How We Got To Mali (by Thom)

Life has definitely changed a lot for Amanda and I in the last 18 months. A lot of you know the story and how we ended up as missionaries in Mali, West Africa. However, it occurred to me last week that a number of you who follow our reports from here don’t know the “back story.” I’ll warn you ahead of time that this is, by far, the longest entry we’ve ever posted, but I’ve decided that now would be as good a time as ever to tell you the story of our journey…

In December of 2003 I was asked by the Board of Directors at WTGN-FM in Lima, OH where I worked to lead a short-term trip to Burkina Faso (if you don't know, it's next to Mali in West Africa) for construction of a Christian radio station. I was very excited, of course. I ended up with a team of myself and 7 other guys from the Lima area and we went in February 2004. We had a very successful trip and finished all the construction we set out to do and more. I also had the opportunity to travel to 2 other towns where we were thinking about building future stations. The Burkina station is operated by the Christian & Missionary Alliance (C&MA). That was the start of my relationship with the Alliance. The whole time I was in Burkina I was thinking to myself, "This would be really great if I could lead several more short-term trips here. That's a sort of mission in itself." However, while I was there I learned that my ideas of what a missionary was didn't match up with reality. I realized there was room for radio people, business people, dorm parents, and relief & development people. All of them could work alongside the church planters and doctors that I already knew about. These thoughts kind of got stored in the back of my mind as I processed all the new experiences around me. With me in Burkina, on my team, was my best friend. He and I spent a lot of time talking about missions. His heart was already in that, and he was trying to figure out his place in the missions world. Accidentally, I think he helped me figure out mine. While we were there, Amanda stayed with his wife (who is her best friend) for the two weeks. During that time, Amanda says she really realized that I was going to come back and say, "Amanda, what do you think about missions?" Those were her exact words. They prayed a lot and talked a lot about these things, but when I came back, initially, I was still thinking about leading more short-term trips.
My first day back at work after returning I went to the news computer, as I normally did when I got to work. I'd read through all the news, sports, entertainment stuff. When I got to the entertainment items, I thought, "What drivel!" With that in the back of my head, I went to my office. It seemed that every experience I had the next several hours, days, and even weeks reminded me of the joys of daily life in spite of adversity that the Burkinabe experience. About 4 or 5 days after returning I remarked to Amanda, “I know I’m back where I live and where I work, but I don’t feel like I’m home.”
With these thoughts all traveling through the vast empty space of my head, it took me about a week to say to Amanda, "Amanda, what do you think about missions?" Those were my exact words. Of course, she wasn't surprised.
At that point, we're in late February, 2004. Over the next 3 months I did a number of speaking engagements in Lima and around Ohio to talk about the project we did, and try to raise awareness for prayer for Burkina Faso (Most people have never heard of it) and the radio station we help build. At one of my engagements, the Lima Christian Businessmen's Luncheon, there was a local Pastor in the audience named Bob Pease. Bob was a missionary in Mali for 30 years, until his wife was in a bad car wreck and needed a wheelchair. However, Bob didn't introduce himself to me. I only learned this much later, when I was at home in late May on a Sunday afternoon and the phone rang. It was the Sunday announcer at the radio station. "Thom, there's a local pastor here with a lady who was a missionary in that place you went (he couldn't remember the name!) for 41 years. She'd like to talk with you." I told him I'd be right there, and Amanda went with me. Her name is Nancy Pierce and she was in the area on a missions tour, and Bob wanted her to meet me, based on that speech I had given. We ended up talking for about 2 hours. As she was getting ready to leave she said she and her husband were coming out of retirement for one year to go to Mali and be the Field Directors. She said they had a need for a bookkeeper, and asked if I had ever considered missions, especially business missions.
At this point, I need to back up about 2 months. After Amanda and I realized we were being called to the mission field we started our planning: "We should have our finances in order in about 2 years…" "Then we'll start looking at different radio ministries...." Those were our plans. I did start looking at radio mission organizations sooner, though. I looked at a number of different groups on the internet. I even had a discussion with one particular radio ministry. I went to their offices in and talked with a guy there for 3 ½ hours. That was about 2 weeks before I met Nancy. It was also about that time that I was realizing that God wasn't calling me to radio missions. I had a minor in college in business, and I felt the Lord saying very clearly, "You've used your degree in radio long enough. Now I want you to use business." (That's a paraphrase )
When Nancy asked if I was feeling led to business missions, my jaw about hit the floor. I gave her my business card, but at the same time thought, "Who knows if anything will come of this." About a week later my parents moved to Utah for my dad's new job. I drove a car out there for them and flew back. When I arrived back in Lima there was an email waiting for me from the Alliance asking me to apply for the bookkeeping position. I wrote back saying that I didn't have any experience and wasn't sure I was what they wanted. They then called me that night and reassured me about that, even asking if we would be able to leave as early as December! This is an amazing thing that I believe only God could have worked out. We were not members of the Alliance (we attended an Evangelical Free Church) and the C&MA does not seem to be an easy organization to get into from the outside. Because of the "Great Commission Fund" we didn't have to raise support and were able to leave sooner. This is now early June, 2004. We started the application process, had our first interview in August. Our second interview was in September. During that one, they said they wanted to recommend us for appointment. In October, we were officially appointed. This is normally a very long process that can span several years. In December, we were to leave for language study in France. Because of visa problems, we didn't actually leave until the end of January. That turned out to be a very good thing because on December 6th, I stepped of my porch wrong carrying furniture and severely damaged my left foot. I was still in the cast when we left for France. We had basically 6 months in France, and then returned to the states for one month (August). On September 1st, we arrived in Bamako, Mali. We're now studying Bambara (the local language: even though French in the official language only about 12% of the people actually speak it) and I've been hard at work in the office. There hasn't been a bookkeeper here in quite some time. I'm having fun, though, picking through the piles and learning all sorts of new things.
I hope this email was informative. My head still spins when I think about how fast things happened. Still, through it all the Lord was gracious to us and guided our footsteps. We have met many wonderful and Godly people who have mentored us along the way, whether they knew it or not! We thank you, too, for supporting our ministry with prayer and encouragement. The emails we get from friends are very encouraging and it’s good to know that we aren’t here alone, but have a whole family behind us: the family of God.