Please pray for my teammates. Once again, Satan is really at work. We confirmed that Sarah, Abby and Michelle, all three have malaria. They are all taking medicine and resting a lot. Please pray for quick healing for all three and for protection in the future as this is now the second time for Sarah and Michelle.
We experienced our first "cah-may" in the village this week. That would be a huge, downpour thunderstorm with strong wind and lightening! Apparently a "preview" of rainy season. First, the winds came in about 5:30pm. No big deal - we have wind storms often. Then the lightening and a little drizzle which is fun to shower in the rain! We thought it was similar to the little rain showers we've had and loved before. We find out we were wrong! Just as we were trying to go to bed, about 9:30pm the sky opened up. We had the beds and mosquito nets set up on the porch already. Everything was soaked. The girls set up their rain guards but I don't have one so I set up a cot with a spare sheet I had inside the hut. Thankfully, the temperature had dropped so it was not horribly uncomfortable like it usually is inside the hut. It continued to rain hard for about 3 hours. Needless to say it was not a restful evening.
The next morning, everything had a 'funky' wet mud and 'poop' smell (after all that's what the huts are made of!) and everything was filthy. Luckily our sister was going to wash out a few of their sheets that got dirty too, so I washed ours. A crème-colored sheet and a white mosquito net were both brown! The temperature was cool in the morning which was nice but it was SO humid. We didn't realize how our bodies were not used to humidity at all... it almost felt worse than the hot. Unfortunately, we found out as well that a women in her mid 20's with several kids living in a nearby village was walking with a metal bowl (very common) on her head in the storm and was struck by lightning and killed. When we left the village driving home, the land was covered in green small grass that has started to grow with each of the small rains we've had but there was a ton more now! Our desert looked completely different.
I really have had Joshua on my mind this week. After sharing the story with him last week from the Word. He didn't seem overly moved by it. I woke one morning and was just asking our Father to give me words to speak that would make a difference for him.... what scripture, what story. I felt like I needed to make a relationship with JC personal so I would share my testimony with Joshua but questioned "Father would it be enough to make a difference".
I no sooner finished praying and I opened my devotion and read the title "The True Persuader" and the first two sentences... "As a disciple I must never try to persuade people to follow JC. My responsibility is to tell the good news of JC; the rest is up to (our Father)". Talk about a smack in the face, wake up call, instant answer to pray and the power of the HS all at once! It is true, as hard as it is for me to say, someone I truly care about may never accept JC as much as I want him to... my job is just to TELL. And as if the two sentences weren't enough, the devotion closes with the exact line from the Demon-Possessed man story that I had shared with Joshua last week! Mark 5:19, where JC tells the healed man to go and tell family and surrounding villages what the Father had done for him and how He had mercy on him. Our Father is truly amazing how He works!
I had an interesting 'faith' conversation with my friend Alice here in North Star this week. (In looking back I was surprised to see I really haven't written about her or her family for months). They were some of our first friends here and we've continued to spend time almost every weekend with them. She is only 18 but is quite mature for her age. She speaks French and our Father continues to give me the words to be able to communicate with her. Our Father provided an open door, that Alice actually initiated a conversation about faith.
I asked if she has read 'their book of faith'. She told me she has not because you have to be special to do so. I asked how she learns about it then and she said "on the weekends her father will read to them from it". I asked her if she would like to be able to study it herself and she said "yes" maybe someday. I told her I read my Book all the time and the wonderful thing is that Esa speaks to me through it. We talked a little about Esa and His life. She has not seen "Passion of JC" but I'd love to be able to get her a copy because she loves to watch movies and I think she'd watch it. Maybe I can send one when I get home.
The difficult part of the conversation was when she told me their story of creation. ( I will preface this with there is still somewhat of a language barrier so it's possible I may have gotten some of this slightly wrong). Atama and Hawa were created by the Father. They lived in "paradise" and in it was a special healing tree (which they still believe is around today). Satan tempted Hawa to eat from the tree which she did but Adam did not. This is why men have the Adam's apple in their throat. She said that one day woman will be forgiven through M's help. And M will create "paradise" again that people will return to. Unfortunately, I was not able this time to explain the true story to her because she had to leave to go pray. Hopefully next time we can return to it.
I was walking to town this week when I suddenly heard from behind me "good morning, how are you?" in very clear English. I met "Ken" who is from Togo and has been here for about 2 months on his way to Mauritania to hopefully get a job teaching English for French. He is a believer as much more of Togo has been evangelized. He walked part of the way into town with me which gave us some time to talk about evangelism here in this very strong I area. He asked me if I had an English Word he could have because he wanted to study and understand more.... he only had a French NT. I told him I do and that I'd contact him to get it to him.
