Under Neem Trees

Under the Neem tree the children sat quietly as we, myself, a missionary family, two interns and the pastor, approached the area where they gather for church. Despite the language barrier it was beautiful to worship God with my African brothers and sisters who on the surface live worlds apart from me, but share a common bond in Christ. After church we spent the afternoon with a Muslim family who just lost their ten-year-old son to a tumor. Lamine had been flown to the US for surgery, but despite all the medical efforts the tumor took his life. I never met Lamine, but heard all about his humor and joyful outlook from my colleague who visited him almost everyday when he was in the hospital. We came today to share in their sorrow and let them know our love for their family. Pray that the Gospel might touch their whole family (estimate of 20+ people were there today) and that they might believe this verse, "Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die (JN 11: 25)." Do you believe this?

The Plateau

I've reached the phase of my experience here where not much is new or exciting and things just continue at a slow rate. In the same day or even morning, I can love being in Africa, sitting in my apartment studying or talking with a neighbor, but then the heat of the day comes or I find the vendors and the beggars on the street taxing and I wonder if I belong in this country. Little things continue to encourage my time, like last Saturday working with a group from the church in my community cleaning up a garden and having a neighbor touched by the initiative and act of service. I'm discovering the facets of life in the developing world, those who have means live a good life and those who don't scrap by to find food to eat. Injustice and inequality shows itself in sad conditions, as a boy on the street tells you if you don't give him 20 cents he will be beaten that night by his religious leader. You have to be careful who you trust, because even among locals they cheat each other just to advance a little step in life. Maybe in North America we don't walk down the street facing injustice in the way we do in Africa, but regardless we are all faced with little and big decisions to stand for justice and show compassion to our neighbor. I am learning these acts are little but require faithfulness to make them grow.

Korite

Today ended the month long fasting of Ramadan and all my neighbors were out early sweeping their houses and preparing for the days events. The men go to the mosque early in the morning while the women stay home to prepare the breakfast, typically lait caitya (porridge). The men, all dressed in their new traditional clothes, return to ask for pardon from each of their neighbors. The main meal of chicken is served in the afternoon followed by attya tea, dessert and a local fruit drink. Once the meal is finished the kids, dressed in their new outfits, visit all of the neighbors and ask for money (similar to trick-or-treat).

The following pictures are of the family below me and neigborhood kids.

Literacy Project

“But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.” Psalms 1:2

‘Literacy is at the heart of
Sustainable Development’
-Kofi Annan

National Church Literacy Project

In Sub Saharan Africa the adult (15 yrs.+) literacy rate is 59.3% but in this region of West Africa only 39% of adults can read and write. The rate is even lower for women (29.2%) who have a major impact on the overall well-being of their household (World Bank 2005).

How does this impact the national church? Illiteracy is one of the major obstacles for the establishment and growth of a vibrant church. When church members cannot read it limits the opportunities for personal spiritual development, impacting the whole community.

Two years ago the national church and MTW team addressed this issue by starting a literacy program as a means of equipping church members and ministering to their communities. Nine literacy teachers have been trained, providing a new skill and work for individuals in the church, and last year 150 individuals were enrolled in 10 classes in 7 locations. For some of these individuals it was the first time they had ever held a pencil and attended a class, thus for some illiteracy was quite an obstacle to overcome.

Twenty-five students have completed the two course program and can now read and write. Fifty people will go on this year to the second course, while others will repeat the first year and more will start. The classes meet three times a week during the dry season (January to June), and each course covers half of their 32 letter alphabet. It costs 50 USD per student per six month course.

Gifts to this Project can be sent to

MTW
P. O. Box 116284
Atlanta, GA 30368

Memo: SEN literacy project #94953

I took out a soccer ball, frisbee, and whiffle ball and bat for the church kids and everyone loved playing with all them. Thanks Grace DC for sending them over!

The pastor's wife and daughters

Children waiting for church to begin (the church was primarily made up of women and children)
Passing the Time

Aminata (the wife of the assistant pastor) and I in front of their outdoor kitchen

Village Stay

I have a new found appreciation for village life and what "developing world" means concretely, as well as a bigger picture of the church. I returned today from a week stay with a pastor and his family in a rural, millet agriculture based village a couple hours from the capital city. Honestly, it was harder on me than I imagined partly because my expectations did not meet reality, partly because of limited communication, and partly because of a loss of control over my environment. The objective of my stay was cultural and language learning and to look for opportunities for me to serve the churches in the region. In many ways a week sufficed to evaluate where I stood in my cultural learning and learn areas I can pursue to aid the churches. The hardest part for me was the lack of activity and slowness of life, and the highlights were playing whiffle ball with the pastor's daughters, finally being able to pronounce the "ƭ" sound in their mother tongue, cooking fish and rice over an open fire, and learning that they would be interested in having me help with micro-economic training.

Right now we are in the rainy season and I expected everyone to be working in the fields from sun up to sun down with a break in the afternoon, but I was wrong. Generally, it is the men (in the village I stayed in) who cultivate the millet, peanuts, and beans, and the women who grow the rice, but right now they are not working in their fields all day long but waiting for the harvest to ripen. Some of the morning and late afternoon the men spent in the fields and tending to the larger animals, but quite a bit of time was spent sitting under a tree passing the time amongst each other. You find people sitting around in the city but it is more magnified in the countryside. A typical day for the women consisted of rising as the sun came up (around 7 am), sweeping the house and yard and preparing for breakfast. Each morning I ate cere (millet couscous) with either water or milk (they bought the milk especially for me) and sometimes fish. After breakfast the women would look after the children, visit a neighbor, or go to grind their millet into flour. By mid morning they began to prepare lunch, usually a rice and fish meal with some vegetables. The preparation and cooking took some time and the lunch was served around 2 p.m.. After lunch one of the men would make attaya tea (green tea served in three rounds) while events of the day were discussed stretched out on a mat under a shaded tree. The women and young girls would play a dice game, take a nap or braid each other's hair. As the day began to cool off the men would go back to tending the animals or the field, and the women would pound millet, fetch water from the well, or perform other house work and then begin preparations for dinner. As it was getting dark the men would bring in the the animals and everyone would get cleaned up for the evening. Each night we watched the news (powered by solar energy), ate a dinner of cere, and sat outside looking at the stars before heading to bed. On Thursday night we had a time of prayer for the national church and mission and on Saturday night we had a Bible study using the shorter catechism. Although I did not understand what was being said I was able to witness the family's love for God and pursuit to know Him more. The trade language I have been studying is not their maternal language and I understood 5-10% of the verbal communication during my stay. I came back early due to sinus and allergy problems but plan to go back for another stay in the future.