Back home again in Indiana

Back Home Again in Indiana

We are safely back in our home, healthy, and beginning to adjust to Western civilization.  Thanks to everyone who has prayed for us … we are incredibly thankful to God for His unfailing faithfulness. 

Steven and David took us to the airport in Banjul, Gambia, Wednesday afternoon. 

Here they are with part of our luggage as Dick and I checked in. 

  We all were able to eat lunch together before we said our goodbyes and went through security.

All went well with every flight and connection; in fact, in Brussels, we ran into a friend from ZF who was there on business!  We were able to visit over our coffee [Diet Coke J] until we headed to our separate gates.  

Four flights and 22 hours later, we were on the ground in Indy, and all 4 of our big bags were the first ones onto the baggage claim belts.  The only hiccup at all was being sent to “agricultural secondary” in D.C. security, since we had been on Steven’s peanut farm in Gambia and brought home some homemade organic peanut butter from his wife Helen. Thankfully, no Gambia critters followed us home. 

Our friend Wayne had let us know he would be there to welcome us

 but we were delightfully surprised to see other members of our small group as part of the “Welcoming Committee”.  

Back home, the welcoming fairies had been busy!  

Our fridge was full of fresh items and we had literally everything we could possibly need.  Such kindness from our friends – we are abundantly blessed.  We will post more pictures and movies as we can, but wanted everyone to know that God answered your many prayers for our traveling mercies.  May He bless each one of you!  We send our love with grateful hearts.

Random Stuff

Sorry for the lack of posting, they have once again had some issues, but sent along some pictures and random bits of information. They only have 3 days left in The Gambia, which will include another business class like they held in Freetown and Cathy will be sharing with a group of women before they leave. Tuesday is Graduation day for all students from the August Session.

We went to the African art mall (yeah, “mall” is  a huge stretch … rustic dark little stalls with dirt floors is more accurate).  This is Sabu from whom I bought gifts for grandkids. It’s a place for handicapped people to sell their wares, and she does not have a left hand.  Below is a picture of her shop – see how dark it looks inside?  It really is that dark, maybe 4’ x 5’ max, and unless the sun is shining just right, it is difficult to see things inside. 

This is the street where the Bible school is.  All those puddles were left over from rains about 2 days before.  That is simply how the streets are here. 

 “Mango Munching Monkeys”.  See the mango trash at bottom left?  They never pick up after themselves!  We have to step over all their mango trash, and in this case, Dick had to go around through the grass due to the monkey blockade

This shows what it is like to watch TV here in The Gambia.  We rarely have time to watch, but their selections leave much to be desired.  When US was playing Olympic basketball, they were showing fencing and rhythmic something-or-other. 

So I put my stylus for my tablet next to this avocado that fell from Steven & Helen's tree this morning. It is huge, and the very best avocado I have ever had! 

Yesterday was the final day of official classes.  So this is me teaching yesterday and David sitting in front of me. 

Thoughtful gifts from one of the students, Gloria.  A shirt for Dick and “slippers” for me.
 David also received a shirt. 

There are glass shards on top of compound wall across from the school.  This is how most compounds are built with either glass or barbed wire.  I asked if it wasn’t a little difficult to know your neighbors and Steven said you just holler over the top and then go outside and meet to chat.  It appears that most everyone lives inside a high-walled compound with locked metal gates.

Please be praying for the transition and safe travel as they prepare to leave The Gambia and fly back to the States. Also be please praying for the people that they have reached and interacted with during their travels - and that God is glorified in all that they reached.

A Muslim Church Service

For all of you who keep asking for more quizzes, I'll try to put several at the beginning of each post.  Here are several for today. [Answers at bottom]

1.  What is African Air Conditioning?  

2.  There are several items we never see in West Africa.  Try to think what some of them might be.  

3.  This event happens multiple times a day, no matter where you are - school, store, restaurant, etc.  We rarely see it in the US.  

4.  All the hotel staff continually take everything in stride, no matter what the situation or problem or request.  There are several phrases they use repeatedly, which you would be familiar with.  Can you guess?   

An Amazing Group of People

We did not understand the Fulah language, although there were occasional phrases in English that we understood.  But the worship time was beautiful - I swear every single African, male or female, can sing!  Our student Timothy is sitting in pink shirt with child on his lap across the room. 

This body of Christian believers is so intentional about supporting their body.  There were several prayer requests, so they brought those people into the center of the mats and had church leaders come to pray for them. Pastor Steven, from the SOW Bible college, is on the right, standing praying.  

One young man was supporting his mother, farming at their family land.  He left her in the care of other family members to come to Gambia to receive Bible teaching and training.  Because he became a Christian, his other family members refuse to care for her.  The pastor advises, this is a bad testimony for Christianity, you must go back.  He must go back and help restore the family and make a good testimony before the family before he returns to be trained.  Such wisdom!  

Another man asks for prayer for his family, as he and his wife feel they must go back to their country to be with their family for 5 months.  The church supports his decision, but will miss them, and they pray for the family.  

A woman physician, due to circumstances, she and her family were homeless last year and the church rescued them.  Now she has a job as head of a medical clinic.  Praises to God!

A young woman university student from Houston, TX has run into several "arguers" this past week.  She is not good at arguing, but gave them gospels to read.  The pastor steps in - "We are here to help you.  Ask if you may bring a friend, and we will come with you to meet with them and talk with them.  You are not alone."  What wonderful support!  

One man thanks God for healing him.  He was ill for a long time, finally is able to be here today.  Jesus gave him hope and he knew God would never leave him.    

