Please pray for my teammate Michelle. She'd been dragging all week in the village with very little appetite. We confirmed yesterday she has malaria. She is resting a lot and taking the medicine. PRAISE TO OUR FATHER also for protecting me from this illness while I've been here.
Our Father ANSWERED ANOTHER PRAYER this week. I had been wanting to engage some of the English speakers we have recently met. One of them "Dan" is an English teacher at the school in North Star. We visited with him yesterday and he is anxious to help us with language learning. He told us too that his goal here is to teach as many people as possible English because it is so important for their futures. (Unfortunately, the teachers have been on strike for two weeks here because the government has not been paying them but that allowed him to have free time. Unfortunately here the strikes are very common by the teachers.)
He was talking about one day wanting to go see his brother in New York City. Sarah went to look for her pictures of NYC but couldn't find them. So I went and got my small album of family pictures and a few of Arizona and Florida beach. Before I left, I had purposely put some of my "scripture pictures" (the ones I take and add scripture to) in the album in the hopes of being able to show them along with my other photos. (Many of you have seen these or gotten some in cards from me). So that is exactly what happened. There were two scriptures that Esa said from the book of John. He was very interested in reading it and understanding what it meant so it gave us a chance to talk about Esa. Please pray for the right timing and that he will accept the gift of an English printed Word that I brought with me to witness to him and for him to utilize in practicing language.
Our Father provided us an opportunity to witness through prayer in "Esa toe-gun-dee" (the name of Esa) this week. An older woman in the mayor's compound that we greet all the time was in the clinic receiving IV's. We didn't know this but Sarah happened by the compound that day and they told her. She had been throwing up we found out for 3 days and running a really high fever. Chances are she probably has malaria but we can't say for sure as they don't have the tests available to them. She was able to receive some medication though.
We are thankful for our village family that has loved on us so much. Our sister "Emma" is getting married next week and will be moving to another village about 10-15km away. We will miss her greatly. She is funny, very understanding and helpful with our language and a great cook. We gave her the wedding present from us this week and she loved it. A new black "western-looking" shirt we got in Bamako and a brand new "African style" metal tea set (a tray with two small tea pots) and 2 hand-painted glasses. They always only have two because they pour the tea from one to the other to mix the sugar and make a frothy top on the drink and then everyone shares the glasses.
We are grateful for our Father finally providing what appears to be a house-helper that is going to be really good. After almost 4 months of trying different people and running into frustrations and problems all the time with people not showing up, poor work, not being available because of school, etc. our landlord, who has been a true blessing to us as well, helped us find "Barbara". It doesn't sound like it would be such a huge blessing but it truly is because each week we spent so much time trying to figure out how to find someone to help us.
She is a mature woman (mature not old!) so she knows how to take care of a household and her and her daughter did laundry, floors, dusting (which we usually have to do ourselves) in record time. Again, I still don't particularly care for having to show someone how to do something correctly who is working for you (they aren't used to bathrooms) but it frees up so much of our time to do other ministry work. It actually took almost 9 hours this week just for them to do all the laundry (but we had an extra amount this week also).
I am so thankful for my family, friends and loved ones back home that have been supporting me through pray, email encouragement, packages and financially. I know it is hard in many ways for you all as well. I'm enjoying a delicious fudge brownie right now. The first I've had in forever and it tastes amazing - the little things in life again to be thankful for. (Thanks Mom for the brownie mix from home!)
We had a new food this week in the village. One of the three gifted lunches we received one day was laro. It is probably our new favorite. It's really cooked rice mashed up with beans (black eyed peas), oil, onions (they go in everything) and of course Maggi (which is the staple spice). (PS- we ate two of the gifts for lunch and the third for an evening snack before our two dinners we received!)
A quick note for all the children that see this or hear it when someone reads it to them...... it really is amazing here how the children at a very young age behave so well. Without being told they automatically know what 'chores' need to be done. For instance, getting water each morning or doing laundry each week or for the boys getting fire wood. They go to bed on their own without being told. When it is dark, there is no TV or electricity so when they are tired they just go to sleep. And sharing.... it is so wonderful to see them share. They have so little here that if you receive something you automatically share - no questions or fighting! I shared a few dried apricots this week with some of the kids were inside our hut wall. As a few others of their brothers and sisters came over I didn't have any left so they immediately tore off some of theirs to share! Kiddos, perhaps think about these things next time you are told to go to bed or you don't want to share!
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