The next day he came to visit. We sat for almost 2 hours and I shared with him how we story here and even shared two stories with him. I encouraged him as he is traveling to tell stories because that is part of the problem here... the few believers to not feel 'called' to share their beliefs. He knew the Word and many stories well. I asked him to share his testimony. He did not understand what I meant. I explained what a testimony is and why it is important especially here. That it is a personal story of how Esa changed your life and it is not something that a believer in M can refute or debate (as many here like to do). He then understand and went on to tell me about his walk. It was inspiring as well! I challenged him to share that with one person this week along with the Demon Possessed Man story.
I had a hopeful conversation with a friend, "Ashley" this week in Yosemite. She is a young women of 18 years old that my teammates have been using for a language helper. Incidentally, she has a 4 year old daughter and was married when she was 13. Her husband, as many men, is off working in Congo. She cannot read or write. Turns out, she has seen the film "Passion of JC" in a larger village about 20 km from us. I didn't ask her when or how she got there. I was just interested in the fact that she described and acted out what had happened to JC on the cross and his crucifixion. It gave me a great chance to try and learn some words for these things. Her and our sister, Ruth then told me and acted out "Esa healing the blind man, Esa healing a lame man and Esa raising a man from the dead." She told me, Esa was a very good man. Another example of our Father has been here working. One day when my teammates can really discuss this with her she might accept JC... we can pray.
We had a chance to visit with "Dan" (an English speaking friend) this week again. I had received a very nice text message from him earlier in the week saying, "I'm going to pray for you Friday cause I truly believe you've been blessed by the Father and that the Father walks with you." I am continuing to pray he will accept The Word in English from me before I leave.
He is always anxious to help us with our language, so I asked him some words I had worked on with Ashley (see above story) for 'cross' and for 'crucified' to try and double-check what we might have learned. I had asked "Joanni" in the village the next day these same words but she did not know what I was trying to say. Probably because she does not know the story of Esa I believe. But also because, as we are finding out... there are not really words for those exact things (as we know them) in our peoples language. This is often the case in many heart languages because they have not had interaction with 'followers of the Esa road". The word for cross they have given us is basically a word for pole and for crucified is the same as the word for hung. Please pray that as my teammates learn more language they will be able to come up with words to correctly explain these two and many other important words and phrases so they can be understood in the true context they need to be.
Dan and I talked more about faith and prayer. I asked him about the prayer chain of beads. He explained there are 99 beads and they repeat three different sentences over 33 times each. One is about forgiveness, the other asking for help and the other saying "their father" is one being. The final larger bead making 100 is for "their father" making all things complete. It is hard for me to understand how repeating the same phrases 33 times each can have true meaning in the heart? Kind of like writing sentences when you were a child (maybe you didn't have to but I did!), did it really have true meaning in your heart or were you just doing it to finish it?
An interesting and quite surprising discovery in this strict culture he showed me the English language textbook they use for the 9th grade. It was a story, then questions to answer. The story was about a boy named Bola who drank too much over the weekend and overslept on Monday morning and wound up late for week - you can imagine I was shocked!
Sunday night we enjoyed visitors from Kansas City, MO along with some of our workers from the capital. They were going to several villages on a vision trip for the visitors to find a people group to engage. We were able to share a meal with them and best of all have worship with them on our roof as we have been doing on Sunday evenings. It was so neat to add 7 voices to our singing and prayers!
I shared the story of the Book of Ruth. In storying you always follow up the story with the processing questions - 1. What did you like about the story? 2. What did you not like about the story? 3. What did you learn about man from the story? 4. What did you learn about Our Father from the story? 5. How can you apply the story to your life? Alyson (our acting Director) made a comment in response to the first question that I really liked and hadn't thought about before and that was that Ruth, has a missions connection. She said she liked how our Father called Ruth out of her land, away from her family and friends to come to a new land and to live like they live, learn a new language and be accepted by a new people. Gives us and what we are doing here a good example and encouragement.
Many people have said to me, "oh it is wonderful what you are doing there" or "it is so amazing you would go and live like that". I always reply, "it is not me, all glory be to Our Father. I am just doing what He has called me to do right now. My work just happens to be in an unusual place, but what He wants you to do is where you are... there is no difference, it's the same work." I read a verse I really liked this week about that exact thing. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:10, "By the grace of (Our Father) I am what I am and his grace toward me was not in vain...it was not I but the grace of (Our Father) that is in me." I definitely am who I am today and doing what I'm doing ONLY because of His grace to me and I'm so thankful for that!
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