Field Forum (by Thom)

Each year all the C&MA missionaries in Mali get together for a conference we call Field Forum. This year's event was held in Segou, the 2nd largest city in Mali and a bit of a half-way point between Bamako and Koutiala. We had a speaker come from Holland (he was previously a missionary in Cote d'Ivoire) and we had a good time bonding and sharing as a team. The biggest negative to the week was that I wound up sick with the flu! For the times I was able to sit in the conference I took notes that I thought I'd share some with you here:

Report from the National Church:
In 2005, there were 65,000 Christians in the C&MA church in Mali
In 2006, there were between 71,000 and 75,000 Christians in the C&MA church in Mali
80% of all Christians in Mali were saved in the C&MA church
The national church is pushing towards more autonomy with the goals of:
“We are not timid. Jesus will be proclaimed.”

Report from Bozo ministries:
The first Bozo Christian was saved in December, 2006. He has since had dreams where a voice tells him that he needs to share the Gospel with his village and those around him. He shares the Bible with his two wives and three children.
He is learning to read, slowly.
There is no Bible in the Bozo language. There is now a vision among the people to translate the Bible into their own language.
This new believer is a blacksmith. This is important because in this culture the blacksmiths are the mediators. Whenever people from his village have a disagreement they come to him to listen and decide who is right. In the Dogon people the Gospel really spread through the help of the blacksmith Christians.

Report from the Koutiala Hospital:
There were about 1050 births in the first year of operation.
Only two women died in childbirth, well below the national rate.
Many women have accepted Christ but are afraid of what will happen now, when they return home.
One man returned saying that he wasn’t ready to convert but he knew that the reason the missionary hospital provided the best care was because of Jesus.

Our week’s speaker:
• He brought his illustrations from Picasso’s Guernica.
Man lives in an ugly, broken, twisted world of disorder and we need to recognize it to be a part of bringing the light (Christ) to this world.
John 1:5 – The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
Isaiah 59
Rebuilding order begins with repentance
• On multi-cultural living:
Working in a multi-cultural situation we need to be aware of different ways of thinking: geographical, pre-/post-/modernism, views towards the future/past/present.
The phrase that “cultures are not good or bad, just different” isn’t always true. Cultures that look down on women or children or human life aren’t as good as others.
Respect is key to multi-cultural living.

I hope you enjoyed these notes. I found many things to pray and praise for in the time we shared.