Koutiala Hospital Dedication (by Thom)

Amanda's last post was about moving. This post is too, but in a different way: as in, we're not going to stop moving for the next few days! Saturday, Feb. 4, 2006 is the dedication for our new hospital in Koutiala, Mali. This is going to be a huge hospital serving specifically pregnant women and children. In fact, the name of the hospital Femme et Enfant means Women and Children. For the dedication, the President of the Alliance is coming, as are many other people from the National Office in Colorado, our Regional Office in Dakar, Senegal, and several donors who made the vision for the hospital come to reality. This means we'll be running around a lot for the next week. We'll be checking our emails, but may not respond as quickly as we sometimes do.
I'm excited to see the nearly completed hospital. When Amanda and I first arrived on the field at the beginning of September, 2005 we went to Koutiala and saw a shell of a building. The walls were up, but there was no floor, no doors, no electricity, even some of the roof wasn't finished. We went back in November and the buildings looked completely different. At that time, a couple of short-term mission work teams were there and were installing cupboards, running electricity, and putting in phone lines. You could start to see what was going to happen there.
I'm told that one building (the maternity hospital building) is finished and ready for business. The pediatric building is nearing completion. Eventually, a third building will go up on the property so there will be office space.
Please pray with us during this exciting time. The medical mission is becoming such a huge part of what we do. Bob Fetherlin, the C&MA Vice President for International Ministries and former missionary in Mali, said in the January 2006 a-Life, "As we offered them God's Word, we quickly discovered that hungry bellies have no ears. It was only after we gave them bread that they would listen to our message about Jesus."

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Moving (by Amanda)

Thom and I are getting ready for a new, exciting experience: we are moving. Again. Not far. We're just moving within Bamako. We are moving so our current house can become a guest house for short-term missionaries and visitors, as well as other missionaries who need to stay in Bamako for meetings, shopping, car repairs, etc. We are praying God will provide us just the right house at just the right location. Location is important because of our ministries. We don't want to be too far from the office and I would like to be near children, Malian or international, for potential ministry. Unlike in the states when you look for a house, houses here are usually not ready for residence. Kitchens aren't normal here; at least indoor kitchens. We are looking for specific features that are not always common so pray for us that we will know when to compromise.
There are bonuses to this move: as many of you know I love to take bathes, and our current house doesn't have a tub. So in our searching we're likely to find a house with a tub!
Please pray for us as we search for our new house in Bamako, Mali. We should be starting in about 2 weeks. Hopefully, I'll be able to write more about the process of looking for a house in Mali.
By the way, our house will probably NOT look like this.

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Dryness (by Thom)

My hunch is we lose more people to dryness than to certified disasters. Perhaps one man in 10 can stay standing in multicolor catastrophe; only one in 1,000 can stay standing in dryness. - Andree Seu; World Magazine; January 28, 2006

I came across this statement this week while surfing the net, and it certainly spoke to me. I’m not in one of those ‘dry areas’ now, but I can relate – and I think most people can, as well. I tend to notice that during these times here in Mali I get impatient for the luxuries of America I miss: things like fast food, internet that always works, electricity that always works, the video rental store, football, supermarkets, and Dr. Pepper. While I was reflecting on Andree’s statement, I realized that I did the same thing in the States. It’s a part of the human condition that we think more about what we don’t have, rather than what we do have. Amanda and I have been blessed here in Mali with many things. We have made new friends, get to see new things, and most importantly, we know we are enabling the Church Planting missionaries and Medical missionaries to do what they do best, for the glory of Christ. When I stop and think about it there is no doubt the blessings outnumber the costs.

I have made a decision for myself. When I find myself longing for Western luxuries, I am going to pray for my friends who are seeking opportunities in missions. I have friends in Ohio and Colorado who I know are seeking the Lord’s Will for their role in missions. May I encourage others, as well, to pray for those who are trying to find their place in missions?

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One For The Thumb (by Thom)

Go Steelers! It may strike some people as odd, but even in Mali, we can follow football. I haven't been able to watch any games this year, but thanks to the internet, I can track what's going on and listen to the games. Congratulations to my team, the Steelers, on reaching Super Bowl XL. I hope that in a week and a half, I can say congrats on a Super Bowl victory over the Seahawks.

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I'm So Ashamed... (by Thom)

It's with great sorrow that I write this. As a person of proud Mid-Western roots, I feel like it's my duty to bear through cold weather as a badge of honor. However, I'm ashamed to admit that after a recent cold-snap here in Bamako, I found myself with numb toes when it got down to 'only' the 70s for a daytime high. Sadly, I think we're adjusting to the weather a bit.
Ok, seriously, it is worth noting that it was pretty cold by Mali standards. I haven't been able to find official records yet, but everyone I've talked to said Thursday (Jan 19, 06) was the coldest day they can remember in Mali. Our high was 73 degrees, which is about 20 degrees below the average. I have to admit, it's pretty funny to see people bundled up in winter ski jackets when the temperatures fall into the 80s. And I must say, in no way do I miss Mid-West winters!

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What's In A Day? (by Thom)

(I could have titled this journal entry "Ask the McMurray's" also, but that seemed like a very long title!)

