'

Mali Trip: Brothers

2008-12-05T04:14:00Z

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...(read more)

Mali Trip: African Attack Lizard

2008-11-24T00:27:00Z

So apparently Africa has attack lizards! As I was walking around with Tom to make a list of items the team would need to bring from the States, we walked outside to look at the generator room and tool room. I was standing just outside, enjoying the sun, when we heard a massive ruckus above us on the metal roof. I stepped back to try and catch a glimpse of what it was, when over the roof ledge flew about a 6 inch lizard in a sky dive position, claws out, and a mean look in its eye, except for a slight...(read more)

Mali Trip: Why Do You Refuse To Go?!

2008-11-18T12:22:00Z

So, I’m still sitting under the tree with Douda and Salifou as I read and tend to my bloody blisters. I read in The Shack, “Growth means change and change involves risk, stepping from the known to the unknown.” Why is it that my generation seems apathetic to growth, un-wanting to change and terrified of risk. I’m not talking about the Xtreme movement that swept through youth groups and even the secular world leaving a wake of Xtreme sports, Xtreme energy drinks, Xtreme Baptist whatever youth ministry...(read more)

Mali Trip: There is No Miscommunication in the New Heaven and New Earth

2008-11-13T17:13:00Z

“Life takes a bit of time and a lot of relationship.” – The Shack by William Young In regards to discovering the landscape of my heart: “I often find that getting head issues out of the way first makes the heart stuff easier to work on later… when you’re ready.” – The Shack Could it be that we, sometimes, hide behind head knowledge and cerebral exercises so that we don’t have to deal with the pain and hurt in our hearts, the confusion and muck, the sin? Douda, Salifou, and I set out for Mamado’s...(read more)

Mali Trip: Deadly Vipers; Living Grace (continued)

2008-11-01T22:15:00Z

After the deadly viper was extinguished, Douda proclaimed (as if the snake didn’t even phase him), “We finish!” We then set out on a vocabulary hunt. We would stop randomly, walk into a field and Douda would point at an object (plant, cow, plow, creek, valley, stump, axe, bike), whatever was new and say the word in Bambara and then in his Senoufo dialect. I would repeat each word several times until Douda and Salifou were satisfied with my pronunciation or laugh and say, “Let go!” The word for creek...(read more)

Mali Trip: Deadly Vipers; Living Grace

2008-10-29T00:10:00Z

This morning I woke up to a bowl of cinnamon apple porridge and instant coffee (I will certainly have to find a way to do drip, brewed coffee here!). Douda and one of the Salifous (two young men who I have grown close too. They are the ones that took me to play basketball, but they didn’t have basketball shoes, so Leon wouldn’t let them play.) arrived and we set out on our bikes to the field. Douda carried Salifou on the back of his bike and I struggled to follow behind. I haven’t ridden a bike in...(read more)

Mali Trip: Deep Simplicity

2008-10-22T16:49:00Z

Today was relaxing and restful. I spent most of the day reading, laboriously, through Segu. I never read fiction and this confirms why, but the cultural aspects of Segu are invaluable. It has explained so much, just in the short time I have been in Mali. Tomorrow I am going to experience Douda’s life. In the morning I’m setting off on a bicycle to Douda’s village to weed his garden for a good harvest. I’m sure to be tired. Tom and I went through Psalm 37 today, especially verses 3-6 in regards to...(read more)

Mali Trip: Begin With The End In Mind

2008-10-16T17:01:00Z

This morning is an overcast "cooler" day, so Laura was able to use the oven and make walnut cinnamon muffins from scratch. Everything becomes harder here, like when you can use the oven and not be driven out of the kitchen by the overwhelming heat perpetuated by the hotter sunny days. Laura saw me observing her doings this morning and asked me to tell the wives to know how to cook most stuff from scratch like muffins, pasta, cookies, almost anything. Unless you are in the capital of Bamako...(read more)

Mali Trip: Basketball and Blood

2008-10-14T16:59:00Z

Mondays are market day. The once secluded street, open and free to cars, is transformed into a bustling, busy, crowded path with odors and experiences, most of which are not pleasant to the senses. There are a variety of goods to buy from NFL jerseys, to dried little fish heads, to elegant cloth material, to dough grease balls that really don't resemble anything in taste except for old grease. We walked around the market, with Laura bartering and buying simple vegetables to use for lunch, and...(read more)

Mali Trip: Brothers and Traditions

2008-10-07T21:28:00Z

What a time of praise! In at least 3 if not 5 different languages! It is Sunday, so we made our way to the little church building with kids joining us along the way to hold our hands. At church, they had me pray for the offering, which this group gave generously out of sacrifice. Then there was a time of testimony where Mamado's Mum said that today she decided to follow Jesus! Mamado asked to pray that her heart would follow her words.This was followed by prayer request. Douda gave a report of...(read more)

Mali Trip: Village of Relationships

2008-10-06T01:24:00Z

This morning Tom, Mamado. Douda, and I loaded up in Tom's 4 wheel drive and headed for the villages. A 4 wheel drive vehicle is essential for Mali during rainy season. The "roads" become little lakes and are impassable sometimes even with a 4 wheel drive vehicle. Life seems simple in the villages. At night, everyone sits around in the courtyards and talks (mainly because that is the only entertainment they have). This is a huge opportunity for language study, relationship building,...(read more)

Mali Trip: Sweat

2008-09-30T13:43:00Z

"The heat (is) like a hot bandage clamped over one's mouth." - Segu by Maryse Conde The constant smell of my own sweat pierces my nostrils until Laura bakes zucchini bread or oatmeal raisin muffins or curry chicken or another fantastic meal; all from scratch. I realize more and more that ministry isn't what you program, but how you live life. If you are faithfully living as Christ, loving God and loving people, then ministry erupts around you. Like the kids Bible club that I observed...(read more)

Mali Trip: Translation, Tattoos, and Grenades (cont.)

2008-09-25T20:15:00Z

As I sat with Mamado, he told me a story about the French occupation. He said that the Bobos were a people who did not fear death. As a result, the french would throw a grenade among a group of attacking Bobos and the Bobos would pick it up, gather around it to see what it was that the french threw, and then it would explode. Also, after the battle, the king would say, "We have chased the whites off! Let's drink!" So, he would pull the pin of a grenade thinking it was a white man's...(read more)

Mali Trip: Translation, Tattoos, and Grenades

2008-09-24T01:26:00Z

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...(read more)

Mali Trip: Only One

2008-09-19T19:24:00Z

Today we left the guest house in Bamako and took the long, bumpy, wet day drive to the bush. Everything here has a thin veneer of red dust that when exposed to moisture, creates a sloppy red stain. They measure the roads here by what gear you are able to drive in, which in the latter part of our journey, we never exceeded a 3. Mali is beautiful in rainy season! Everything is green and prosperous; full of life. This certainly what I expected Mali to look like, but i was pleasantly surprised. Although...(read more)