Ladies Ministry Update from Lisa

Last week was Ladies' week at church for Bible study. Every other week we gather for prayer, a song or two, and a devotional message. That's the plan, anyway, but no-one is organizing who does what, and the interest in coming has waned. I admit that last week I didn't want to go either, because the meeting has often become a discussion of how to spend the "dues" that the ladies collect, and how much should be collected by whom, etc... I have not entered this "savings plan" arrangement, and was becoming discouraged with the interpersonal problems I saw it causing.

Reluctantly, I went to the meeting, but thought that if it degenerates into this discussion again, I would excuse myself and return home. There were five women in attendance, no agenda or leadership planned, but what a wonderful time we had together.

We opened in prayer and sang a couple of songs. Since I'd arrived early and had brought my Bible and was spending a few quiet minutes in the Psalms before everyone else arrived, I was prepared to read a passage and make a few comments based on the morning's sermon and the report from the Youth Camp held the week before. When Naomi translated my comments, we had a good time of sharing together our perspectives on the Scripture and each one contributed to the meditation.

Then Naomi asked a question to see what everyone else thought about a life situation she's been considering for a long time. Is it right or wrong to set up your street food stand on Sunday afternoon after you've been to church and had your rest, or to do whatever is your weekly business activity? She sells fried sweet potatoes and bean doughnut holes every afternoon to make a little money. Many of the ladies do this on their street corner, and make $10-15 a month profit from it. A few others sell cloth or baby clothes or shoes as a means of income. We had a wonderful discussion about the meaning of Sabbath, and talked through these issues for each person.


Then when we shared prayer requests, Naomi asked us to pray for protection on her corner, as she's experienced someone breaking her mud stove three times in the last week. Whether it's another street food lady who is jealous of her business, or a mean neighbor, or just bored kids, she's felt a little scared by the recurrence. I shared that I wanted to pray for more than her and everyone else's protection. I wanted to pray that these ladies would be beacons of light on their respective corner, to spread the joy of their salvation to their unsaved neighbors and customers. I wanted them to see themselves as missionaries/evangelists right where God has placed them. And so we prayed for this and all the other requests for healing from sickness and for life-changing understanding of the sermons and messages received each week.

I will enthusiastically attend meetings like this in the future, because these times of sharing and understanding God's Word, and reading His Word even at the slow pace that these new readers can accomplish, is such a joy. Continue to pray for these women and the others who are faithfully attending their literacy classes three times a week. I'm not the main teacher, even though I help sometimes, but I'm seeing some real progress. Pastor Youssouf, who was a trained literacy teacher before his conversion and call to ministry, mentioned to me that he's enjoying teaching and helping people again on this level, apart from his ministry responsibilities.



If you want to contribute monetary support to our Women's Literacy and Training project, log onto WorldVenture.com, find the Seward webpage and contribute to this project online, or send a check and designate it to this project.

HELPING NEIGHBORS ON OUR CORNER
This past week, our neighbor, Bamba, was rushing his wife to the hospital one morning after she'd had a rough night and was now having signs of what looked to me like pre-seizure spasms of some sort. He couldn't get his motorbike to go with her on it, and she was going to have to try and balance behind him on our rough roads.
We hailed him down and offered to drive them in our car (which we are borrowing and will have to give back next month), to get her there in one piece along with another woman who could be her advocat and helper (maybe one of Bamba's other wives). She stayed for two days, receiving IVs, before we drove her back home, where she's still recuperating. Her name is Korotoum, and has been friendly to us and offered to help us with our Bambara. We pray the Lord will continue to give us opportunities to develop this relationship. Bamba comes over every day to greet us (sometimes many times a day), and has become a good friend with our yardworker, Jonas.



The Drama team is celebrating the finish of their dramatized Bible project. They've been working on a long 300 recording series of dramatized Bible. I believe the project in English was called "The Living Word." Anyway, they've been working very hard on it, and are about to celebrate the end of recording. Lots of editing left to do, but soon these Bible stories brought to life in Bambara will be available on the radio and on cd and cassette. This is so valuable in a country where so many are unable to read. The work will be enjoyed everywhere, and we pray that God will use this project to bring many to Himself.

Thanks for stopping by,
Tom