A question we've been asked recently by a few different people is, "What is a typical day for you in Mali?" It's a good question, but maybe not a fair one. I've never met anyone who does the exact same thing every day, and life in Africa is anything but predictable. However, I hope I can paint a decent picture here of what Amanda and I do on a regular basis.
Mali, and Africa in general I think, is a country of early-risers. This isn't me, though, so we tend to get up about 7:45 am. I try to be at the mission headquarters’ office about 8:30. This is only true on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. We have language class on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, and that starts at 9:30, meaning we have to leave by 9. On the days I’m in the office in the morning, I tend to meet with the mission director and our courier first thing. We have an official devotional/prayer meeting on Mondays, but we usually have ‘unofficial’ meetings the other days. We use the time to plan what to do for the day and week. My role as bookkeeper fits in well with what I see as my overall mission in Mali: to help support the church-planting and medical missionaries as best I can so they can do what they do best with less burden. During the last 5 days of a month and the first 10 days of the month, I’m busy preparing and finalizing the financial statements for the mission. It involves a lot of typing, emailing, and telephone calls. I also spend a fair amount of time staring blankly into my computer screen! The rest of the month involves a lot of organizational stuff like filing, improving report forms, paying bills, and such.
People here tend to break at lunch time longer than Americans. Normally they will take a two hour break. I haven’t learned to do this yet, and I don’t like stopping what I’m doing for a long time, so I usually only break for an hour or less. Then it’s back to the office. I’m there every week day during the afternoon, unless something comes up to call me out of the office. Usually there is something to do, and people stop by the office a lot. This is how I met Pastor Christophe.
Evenings tend to be a relaxing time, but lately more and more projects and opportunities have presented themselves. I created a DVD this year of footage I shot in France, the US, and Mali and received a strongly positive response to it. I’ve had multiple requests from other missionaries here to do something for them to show in the states when they go on home assignment. I’ve spent a lot of evenings lately working on improving my video editing abilities and seeing what I can do with my limited resources. It’s nice to have this creative outlet after spending the day looking at numbers! Unfortunately, inspiration seems to strike in the middle of the night, and I’ve found myself waking up at 2 or 2:30 am to write down ideas. I like the idea of producing short informational videos about the mission in Mali, and it again fits in well with what I see as my purpose here.
As Amanda wrote about last time, her life has been getting busier as well. She has been ministering to Precious in addition to working on her Bambara language abilities.
I’m not sure how interesting this all was, but I wanted to point out that our life here isn’t that different from life in America. There are differences, no doubt, but maybe knowing even the similarities will help you better understand our missionary lives and better know how to pray for us.

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His Mercies Are New Every Morning (by Amanda)

Last week I spent a lot of time in the hospital visiting and praying with a woman named Precious. She is a former prostitute from Nigeria and was saved through the work of a fellow missionary here about two years ago. She recently needed some serious surgery. Let me tell you that Precious' faith is incredible. In the US we can go to the hospital for surgery and can count on: the doctors having a blood supply, the cafeteria will provide us with a good variety of foods (even if it isn'’t always as good as we'’d like), the linens will be clean, that the nurses will make sure we are getting enough fluids, and that someone will deliver the correct medication. Yes we may be concerned about how much the insurance will cover and how much we will have to pay, but at least we know the details will be taken care of. Although the Malian hospitals do the best they can with what little the have, the standards fall way short of Western medicine.

This hospital was a whole new world and seeing it through the eyes of Precious was just an incredible experience. If someone does not have family to take care of them it is very difficult. They need to buy food and they need someone to bring it to them; they need to buy there own needles to make sure they are sterile; they need to bring there own clean linens and they even need to go to the blood bank and buy their blood type so it is on hand for the doctors during surgery. Basically the whole system is a-la-carte! What is my point? This is it, Precious has no family to take care of her, but she needed this surgery, but who would help her? Instead of complaining because of lack of family she praised God for His gift of safety. She thanked God for each time He interceded for her. She would say every time I came to visit her "God has blessed me"”. She who has so little has such great praise for God. We sat and would read the Psalms and I could see the comfort she received from them, for this I praise God. He is not a God who stands at a distance. Instead, He is a God who comes down and touches our very lives and goes right to the heart of our needs.

Today I will not be going to the hospital which makes me very happy, because today I will go to her house.

Lamentations 3:22-23a - Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning...…

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An Upcoming Milestone (by Thom)

Back in May of 2005 I signed up for a service that lets me know how many people visit this website. Very soon I'm going to cross the 1000 milestone. At the bottom of the page is a counter. As you stop by, check it out. I'd like to hear from the person that "rolls over" the odometer. If you see this happen, drop me an email at mcmali@gmail.com.

Update: We crossed the millinium mark today (Jan 6, 2006) at 2:53 pm Eastern time. Congratulations, Joel Conley. As you predicted, you were the 1000th visitor to McMali. As if there was any doubt.

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The Campers Return (by Thom)

This is just a quick follow-up email to our last post to let everyone know that we returned safely from our camping trip. We got dirty, slept on the hard ground, bathed in a bucket, and had a blast! I've posted photos at our picture page (click here). I'd like to ask a favor of those who read this. After you see the photos, please ask us any questions that come to mind. I'd like to know what I leave out that people are wondering about. This doesn't just apply to our camping trip, either. If you have any questions about Mali, the mission here, what we do, what we see, what we eat, anything.... just let us know. You can email us at mcmali@gmail.com.

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