In Dakar. Together again!

We are so blessed to be together again. Yesterday we spent the afternoon at the school's art show. All the students art was displayed, and awards & honorable mentions were given.

Hilary won in the category for Graphin Design for her book cover..She also did these two great watercolor pictures of some people we know. ;-)

Then the handbells & choir made presentations. It was nice to be a visiting parent and see some of the hard work the students have been doing.

Today we'll go to the church service at school, and take part in the other activities for the week.

God has really given our kids a blessing through Dakar Academy. The blessing of other adults who can put positive input into their lives, and to encourage them and train them in areas we're not quite so strong in. As well as the social interaction and interplay with the other kids.

Ben has loved being a part of sports like handball, basketball, volleyball. Those activities have been a great source of enjoyment for him this year. As proof of this he showed us his running shoes, that even a liberal dose of duct tape could never save.... Lisa went out with him yesterday, and found a pair to help him finish these last weeks, and get on the plane.

Thanks for praying for us, and our family.

Tom & Lisa Seward

Leaving Kadiolo

Saying goodbye to one of our former english students from Kadiolo who is now in university at Bamako.

We arrived in Bamako a bit early before our departure to spend a few days meeting with a Christian media mission who is interested in helping produce film in West Africa. They are already very involved in Kenya, Rwanda, and some other countries in East Africa. The drama team came up with pastor youssouf to discuss a possible partnership. Great scriptwriters/actors working on radio theatres, the next step would be putting some of that great work on film, right?
We met and discussed what a partnership would look like. It looks very positive.
Good News, (The media mission) wants us to make a local commitee of church leaders to oversee whatever film media work is to be done. Then Good News relies on the local church to review content, and manage the finances that would be coming in to produce films.

So in all these meetings Tom had to translate. Our Good News friends had almost no french, our drama team friends have almost no english. Lisa worked hard to keep everyone fed. So between the two of us, we really put our everything into these meetings for 3 days.

Hopefully this future partnership can bear fruit. We'd love to see some of the drama teams' best work be recorded on DVD. Dvd's can't really be sold in Mali due to piracy, so we're not expecting a big income from this work. But we're counting on pirates spreading the gospel via these dvd's all over west africa. Our dream is to get on a bus, and have one of our dramas playing on the tv monitor.


Trying to translate thought for thought not

word for word on the fly is exhausting work.

The drama team came ready to discuss

and explore possibilities of a partnership.

In Bamako we were also able to celebrate Caleb's 10th Birthday. Our friends opened their home and pool, and the kids had a blast. It barely seems like 10 years ago he was born in the Ivory Coast. Congrats Caleb!

Caleb 10 years old and counting.

"How many girlfriends, Caleb?"

Crazy mk fun in the pool.

We thank God for friends like these for our kids here in Africa.

God does provide.

Thanks for stopping by,

We appreciate all of your prayers.

Tom & Lisa Seward

Eadelmans left this week.

As you know last week we had a big goodbye fete (party) for Eadelmans in Kadiolo. It was designed by the local church for them to say goodbye in their way to Ernie & Jan.
Both missionaries and church members came up from Cote D'Ivoire from Korhogo to take part of this fete. The lady singer and musicians came along with them. What a special celebration this was!


Jane & Linda came from Korhogo.


The group of friends who came from Cote D'Ivoire to say a special goodbye to Ernie & Jan.



The africans gave many gifts, including 3 complete outfits for both Jan & Ernie.
But this gift was extra special I think. Ernies' ministry was highly technical.
Helping the ministries through computer training & troubleshooting.
They had designed this beautiful wall hanging explaining how they saw this ministry.
@ church in doing the work of God's hands! What a blessing.
What a great summary of ministry! I want to finish that well when the time comes.
Of course if I'm not careful my wall hanging will have dominoes on it... LOL

We all came up to Bamako, where we hosted an open house at the GMU/WV guest house. This was designed for missionary friends and colleagues from other missions to be able to come and say goodbye to the Eadelmans. Both fetes went so well. I really think the send-off was a good one.


This picture is from the Bamako open house. It was fun, so many people came out to greet. Pete & Debra McKlurkin worked so hard on the food. (We helped some too)
One of the african ladies who came asked which hotel catered the event. We said "none, we did all this" she was amazed.


Ernie & Jan, suitcases in tow, hand on the door, ready to get in their taxi and go to the airport. Godspeed! God bless!

Well this has been what is on our hearts and minds this week. We were going to be heading back to Kadiolo today. But I (Tom) have had a tendonitis attack, and have bee laid up the last 3 days. Ibprofen is really working well on it, so maybe 2 more days, and I'll be ready to get on a bus.
Thanks for praying for us...

OH.. please pray especially for Hilary right now... She is in the throes of choosing between college plan "A" which is very affordable, but at a secular school, and a plan "B" which would be about 5 times more costly, but at a Christian university that has a special love for MK's. We are moving ahead on both, and watching to see God open/close doors. Pray for her in the stress of choices... new for her. But for the rest of us we know that is what adult life is about, don't we?

Thanks for stopping by,
thanks for praying,
Tom & Lisa