Miri The Artist (by Thom)

Miriam is shaping up to be quite the artist.

The artist at work.

An elephant, of course.

Her masterpiece, "Scary Monster"

Many, many, many thanks to the MOPS group in Minneapolis, MN who sent us the watercolors. The girls love making art!

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Friday Foto Flashback

(I'm toying with the idea for a new series on Fridays where we'll look back through our photograph archives and find a moment that holds special significance to us. We'll try this a few weeks and see if it has any traction. Any feedback is greatly appreciated!)

Photo taken: 4/14/2008 near the village of Senou on the outskirts of Bamako, Mali.

(written by Thom) In April 2008 my Malian pastor, Christophe Dembele, asked if I'd come with him to see a project he was working on. Several times of the previous year or two he had hosted work teams from Canada and New England as they came to build an orphanage. Pastor Christophe is one of the most ambitious and driven men I've met and he does a great job of focusing that internal drive for the glory of the Lord. This orphanage is just one of many of the projects he's spearheaded or gotten involved with. Aside from the importance of the orphanage (the building was going up behind me when I took this picture) this was going to be a significant place for at least three other reasons: they were going to start a school for the orphans and the greater community, it was located in a bustling, newly-built community where the government was giving houses to the military, and the well you see. Wells are so important in this dry climate. Christophe's church was built in a neighborhood in Bamako that didn't have a well and miraculously held water and became such an important centerpiece for that neighborhood, opening all sorts of doors to outreach. This well, which was so deep I couldn't see the bottom, would be a solid foundation to outreach in the Senou area. I think, as Americans, we can look at such a primitive thing as this well and wonder how it can revolutionize an area but we've seen it happen. Praise the Lord for wells and for his living water!

(Side note: On the way out to Senou we drove by the Coca-Cola bottling factory. I pointed to it and jokingly told my pastor "There's the most important factory in Mali!". He looked back at my like I had just kicked a puppy, "But, they make beer there!" was his response. I had no idea what to say to that.

On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. (John 7:37-39)

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April Fools in Love (by Thom)

Today (April 1st) marks the 14th anniversary of Amanda and my first date. It wasn't the most romantic of dates (fast food, a walk through the park and then back to my house to rake leaves) but it was the start of something great!

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New Pictures

Last week we were away at our annual prayer retreat in the beautiful Domaine de Nianing, near Saly, Senegal. We took a lot of pictures, of course, and we know you readers like to see them. There are a couple dozen new pictures in the photo section of the website. Also, you may have noticed the picture that greets you at the front of this website has been updated. With two quickly-growing girls I suppose we can't update that enough!
Here and here are two of our favorite pictures. There are plenty more to see by clicking here.
(Google Blogger seems to be having some sort of problem where I can't post images into the blog directly right now. If I can later I'll add a couple to this post.)

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Doctor Sammy (by Amanda)

~cross-posted from Facebook

I went to our equivalent of Sam's Club yesterday. It's a giant warehouse called King Kash that recently imported a bunch of food from America. I was on a mission to get this pop that is similar to Dr. Pepper, one of Thom's favorites. Not seeing any on the floor I asked if they had any left in the warehouse and lo they did have one left. It was stacked in the bottom-middle of a very deep pile of Cola. So the employee asked "don't you want cola?" I responded "I can get that anywhere, but Dr. Sammy is special."
So he pointed at the case and said "you want that one?" to confirm and I nodded and said "that one". They ended up getting a step latter out and unstacking the cola until they got "that one":) They were very nice too. I offered both workers a can of pop as a thank-you, but they politely declined.
Life here can be unpredictable but never dull!

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Friday Foto Flashback

(I'm toying with the idea for a new series on Fridays where we'll look back through our photograph archives and find a moment that holds special significance to us. We'll try this a few weeks and see if it has any traction. Any feedback is greatly appreciated!)

Photo taken: 9/16/2006 at Bethel Bible School in Koutiala, Mali.

This was one of the first pictures we took upon arriving in Mali back in September 2005. We arrived on a Thursday, spent the first weekend adjusting to the time change, and then the first week following setting up our new house. The following weekend we were taken to Koutiala, a city 500 KMs (310 miles) east of Bamako. The trip has nice paved roads and takes about 5 hours to drive.

We came to Koutiala as part of our orientation. Even though Bamako is the mission's headquarters Koutiala functions as a major hub of Alliance activity in Mali, due in no small part to the hospital we've built there. Another key to Koutiala is Bethel Bible School, the seminary where many Malian C&MA pastors train. That particular weekend coincided with the biennial Alliance Women's Conference and Amanda spent much of it out in the heat with the women. That's where she snapped this picture. It was brutally hot for 'newbies' like us with temperatures around 100 and Amanda was quite overwhelmed with all the newness of everything: the languages, climate, languages, culture and languages. Still she left the conference with a deep appreciation for the hearts of these women, as well as a burden for how many of them sacrificed for their faith. The support, comfort, encouragement and mutual rejoicing called the second chapter of Philippians to mind. In their call to be Christ-like, they certainly encouraged us!

