Saturday, August 27, 2005

People asking for the Gospel






We are sitting in our living room in the dark, a couple of solar lights to shine the way.

The kids are listening to Lisa read “Stewart Little” which we found here among Eadleman’s books.
We had an evening of playing Phase 10, and Catch Phrase.
I had to go outside in the dark to fix the shower. The pipe coming down from the barrel on top of the roof was blocked by dirt-sludge. So I got that out, refilled the barrel on the roof, and had my shower.
Power was off all night until noon the next day.

I had a really interesting experience today. I went to the commissariat (the police) to register our family’s passports, and to announce officially we are here in Kadiolo.
Pastor Youssouf took me over, and we were ushered into the Commadant’s office. All the officers are in uniform, but he opened his door in a fancy bubu. (By his clothing, he is definitely a Moslem.) So we went in, (Ben, Youssouf, and I) and he looked over our family’s passports. So he passed them off to someone else to take care of. He began to ask questions in french. “So you are a missionary?”
Yes, I said.
“Mission Baptiste? Is that protestant or catholic?” He asks.
“Protestante” I reply. (I’m not sure where all this is leading.)
“What is the difference between Protestante and Catholic?” He asks.
How to answer that question to a Moslem on the spur of the moment?
“Catholics believe that we need to pray and confess to God through a priest.”
“Protestants believe that we are all priests, as we are washed by the blood of Jesus Christ who died to pay for our sins, and open a direct communication with God.”
I continued, “both protestants and true catholics believe that salvation comes by faith in Jesus Christ as the one who paid the debt of our sin by his death. So the way of salvation remains the same.”
“Why are there so many divisions among Christians? Why so many kinds of churches? Isn’t there only one Bible?” He asked.
“That’s true, there is only one Bible, but people interpret it differently. Why are there so many different sects of Moslems?” I asked.
He began to explain some of that to me, how people don’t always divine the word of God correctly.

“Exactly!” Is what I said.
Well he moved on to other conversation. But it was very interesting to have the door opened so wide to be able to share the Gospel.


We also have an opportunity with local kids. There is always a myriad of kids by our front gate. They all want to see the petite blanks. (The white kids) So they hang around for hours, it seems. Yelling Benjamin! Caleb! So our kids will talk to them, or come out in the street to play with them. Our kids have done okay with this new stress in their lives. But we pray that opportunities would come so that the gospel can be shared with these kids. Laura Requadt, a nearby colleague has Bible story time each day, punctuated by juice and cookies.
She says all the kids in her village know the english word "cookie". She's hoping that teaching kids Bible stories will stick as well. She is wise to use a local believer to translate these stories from french to Bambara. He is being trained to carry the stories on...
Here is a few pics of kids at our gate.

Are there people around you asking for the Gospel? Are you and I looking to take advantage of these opportunities, or do we look at them as stress?
Please continue to pray for us as encounters like this are a daily opportunity.
Tom



Sunday, August 21, 2005

First Week In Mali Sunday, Aug 21, 2005


We drove down from Bamako last Wednesday to Kadiolo, about and 8 hour drive, with missionary colleagues, Tom and Laura Requadt. After a quick orientation to the house where we'll be living for awhile and the market in town, they were off to their village before a storm hit. The dirt roads between here and there are difficult enough without rain.

It is rainy season here, so it is humid and warm, although the locals say it is cooler because of the rain. Still feels hot to us. The first day or two were spent trying to find things in this house and unpack our suitcases. We've since bought a few things at the market and are rationing the special things we brought on the plane with us.

Every day, we have a little something special to remind us of home. Either a piece of candy from the bulk candy store trip with Grandma, or blender slushees made from KoodAid. Cheese gets rationed too, as it's about $25 a pound in Bamako. I haven't tried my Mozarella cheese-making kit yet. Still trying to get into the groove of cooking here in someone else's kitchen.

The boys are making some friends with children who have come to watch our comings and goings in our yard. They also enjoy the two dogs that came with the house. They may sleep most of the day, but they are vigilint at night. (See Photo) Climbing mango and frangipani trees is also a wonderful way for boys with no t.v. to pass their day.

We went to church this morning after a torrential rain last night. Attendance wasn't too high as it's still summer break, and Sunday School hasn't restarted, and the Radio drama team is out of town at a nation-wide Theater competition. They are really good and getting wide attention, which is a wonderful witness tool.

We decided to wander around the neighborhood and see if we could happen upon the house that the pastor had found as a possibility for us. He sent pictures which many of our friends and family have seen. While we were out, some ladies saw us and invited us into their courtyard for cold water and a visit. We told them we were house-hunting and they showed us a house around the block that they knew about, still being constructed. Then we saw another one that is vacant. Then the pastor came along on his bike, and took us to see the house he had written about. Since we didn't get to see the inside of the new house, we'd like to have a look before we make a decision. Either way it'll take some time to get a house ready before we move in.

Tom is hoping to leave tomorrow, Monday the 22nd, with Pastor Youssouf to reclaim some of our things from Cote d'Ivoire. We have moved that job up on the priority scale because of possibile increasing unrest there as a scheduled election in October nears. Most of our evacuated Cote d'Ivoire missionaries fear increased tension as time approaches for the vote, and we want to be out of the way before that happens. Please pray for travel safety and lack of border and customs complications.

Thankfully, we seem to have a dependable e-mail system worked out, so we can send and receive information as normally as possible. We wish we could communicate with the Malians quite so easily, but fewer here speak French, so we have to work at understanding and learning their language. It'll take time, but in the meanwhile, Tom has already helped the Pastor and the script-writer for the Radio drama team with their computer and e-mail systems. It feels good to be able to help them in some way.

Important people in our daily lives include: Mariko, the Christian man who takes care of the yard, the animals, the water pump and generator systems, and all-around handyman of the house; and Aminatou, the Christian lady who cleans and does laundry inside the house. Both are trustworthy and dependable and helpful in every way possible. We hope to find such valuable house-helpers when we set up our own house.

We haven't started the new school year yet. Maybe in another week or two. School here doesn't start until October, but they have a shorter year. When we were in Bamako last week, we saw the new Bamako Christian Academy and met some of the families involved there. It is a good possibility for the future, but they have to have a boarding situation available for our kids when the time comes, and they only go to 9th or 10th grade. We may decide to look at other options for the continuity factor.

Thanks for your interest in how life back in Africa is for the Sewards these first two weeks. We appreciate your prayers, as well.

Sunday, August 07, 2005

August 7, 2005

SEWARD SNAPSHOTS ONLINE

Tom, Lisa, Hilary, Ben, Caleb Seward

Hello. It is three days before we get on an airplane, and leave for Mali, West Africa. We are all so excited about starting a new african style of life that we can barely stand it! We've been working very hard for the last few weeks packing crates to send, packing boxes to store here in the USA, packing last minute things to go on the airplane. We're not sure what our home will look like exactly, but one that was available looked like this:
Anyway, this is the first page of the blog, and we will have some great stories of how well or not Americans can make the transition to live in a setting like Kadiolo, Mali. West Africa. I'll put the map, and a family pic in as well.... God Bless, Tom Seward

Our town Kadiolo, is at the south of Mali. It is 8 hours south of Bamako, the capitol of Mali by car. It is in the savannah grasslands, but dryer than Ivory Coast was. Still, crops do grow and people support themselves by raising cattle and farming.