Update on Jeanette and baby (by Thom)

Amanda told you before about meeting Jeanette's baby. For those who don't remember or are new here, Jeanette is the woman who works in our home in Bamako, Mali. She cleans, cooks occasionally, and is a wonderful friend to Amanda. Jeanette had her baby March 30th, but it wasn't without complications. Earlier this month, Jeanette called us on the telephone crying. Her baby was very sick and had boils all over her body. Heat rash is common here, but this was much worse. She had been to the doctor and he perscribed medicine, but it was too expensive for her. In fact, the cost of the medicine was 67% of her monthly salary! Amanda rushed over with money to buy the medicine. She was able to sit with Jeanette and the baby, who was named "Alifahan Amanda". The first name is a family name of Jeanette's husband. The middle name was in honor of Amanda - a very touching treat! There is a special relationship here in Mali between namesakes. Amanda will have to explain that more later.
Today, Jeanette stopped by to see us with little Alifahan. I will attest the baby is very cute!
We haven't received a lot of money donations to help with this sort of thing, but this is a prime example of where those dollars go. Also this month, I gave money to a pastor whose wife desperately needed some dental work. Our account currently has $2 left in it. If you would be willing to help our Work Special account, please read more about it here.

UPDATE: We have several other photos of Jeanette, Alifahan and us at our picture page, here.

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Photos: Our New House (by Thom)

I've been getting a bunch of requests for pictures of our new house. If you recall, we moved recently to a very nice new house here in Bamako, Mali so the mission could turn our old home into a Guest House. We've been living here now two weeks. To see pictures, follow this link here. I've changed the format of our photo page a bit, so now just click on any thumbnail to see a larger photo. Enjoy!

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Bed Bugs and My Bambara Bible (by Amanda)

I was looking for sympathy the other day. Thom was at the mission office and I was at our new home when I sent him a Yahoo Instant Message. “Thom, I have a boo-boo”. Actually, I was having an allergic reaction to a bug that bit me. I was taking a nap when all of a sudden I woke up choking for some reason. That happens to me a lot here, probably because of the dry heat. I woke up and felt this stinging in the arm I was laying on. I started to rub my arm when I realized I was being bit. Finally I flicked some bug off the bed but he had already done his damage. He got in about five bites on the back of my arm. They almost have the appearance of a bee sting, but it was not a bee and besides that I do not swell up with bees. My arm turned red and I needed to take some Benadryl. That was during my afternoon nap. When I went to bed that night, the little bug got me again! Twice! Now I have a total of seven welts on my arm. I asked another missionary here what it was. He told me they were called “dougouméné”. Whatever they are called, they hurt!
On the fun side of things, I’ve memorized Esayi (Isaiah) 40:30-31 in Bambara: Kamalen misenw barika be dese, u be segen. Kamalen korow be talon, u be bin. Nka mogo minnu be u jigi da Matigi kan, olu be barika kura soro. U be pan ka taa san fe ni kamanfuraw ye I ko bon, u be boli, u te segen, u be taama, u barika te ban. (note: a lot of the letters used don’t exist in English, so I’ve written the next closest thing. Click here to read it in English.)

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Words From The Bush

Usually we use this space to tell you about what we’re doing or seeing. However, most of our experience in Mali is limited to the big cities. Mali is a big country by most standards. It is about twice the size of Texas. That means there are a lot of villages and tribes here, many of whom have never heard the Gospel. A couple of missionaries here recently were working in the remote villages in different ways. We’d like to share with you their experiences. Here is a brief recap of what they did, written by them:

Tim Wright

Tim went recently to a town 100 kilometers into the bush (near Konseguela). A Malian pastor (Luka Coulibaly) and 3 men from the church went with him to show the Jesus film and witness to Luka's family who live in the village there. They had a great time at the village - it was a quite an experience. Tim was the first white man that had ever been in their village. He felt it was like stepping back in time. He showed the Jesus film and many of the people were very interested but unwilling to commit yet, but they wanted to hear more. Tim would like to be able to go back there again in about a month. Pastor Luka says many of his family are not Christians but beginning to show interest, so please join with us in praying that the harvest will be ripe and plentiful!

