Women's Visit to Gninasso

This is Lisa today....How do you combine an official village visit to celebrate God's healing someone you prayed over 3 years ago, plus a "funeral" visit that's a year overdue, plus a new funeral visit from last week? You just go, ready to sing and dance, with lots of snacks!

This was our women's group yesterday in the rented bus, on our way to the village of Gninasso, about 5 miles outside of Kadiolo, where one of the rural pastors lives and is working on starting a church plant. A couple of years ago, we went there and prayed for a widow, named Bintu, who had been struggling for months and was dependent on Pastor Salif's family to help raise her children since her husband had died. We had intended to return later when she was healthy again to praise God for answering prayers on her behalf and to witness to the watching villagers. But then when Lisa got sick and we left on medical leave last year, this return visit was delayed.

And during that year, Pastor Salif's wife, Chiata, lost her mother. Since we weren't around with our car and no-one could afford to rent transportation, a group visit was never done then, either. As we were evaluating ministry opportunities for this year, the ladies wanted to do this visit to Gninasso, so Tom and I agreed to fund the transport for the group, since we have recently sold our car. Then, last week at the end of this planning meeting, word came from this village than one of the young women had just passed away and they were trying to get word to Pastor Salif who had been preaching at another church that morning. So, we were glad that we were already "on our way", so to speak, to encourage the believers there.



We arrived and greeted the villagers, shared our "news" (why we were there), had some singing time and I shared some Bible passages, and then the food! Various women had prepared donut holes, popcorn, peanuts, and drinks, and then there was more singing and dancing at the end. The women were so pleased to be able to go. The village church really enjoyed their visit, too.


Just as we were leaving the village, the van blew a tire, and it became apparent that the driver and helpers' tools were tired out and not doing the job. Getting very little phone network signal, I called Tom and asked him to help us. He found the van owner in town and let him know the situation. They scrambled around with the other car owners, came up with a wrench, then sent it off with Pastor Youssouf on a motorbike so the guys could fix the tire. Rescued and back to Kadiolo just as dark was falling. In the picture above, Pastor Salif is the man on the far right; he would covet your prayers as he is working on two very different church plants many miles apart, the one where he lives, and also the church in Misseni, at the gold rush.

Back to Tom...
You may not know we've been having severe power cuts. Ivory Coast provides our electricity via 2 giant turbines in a hydro electric dam. One of those is broken.
So they announced we'll be on half time electric until May.

We have been pleasantly surprised to find the generator we bought in August in Bamako does not use a lot of gas. It has been such a blessing to be able to pump water with our electric pump, run the freezer, and fridge, and do lots of the other things we need to do with electric, all without consuming a lot of gas. What a blessing! Last night we were supposed to have our power cut from 1 pm to 5pm today. Monday. Well for some reason we enjoyed electric all night last night. Another blessing from God. He is so good to us...

Thanks for stopping by,
Keep on praying for us.... we know you do!!

Tom & Lisa Seward

Africa Cup Football (Soccer) championship

Watching Africa cup finals with a bunch of friends

A good part of what I do is sit with guys in the street. My goal is evangelism, but I also need constant practice as I strive to learn Bambara. So the lines between evangelism, relationship building, and language learning really blur when I'm hanging out with the guys. All of good mission work is based on good relationships though, and the stronger the relationships, the better our friends are ready to hear the message of Christ we've come to bring....

Some people ask how or what you do as a missionary to present the Gospel? A lot of it is this kind of thing. Hanging out, sharing time together, looking for teachable moments or opportunities to share. And they are numerous.

One of this group just this week was very interested. It was a guy I don't know as well as the others. But he popped up with the question... what is the difference between Islam and Christianity? Aren't they both ways to serve/praise the existing God? I was diplomatic. But I said they are different because what Mohammed taught and what Jesus taught are different. I explained how Mohammed taught salvation comes through weighing your good actions against your bad ones. And how Jesus taught that if you stumble on one point of the law you are guilty of breaking all of it. Jesus knew I could not do enough good stuff, so he gave his life as the sacrifice for my sins. Therefore he who has the sacrifice is forgiven, he who does not have the sacrifice, good as he may be, is not forgiven. Heavy words for him to hear I guess.
The thing is that when a conversation like that springs up, only one guy will ask the question, but 8-10 guys are around to hear, and largely they follow the conversation closely.