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. (Philippians 2:5-7 NIV)

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McMurray Update / March Edition

We just sent out our latest update letter via email to those who have signed up for our updates. If you'd like to be on our mailing list (which gets update letters and urgent prayer emails) you may sign up here.

To download our March Update, you can do that here. (pdf format)
On a completely unrelated note, we will be leaving today for our annual field retreat. We may have limited access to the internet this week but I am not expecting it, so blog-posting should be either light or non-existent. Please hold our team up in prayer and we have this time of refreshing, sharing, and prayer for the other Alliance missionaries here in Senegal.

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Monday Proverb

Proverbs have tremendous cultural value here and matching local proverbs with key scriptures is a wonderful tool to starting a conversation about the Gospel.

Wolof proverb:
Reewalal sa jabar ak sab jaam, te yar sa doom.

(translation) You should spoil your wife and your servant, but discipline your child.
(alternate translation) Spare the rod and spoil the child.

(explanation) Through kindness and generosity you can cause your wife and your servant to become very attached to you, but you should not treat your child that way. A child needs to be disciplined firmly in order to prepare him for the difficulties of life.

“Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish him with the rod, he will
not die.” Proverbs 23:13 NIV

Reprinted in part with permission from "Wisdom of the Wolof Sages: A Collection of Proverbs translated and explained in English" by Dr. Richard Shawyer (c) 2009

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Friday Foto Flashback

(I'm toying with the idea for a new series on Fridays where we'll look back through our photograph archives and find a moment that holds special significance to us. We'll try this a few weeks and see if it has any traction. Any feedback is greatly appreciated!)

Photo taken: 3/11/2006 on Goree Island, near Dakar, Senegal.

It's been four years since our first trip to Dakar, Senegal. Ironically, when we left Dakar back in 2006 after our conference we said "Nice enough place but I never would want to live there." Little did we know all our lives had in store!
We were in Dakar for two weeks in March 2006. We came for a bookkeeping conference and spent an extra week being tourists. During that time we visited the former slave island of Goree, saw Pink Lake, went to the beach, and visited our first (and so far, only) wildlife refuge in Africa. For us, all the water of the Atlantic Ocean was a novelty. Living in Mali at the time we saw the dirty waters of the Niger River but mostly there isn't much of the wet stuff around. Dakar also had that 'big-city' vibe that Bamako didn't. We preferred the laid-back pace of life in Mali and found the hustle of Dakar to be a bit overwhelming. Oh, and the power cuts. The power was out for hours at a time every day. We had been spoiled with great electricity in Mali so that was a frustration we took back with us.
Still, when we were asked in early 2009 if we'd like to join the regional office in Dakar we were excited. Our lives had changed so much in the previous years: our family changed a lot when we adopted the twins, our roles in ministry had shifted a bit, and we saw the Lord's hand in guiding us to Dakar.
When we see the photo above we're reminded how much things have changed over the years and how faithful the Lord has been to us in every step.

...You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the LORD your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed. Joshua 23:14 (NIV)

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Car Shopping (by Thom)

We've been posting updates on our car fund each month and as you can see, we're getting closer and closer to our goal of $25,000 USD. We actually have the option of borrowing up to 25% of the cost of a car so we're now close enough that we can start looking. Today I took my first trip to local dealerships here in Dakar, Senegal.
Car shopping here can be a similar experience to the US. Sure, the language is different (we sure struggled to figure out how to ask "front wheel drive" vs "rear wheel drive") and the numbers are w-a-y different. Most of the cars I looked at cost about 12,000,000 CFA. That translates roughtly to $25,000). Still, these were new cars in dealership showrooms which, for the most part, were air conditioned and clean.
We started out at the Volkswagen dealership where I was especially interested in the VW Suran. It's a smaller cross between a minivan and a hatchback and the price is right. I liked the car and it's on our "to-think-about list".
The next stop was the Ford dealership where the cheapest car was about $45,000. We didn't even bother opening any doors.
Next up we drove over to the Nissan dealership where I found a great car but one on the upper threshold of what's realistically in our price range. It's called the Nissan Qashqai and is classified as an SUV comparable to the Honda CRV or Toyota RAV4 but I thought of it more as a large hatchback. It was a great car and felt the sturdiest of all the cars I looked at but at $31,000 we're about $5,000 shy of being able to think about it.
Next we walked over to the Renault dealership. That's a French brand and while I saw an interesting car in our price range it didn't seem to really meet our needs. Lastly we stopped by Toyota. There wasn't much in our price range but one van jumped out. It was great in every aspect but one (a very important one): it was rear-wheel drive. In the sandy environment here having four-wheel drive is important and failing that, front-wheel drive is a must.
So, at the end of the day I came home, tired, with my head full of thoughts to share with Amanda. We really feel that the list narrowed itself down to two cars: the VW Suran and the Nissan Qashqai. We feel the VW is a nice car and just meets our family needs and we have the funds now to make a payment (we are allowed to borrow up to 25% of the purchase price from the mission) but the Nissan better meets our family's needs, it's much sturdier, should last longer, but we're short funds. We're really praying now for direction. We so very much appreciate all the donations that have come in so far that have brought us this close to buying a car. We also thank you for your prayers for our wisdom in this. If you feel led to help us out you can find instructions in this post and we'll keep you all posted with what we decide.

