This morning we attended our first African church service. Everyone started gathering around 9:00am and we left around noon. The singing lasted well over an hour and it was good to see this great amount of hope in Christ in a very difficult place to live. Many of the people we meet on a daily basis are not concerned about tomorrow because they are trying to figure out how to survive today. Life is lived day to day and who knows what tomorrow brings but for the few Christians here, they have confidence in Christ for their future. During church, men sit on one side of the building and women sit on the other side. The preacher was speaking in French but there was also a Bambara speaker who was translating. The Bambara have a large population over Mali and they are the majority where we are staying right now. Over the last few years, there have been several Bambara who have come to Christ and a grass roots movement is starting among their people.
We are starting to get settled in and expect to have a busy week learning and practicing French. Tomorrow, we will have two different language teachers come at different times to teach us for a total of four hours, then we will practice with each other and in the community. Autumn is learning with us so we have a good time in the evenings with our role playing and practicing as a family. You just learn to laugh at each other and yourself.
When we were coming to West Africa, we had limited space in our suitcases. Last night, we were discussing what item has been used the most since arriving in Africa. Our top three were a 220 surge protector and adapter strip, an ipod (for worship we understand), and a gigantic insulated mug from Wal-Mart with a lid. The least used items we brought were socks, there is no need for them here since everyone wears flip flops and sandles. I'm guessing we will have to pack some of these same socks some day when we visit the states.
Pictures are at a minimum right now because we have been told it will be wise to wait on taking a bunch of pictures since we are trying to establish ourselves with the locals as Christians and not as tourists. So for now I have included a couple of pictures of the neighborhood and the roads. Once you see these pictures, you will have a good idea what every neighborhood looks like. Everything looks exactly the same here.
Well, thank you for your visit and continued blessings of prayer and support.
Blessings,
Jon
2 comments:
love the lush green yards! who'd of thought of not needing socks! ha! Have fun this week learning the language! My first room mate in college spoke french! blessings!
You should have taken some private French lessons from Dr. Johnston before you left. From the looks of the roads, you should get plenty of practice washing each other’s feet if you aren't wearing any socks.
Post a Comment