", in a kind of chanty, sing songy way. Once when someone was trying to come to our house, they found our street but couldn't find the house. They asked where the tubabu's lived and people took them right to it. Yesterday Rachel, Assaita, and I were in the market and as were leaving, I knocked over a fish stand with my purse (gross). I turned around to pick up the fish and when I looked up, they were gone. This market was crazy like a maze and there was no way I could have gottan out by myself. I said, "Tubabu be me?" Which means, where's the white person? A little girl took me right to Rachel. Clearly being the only white person has it's advantages. Assaita told us that she felt famous with us because we drew so much attention.
Good news of the week, not only can I count successfully to ten, I can count to a hundred!! Once you get the first ten down, the rest is pretty easy, but whatever. Just getting to ten was an accomplishment. But, you would think that once I could count, I could barter at the market without pulling out my cell phone to show the numbers. Not the case. Unlike America, Where the number 100 also works for $100, numbers that you count things with and money numbers are different. You have to measure everything in 5's. Like 10 CFA's, is 2 5's. For 1000 CFA's you say 2 500's. So, you have to first do math, then figure out how to say it. I think I'm going to stick to my cell phone. The only thing my number skills has been useful for is Uno and Phase 10, which we taught the girls we are living with to play.

This picture is of a peanut butter machine. We brought them a huge bowl of peanuts, and then grind them up and it comes out peanut butter. They call peanut butter "tigadigi." They don't really eat peanut butter except for making sauces, and they think putting it on bread is weird. I told them it's because they need to put some sugar in it, like Jif does. They have peanut butter, bread, and jelly, but they think it's weird to put that we eat the three together. I told them I was raised on it. But, they do something amazing with peanut butter that we don't do. It's called "tigadigina." Peanut butter sauce. YUM! They made it for us yesterday and served it over rice, AMAZING! My favorite African food by far. We can teach them about peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and they can teach us about peanut butter sauce. Fair trade.

Saturday is our last day living with our family and I'm really going to miss them. They are so much fun and such a great family. Good thing they live close by, I can visit them whenever I want! Lucky them, haha! Next week we are going to the village with a One Story team and we'll stay a week. I'm really excited, it will be my first time to go out to a village. Please continue to pray for my language skills, it's getting better everyday, but it just seems so slow. But, I am able to use more words and fewer hand gestures. so that's exciting. Also, pray for the village we are going to. The one story girls have been working there for a while so pray that God will continue to do a great work there.

Coming Along

2008-11-07T04:30:00.001-08:00

Please don't think this means I support Obama, this is what Africa thinks. I took this picture at a nearby bakery, the day of the election, before he even won. If he wants to fun for president here, he could definitely win. Wednesday morning I woke up and the woman I am staying with ran up to me and started spinning me around and screaming, "We did it, We did it!!" Now when we go out people stop us and ask if we're Americans and say, "Barack Obama!" It's embarrassing how much more they know about U.S. politics than I do. One man even stopped and showed us a picture of Obama and told us Bush needed to leave to Obama could start. It's ridiculous.

Milestone: I had my first conversation in Bambera. It went like this.
Me- Good Afternoon
Man-Yes, how are you?
Me-Quite well (I found out that's what I've been saying)
-Your people?
-Quite well
-What's your name?
-Lala Diop (my African name given to me by my African family)
-Oh, Senagelise?
-Yes, what's your name?
-Something Diop
-Diop?
-Yes! (he nods his head excitedly)
-You are my older brother! (or older cousin, it just means older male relative)
I laugh at my joke (it's the closest thing I can make to a joke in this language), he laughs-probably at my bad Bambera. Wanting to end the conversation before he sees how little Bambera I really know, I say, See ya! He says, greet your people! I realize it's not hte most impressive conversaion, and that it probably can't really count for a conversation, but considering I didn't speak a word of Bambera one month ago, I'm happy.

African meals are very different from American meals. They have one dish, usualy rice and sauce, and everyone eats out of the same bowl. It sounds gross, but it's not because you only eat what's in front of you. It's very rude to reach into someont else's part of the bowl. They also eat with their right hand. So, in order to be more like them, I have started to eat with my right hand too. You're probably thinking, what could be easier than eating with your hands? Everything. Everything could be easier. Except learning Bambera. They take the food and ball it up and stick it in their mouths. I try, it falls all over me. If I lean my hear back and dump it in my mouth, they laugh at me (and they usually don't laugh at what I do, so this must look really ridiculous. Clearly that's not how you're supposed to do it.

Everything here is going well. We are staying with the greatest family, they are teachinbg us to much about language and culture. They have been so welcoming and really make us feel like we are part of their family.

Please continue to pray that I will learn the language and understand the culture. Pray also for the lost here, it's overwhelming to see how many people have no idea about the gospel. Also, pray for more workers to be sent here, there are so many lost peopel here and so few people to tell them.

