Hello Friends!

Hi. We're glad to be here for you to see once again!


Village church visit. This last Sunday I took a carload of youth out to one of our village churches. We wanted to encourage the pastor who is there. Members of his congregation have been leaving church because they think they should be paid to attend church. Also, the church has the age-old problem [maybe your church isn't this way.] of having lots of older people, but not many young people. So we went to invite youth to church, and to make a good contact with them.
It went really well. The youth sang, and the people really enjoyed lively music, and I preached. The pastor asked me to have a sermon ready. So I did.


Church under the Mango trees!



I talked about the benefits of the Gospel, and being a child of God. Everything from sins forgiven to power in Christ to being a co-inheritor with Christ.
I started with our condition as sinners, and used a rope magic trick to illustrate our lack of communication with God when we are in a state of sin.



Magic tricks, even Gospel ones can be tricky in africa, but these people seemed to get the point, and enjoyed my amateurish trick!


I also asked at the end of the sermon, Do I have to pay to go to church? No.
Does the church have to pay me? No. I explained that a church is like a family. When was the last time you went to your dad and said, Dad unless you pay me I quit being a Seward, and now I'm going to be a Smith. You can't do that.
I explained the benefits of family, but that does not include an obligation of being paid to be a member. I explained that my father would say that he feeds me, clothes me, educates me, etc. Same in the church, we are fed spiritually, encouraged, exhorted, etc. Church is family... Of course this is the very short version.

New family near us!God has brought a new American woman and her daughter to Kadiolo. She is here to help cousel families who have members with aids. She is a volunteer with an english NGO, non government organisation. Pray for her as she's come from Detroit, has had little training for africa. Pray that we can help fill gaps to help her as much as possible. Her little girl, 9 years old is in government school in french. At this point the girl has very little french. It is going to be a tough spring for her, but she will come out of spring speaking french very well.






Thanks for stopping by again!
God Bless,
Tom

Friends & Ministry Opportunities

Lisa had an interesting opportunity to pray for a Christian sister in a nearby village yesterday. She loaded the church ladies into our

Pajero and off they went to pray for the woman, named Bintu, who has lost much weight since the last time Lisa saw her. Lisa was asked to give an impromptu meditation (which we're learning to prepared for...) and then she asked if the other women would be willing to return to celebrate and praise the Lord publicly if/when the Lord chooses to heal her, whether it be in a month, or a year.
Of course they all agreed, so we're praying for her recovery, Lord willing.

Here is a pic of all the group in the village.



Pray for our health. I (Tom) had a bout of malaria, the cure took effect quickly, but I've been a bit slow getting back into strong form.
Caleb was sick today. It isn't a huge major sickness, but we experience these small "not feeling well today" things often.

Siribri is a story we'd like to share with you. He is a young m-lim who has been very hard hearted to the gospel for several years. Tom and several young guys have been praying for him each week since we got here. Two weeks ago he approached me and asked if we could do English conversation together. We started, and I am using a kids devotional as a spring board for conversation. Reading helps with vocabulary as well. Anyway, he has been very open to talk about spiritual things this past two weeks. I have been amazed. God is certainly at work in his heart. Pray with us for his salvation.

Henri . Henri is our Bambara teacher. He is an educated young man, married, and teaches english at the local high school. So he is a Catholic Christian, but describes himself as having a very small faith. He believes (as many here do) in the forces of evil. He has a lot of animistic beliefs mixed in with his faith. We've been having great discussions with him, and have been encouraging
him that nothing can take hold in your heart if it is sold to Christ....
Christ is the creator of the whole natural world, and we should worship the creator, not the creation... These discussions have been very invigorating, and have been great to build up Henri's faith.
Of course, we do need to keep working on Bambara, too. :-)

I'm sorry we don't have more pics this week.
I need to get out and work on some for for you to see.
Thanks so much for stopping by.
God Bless,
Tom