What's up

(See Pictures blog to see some photos from Easter Sunday)

I know I haven't updated in a while so here's a glimpse of what I've been up to recently

Easter all-nighter:
The Easter celebration began on Saturday (Apr.11) with going to the big Saturday market with Ma (the pastor's wife) and running around to get things for lunch and most of dinner and some things for the Sunday meal.

In the afternoon we were joined by The Rachels and Hannah (our newest colleague who just arrived from the states the night before). Kacy and Rachel C. then went with pastor to the next town over to help set up the Jesus Film they were going to show that night. While Rachel P, Hannah, and I went with Ma back to the market to get more stuff that we 'forgot' to get for dinner.

After dinner we were joined by the other believers in our town and other villages nearby for lots of singing Bambara hymns and worshiping God. Then us Americans were asked to sing several songs in English. And the different believers from different towns also sang a couple songs.

After the singing Andrew lead the bible study, by telling part of the story of Abraham's descendants slavery in Egypt, and explaining the reason we celebrate Easter.

After all the worship and prayer and singing, everyone stuck around to hang out. Some people played cards, while we had the music going. Bread and coffee were passed out, as well as several tea shots.

As it got later into the night the dancing started, and even later around 2 am popcorn and chips were handed out, and then about an hour later trays of 'meatballs' and bottles of soda arrived. We got to bed about 4 am. to wake up at around 6:30a.m. since we were sleeping outside and the sun was up by then, as well as most of our neighbors.

Then that Sunday morning Easter service we began at 9.a.m. The service concluded with taking the Lord's Supper together. Afterward we had lunch with everyone and more hanging out with the other believers.

Day to day:
We are still plugging away on the MNK story set and sharing them with test groups. We also go back to work on them with Andrew if there are changes we need to make so the stories would be clearer and easier to understand for everyone. As of right now all our stories have gone through first round recordings. When we feel there are no more changes to be made we'll do a final recording in our homemade studio.

Were getting close to the end of our story set with some of our test groups, but some others are going pretty slow, particularly with the women. It's hard to get them to sit long enough to listen to a 3minute story and talk about it. They usually have some work they need to be doing.

It's pretty upsetting and discouraging at times, but I'm learning to just to keep trusting God that He'll make a way for these stories to be heard, not just while we're here but even after we're long gone.