Heading back to Bamako so I can catch my flight, we stopped for the night at the Eadelman’s (WorldVenture missionaries in Mali). I had a wonderful meal of waffles and great conversations. The Eadelmans were telling me of an oral translation being done here of the Bible stories. They were proofing the story of David and Bathsheba by telling it to one of their national language helpers, who is a woman, for comprehension and understanding. After telling her the story, the Senoufo woman looked confused. They asked if she could understand it, which she said yes, but she said it didn’t make sense. They asked her why and she asked, for clarification, if David was the king. They said yes. So she said, “Well, if he is the king, then why is it wrong for him to take any woman he wants? He is the king. It is his right.”
The drive to Bamako from the Eadleman’s was long, but the roads greatly improve the closer you get to Bamako. We went souvenir shopping when we got to Bamako, mainly just to walk around. Like any third world market, you were crammed into two million people, seemingly walking in all different directions than you. Because you are white, the vendors scream at you, “My friend!” and chase you, literally, two blocks with some cheap something that he will give you for a “special price.” I really don’t like malls for this same reason; too many people all at once. I like people, but not when a bus, a moto, a scooter, another bus, a government official’s Mercedes, thirty-four people and you all want to be in the same place at the same time. Something has to give, so people are thrown out of their rhythm and chaos ensues. The really only redeeming factor is seeing the appreciation of the people I am fighting to get gifts for and bartering with the shop keepers, which Laura is an expert at. She got everything for less than cheap.
I really don’t want to leave Africa because this is where my heart is, but I’m tired of living out of a suitcase, sleeping in foreign beds or couches, and not having any routine. So, I’m looking forward to going back and getting settled into my room at the house in Lynchburg, VA. But praise God, I love Africa! I can’t wait to settle into my home here!
Listening to Mamado and Douda’s testimony was moving. Mamado was the first Christian in his dialect and came to Christ through a Christian radio station. He didn’t have the Bible, so he prayed for a solid year that God would send someone to teach him about Christ. At the end of the year, God sent Tom and Laura Requadt to serve with Mamado when rebels moved into their house in Cote d’Iviore, forcing them to Mali and Mamado’s village. Now Mamado is the pastor of the growing church in his language and the translator helper with Tom. Douda is fruit of Mamado’s gift for evangelism. To hear how God is working around the world is exhilarating at the very least! To see the wondrous change in people and to hear how Douda was a slave to fetishes and renounced them to follow Jesus, because Jesus is the only one with true power, was encouraging. It was neat to see something as basic as a wife, being a huge provision. When Douda came to Christ, there were no Christian women to marry, so God had to provide one from somewhere else. The States certainly view marriage differently. We almost expect to be married and decide, in love, who to marry and almost see it as our right to be married. But for Douda, it was a huge concern to go to Christianity because if he abandons the fetishes he doesn’t get a fetish wife. That point seems trivial and almost encouraging, but when there are NO Christian women in the region and he has to work the fields everyday to survive, how will he get a wife unless God supernaturally provides one? And that is exactly what God did! And because God provided a wife who was not from this area, the church here was able to witness the very first Christian wedding in this region! How great is our God?!
Thinking about this I looked at Nohoua and emphatically stated, “One day God will provide us a wife! One day!” Which Nohoua laughed in agreement as if he was thinking the same thing.