Arrivial in Kadiolo!

Finally, arrival in Kadiolo. This is the first time we've been able to be back since Lisa went to the hospital in Bamako.

This is the bus we rode yesterday.

A few of you have ridden the bus with us. Emily for sure, and Pastor Mike probably won't forget his trip in the near future. Sometimes you get a good one, though. :D
And this was a good one. We made really good time on the way to Sikasso. The road was in good repair for most of the trip. Then from Bougani to Nienna, it was sometimes better off the road than on it. That is how africa can be, though.

We arrived in Sikasso with all our luggage intact. I was concerned about finding a ride to Kadiolo. But a taxi guy was available. So we loaded up with him. Caleb thought it was the worst car he'd ever seen! It may have been. :D

Anyway, we were so pleased to arrive back home. Jonas gave us big hugs, Bamba came over from next door, beaming smiles everywhere. Pastor Youssouf came and we had a good "catch-up" talk.
Our two silly dogs remembered us, and were happy. Ocho apparantly had 2 puppies last week. So while that is inconvienient, the kids are enjoying them, too.

A nice welcome home.

Thanks for all your prayers that carried us through to this point.

Tom & Lisa

Whats up in Kadiolo?

Hello. What is going on in Kadiolo? You ask? We've been getting back to life as normal after all the travelling
that was done.

We hosted 2 women from SIL, Wycliffe who came to visit from Bamako. The one, Karin has come from Germany to work on our local dialect of Senefou for Bible translation. Our dialect, Shannara (Not how it is spelled.) is a close cousin of Cebaara that was done in Cote D'Ivoire. However, with the literacy rate as low as it is, people have a hard time reading their own language, and reading a dialect, even if it is a close cousin may be harder for them than for us, who are used to reading new materials every day.Of course, the King James 1611 is a close cousin to our English Bible as well. Whens' the last time you read that?
If you say it is understandable, but not 100% clear, that is the same thing a Shannara speaker would say
about Cebaara.

So the translation will begin... An interesting thing about this translation is that Shannara is one of the
target languages in Mali for schools. The government is offering language classes/literacy in Shannara for the
people to learn to read it. Also, the Catholic missionaries in Diou, (a village about a half hour from us.) are
interested in working in Shannara. I took Karin & her director to meet with the Catholics in Diou, and they are
willing to help in the translation work. It could be an exciting collaboration that will allow the Word of God
to be widespread in this region. We are looking forward to this happening!


Pastor Youssouf is in full swing with literacy classes. He has students broken up into 3 groups. beginners, intermediate, and advanced. They start learning to read Bambara, but as they advance, they move on to french. Here is a pic I took this morning in class.

Please pray that the Word of God continues to go out, and that people's hearts and minds are ready to recognise the truth when they hear it, and be willing to commit to Jesus.

Also, continue to pray for our family's health. I've been going through something this week. It seems to be
passing, but please continue to pray.

Also pray for Hilary at Dakar Academy. She is doing so well, we are proud of her, but she needs daily uplifting
in prayer. Here is a pic she sent to me...




Thanks for stopping by, Tom & Lisa Seward

Bamako Meetings

Bamako Meetings

We came up to Bamako to meet with our other WorldVenture colleagues. We are 5 couples here in Mali, that make up our Mali Worldventure field.Two couples serve in Bamako. One couple does translation in Fourou, but are currently on home assignment. Ernie and Jan Eadelman just arrived from medical leave in America, and will be working again in Kadiolo.

We are so glad to have them back with us.

Part of having them back is meetings with the rest of the field to
make decisions about things we were waiting for the Eadelman's to have input on.
Here is a pic from the meeting.

Bamako is a difficult place to come to. It is nice because there are other missionaries. The kids love it because they have friends here. But the roads are so congested, and police stop you at every whim, it seems.Yesterday we were stopped in our new car. The policeman asked for my car papers. They were all in order. He looked disappointed.

He asked for my drivers license. (Issued in Mali) It is a temporary one, the real one comes in 90 days. He was bothered because the temporary paper had no photo. I said it was your department of motor vehicles that issued me this license, if you don't like it, talk to them.

So then he was bothered about the fact that we have tinted windows. That demands a fine of 15,000 francs. (about $30) Ernie was with us, so he had to talk a good while to work out that problem.So today we are scraping off the tint, so we are legal again!

This morning, (because the window scraping wasn't finished...) we decided to walk to a local protestant church that worships in french. Caleb came to me. "Daddy, please can we go to the American church." One thing the kids look forward to every Bamako trip is to go to English speaking church. There is a body of ex-pats, and missionaries. Some are working in school ministries, medical ministries, or some embassy people. They hold an English speaking Sunday School. We usually try to make the service if we can.(Caleb does Sunday School in Bambara in Kadiolo, Ben's age does it in french.)So how can you refuse a plea to go to church? So we decided not to drive the car yet, but we taxied over.It was a nice morning...And Caleb got to have SS with friends in English.

Here is a pic of his big smile as he sits in Sunday School!

Here is a pic from last week's story. Youth BBQ at our house!

Once again, Thanks for being interested.

Thanks for praying. Thanks for giving.

Tom & Lisa Seward