The rainy season is over, the water is drying up, and the river water levels have significantly decreased. You know what that means!!!?

We are going to Mali!

 

Freytag Thumbs UpWe are now able to cross the main river that otherwise keeps us from visiting the Yalunka villages of Mali during rainy season. My teammates and I have spent this past rainy season studying Yalunka and preparing for this time. I think I can speak for my teammates and myself when I say we are beyond excited. These trips are why we are here. They are what keep us motivated to study Yalunka and keep on going. These are the people who are eager to hear God’s Word, who have been waiting to hear it, and who have invited us to come and share it with them.

What will the trip look like?

This trip will include my teammates, 2 of our African brothers in Christ, and myself. We will be heading out in the morning. We already have all the essentials packed: bedding, clothing, food, Bibles, Proclaimers (which are oral Bibles), toiletries, emergency gurgling- bubbly stomach medicine, and Pringles.  😉 We are hoping to visit 3-4 villages this week. This means we will stay 1 or 2 nights in each village depending on how things go. Some of these villages will be new to me, but at least a few of my teammates have already been to them. We typically have a host family who clears out one of their huts for us. We take mats to sleep on the floor and take turns claiming the bed. We bring lots of rice with us and other essentials so that we are not a burden to our host family when it comes to meals. They typically serve us “hot water” for breakfast which is pounded rice rolled into balls in a sugary/watery sauce kind of like porridge, then for lunch and dinner we typically eat rice with a peanut sauce over it. I was not too fond of these meals at first, but they have certainly grown on me!

How will we spend our time?

A lot of our time will probably be spent “hanging out”. BUT, there is a lot going on in those moments and hanging out is essential. We hope to visit with the chief of each village, reconnect with old friends, meet new ones, identify and encourage any believers who may already be there, answer any questions of those who have an interest in hearing God’s Word, and do some sharing and teaching through the help of our African brothers in Christ whom I mentioned earlier. Eventually, we (my teammates and I) hope to start orally teaching/sharing the Word of God through the Simply the Story (STS) method. However, we are not quite there yet in our level of understanding and ability to speak Yalunka to thoroughly explain and answer questions.

What am I most looking forward to?

My favorite part of these trips is that we never know what is going to happen, where we’ll go, or who we’ll meet. It is completely in God’s hands and it is a blast resting in Him, watching Him work, and allowing Him to provide for our needs. Another huge blessing from these trips is watching people get so excited to receive or hear God’s Word for the first time. In America, we are so used to having Bibles available on any book shelf at almost any store and a church right around the corner. But in these villages, the Bible is not readily available to them, there is not a church, there is not really any source for them to hear God’s Word even if they were actively seeking it out.

What am I least looking forward to?

For the most part, I am familiar now with the foods they offer to us. However, you never know when you might be offered fresh honey complete with the honeycomb and larva or curdled goats milk; foods that I have not yet acquired a taste for. This is probably the hardest part for me as I am not an adventurous eater.

 

We hope to continue making trips throughout the rest of dry season. Please pray with us as we prepare to head out. Pray for our health, that God’s hand of protection would be over us, that we would be obedient as the Lord prompts us, that we would be sensitive to cultural differences and have wisdom in our behavior, that we would be a blessing and God’s shining light to our hosts and the people we meet, and that the Yalunka would find life in Christ.

Until we return…

With joy and love in Christ!