Randy & Marsha Barnwell

What does inoculating cows, sheep, and goats have to do with evangelism? It opens doors that would otherwise remain shut to the Gospel! Every two years Veterinary Jay O'Leary and a team of men come from Western Pennsylvania to inoculate animals as a gesture of God's love towards the Malian people. Each time they come we try to go into different villages that we want to reach out to with the Gospel of Christ. This year we went into four villages while the team was here, and have been able to go into several more since they left. The impact has been tremendous. One of the villages would not previously let us come in to preach, but because of the treatment for their animals, they let us come and show a film and hold an evangelism service. Although there were no converts in that village, the whole village showed up and listened very quietly as the Gospel was presented. Seeds were sown! In another village, we sat and shared with a group of men under a tree. They asked very good questions, and we were able to give a firm witness to them. The seeds were sown! In the town of Finkolo, where years ago a church had once stood, we inoculated 1,400 cows. The evening of evangelism, we had 11 people pray for salvation. More importantly, we are now meeting every week with these new converts. Their enthusiasm and hunger for God is encouraging. Most of the group is made up of men and teen boys. Our first Sunday back to teach them, the village chief gave us a place to worship. It is the old village meeting place, and very adequate for our needs. We have had 14 in attendance each week and praising God for what He is doing. All of the men have already started getting hassled for their new belief. One man is a mason who used to tell the future for the families whose houses he built. Since he is now refusing to do that, one man has already broken a contract with him to build his house. Another young man is being threatened by the family of his fiancé to take her away from him. We also know that there are others in the village who want to convert, but are afraid. Please pray that God would give these men and women protection, and perseverance in the midst of trials, and power in Jesus to stand firm against the enemy of their souls. Pray that God will give courage and that His Holy Spirit will continue to work in lives. The seeds were sown! We are watering, and your prayers will help them grow. One old man, a non-Christian, in the village of Finkolo said, "I have never seen anyone come and do what you did for our animals all for the love of God. This village is big enough for more than one religion. Little by little, if you don't give up, you will get believers."

If you enjoyed hearing about their experiences, let us know so we can provide more updates like this in the future. If you’d like to personally email these missionaries, email us at mcmali@gmail.com and we’ll pass along your words.

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He is Risen... (by Thom)

... He is Risen Indeed!

Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave. And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. The guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified. He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying. Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going ahead of you into Galilee, there you will see Him; behold, I have told you." And they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to report it to His disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid; go and take word to My brethren to leave for Galilee, and there they will see Me."
Matthew 28:1-10 NASB

Happy Easter from Mali!!

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Moving Day (by Amanda)

Moving day came and went with much to do this past Monday. There are definitely advantages to moving here in Mali. One is that we could actually afford to hire a crew; another is that I already have house help so she aids with cleaning the old house as well as preparing the new one. Of course, now I have my much-desired bathtub and it has been great. Yet it is still hard in some ways. You really have to get rid of many of your preconceived notions when you look for a house here, but you also need to learn how and what to unpack. Right now my kitchen is in a sorry state. Why? Currently I have no cupboards! I need to find someone to make them so all things are in Action Packers (large, heavy-duty plastic bins) or hanging on nails that were left behind by the previous tenets (I am very thankful they left them there). The other hard thing is that there are no closets. Since Thom and I knew in advance we bought an armoire for our bedroom and the mission allowed us to have one of the dressers that was left behind by other missionaries. We hope to buy two more: one for our office / guest room and one for our linens and things. Since there are no cupboards in kitchens it should come as no surprise that there are no cupboards in bathrooms either. Just try to imagine all the clutter you would normally put in your closets lying on the floors, sitting in big plastic bins in corners and along the halls. Still, I am so thankful to God that we got this house. It is a very nice house and it has the most beautiful courtyard with green leafy things and a few flowers. We are so blessed by God with everything we are given sometimes I feel overwhelmed by it all. We could use your prayer as both of us are not only tired from moving and we still would like to get out and get those few other things we think we need, but also the heat is very hard to deal with. Just so you know that last part goes for all the missionaries here; we could really use grace in this hot season. Thank you so much for all of your encouragement and for your prayers.

