At night, Tom, Do, Douda, the Salifous and I sat on the Requadt’s porch talking about the day. I gave the guys, who are like brothers to me now, my prayer card and to my surprise, Tom turned it into an English comprehension lesson since most of them are studying English once a week. As they read through the back, I started to realize the magnitude of what I wrote back there, and nervous to see how these brothers would take some of the blunt honesty of their own country. I mean, no one wants or even thinks that they live in one of the world’s 50 poorest nations (in fact more than any other country 72.8% of Mali’s population lives on less than a dollar a day). As they read through this and Tom explained it, I cringed on the inside and thought: Who is the authority to determine poor or even has the authority to define poor? Mamado and Douda, especially Douda since he just got married, are some of the richest and most joyful people I have met; maybe not physically or materially, but in life and attitude. The back of my prayer card almost seemed like pure arrogance on my part that I could, in 50 words or less, judge and rank their entire existence as it compares with my superiority. And yet, despite my inner turmoil, my brothers announced that they will diligently pray for me until I return; every day. What a God we serve! And I have so much to learn.
Here is what the back of my prayer card says:
The Land and The People
The landlocked country of Mali is one of the world’s fifty poorest nations. The people suffer as a result of poor health conditions, a lack of education, a harsh environment and other realities that go along with a developing country. The nation of Mali is home to more than thirty-three distinct ethnic groups and opportunities are abundant for the spreading of the Gospel.
Ministry Focus
Bear Yarbrough anticipates serving as a church planter in Mali, Africa. He plans to work among the Senoufo, an unreached people group of 2.7 million in the 10/40 Window (the 10/40 Window is 10 degrees latitude to 40 degrees latitude, above the equator, where the highest concentration of unreached people remain in the world). Bear’s ultimate goal is to plant a church of Christ-followers who are “three-self”: Self-sufficient, Self-governing, and Self-propagating. He will assist in translating the Bible into a local unwritten dialect, teach the Bible chronologically (teaching through the Bible from creation to Christ for a clear Gospel to be presented) and engaging in community development.
Bear Yarbrough’s Contact Information (for those reading who would like to join in this vision through prayer or finances)
bwyarbrough@worldventure.net
www.WorldVenture.com > Keyword: yarbrough
Or you can use the links on the side bar of this page.
After lunch, a bunch of us younger people piled onto the back of the motocart and headed out to a local Senoufo village to do an evangelistic meeting. To get an idea of what a motocart looks like, picture the outcome if a Chevy S-10 truck mated with a Honda Shadow motorcycle. It is the bed of a truck attached to the front of a motorcycle creating a dangerous, top heavy (especially with 7ish people and sound equipment crammed in the back), machine that Mamado is driving. Plus, Mamado has only ridden his one speed moped which has two speeds, full out and stopped, so Do tried to drive this large motocart full out or stopped and saw gears as an inconvenience to get it to break neck speeds. The sides of the beds are clamped on, except the side I was leaning against didn’t clamp right, so I had to hold the clamp the whole time to keep it from falling and people careening into the African bush as Do tried to avoid the holes in the dirt roads that had turned into lakes since it was rainy season and me dodging the thorns, briars, and thistles reaching to draw blood from my exposed arm. All in all, it was heaps of fun and a great adventure with only a little blood.
We arrived at the village and set up under the blazing sun with an on looking crowd. They started off with singing and dancing, about 2 hours of it, a message, and then more singing and dancing. Laura told me that a typical evangelistic outreach goes all night long; literally all night long accompanied sometimes with a rice feast. So I was thrilled when she said this outreach will only be about 6 hours long. During the message, Mamado gave the sermon in the local Senoufo dialect and Douda translated it into Bambara, Mali’s trade language. When the dancing started up again after the message, I dutifully and joyfully participated in the dancing circle that was slowly shadowed by the dust cloud the dancer’s feet stirred up. A few laughs echoed from the on looking villagers pointing at the lancky white guy stirring up his own dust, but then I really got into it, although the steps were easy. But my participation encouraged locals to join in.
After I had my fill of dancing and couldn’t keep the sweat from pouring into my eyes, Mamado walked over with two local young men and introduced them to me as two new brothers in the faith! Laura asked each of them what they wanted to do in their own words and each of them stated,
“I want to follow Jesus.”
We all shook hands then Mamado told them that “like a new baby needs food,” pointing to the chubby baby in Laura’s lap sporting an used plastic grocery bag for a diaper, “so does the new Christian.” He continued by telling them, “they need to talk with God through prayer, let God talk to them through His Word (which the Bible is only translated to Genesis 25, so this for right now means Mamado’s preaching that Tom helps him with), and they need to talk with other Christians.” We all shook hands again and they went back to their group of friends smiling. Some more dancing took place and then we packed everything up and headed home. Praise God for these two new brothers!!