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Mali Trip: Translation, Tattoos, and Grenades

This morning I was talking with Mamado and Tom about the Senoufo. We are going to take a few trips out to the villages on Saturday. The 2 villages that have nothing of the Bible or Gospel, from our conversation the other day, are inaccessible by car. So, if we were to go those villages, we would first have to build a road into the village through the bush. Tom's heart is for finishing the translation of the dialect he is working on, although he is concerned that he won't be able to finish it in his lifetime because him and Laura got a late start on it. His prayer is that someone would take over where he leaves off so that Mamado and Douda and the other Christians here would have the whole Bible. He only has through Genesis 12 approved and checked, but is working on Genesis 23 now. There is nothing else in this translation, not even the New Testament.

This place certainly takes its toll on the people who live here. I couldn't imagine what David Livingston or William Carey went through in missions. The Requadts have convenience and comfort (for where they are at), and yet Africa has taken its toll on them. But oh that God would call the team here, no matter how fast Africa deteriorates us! I would rather spend 30 hard years in Africa, with people who have no Bible, than 100 years in a Bible saturated America.

I went for a walk to the dam with a group of children. As we were walking, one of the little girls, no older than 5, hurt her foot and started crying. So she ran up beside me and thrust her little leathery hand in mine and we walked together. We would stop to skip rocks (which i had to teach them how) or let the kids play in the running cool water on the other side of the dam. But as soon as we would start walking again, she would run, grab my hand, and then look at me as if I could protect her from all that was wrong or scary in the world.

In talking with Laura about the gold mine opening up close to this town and the economy growing as a result, I asked if HIV was becoming an issue. She said that it will because of the truck drivers that are constantly passing through and the prostitutes that have shown up as a result of the mine. The town used to be far enough out of the way, but now it is in the thick of it all.

To be continued...