Building Blocks

In the remote area of Mali where the P@n@, the D@fin, the Ful@ani, the D0g0n and so many other people groups live, there is little to no access to radio or television. We are partnering with Malian missi0n@ries and followers of J.s.s to build a Christi@n radio station. One of the followers and 2 helpers spent the last month making blocks to be used for Radio Kantigiya (Faithfulness Radio). As I looked out over the blocks, I gave thanks to Father for His work among the nations and His faithfulness to restore all peoples to Himself. He longs to reconcile every person and establish a right relationship with them. He is pursuing a love relationship with the P@n@, the D@fin, the Ful@ni who live in this area. Radio Kantigiya is one of the building blocks for establishing a strong foundation of f@ith in those who choose to follow the J road. It will provide opportunities for songs of f@ith and stories from Father's Word to be broadcast into every village in this area. Tens of thousands of people will hear about the news of J.s.s. Radio Kantigiya will also provide health education opportunities, community awareness events, language lessons, community development, children's programming, Biblical theater, community announcements and information, etc.
Please pray with us for the full funding for this project to come in. If you would like to contribute to the completion of this project, please make checks out to Isaiah 61 with Radio Kantigiya on the memo line. Send donations to HSI PO Box 1975 Cleveland, TX 77327.

Ala, an be barika da i ye i ka kantigiya koson!
God, we praise you for your faithfulness!

A Day of Favorites

Sund@y in the Samogho village was filled with favorites! After a morning of greeting throughout the village and checking on the little boy who had been burned, we gather for a time of w0rship. We sang a ton of songs...well i don't know if songs weigh anything, but we sang and sang and sang. It was fun! Ann even found herself reading Bambara, singing and keeping up with the tune of the songs. It is always fun to recognize the tune and realize it is one of your favorite hymns. Now you are singing it in another language! Kind how heaven will be, I imagine.

After our praise session, we told favorite stories. The missionary told the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the Fiery Furnace...she didn't just tell it to the children...she had them act it out! She made the school teacher the King and had 3 young boys bow at his feet. Then she told how 3 young men refused to bow down to the King, and they were thrown into a fiery furnace. She wrapped her arms around them and covered them to show how God protected them and how the King saw 4 men in the furnace. It was a favorite moment in the day to see the faces of those young boys and even the school teacher understand the power and protection of our Father for those who choose to follow Him. We continued with Jak's favorite story about J.s.s telling his followers to throw their nets out over the other side of the boat after they had fished all night and caught nothing. Jak's thoughts about that were simply this, "We have to always be ready to obey God. When we are tired and just don't see the benefits, we just continue to do what He said and He will bless us."
Ann's favorite story was next. She told of the Beattitudes and Jak read it from the Bambara B.ble. We focused on the last part where J.s.s tells how Father blesses you when people mock and persecute you. It was an important Word for the teacher who came to w0rship with us.
Fanta's favorite story for the day was the temptations of J.s.s. During that time in the wilderness, J.s.s was tempted but each time He was able to fight those temptations and be victorious because He knew what His Father had said. He could use the Father's Word to fight.
Which one is your favorite? Have you read these stories lately? Read them and see what Father has to say to you!

Father's Pursuit

Two Samogho men have been on Father's heart for years, and He has been pursuing a relationship with them. One is Isa, the man who desires to be the Good Soil. Several years ago his confession about J.s.s was only to say that he would beat anyone in his household who chose to follow the J road. His confession this trip was that he himself wanted to follow the J road. He confessed it is the best road, the only road. His struggle to follow is the same as many Malians...the pressure from those who have power over you...your father, your friends, your family members, the other men of the village. The J road is tough for all, but especially tough for those who follow first.
The second man, educated and an educator, reads and understands many things. He has heard stories from his friend Jak, a follower of J. They spend time talking about the J road. A couple of years ago, this teacher confessed he could not follow because he was afraid of his father and the reality that his father would disown him. Several months ago, his father died. Since then, there has been an openness and a freedom evident in him. He came to sing and w0rship with us the Sund@y we were in the village. He listened and joined in with us. He even played the role of King in the story of the Fiery Furnace.
Please pray for these two men. Their earthly fathers, families, and friends may not understand or may even disown them, yet the Father of all Creation longs to restore His relationship with them. The Father of all Creation is pursuing them. Pray for courage and power to overcome their fears and choose to follow the only road.