Thanks for your prayers, miss all of ya'll!

Donni Donni

2008-11-01T07:35:00.000-07:00

Hey Everybody!

Lots and lots has been happening. Rachel and I are staying with a Malian family to learn the language. It's going to take more than that for me I'm afraid, maybe brain surgery. Every morning we wake up, eat breakfast, then go out to the markets. We greet everyone we see. You say, ane sokoma! (I have no idea if this is spelled right, I've never seen it, only heard it). They usually say Bonjour, because they think we're French. Sometimes they ignore us. If we're lucky, they'll reply, N'say, Somo Obede. I say, Torrote . This is how it works out in English.
Me-Good Morning!
Them-Good Morning, how are you?
-Fine
-How is your Family?
-Fine
-How is your husband?
-Fine ( I say this because I'm not exactly sure what they're saying when they're saying it and all I know how to say is fine)
-How are your kids?
-Fine (same as husband)
-they ask about more family members and stuff
-Fine
-Greet your family
-Fine--When it gets to this point I am supposed to say, They will hear it, but unfortunately, I am never sure when they are saying greet your family. So, I am still saying fine. They give me a confused look and I say, "donni donni Bambera." This means "slowly slowly Bambera" but they are supposed to know if means I don't speak Bambera well. They say "oh, donni donni" and then speak to me about a mile a minute in Bambera. I keep telling them I don't speak Bambera but it doesn't phase them. I say "cambe!" Which means, "see you!" and keep walking and repeat this again a few times.

I go to the market and look around. Rachel and I have on friend there, Babu or something like that. He sells us moomoos. I know moomoos are old ladyish in the states, but they're ok here I think. And tye dyed! SInce I don't know numbers (the numbers here are crazy hard), I have to barter with my cell phone. He shows a number than me and back and forth until we agree. All you have to do is walk away and he'll give us what we want.

DRIVING
oh my goodnes, it's crazy. The rule here seems to be, if you can possibly fit your car there, help yourself. Only 2 lanes? Who cares, 3 cars can fit! Are there cars coming toward me? Who cares, they're not here right now so I can turn in front of them, they'll probably slow down! Amazingly, this system seems to work for them. Except, for me who struggled with driving in the United States and has hit more still objects than I can count, it could be a problem. I've driven twice and it's been ok but not great. Oh well, we'll see how it goes.

Everything here is really great. The people here are amazing, they could not have been nicer to us. They don't seem to care that we're dumb white girls, they treat us like we're part of their family.

Please pray that we'll learn the language and culture quickly. Everything here is so different and it's really easy to offend people without knowing it and that could really affect us sharing the gospel with them.

Learning Bambara

2008-10-17T09:29:00.000-07:00

OK...we started learning Bambara now. I forgot how much I don't like languages. In college, I had to drop Spanish III before I failed, and Spanish is an easy language I was already familiar with. Bambara is just completely unfamiliar. Our teacher doesn't speak any English so we hold up objects and she tells us what they are and she goes over and over until we feel comfortable, then we record her. We hold up a cup, she tells us the word for cup. We hide the cup and say, where is the cup. Then we find it. We hope she is teaching us to say, where is the cup. We put the cup on the stool. We hope she is saying, the cup is on the stool. She's really patient but I know it has to be frustrating for her. She laughs at us a lot, and we have no idea why so we just laugh back. It's exactly how I used to teach the kids at the day care new words, holding up pictures and objects and going over and over them. But, this should be a lot better than memorizing words and being tested on them. It's hard but it's really good because we are in control, and if we want to work more on something we can go over it more and if we think we have it we can go on. It helps a lot to be able to go at your own pace. The other girls here used this method and went into places where no English speakers had ever been and after a year they speak the language fluently. So, hopefully, I'll learn the language quickly, even though it doesn't come naturally to me.
God has already given me an amazing love for these people, and I can't wait to be able to communicate with them and share the gospel.

First few days...

2008-10-15T06:30:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! I'm finally here in Africa, I didn't really think this day would every come, but here it is! We got here late Friday night and have been pretty busy ever since. First, I can't really do anything here. I knew to expect that, but it's weird to actually experience it. I can't drive, cook, talk, find my way around, nothing. When people try to talk to me all I can do is look at them dumbly and hope they understand that I'm not being mean, I just have no idea what they're saying or how to respond.
All we've really done so far is get to meet some of the other m's here, go around the market and explore some, and learn how to story. All of the people groups here are oral, so we're learning how to story the Bible for them.
It's not nearly as hot here as I thought it would be, and it's really beautiful. The people here are really friendly, they just don't speak English and I don't speak French or Bambara so I can't really talk to them, but hopefully soon!
So far it's been a lot of fun and I really love it here.
Please pray that I will be able to learn the language quickly and drive safely. Driving here is crazy and I'm terrible at driving a stick shift, so this should be interesting...