Pray For Rain (by Thom)

So far we've had a fairly slow start to rainy season. There's no set time that the rains come in Mali, but they usually start in June and end in October. Late August and early September are the wettest times here. This year, though, has been challenging. We've heard reports from villages that the lack of rains is raising a lot of worry and concerns. It really began affecting us this week; without rain the level of the Niger River has dropped so much that the power-generating turbines can't spin. This has led to no daytime power the last couple of days and the local electric company has said we might see this continue for the next couple of months. I won't go into all the inconveniences this causes but just imagine 100 degree weather without even being able to use a fan. So, please pray for rain. Pray for rain in Mali to water the crops and pray for rain in Guinea, which feeds the Niger River here.

Edit: (6/22/07) It rained a lot last night, and we have had some on-and-off electricity today. Both of those things are huge reliefs. Thanks to those who have already prayed and please keep the rainy season in Mali in your prayers. Thanks!

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Care Packages? Yes, Care Packages! (by Thom)

This one definitely gets filed in our "this could only happen on the mission field" category:
In February 2006 I got an email from a church back home in Lima, OH that wanted to send us a care package. This was pretty neat, since we'd only gotten packages from family members up to that point. They asked what we'd be interested in and I sent back a list with lots of different items. I wasn't sure what sort of things they were thinking of sending and shipping to Africa can be quite expensive so I tried to provide a variety of things: small things, big things, light and heavy things, pricey and cheap things. I thought they could do with that list whatever they want, but I didn't expect to see most of the things on the list. Time went by and nothing ever came so I figured it was one of those 'dropped projects'. This wasn't a big deal for us. In late July we got Hannah and Miriam and suddenly we started getting all sorts of care packages and we didn't think about the church's box again.
During our time back in the US this past spring someone from the church asked me about the boxes. I said, "What boxes?" We decided that they must have gotten lost in the mail. That wouldn't be the first time that happened and so we just attributed it to a cross-cultural experience. However, a twist developed when we got back to Mali. The post office sent word to me that there were 2 boxes waiting for me there (they don't deliver mail here) and I needed to come get them. I honestly had no idea what to expect. Today I got them and there were actually 3 boxes, all from Grace Community Church, post-marked June 4, 2006! Amanda and I were just floored. We never expected to see those items and we were even more surprised and how many things were sent. Thank you so much, GCC!
For me, it was strange seeing the contents of the boxes because of when they were sent. Back then we never imagined being parents now, much less the parents of twins. When I see the items in the boxes I feel like they were sent to someone else. I have a hard time even imagining my life before Miri and Hannah.
Another strange thing was the timing. A neat website that serves missionaries who have websites (http://www.missionary-blogs.com) recently sent out an email to its members asking us to write about getting care packages. For me, the best thing about the care package isn't what is inside, but what it represents: people who love and care about us and want to encourage missionaries in the Great Commission. However, because Jim at Missionary-blogs asked us to list the items we enjoy getting (honest. I'm not trying to sound greedy!) I'll just list a few things here that really excited us to see in the boxes:
Dr. Pepper (Thom's favorite pop), cookie and cake mixes, beef jerky, DVDs (especially TV shows. I'm not sure why but missionaries seem to really enjoy watching TV shows on DVD in marathon sessions. It's not our thing, but '24' seems to be the most popular thing among our peers), and Cheez-its. None of those items are available in Mali so we try to portion them out and make them last as long as possible.
Thanks again to Grace Community Church for the packages and to everyone who supports us through prayer and encouragement! Now it's time to go watch Season 2 of "Everybody Loves Raymond".

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Updated Photo Section (by Thom)

With a lot of help from my brother*, we've made several changes to the photo section of mcmali.com. Among the many improvements:

• You can now leave a comment for a picture
• There is a search feature
• Instead of browsing by category you can now view "All Photos".
• There is now an RSS feature for the photos so if you use a subscription service like Bloglines, Google Reader, or My Yahoo! you can add McMali photos to your list. The feed is both here and in the right sidebar.
• And, most importantly, the pictures no longer "pop up" when you click them. Instead they load right inside the browser window.

I hope you all enjoy these new features. If you have any questions about them please drop us an email. And always feel free to drop by anytime and see what we're seeing in Mali and around the world here!
*When I say 'help', I actually mean he did the whole thing. Thanks Dan!

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We're In The News, Again (by Thom)

Last month an article was written about us and our adoption of Hannah and Miriam in The Marietta Times. This month, an article that I wrote appeared in aLife, the official magazine of the Christian & Missionary Alliance. If you'd like to read it click here. Here's an excerpt:

Tiny Miracles

Miriam and Hannah were small. They were about three weeks old, yet each weighed just a little over three pounds. However, Hannah was losing weight rather than gaining it. We weren’t sure what to do, so we tried feeding her less food more frequently, and then we tried feeding her more food less frequently. Nothing worked.

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Return to Mali (by Thom)

To paraphrase the governor of California, "We're back." All four of us arrived back in Bamako, Mali safe, sound, and as sane as can be expected from a 24 hour trip. We actually got back here last Saturday night. We rested the first day back but since then we've been going non-stop. There were many things waiting for me in the office so I've been working quite a bit there and Amanda is still trying to get our house set back in order.
It's funny how many things can change in just 3 months. For the first year we lived at our house in Bamako there was construction all over the neighborhood. Now there seems to be no activity and the house directly across from us has been finished. Hopefully that will mean a lot less punctured tires over the next couple of years (we had 4 or 5 nail-flattened tires in the last year). Also, while we were gone our day guard, who only speaks Bambara, learned how to greet me in French. I can't tell you how honored I feel that he would make this effort. Jeanette, who works in our house, found a baby sitter for her one-year-old girl, Alifahan. Honestly, we were saddened by this because we liked having the extra child around and we wanted Miri and Hannah to play with her. Still, this takes a lot of stress away from Jeanette, so we're happy for her. Among the missionaries, we had one new family arrive while we were gone and 3 others left. Several others will be leaving or moving to other cities soon and by September it will only be us and a single lady to represent the C&MA in Bamako. Also, our field is in a transition between field directors.
One more big change happened right before we returned. Job, the mission's everything-guy (he pays bills, runs errands, and knows contacts for just about everything we do), was in an accident a few days before we returned. He was on his motorcycle when a car cut him off and he was forced down to the ground. He ended up breaking his left forearm in both bones! Job seems ok but he's at home recovering and can't work for at least a month. Please keep the mission in your prayers as we adjust.
It's good to be home!

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