Home and Renewed

Hi Everyone! Greetings from America!
Ann and I made it back to the USA after a long journey home! We had mechanical difficulties in Mali before we left so we sat on our plane for 4 hours waiting for the difficulties to be fixed. This caused us to miss our flight from Paris to Houston and caused us further delays in getting home. We made it in late, but we excited to share with our families and friends what Father had done. We arrived at Ann's home just a few minutes before a new day began ...that new day was Ann's birthday. I stayed long enough to see her birthday come in so I could sing to her...Then it was off to home and bed.
We have been home 10 days now...and are both feeling completely here and renewed from our journey! Thank you so much for praying for us and for walking with us on your knees! Thank you for following our journey on the blog!
There are a few more details we want to share with you so stay tuned...now that we are in our right minds again we will be blogging about those. I will also begin blogging the journey of the next team soon. We will be taking a group of college students to serve in Mali so please stay with us, pray, and joined us for the preparation and fulfillment of the call on these students lives.

Leaving

Well the time is getting closer for us to fly out of Mali and make our way home. We've had fried chicken and green bean casserole for dinner and are awaiting a final shower to refresh us before our 16 hour journey by plane to the USA.
We just discovered that our plane left Paris 2 hours late and is scheduled to arrive at the time we were suppose to depart. Please pray for the plane to arrive earlier than projected and that we will not be up all night waiting to get on the plane or to take off. We trust Father to orchestrate our departure from Mali and our arrival in USA. We look forward to seeing you as well as blogging a few more details of our time here in Mali.
Thanks for taking this journey with us!! We have enjoyed it so much!

Great Day in Bamako

We arrived in Bamako yesterday (Thursday) afternoon. We ate nems(Vietnamese egg roll)...yummy! I can't believe I've been in Mali for 3 weeks and these were my first nems!! I really like them so... We had them again today for lunch. We ate dinner last night with veteran missy's-- the Thompsons. We had a great time just visiting with them and sharing with them some of the details of our trip.
We spent the day today packing to leave tonight for the USA. After packing, we headed out to go to early check-in-- one of the best things about Mali. You can fully check-in, turn in your luggage, and get your boarding passes long before your plane leaves. So all we have left to do is shower and pack up our carry on luggage. Really nice!! We also ran some errands today and wrapped up some last minute business. We spent a few minutes with our Malian friend-- A. It was great to see her again and love on her one last time.

Compassion for the Hurting

Shortly after the "official" greetings had taken place, Wa told us about a little boy who had been burned in the cooking fire. She was very concerned about him and was in a hurry to take us there to take some medicine for him and to pray for him. Her heart was so tender for this toddler who had badly burned one foot and then fallen into some hot ashes and coals. He had also burned his bottom and private parts. Wa had already taken all the leaves from the aloe vera plant at Lori Ps house before we arrived. We found him being tenderly cared for by his mother who had been doing a great job comforting and keeping him protected from infection. Lori P gave her some aloe gel to continue soothing and helping to healing process. Bintu prayed for the little boy and his mother.
Please pray for protection from infection and the complete healing of this little boy. Thank Father for the heart of compassion He has placed within Wa and how He can use her to demonstrate His compassion to the people of the village. Pray for Father to use Wa and her faith in Him to lead others in the village to recognize Him.

Send offs

In the Samogho culture, greetings and send offs are extremely important. They demonstrate the importantance of relationships and the value one person has to another.
The evening after we arrived in the village we heard drums playing. Wa told us they were about to dance the women out of the village so they could go to a neighboring village to celebrate the weddings. She asked if we wanted to go and of course we could not miss the dancing! We climb the hill and met the procession coming our way. The women were dressed in their best and ready for the big celebrations to come. An older woman led the line of women playing some bells and two men followed her playing the drums. The village walked them to the outskirts of the village to send them off
On Sunday night when the women returned, they were greeted and welcomed home with more drums and dancing! We joined in the fun and celebration. Yes, we were drawn into the center of the dance circle and did our part in celebrating the return of the women to the village! What fun and joy we had together. Bintu stayed in the courtyard but had her own celebration and dance with Wa!
Wa had planned to go to her home village on Monday, but decided to wait until Tuesday since we woud be leaving that day too. She was going to leave early because she had a 40 mile walk ahead of her and the hot weather has come early to Mali. She was unable to leave early because one of the women going with her was not ready. It turned out to be a great thing because we were able to walk these women out of the village, to send them off for their journey with the honor and value of their friendship expressed. It was a blessing to walk out with them and to pray for them as we sent them off on the long journey. There were 3 women and a young girl leaving that morning and 6 women and 4 children sent the off!
As I thought about these send offs and celebrations, it reminded me of how Father sends us out to make Him known and how He welcomes us back. He always goes with us and doesn't send us out alone. His Spirit goes with us.

After....

