I ni fama

"I ni fama"

This is a common greeting you say to someone you haven't seen or heard from in a while. So I find it fitting to make it my title since it's been awhile since you've heard from me.

In transition

In the last couple months there have been a couple changes. Officially we are no longer called OneStory, we are now called Oral Peoples Strategy Team. Our project remains the same, there were just other changes made as far as consulting goes, but we are still working on a story set for the Maninka people.

On the go

Also in the last month I have been traveling, so I actually haven't been in the village for a while now. Around the first week of May I went home to Michigan for a few (far too short) days to surprise my dad for his 60th birthday. I was also there for Mother's Day, and enjoyed a time of visiting with other family and friends.

When I got back from my visit to the states I stayed in the Capital to catch up on some computer work until Kacy and other colleagues arrived so we can go on our vacation.

We met up with other friends from other all across the world and began our vacation in Italy and then continued on to Greece. It was amazing seeing all the sights from historical monuments and architecture, to the most beautiful sunset and other amazing creations of God. We also enjoyed a time of fellowship with other believers and worship outside the Colosseum in Rome, and on the square of an Orthodox church in Athens. In those times we met a couple travelers and got to share with them both a story from God's word. One was a Hindu follower from Michigan, who was staying at the same hostel in Rome that we were. He was traveling by himself so for a day he toured the city with us, and even stayed around when we had our worship time at the end of the day. The next day we went on to Athens and as we were sitting around at the square a man came up to our group asking if he can sit with us 'cause he's been traveling around for hours and he's very tired. We welcomed him and learned that he was from Turkey and only in Athens for the day. We also learned that he was an influential man, one of the select few to be in charged of an elite group in the Turkish military. He also mentioned he is Muslim but he has read some of the Bible but there were plenty he didn't understand and there wasn't anyone around him who could explain it to him. When he said that I immediately thought of the story of how Philip was sent to the Ethiopian man traveling along so he can explain God's word to him. It seemed that the rest of our group was on the same page with me on this, that God put this man in our path for a reason, and everyone began sharing different things with him, including a clear presentation of why we believe in Jesus, going from Creation to the Return of Jesus. It was amazing to see all the people God brought across our path and the opportunities he gave us to share God's word with them.

Wedding

The day after we got back from our vacation our Backtranslator got married. They had the ceremony in the Capital so we were able to attend. It was our first Malian Christian wedding. They had 2 choirs, a French choir and a Bambara choir, several guest speakers including a message from the pastor from Timbuktu, and the guests got to participate in some singing as well. After the wedding those who are friends or family of the bride go to her hometown which is about 30 minutes to an hour away to meet and visit with her parents and other friends and family. The bride and groom as well as friends and family of the groom go to his hometown and visit and have lunch with them.

"How can we apply this in our lives?"

We ask this question during our house church at the end of each story. At this time all of the teams are at the capital getting ready to leave for training. So last Sunday we were able to all be together for house church. The story we heard was when Paul had to go to Athens after being threatened for preaching about Jesus in another town. It was very encouraging to hear that though Paul was threatened, chased out, even beaten for sharing God's word that never stopped him from doing it. Wherever he was he continued to speak boldly about Jesus in their places of worship or marketplaces or wherever people are gathered and could listen. He loved God and was passionate about His word and willing to share it no matter the cost. In thinking about how I can apply this story to my life I wish I could be more like Paul when it comes to sharing God's word - no matter the cost. I love God's word especially after being here and learning more about it and seeing it come to life around me. But it gets hard to be passionate about sharing when the people don't seem interested or only want to argue with you. But what I need to understand is I can't tell for sure what people are thinking, I can't know their hearts. I can never truly tell who's actually listening and interested and who's not, only God knows their hearts. My job is to proclaim.

Well I got to put this into practice later that night. As we were leaving our boss's house, where we had the house church, and was headed back to where we're staying, we stopped by a little boutique at the end of the road. There were three men in there when I went it, two customers and the one working the boutique. We went through the usual greetings and what's my last name, which is Haidara - known as one of the most religious people, and that lead to them asking if I was Muslim. I told them I believed in God and I follow Jesus. They ask what I do and I told them I'm here to tell people of God's word. Then they asked what I have to give them or tell them about God's word. It's very easy to assume they're only asking just to give me a hard time, and very easy to say I have to go since someone was waiting for me in the car and we were expecting friends to meet us but home. But I remembered the story we just studied that morning, and I saw this was my chance. They were all asking about what I believed so I explain to them using the Creation to Return story. They stopped me in the middle of the story with questions and we discussed some differences again and I continued on with the rest of the story in order to answer some more of their questions. They were glad I shared with them. The man working the boutique said I should come back and share some more. It's a simple step of proclaiming God's word, but it's up to God what he's going to do with that.

On the road again

On Wed. June 3 I along the rest of the OPS teams will leave for Benin for our summer training. We'll have a time of retreat and fellowship and worship with the other teams, catch up with each other and the ministry, and have time of training and learning from each other.

"Kan ben kofe" - "Let's meet again"

Thanks for taking the time to keep up with me and life here in Mali, and thanks for lifting us up.