Celebrating end to Excisions in Gninlasso

No more excisions in our village...... ever! Declares the slogan on the banner.
Female excision was made illegal in both Cote D'Ivoire and Mali almost 30 years ago.
Yet today is still a hot topic as many many villages still practice it. Women are weak, and prone to wander sexually, african theory goes... So to avoid this removal of their external sex organs keeps them interested in home and family. This practice, destroying women's bodies in a painful way, is to promote purity. It is interesting that this culture that prizes babies so much, makes it that much harder for a woman to deliver a baby.

This village is celebrating the fact that they are now complying with the law that was passed over 30 years ago. They are being heralded as a village to be looked up to. So other villages would follow their good example. In American timing, they are way late.... In Malian timing, you can never be late. Anyway... I do certainly support an end to this practice.



Even though this villages' decision is 30 years late. It is not too late for these girls. Several of these girls are christians, and go to the Gninlasso church there in the village. Pray that they would follow Christ with all their hearts, and become the women of God Christ wants them to be.



As with any celebration in Africa, dancing, dancing, dancing is the way to celebrate. One time in a church, we showed pictures of africans dancing. Someone was totally appalled that Christians would dance in africa. Dancing has a lot of bad connotations in the USA, but in africa is a expression of joy. For many women, it is one of the few outlets they have to celebrate and have fun. They work so hard most of the time. African dancing is cultural, not boy-girl based like in America. And when the dust kicks up... the grins appear. Todays celebration was something worth dancing about....

Praise the Lord for the work he is doing in Mali

Thanks for stopping by,
Tom & Lisa

Dominoes & Evangelism???

So you may read our blog, and in the back of your mind you may be saying something like this: "I wouldn't know how to go about sharing the gospel with someone." or "What are some good ways to open spiritual conversations with people near me?" "If I was a missionary in Mali, what common ground could I find to share with the Mali people?"


Well of course being a bit creative helps. But many simple ways really work. Last week Lisa was cleaning our storage room. We found 2 old sets of Dominoes. She said lets get rid of these. I thought about taking them to my 2 regular groups of guys. Soon we were all playing dominoes like crazy. One group is all m-lim men who are open to talking about the gospel. One group is church guys, but now with the dominoes game going on... (almost constantly last week) people are being drawn in, unbelievers that we can share with. It is really funny. Anyway, relationships are being built for Christ with little black & white peices of wood. Its amazing.

Anyway, the point is that you don't have to be a "super christian" to share the gospel. You don't have to wait for a perfect "Max Lucado" moment to share. Just hang out, share a donut with someone you are praying for, and let God work. Relationship time pays off.

Speaking of praying for things to happen. This is a pic of our Sunday School youth. I have been praying for about 2 years for 10 kids between this Sunday school class and the Choir (older youth) to be serious enough to be baptised. I now have 9 who've taken the baptism class, and are awaiting their interview with Pastor Youssouf. I was resigned to 9. (Maybe I was over zealous, God thank you for 9...) Yesterday, a young girl from choir said... is it too late to be in the baptism class? I want to take it too. Of course the classes are done. But I say.. .hey.. no its not too late. Come to my house, meet with Lisa and me this week, and we'll do a personal version of the class just for you. If she follows through... 10 students!!! Thank you God.
Don't be afraid to pray boldly for God to do stuff. He can do it....

Thanks for stopping by,
Tom & Lisa

Together again

Even though our colleagues Tom & Laura only work about 45 min away in Fourou, we don't see them very often. The road gets really bad during rainy season, making visits from either Kadiolo or Fourou difficult. This time Tom & Laura made a special 3 day trip over to Kadiolo to help Ernie & Jan sort through their stuff as they begin to pack for retirement. At the same time, we 3 couples enjoyed hanging out together again. Playing wild card games of hand & foot, and eating ice cream, and almost-delivery pizza. :D

Ladies working on sorting.

Guys trip to Sikasso for hardware stuffs

Before you get too excited about this lebanese hamburger... know that while it is tasty, it has cold fries in it, cole slaw, and a distinct sheepy flavor to the patty.
It does go down okay, though... :D

We enjoyed 3 days together... knowing that this is the last time all 3 couples will be together in africa. Tom & Laura leave this week for 6 months of furlough. In April, Ernie & Jan will be retiring. In May, We (Tom & Lisa) leave for furlough as well. When we come back next year, Tom & Laura will be here, but Ernie & Jan will be gone. We will have new colleagues on the field, Jeff & Heidi are now in language school for french, and will be joining us. We have 2 other couples who've been appointed but won't have arrived on the field yet. We look forward to our new team-mates... :D

Changes like this are sad. We've relied on Ernie & Jan's advice so much, and now we're supposed to be the guys who have all the smart advice... (Lord, give us the grace and wisdom to guide others on this path.) It is humbling, and scary.

Pray for us as we take the baton(s) that Eadelmans are leaving for us. Pray for the continued growth in the churches, and that God's word would continue to go out. That is way more important than our other issues.


On other issues.... Our electricity has been cut. We've been on a schedule of 8hr of electricity, 16 hrs cut. for the last month. This is supposed to go on until May 2010. Apparantly in the Ivory Coast, the main power station (hydro power) has 2 turbines. One is broken down. So they are repairing/replacing it. So now they only can make 1/2 the electricity they used to. So there will be these cuts until the plant is back up to normal.


Also in Cote D'Ivoire... President Gbagbo closed the government. That is like having the president of the USA suspend congress indefinitely. He's cancelled the elections indefinitely. (I'm not sure what he actually said as far as the elections' time frame, but indefinitely was the general idea.) So the Ivory Coast has taken a big step backwards as far as restoring normalcy to the country, sadly enough. We pray for peace & safety for our colleagues still working there, and for the national church.



Thanks for praying, and stopping by!

Tom & Lisa

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