back again

Well it has been a great two months visiting with family and friends, and catching up on American life, especially on the food.

I want to thank all of the churches and groups that gave me the opportunity to share about my experiences with them. Thank you also for your love gifts and for all your constant prayers.

Now I'm back in Mali, for my 2nd term, to continue the work among the Maninka people. The next couple days are guaranteed to be busy already.

This last Sunday (May 25th) I got a call from Brother from Kville - early in the morning - to tell me his father, the Chief, passed away. It was a sad news. When we left the village he was very ill already and there was a possibility we wont see him again. But now that it's happened it's a bit hard to take. What makes me so sad about it is I'm pretty sure he's not a believer. We've shared the truth with him already, talked about our own testimony and why we follow Jesus, and even had our supervisors and leaders share form God's word with him. Still he didn't believe.

Times like this make getting the stories out even more urgent. Because life in Africa is more fragile and more uncertain than in the U.S. we need to take every chance we get to share the truth. I know we shared the truth with Chief, and people say we did all we can, but to be honest, there's a part of me wondering if I shared enough, did we really do all we can? Sometimes you just wish you can see some come to know Jesus and trust Him. But with that I'm reminded God called me to share His story, that's what I'll do, and to leave the rest up to HIM.

Tonight (Friday) I arrive in Bamako, Mali after about a whole days travel - felt like more. The plan is on Saturday, to drive down to Kville (about 3 hrs away) with our supervisor, and visit our family there and pay our respects to the Chief's family. I believe that same day we'll drive back to Bamako, so we can get on a plane Sunday to fly to Benin for our June training.