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I Wasn’t Expecting This…(by Thom)

Sometimes things happen out of the blue. You don’t see them coming until it hits you in the face. A lot of the time these things can be painful, but sometimes they are great things! We had such an occurrence this past Sunday. Amanda and I tend to visit about 4 different churches regularly, but we feel most at home at a church in the Magnambougou section of Bamako. On Palm Sunday, we got to church not even realizing it was Palm Sunday. We don’t have the cultural reminders here of Easter. There are no rabbits in store windows, no “Easter Sales” at the furniture stores, and there aren’t isles of Easter candy in the grocery stores. We don’t have the seasonal reminder, either. While it’s spring in the US, here we’re in full-blown hot season. Honestly, this is about as far to the opposite of spring as I can imagine. Anyway, we got to church and found out it was Palm Sunday. We sang a number of songs, in both Bambara and French, and then the announcements started. They went on for 45 minutes! The Magnambougou church is planning on building a new sanctuary. This is a good idea, because they regularly have 250-300 people coming in a building that would be comfortable at 200. Basically, the announcements were a business meeting. Here, culturally, the people didn’t mind a 45 minute announcement time (although I saw a few nodding off!). However, I felt like the energy had been sucked out of the room, and was starting to wonder how people will make it through this and the sermon.

Like I said, sometimes things happen out of the blue. The message was a very good one, and at the end, the pastor had an invitation. Twelve people (11 men and one woman) stood up to make a first-time commitment to Jesus! I was floored! We haven’t seen anything like this in our time here! I mentioned it to some others, and they were shocked, too! After the invitation, the pastor petitioned people to rededicate their lives to Christ. Between 50 and 75 people stood up!

So, after a long, dry announcement time, on a 105 degree day with no air conditioning, after a 3 ½ church service, great things happened. Praise the Lord!

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Updated Photos (by Thom)

I've mentioned before about my trip to Burkina Faso in February 2004, but it occurred to me this week to share some of those photos. So, I uploaded a bunch of pictures from my work trip to our picture page. To supply a quick background: When I worked at WTGN in Lima, OH, we organized a trip to go and build a radio station in Tougan, Burkina Faso. Our job was to roof the building and put in ceilings. We also roofed a village church, built an awning for the station, and did other odds-and-ends jobs. I hope you enjoy the photos. To see them, click here.

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New Arrival (by Amanda)

It is with great joy that I share this good news. I believe many of you know my house-help Jeanette was pregnant. About a month ago she stopped working for me and found a temporary replacement to work in her place. I have missed her greatly during this time and wished that she didn’t have to go for maternity leave. She is as much a friend as she is employee. I was especially missing her a week ago. One day when I came home from class she was waiting for me! She had come for a visit. She looked great and we had a wonderful afternoon. We sat down and talked, had lunch together and made two loves of banana bread. At nine months pregnant she had walked 3 miles to come visit me. When I found this out, I of course drove her home that afternoon.

I had planned on going to visit her next week with another missionary just to see how she was doing and visit her. Now it is with great joy that not only do I get to visit her, but also her new arrival. Jeanette had a baby girl on Thursday and called to let me know Thursday night. This is her first child so I would ask for all to pray that she will begin motherhood in fine style and that God will grant her wisdom and peace as she begins to raise her. One of the interesting things I have learned recently is that Malians often do not name their children right away; they usually wait a week. I guess you’ll have to wait with me to find out!

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