To make a secure, tax-deductible donation online, click here.

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February Car Fund Update

For the past several months we’ve been mentioning our need for funds to purchase a car in our new country of service. Our goal is $25,000. That’s not a magic number or anything, and probably won't allow us to buy a new car (vehicles are much more expensive in West Africa), but it's our goal. If we can raise more we will be able to buy a sturdier, newer vehicle.

In February we received gifts of $865 bringing our total to $18,053 or 72.2% of our goal. Here's our fund-raising thermometer. We've finally filled up to the windows!

If you would like to help with this need there are a couple of options. You can send a tax-deductible gift to:

The C&MA
Thom McMurray Vehicle Special
P. O. Box 35000
Colorado Springs, CO 80935

There's also a secure way to make your donation on-line, through the C&MA's website. If this interests you, click here.

Thanks for considering this and praying for us. We appreciate all the support we've received to-date and it's exciting to realize we're almost three-fourths of the way there! We'll keep this updated and hopefully start to see this car turn more red in the months to come.

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Monday Proverb

Proverbs have tremendous cultural value here and matching local proverbs with key scriptures is a wonderful tool to starting a conversation about the Gospel.

Wolof proverb:
Wërsëg dina jóge ci njoñ.

(translation) Opportunities can come from one's restraints..

(explanation) One can learn good lessons by going through difficulties.

“No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” Hebrews 12:11 NIV

Reprinted in part with permission from "Wisdom of the Wolof Sages: A Collection of Proverbs translated and explained in English" by Dr. Richard Shawyer (c) 2009

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Patience is a Virtue I Need to Work On (by Amanda)

For Christmas this year when family asked me what I wanted I didn’t have any great ideas, but I did have one thing that I really wanted. It was a hanging basket to put fruit and vegetables in. My fridge isn’t really big so I thought it would save some space both in the fridge and on my counter top. I also thought it would be great because it was inexpensive and compact so it would fit well in a box. When Christmas came around my family got me some wonderful gifts including things I hadn’t thought to ask for, but I really use, but as we all know when we get something set in our minds that is what we want. I was still remembering that elusive hanging basket though and kept thinking what a great addition to my kitchen it would be.
Today I was thinking that is often how we are with God. We get a plan stuck in our heads that we think is best and we keep pestering God for that. Often we are so frustrated when it doesn’t come in our timing. We say God knows best, but do we really put that into belief and action or do we continue to moan to God saying poor me. I know often I find myself in that cycle. Oh, I say "God knows best" and tell Him I’ll be patient, but continue to complain in my heart. As I write this I think "when will I ever learn to just trust and wait patiently"? Of course, sometimes God wants us to approach him over and over again to seek what we want such as the persistent widow did, but we also need stop moaning poor me.
There is a happy ending to this story; it may seem trivial, but I got my hanging basket on Saturday. We have a couple here leaving Senegal for the US and they were having a moving sale. So I was blessed enough to buy her hanging basket and she was happy because she got rid of it. It is amusing to me that this whole experience reminded me how important our wait can be and how gracious and merciful God is. Sometimes he is just preparing us for the unexpected; as you all know I have twins! :)

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Outreach (by Thom)

This is an exciting weekend for the missions community in Senegal. Each year Dakar Academy, a local boarding school, sends out all willing high school students on an outreach trip into several small villages in the interior of Senegal.
This morning at about 5am several vans loaded up to take the kids out to the bush where they will break up into teams like child evangelism, roofing churches, building benches, drama team, and others. Each evening there will be evangelism films, drama presentations, music and preaching.
You might think "Over 100 high school students in the bush? This won't end well..." However, these kids have done wonderful jobs over the years and have displayed maturity beyond their years, leading to many new people responding to the Gospel.
It so happens that this year the outreach trip coincides with a major national and spiritual holiday - Muhammad's birthday. Please stand in prayer with these students during their outreach trip. They should be returning Sunday afternoon and the church will be having a special service Sunday evening to provide a recap of the trip.

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Teaching Moments (by Thom)

Today was my first Daddy/Daughter Date with Hannah (Miri's first was 2 weeks ago). The timing was perfect as we had an 'event' last night. Last night around 11 I heard someone in the girls' room kicking their bed. I went in the room to see Hannah wiggling. I asked her if she was kicking the bed, to which she denied it 3 or 4 times. Miriam was clearly sleeping so I asked Hannah again and she admitted she had lied, which was the first time she'd blatantly lied to me. It gave us something interesting to talk about at the restaurant today, anyway. (That was a *big* understatement!) It wasn't all serious, though. Here's a couple of pictures from out time taken with my new phone's camera.

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