Continue to pray with me that God will open the hearts and minds of people to recieve his love. Pray with me that these guys would see the light of Christ...

Thanks for stopping by,
Tom & Lisa

Travelling in Mali

Link to the bus video on youtube here -Click-

Dusty was with us for the month of December. It is always fun to see Mali through the eyes of someone visiting for the first time. So much of what is "weird" to a visitor is common place to us.
So this video is Dusty & Tom's bus ride down from Bamako to Kadiolo...
It has been edited so you wont see all 9 hrs of this particular trip... :D (The bus ride can be much faster than this, but unfortunately this trip was not an example of Mali speed.)

But watching this video may give you an idea of what it would be like to visit! And may be fond? memories for those of you who have rode our buses... Pastor Mike, Emily, Dusty, Joannie, Jason, Ashley, Susan, Amy, and others who may have had this dubious honor and neat opportunity.

Enjoy, and remember to pray for us as we travel often in this fashion...

Thanks for stopping by,
Tom & Lisa

Motorbike gets new home.

Pastor Youssouf hands Pastor Daouda keys to his new motorbike.

I had explained to Youssouf that I was ready to give my old motorbike to the Pain de Vie association. I asked which pastor should recieve it. (our pastors each have a motorbike, and have a small fund each month to pay for gas and maintain it, but have no replacement fund.) I had pastor Daouda in mind... because his motorbike was easily 15 years old, and in the worst shape of all of our local pastor's motorbikes.
Youssouf replied Daouda... I grinned and said that was who I had in mind. (we had both been out to Daouda's church a couple of weeks earlier for a baptism. evidently we both noticed Dao's bike was tired... and needing replacing..)
So pastor Youssouf called pastor Daouda, and it was agreed that he come to my house the next day for a meeting. He and Youssouf came that next morning.

The meeting started out with... "Pastor Daouda, do you know why we called you to the meeting here today?" Dao says "no"
I explained how at the end of this 5 year term in June I had intended to give my motorbike to the Pain de vie, expecting that I would give it in June. But that the car sale included a new motorbike in the selling price, freeing me up to give my older motorbike now instead of later in the year. I explained how I had approached pastor Youssouf, and we had both identified him as having a need for a motorbike, and it was agreed that he recieve it. I explained that I cannot give a new motorbike every three years, but God enabled me to do it this time... So I gave him the keys, the ownership papers, the tax papers and all. He about fell off of his chair. He was so happy. It was my old motorbike, but it only has 7000km on it, about 3500 miles.. it has a good 3-4 years left on it if treated well. It was all up to date.
We prayed God's blessing on Pastor Daouda's ministry, and the motorbike he would now be able to use... He drove the bike away... so pleased....

It is a blessing to be able to encourage the servants of God.

Thanks for stopping by,
Tom & Lisa Seward

Christmas Celebrations.

Lisa with her Santa Hat. (the hat was not part of her regular Christmas dress.

Hi. Christmas is different in Africa. The church has an all night party Christmas eve, with singing, theatre, dancing, a film (this year the Jesus film was shown..) Midnight coffee, and more dancing. They asked me to give the evening sermon. I shared about Mary's angel visit, and Josephs' angel visit, explaining that the angel was announcing no normal baby's birth. I then jumped to John 14:6. What did this baby later say about himself? "I am the way, the truth, the life, nobody comes to the Father except through me..." I shared that unless you have Jesus in your heart as your sacrifice for your sin, it is impossible to have a right relationship with God. I was preaching to a very fidgety crowd of 300+. (Most of them under 13...) After I sat down, an invited m-lim friend poked me. "Is that true what you just said? About Jesus being the sacrifice, and unless he is in your heart there is no way to have a right relationship with God?" Someone had been listening... Pray for Khaki as he weighs through what he heard, and that the Holy Spirit would work in his life.

Dusty and Lydie Christmas Eve 2009

Early evening Christmas Eve 2009

Christmas day was church service, followed by a huge potluck. This year the ladies cooking decided to make a huge pot of french fries! What a joy! They called me, "You like ketchup with your fries, don't you? Maybe you should go buy some..." I did, and it was so good with them... put a smile on our faces.... The everpresent rice & sauce was pretty good too.. :D

So then we switch gears, and move to a more family celebration. We exchanged gifts, laughed, and are now getting ready to eat! Pic to come...maybe... :D

In our house people,(especially Tom) get excited about licorice.