One of our friends in the village has heard many stories and understands them well. As a teacher, she is able to grasp the meaning and even explain them to others. She makes sure everyone is able to retell them well. As we sat with her, we asked her where she was in relationship to walking the J.s.s road. She simply said, "After." We talked about how we are never guaranteed an "after". Please pray for Father to use the words that were spoken between friends to speak Truth--His Truth to our friend!

Desiring to be Good Soil

Monday morning clear direction came to us as a team... Tell the story of the four soils to the people in Wa courtyard...Isa, his wife, and Wa.
The three of us took a walk out to the fields before telling the story to look for the four kinds of soils...the hard path, the rocky soil, the thorns and weeds, and the good soil. We gathered some of each kind to take with us to tell the story.
Father had orchestrated the perfect timing. Isa, his wife, Wa and even Jak were available. We went over and sat with them, greeted them, and began telling them the story. As farmers they were able to grasp the story and understand it well.

We talked about which soil they would want to plant their seeds in and we talked about how our hearts toward God are the same as these soils. Each person including the team members were asked which soil they were. The good soil was the overwhelming majority. Isa said, "I want to be the good soil. The J.s.s road is the best road and I want to be on it. It is hard." With that confession, we talked about the difficulties and how we all begin our walk with Father as the soil with weeds and thorns. We had a great discussion about pulling the weeds and thorns and concerns of the world as we farm the soil of our hearts so that the seeds of God's word can grow and make us strong. Jak was able to share from his experience how he understands the struggles they face and to encourage them to believe and follow.
Please pray for this family and the challenges they face in choosing to walk with Father on the J.s.s road! Pray for courage in the midst of a lot of persecution from friends and family! Praise Father for the work He has done in the hearts of this man and his family!!! It truly is a miracle! Thank Father for the chance to share our lives, our friendship, our testimony with this family!

Under the Mango Tree

The mango trees are magnificent in the village. They provide an incredible refuge from the heat, a great place of shade to work in, and a peaceful place to hangout with friends. The hot season has come early this year so we spent a lot of time working, sitting, napping, and visiting under the mango trees. On Sunday afternoon, many of the women had gathered to just sit together. Bintu (Ann) told the story of Sarah to the women. It was so fun to listen to the discussion about a woman in her 90's having a child. It was tinder them grasp the idea that nothing is impossible with God. We all laughed with Sarah as we talked about Wa or Bintu having children at their age. We talked about how Sarah tried to take things into her own hands by giving Hagar to Abraham and how she became jealous after Hagar gave Abraham a son. The women grasped some of the truths about people and about God from this story. Pray that they will continue to think about Sarah, about God's fulfilling His promises to us even when we are impatient or doubt Him. Pray they will recognize that nothing is impossible with God!

Family Connections

We arrived in the village and began unloading. Since Bintu (Ann) was with us, many came to greet and meet her. We sat together with each person giving a very personal greeting to each of us. Almost immediately Bintu was able to introduce Wa and the other ladies to her family through the pictures she had with her. It is amazing how these pictures connected Bintu with the people! Family is so important in this culture...
Bintu was able to share her life experiences with Wa and some of the other women. She was able to share how Father had made a way for her to know Him through her great grandmother. As we sat with Wa that first night Bintu encouraged Wa in her faith as well as challenged her to be the same kind of influence with her children and grandchildren. Pray for Wa as she walks as a new follower. Pray for her growth and understanding as well as her commitment to walk in the ways of Father.

God's Promises

Our first evening in Kar was spent with Wa. She is the new follower as of November. She had recently heard the story of Noah, so she was asked to retell it to us. She had some trouble with the details but two things she remembered... Noah was saved because he was the only righteous man on the earth. The second thing... God's promise to never again destroy all living things.
Wa shared with us that night that those in her compound have agreed that the J.s.s road is the best way. Their are still obstacles for th to overcome, but we have seen Father working in these friends and pursuing a relationship with them for over 3 years. Many of you gave been pr@ying for them alongside us. Thank you! Father is working in the hearts of this family fulfilling His promise that His Word will accomplish His purpose wherever it is spoken!
God's promises...always fulfilled!! Celebrate His work being accomplished!

Back from Kar

Greetings from the Samogho!
If you have ever been to Kar, know that you were asked about, greeted, and remembered!
We had a great time among the people of Kar and I look forward to giving you the details. We got in from the village this morning and were without electricity for almost 7 hours. We had great showers to refresh us and then had some time to just rest. We needed it after a night of little rest. Between the loud music, the cows, the chickens, and the full moon, we didn't get as much rest as we hoped.
Thanks for praying for us, for the Samogho, and for all that Father wanted. He heard you and listened! Praise Him today for His work in the hearts of the people of Kar!