Africa Update

Here is an update fresh from the field on our work in Africa. We have a friend on the field who recently visited with the group of people we (ClearView) has been working with. This is her description of that visit.

Early Monday morning, myself, the Hickmans (a volunteer couple that is here), and a translator headed out to visit ‘Chewy’ and the close-by village for now we will call the ‘New’ Village. We stopped in Segou to pick up our friend and translator Yac, and headed on out to the village. We arrived in ‘Chewy’ about 5pm, and did all of our greetings and then sat down with the chief to catch up. That night after dinner and baths, Yac, the chief, and another young man sat down and discussed how to study the Word. No one else gathered but later in the night (probably around 10:30-11p) the chief told Yac a man had come to hear stories because he had never heard them before. We looked at the man, who was now sleeping, and said we could tell him stories but he is sleeping. So, the chief woke him up. I told the story of the Demon Possessed Man, and we discussed it some. The next day we were able to discuss with a couple of the blvrs about why they had not been around very much... Jo and Rob. Jo had been very discouraged as one of the two that can actually read and teach. He did not feel he was getting the respect he thought he should get, and for Rob, we found out he is actually of a different background. He has been a blvr for awhile but with a different denom. He was wrshpng with the blvrs there but they were not accepting that he was from a different background, also he feels like there is no structure in the ch, which right now is actually all new blvrs who are still trying to figure out how to be blvrs. We were able to discuss with them some on what it means to be a blvr and encourage them that do not have to rely on others to be able to wrshp Father. After hearing the story of Abraham, Jo said it taught them to love their neighbor as themselves and to love their enemy, which I believe is something they are struggling with in the body of blvrs. The next day the Hickmans went to a market via horse cart with the chief and another man, while Yac and I stayed behind. That was the same day that the local Pas (also from another Denom.) came to visit. Yac stayed and visited with him, and the chief’s wife wanted me to go visit her friends and family with her, so that is what I did. That night we had another opportunity to story, so we told two David stories, and discussed them. There was some good discussion but they were all very tired. The last full day in the bush we decided to go visit the new blvrs in ‘New’ Village. We walked for about an hour before reaching the village and when we arrived the blvrs from ‘Chewy’ had already set up and starting wrshpng. They asked the new blvrs to stand up and 12 men did, after that Yac was able to tell the C2R story and asked if anyone wanted to follow. Five women came up and said they did, so we prayed with and for them, and then sang a few songs and were getting ready to leave when one women stood up and said there are more that want to follow but were afraid to come up. So, 4 more women came up and we did the same. When we stood up to leave the second time, some of the women wanted their babies given blvr names. So, we named them. The first girl that came, I was given the privilege of naming, so I did. Her name is Rachel, which is pronounced Rachelle in French. After this it was getting late, and we still had an hour walk back to ‘Chewy’ so we asked for the road and headed out. That night in ‘Chewy’ everyone went to bed early because of the traveling, and the next morning we headed back to Bamako.PRYR Request:New Blvrs in ‘New’Encouragement for the blvrs in ‘Chewy’Planting and Harvesting as the Rainy season is approaching