Caleb with a new shirt.

Tom & Hilary... (no no daddy.... not that picture... LOL)

A Merry Christmas to all of you! May God bless you!

One can be full of self-pity being far away from family on Christmas,

But we really feel like we are right where he wants us to be.

And that He is not done using us....

Thanks for stopping by,

Tom & Lisa Seward

Together again

"Together again, together again...." if you recognise those song lines from the Muppets take manhattan, then you may have watched too many muppet movies...

But the song represents how we feel right now....

We are happy to all be together again. Lisa and the kids bused down from Bamako on Friday. They had quite a good bus ride... So we've enjoyed being together.

This week is going to be full. I'm (Tom) recovering from an amoeba. (dyssentry) so that is fun. Today we had the opportunity to go to a village to witness a baptism, but I declined to go because I'm still a bit weak. Tomorrow Dusty and I will visit Fourou, and Dusty can see what a miracle church the Fourou church is...

I'm supposed to be picking up a motorbike tomorrow. The mason is supposed to come over to start work on our septic system. I was able to buy 2 fat chickens, they will be delivered tomorrow, and be eaten Christmas day for our family meal! Two ivoirian guys are coming to Kadiolo to celebrate Christmas with Ernie & Jan, so they will stay with us for a few days. Ernie & Jan are arriving tomorrow with their son & family (4 kids) who are coming out to visit. So their house is too full to house anyone else... Our cat gave birth to 3 beautiful kittens. But our dog wants to steal them from the mother, and nurse them...

Does our life sound crazy yet? Oh- yes... Freddi came by today to inform me that they announced that I would be preaching Christmas Eve. (Nobody told me that yet...) It is fine, I'll be ready... but it was a bit of a surprise.... in fact, I don't think Lisa knows yet, cuz I haven't had a chance to tell her... LOL

Life in Africa is fun... :D This entry may sound a bit disjointed, but that is only because that is how today was.

Come visit sometime and experience this kind of chaos firsthand.

We're so pleased that Dusty has the opportunity to see all of this.... And we pray that God is able to speak to him in the midst of the rush....

Thanks for stopping by,

Tom & Lisa

Dusty arrives!

Hi. Our new friend Dusty just arrived in Mali. He is here for 4 weeks. He is exploring to see how God could use him in Mali. He will be living with an african senoufo family, he will be learning a bit of Bambara. He will be generally experiencing what missionary life is in southern Mali. Also he will be visiting the various ministries, and hearing from our African brothers and sisters what their vision is for the church and the advancement of the gospel here.

If you are twinged with a teeny bit of jealousy because you're saying to yourself. "HEY! Could I do something like that??" Maybe you could. God has gifted you in many ways that you are aware of, as well as a few ways that would surprise even your mother. Sometimes we need to step out in faith to find these things.







On the other side of experiences in Mali, our colleagues Ernie & Jan E. had a car accident. They were on a very dusty road, and stopped because they couldn't see. They were stopped lest than a minute when a semi truck (who did not stop when he couldn't see.) hit them almost head on. Fortunatly he was going fairly slow. But the semi truck just about demolished their car, but did not harm Ernie or Jan nor their 2 passengers.





I've had a very busy week this week. I've been meeting with Ernie, and with our pastors of the Pain de Vie (Bread of life) church association. (In case I've never said this, Pain de Vie is the name of our church association here in Mali.) Anyway, they have been reworking their Statement of Faith. So we've been talking through issues like baptism, communion, baby dedication. We walked through the example of World Venture's statement of faith. So now they're writing theirs along those lines, but in french. Once the french one is accepted by the association, then they will write it in Bambara.

The idea is that when we are done, the pastors will have a statement of faith that can be taught to believers who neither speak nor read french.



I've also been meeting with the radio drama team. A mission concerned with media would like to come to Kadiolo in February 2010, to offer some training to the team on video production. So we've been discussing/working through a lot of issues with that trip as well.



I really felt needed and useful in a profound way this week. I was at the right place at the right time, and able help navigate some of these issues. And God is blessing.



Thank you for praying. Your prayers, even in the "simple" matter of travel. As you can see, it means a lot.



Thanks for stopping by,

Tom & Lisa