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

Rainy Season.

Rainy Season. People often ask us when we're in the states, what are the seasons like in Mali? We reply, "We have rainy season, and dry season."
This is rainy season. It rains frequently. Here in Kadiolo, we joke that every time there are two drips of rain, the power is cut off.
It does get cut off frequently, but not everyday. It rains every 2nd day. Sometimes big lightening storms, that cascade rain down on our aluminum roofs, making a loud but soothing background noise to sleep to. (Often missionary kids from africa find it hard to sleep when they go to college in America because they miss that sound of rain on a tin roof.)
I did a stupid thing that only an American would do today. I stood on the side of the road in the rain, taking pictures of people going by. I was trying to capture rainy season in Kadiolo. I did get some pics, here was one of the better ones....




We're back in Kadiolo, last week, we travelled to Segou for two days with Danielle and Joannie, on our way to Bamako to get both of them to the airport. The Segou part was a bit of downtime with the girls, we stayed at a hotel that we stumbled on back in September on our Segou trip then. Joannie had not travelled much in the long time she'd been with us. She gets carsick, and rough roads do NOT help! But she really enjoyed being out with us, and seemed to particularly enjoy Segou. One of the fun things we did, (as well as some souvenir shopping...) was to take a pirogue (canoe) trip on the Niger river. That was fun. Here is a pic of most of us on the boat.



Here is an older pic from the week before. We had visited the waterfall with Joannie and Danielle. It was Danielles' only trip out there. Here are Hilary, Ben and Caleb.




The students results came back from their exams this week. We were close to so many through the study room. One in particular was finishing high school, needed a good result to be accepted into University at Bamako. He came over to our house with a big smile on his face.... He passed his exams. Pray for Ibrahima, who accepted a Bible about a month ago. Pray that his quest to fill the God shaped void in his heart would end with Jesus! He has become such a good friend to our family...

You can pray for me specifically this week. I have a drivers license issue to deal with. (I turned 40 this last Sunday, and with that celebration, my license expired.) So I need to talk to the Mali department of motor vehicles and arrange a drivers license.
Bureaucracy here can be huge. Please pray that I'm able to work out the licence, and that I'm not required to do driving school.
Driving school is in Sikasso, not available in Kadiolo.
So that would require a lot of back n forthin' to Sikasso.
The delay in renewing the license is my fault, but we go to Sikasso so little, and were quite busy here...

Thanks for stopping by:
Tom

World Cup & Youth Camp

Hello again. I wasn't able to post before today. Sorry about last weekend.
We're in Bamako, and some kind friends have allowed me some computer time on their high-speed hookup. Yeah!

Big events this last week! You may know that the World Cup Soccer tournament's final was last Sunday. For most of Europe, and Africa, and Latin America, this is the superbowl of Soccer. We invited neighbors, friends, and study room students to come over and watch it GIANT via a projector on the wall. Everyone had a great time.
For some of the unbelievers invited, this was another step in building a redemptive relationship with them.




(Our next door neighbor, Bamba. He was so pleased to come to the soccer party. He had a big smile on his face. He is a farmer, he is a m-lem and has 3 wives. He has been so gracious to us since we moved in next door to him.) We continue to pray for him.

Also, the CMA church had a youth camp this week from the 10th to the 17th. 10 Students were able to go from our church in Kadiolo. They got all dressed up, and loaded into a station wagon for the trip. They were so excited, and we are excited for them because of the teaching they will recieve. We pray for a deeper relationship with God for each of them as a result of this camp.
One of Danielle's friends back home made a contribution that made it possible for several of these kids to go. We helped a couple of them as well with expenses.





So where were we? We had to travel at the same time as this youth camp. Joannie, who served faithfully this year with us, her flight left the 15th. Right in the middle of youth camp. But we felt like it was important to honor her years' sacrifice by a short 2 day vacation trip together, and then to be there to say farewell at the airport. Danielle also is leaving this week. She flies out the 19Th (Danielle's family don't hold me to the date and time. I'm not 100% sure of those details...

So we're in Bamako right now, and will be heading down to Kadiolo on Sunday, (I'll be 40 on Sunday... wow...) We'll have 3 weeks before we need to come back up to Bamako to send Hilary to Dakar for school. COntinue to pray for our family as we make all of these transitions...

Thanks for stopping by, God Bless
Tom & Lisa

Another Yaya

This is a pic of several of the kids that play with Caleb and Ben. Yaya is not in the picture. It turns out that I don't have a good pic of Yaya. Too Bad.

Another story of an interesting experience. God does not waste anything.
What do I mean by that?

One of the kids that have befriended Caleb and Ben is a young boy named Yaya.
Since September, soon after we arrived in Kadiolo, he has been a consistent face
outside our door, waiting to play with our kids.
He is one that had come to Sunday school several times,
and even made a profession of faith with Lydie, one of our Sunday School Leaders.

A few months ago, Caleb was playing rough with him, and threw one of his shoes down
a well. I knew he could be beaten for losing his shoes, so I took him to the
market and bought him a new pair. So our relationship was good with this
young kid.

Friday, we had 5 kids in the yard to play. It was too many, and after a while,
I sent them home. We all went to the other house to work a bit, leaving Aminata
and Jonas at our house...
Apparantly some of the kids went back to our yard without us there.
Yaya stole 2 Cokes, and took them outside of the yard, and offered them
to the other kids.
They refused, and took him back into the yard to tell Aminata what he'd done.
So when I came home I had to deal with the issue. It was a small thing,
only two cokes, but Aminata and Jonas insisted that I go talk to his parents.

So I went, hoping that my involvement would not get him a huge beating,
but hoping that his parents would be aware so they could discipline him.
Jonas went with me to help speak. It was a good thing,
because Yaya's father was home, but didn't speak much french.
So I explained the whole thing to him, much like I just did to you. Yaya has been
a good friend to my kids, about Caleb throwing his shoe, and about me replacing
the shoes. The I explained about the theft, explaining that it was a small thing,
but it needed to be addressed.
Yaya's father took my story with such grace and understanding. He really got the
message, that I was not there because his son offended me, and I wanted
him beaten. But that I cared about Yaya, and wanted the best for him.
He proceeded to tell me that Yaya was supposed to be working in the field that day,
and had lied about where he was going. Oops.
But he was so thankful about my visit. Yaya hadn't come home yet, so for Saturday,
and Sunday, I worried about wether he'd be beaten or not. I hope you
understand where I'm coming from, for him to be disciplined yes, beaten up, no.

Anyway, today I went back to the yard, hesitantly, not sure what news I would find out.
Yaya was not there, but I was able to ask if he'd come home. He had, and
he father assured me that it was arranged. (Whatever that means.) He encouraged
me that today Yaya was out working in the field. He again was happy to see me,
and graciously accepted my visit.

This story is not yet finished. But like I started out, God does not waste anything.
The friendships of our children, even bad events, can become opportunities to
know new people and build relationships. I had never met Yaya's parents before,
really never thought about it. But now I know a another man who needs Christ,
who is an interesting and gracious guy...