more on my life and times in Mali

Belated Christmas


1st pic: The men studying the passage and story they will tell for that day while…2nd pic: The women prepared the meal (African Spaghetti, Salad w/ oil and vinaigrette dressing) 3rd pic: And the children played

When the meal was about ready, we all gathered for worship. Some people from town who weren’t believers (including our guards wife) were also there. The men read from the Word and shared the birth story.


Archenland**
We started going to a Maninka church in Archenland and have been working with one of the members to craft stories. For now we meet once a week at the church, but we would like to meet a few more days throughout the week. Please lift up these crafting sessions.

I really enjoy spending time with the pastor and his family. It’s amazing what a difference it is from being with non-believers. With pastor and his family there’s a different kind of closeness and welcome that I know only comes from knowing J. It has been a blessing to spend time with them and their members.

(**We once referred to this town as Denver but that name wasn’t working out…so from now on we call it Archenland)


Please lift up Our People
Here is a list of some people we are working with on stories, or just people we interact with the most or have shared the most with.

What I would like to ask you is to choose a person or persons who you would commit to lifting up as we work with them.

I will keep a general update on this blog, but for any specifics about people I will email them. So if you could, please email me who you are committing to lifting up, and once I have updates for them I will email you that person(s) specific update.

Brother
Location: Kville
Chief’s son
Our main language and culture helper
Was our story crafter till he decided he couldn’t tell the Jesus stories…


Sara
Location: Kville
Chief’s nephew’s wife
Our sister and friend in the village
She does all the work for the family
We’ve shared with her some, but as a woman she thinks she can’t understand it, although she has shown more interest lately…

Fanta
Location: Kville
Wife of one of the Koranic teachers (who was also brother’s teacher at one point)
We’ve tested more stories with her than anyone else in the village

Johnathan
Location: Ktown
A leader in the town; works with a mayor. Owns a shop near the market
He seems to be an important man in town
He is one of our back-translators (translates our stories from Maninka to English)
We also consider him an older brother, and he considers us, and looks out for us as his younger sisters

Egg lady
Location: Ktown
We buy our eggs from her most of the time
She’s Jonathan’s older sister/cousin
We’ve played some stories for her, and we just like sitting and visiting with her, since she usually always at her shop…

Satigi
Location: Ktown
He’s a believer, and our guard
His wife and kids are not believers
We’ve studied some with him…

Sogona
Location: Ktown
Our house worker
We’ve been able to share some more stories with her lately, and have really been enjoying her company…

Benny
Location: Smallville
Chief of Smallville
Hunter
He’s been our best test person, and we can see he is seeking…

Andrew
Location: Archenland
A believer
Our crafter
We’ve just started working with him and have worked on 2 stories so far…
I will leave it at this for now… but look out for more to be added later.

Thanks for lifting us up, our people, and the task God has called us to do. May it bring HIM glory!