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Mali Trip: Sweat

 "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 today. It wasn't even on the Requadt's ministry radar, but kids kept showing up so Laura started teaching them the verses that were already translated into their dialect and a Bible club was formed. Since I can't communicate with them, I taught some boys how to throw a frisbee. They caught on almost instantly and a few boys would catch anything thrown around them. I can't wait to introduce ultimate frisbee here. They would be so good at it here! A coaches dream!

I went with Tom on his daily walk that often becomes a prayer walk. We talked football and politics and weather and truth and all sorts of time consuming chatter. He asked me about a wife, in which my reply was, "I'm praying." A wife would be necessary to live here.

Lord, as we go to the villages tomorrow, I pray that You would direct and guide us and the team to where You would have the team serve in Mali.

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

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 drink.

As we discuss going to the villages Saturday, the most gorgeous lightning storm is dancing outside.

Oh, the sweet simple life of the missionary. At night (mainly to conserve the battiries charge from the day) Tom reads aloud a chapter or 2 from a book and Laura works on a jigsaw puzzel. I sat inbetween smiling, thinking that some day this could be my wife and me.

I found these translation statistics off of Wycliffe's website, so they should be pretty up-to-date.

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...

Mali Trip: Only One

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 Tom says that as soon as dry season comes, everything turns brown and withers to nothing, almost overnight.

When we got to the house, I was introduced to Mamado (Tom's language helper and the first Christian in this region), Douda (a new Christian who was the first Christian in his village and had the first Christian wedding in this region), and few other young Christians that compose the core leadership for the church here. It was a warm welcome of African greetings and lack-of-language charades.We sat down to visit and I was able to tell them (through Tom) the vision that the team has for long term ministry in Mali, but I ended it by asking what they would like to see us do as nationals. I was then bombarded and overwhelmed with suggestions. The men started to name villages who have never heard the Gospel and have no Christian, the needs of this town, but they also talked about two villages that had maybe 1 known Christian. Although they were emphatic that the villages had no Bible, no missionary, no church, no one, but this 1 Christian and they were not certain if he had gone back to his fetishes.The needs are great here, but there are needs every where. God must call us if we are to survive out here. Without His calling on our life keeping us, we would easily fold by the first dry season (the temperatures sometimes spike to 125 degrees).

Life is different here, but with a weird sense of comfort. Life is dirtier, harder, takes longer, is inconvenient, and muggy, but I could really see calling this place home. The guys said that they are going to start praying that God would call Justin, Leah, and myself here, and apparently they pray hard. So, I will continue to pray for God's leading and for the people that He would send us too. Praise God for He knows the outcomes of life! For His plans are not our plans and His ways are not our ways!

The wild adventure in me is screaming with anticipation of what tomorrow brings, but my jet lag is dictating that I sleep. What a day in Africa!!

Mali Trip: 8.27.2008

The flight to Mali was uneventful, praise God! I still really can't sleep on planes. I felt as if I was caught in this purgatory between an active observing mind and exhausted sleepy eyes. I'm pretty sure I watched at least 7 full length movies. I stepped off the plane on the Bamako tarmac and was confronted with 90 degree heat and 80% humidity... and it was around 10:30 at night.I walked to the airport building because there are no gates pretty much in all of Africa. Picked up my baggage, fighting through a sea of porters, and walked outside to the Requadts holding a teddy bear for my arrival.

One of the many reasons Justin, Leah and I are going with WorldVenture is because they offer us, the missionaries, a lot of autonomy. This means that we get to do the vision we feel God has given us and we get to stay as long as God is keeping us there. WorldVenture is essentially partnering with us and our supporting churches (they have a huge emphasis on the local Church) to see that the vision God has given us is fulfilled. Well, that autonomy was confirmed as I had dinner with most of the Mali field missionaries. Their big question was, "Where do you see God is sending you?" Now there is still solid accountability in this freedom, but the accountability is in making sure that we are fulfilling the vision God has given us and the goals we will write out to make that vision a reality.

The teams vision is a simple one on the surface, but one that will take a lifetime to accomplish (we pray a lot less though, although we are prepared for the long haul). Our goal is to see a 3-Self church among one of the remaining Senoufo dialects that have no Christian witness and no Bible. A 3-Self church is a mature church that is Self-governing, Self-sustaining, and Self-propagating. Justin and I fully expect to disciple ourselves right out of a job among the Senoufos (and then maybe look at moving into leadership development for further maturing of the national pastors as they reach their own people with the Message of Jesus Christ). Right now, Justin and I have a 35-40 year plan of what we think, realistically, it will take to see a mature 3-Self church. This includes Bible translation, community development, literacy training, chronological Bible storying, and life-on-life discipleship. All of this leads to our main purpose of Church planting, but as Tom Requadt said on one of our walks in the bush, "There is a lot of stump pulling before you ever get to the Church planting," and he is exactly right. The land has to be prepared and cleared and tilled and cultivated long before you can plant a church. Now this doesn't mean that we won't have any people decide to follow Jesus before or during all the cultivating, but simply that you have to get the ground ready for a Church to grow into the full fruit of being a 3-Self church. There are so many opportunities among the Senoufo for this to succeed, but especially because the Senoufo are open to the gospel right now, and historically that openness is a very short window. I went to bed every night thanking God for allowing me to be in Mali. What a privilege to serve our God in such a place!

Wait until I tell you about the openness of a young man, who rode 4 hours on a bicycle one way, just to ask me to come to his people and give them a Bible!

Mali Trip: God I Love Africa!!

 So, I couldn't begin to describe in one post my time here. Therefore I will make it a Tuesday and Thursday series release starting September 16th.

I have been living with solar panels for electricity, camp showers, sweating non stop; dancing at feasts, seeing two young men decide to follow Jesus,  an encounter with an African Attack Lizard, and getting to know five wonderful guys who have committed themselves to pray for me until I return. All in all; God I love Africa!

Here is my flight schedule coming back if you would like to pray:

Bamako to Paris - 10:55pm Sep. 10 to 6:20am Sep. 11

Paris to D.C. - 10:15am Sep. 11 to 12:30pm Sep. 11

Then about a 3 1/2 hour drive back to Lynchburg.

In regards to the African chicken pox... I don't have them now, but apparently they have a two week incubation time, so I'm not out of the clearing yet.

This has been an amazing, eye opening trip in which I have weeks and years of information to process along with Justin and Leah. I was able to develop relationships with some great Christian brothers here. All of this will come later, but in short, Mamado (or just Do for short) started out as the only Christian in this one village and prayed for a year for someone to come and give his people the Bible. Finally, as a result of a political coup in Cote D'Ivoire, the Requadts (missionaries with WorldVenture) moved into Do's village, which they started an instant friendship. Now the church is growing, people are coming to know the Lord, and the Bible is translated to Genesis 25 in Shempire (Do's language)! Do has an incredible story of God's faithfulness and His mighty hand that I will share with you in the up coming series.

Thank you for your prayers!

It is the churches money that keeps a missionary on the field, it is their prayers that make them effective. - Tom Requadt