 And the most precious ceremony: an engagement.  Ruby has remained faithful to the Lord and refused offers of marriage from Muslim men (some with much money, but then her whole family would have to become Muslim) because she wanted to marry a believer.  She is 22 and has had to withstand much persecution because of her beliefs.  Zechariah, from Banjul, is 28 and was being trained to become a radical Muslim.  He was high in Islam but now is on the side of Jesus and wants a Christian wife.  He has found her in Ruby!  They are to be married in 2 months. 
 

The stipulations: they can only be together in the church, or under the mango tree, but not in a house together with closed doors.  This is for their protection.  They are both shy and won't look at each other when they come forward for prayer.  The entire church body is now supporting them and holding them accountable. 

A leader announces, "Offering Time" and the people shout, "Blessing Time"!  They are excited to share what they have for the kingdom of God.  

During all this, the little children sometimes are up running around, maybe from mother to dad, sitting in laps, sometimes quietly, but just being kids.  No one is disturbed.  Occasionally a parent rises to care for a child or to take them out.  Even the pastors have little ones on their laps.  

The pastor recognizes the visitors and Dick brings greetings from our church in America.  David is invited to preach.  He tells how he grew up with Fulani, and would never in his wildest dreams have ever imagined a Fulani ever becoming a Christian.  He realizes that God is the God of all nations, of every tribe.  Every knee will bow, every tongue confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord!  His encouragement for them comes from I Peter 3:8-17 and I Corinthians 5:14-21.  The pastor comments afterward that his heart was crying for joy when he heard David's preaching!  

After the service there is a meal.  We have our first common-dish meal in Africa.  Most eat with fingers, but we are offered spoons.  It is fundi (a grain similar to couscous, but smaller) pieces of chicken and some vegetables.  

Ben Michael wants to be sure I am taking accurate notes!  :)

We are offered spoons, although most use their hands.  Modou repeatedly cuts mangoes and offers us pieces.  SO good!

   

 The grain is fundi (funday?) - similar to couscous.  Pretty good Sunday brunch, and even better conversation!  What a great day.

Answers to Quiz Questions:
1.  Breezes blowing through the trees or across the land  [Dick used this opportunity to educate about "60/4" air conditioning in the car when we were growing up  back East - 60 mph with 4 windows down.  :)  ]

2.  Tissues in hotels or guest houses (Kleenex, basically); laundromats or coin-operated washers and dryers in hotels or in a city; green vegetables: green beans, zucchini, broccoli, spinach, even yellow squash would be nice; fire trucks are not completely absent, but so far we have seen just one fire station in West Africa; business stations in hotels or guest houses - ring the Jeopardy buzzer - None!  David had to go to another hotel across the street (much more expensive) and pay 200 Dalasi (he bargained from 250) to get some copies he needed for his class.  No copier here in our hotel.  Cannot print boarding passes or use a computer; in fact, we pay extra for internet in our room, but much of the time it does not function.  Free swim towels - we got two to begin with in mid-July, but every time we need fresh ones we must pay; working phones in hotel rooms - so far we have not had any that work, but they are bolted to the desk and occupy a lot of space, so from our perspective it would be better to have none!

3. Electricity goes off!  Most decent restaurants & hotels have back-up generators so power is normally resumed fairly quickly.  Saturday night we took Steven and Helen to dinner, and I believe it went off 3 times - pitch black.  At SOW, immediately one of the more senior students jumps up and heads to get the keys to the generator block.  It takes a bit of time, but they get it working.  We are so thankful that an electrician came a couple of weeks ago and did some work on their system; Dick was praying constantly when he would see Steven head to the generator (here everything is 220 - not Dick's favorite!) with a huge screwdriver and a large thick stick ... God protected him ... 

4.  "No problem!"  "No worries in The Gambia!"  "No stress in The Gambia!"  Everyone always laughs.  :)  

You Will Know Them By Their LOVE

"A new commandment I give to you that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.  By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."                          John 13:34-35

We saw this truly lived out through people we met yesterday.  If this was the only day we would have had in West Africa, it was worth everything to see it. We attended a service for Christians who, for the most part, are former Muslims.  They have prayed and asked God to show them which parts of their Islamic culture follow the Scriptures, and have set the rest aside.  The result is a service in which former Muslims can feel comfortable, worshiping in a way in which they can relate, but now singing praises to God and Issa Jesus, and reading and studying the Bible in their own (recently translated) tribal language. 

  So, to maintain the culture in which they are most comfortable, the building is a circle, the floor is covered with mats, they worship in the language of their tribe Fula, [ Fulah; Fulani]. They are from Guinea, referred to around here as Guinea Conakry to distinguish it from Guinea Bissau to the west. Conakry is the capital of Guinea, just northwest of David and Steven's native land Sierra Leone.  One of the SOW students, Timothy, is from this tribe and was part of the congregation - he lives at this compound and rides his bike many kilometers to the SOW Bible college for classes.  David had spent Saturday afternoon with the pastor Modou, and was incredibly encouraged.

These people are showing the radical love of Jesus to the Muslim community in the Subuta village, where years ago it was said that there would never be a Fulah Christian.  When the Fulah translation of the Bible was completed, the missionaries took a copy to the highest Fulah Immam.  He told them they were wasting their time, Jesus is not for Fulahs, no Fulah ever becomes a Christian.  They only had one man, and he was a Fulah slave.  After he died, his wife and children became crazy and they all died, so they use him as an example to the other Muslims of what will happen to you if you become a Christian.   

BUT GOD...   One year later there were pockets of Fulah Christians in all sorts of places in Guinea - they kept naming town after town.  The love of Jesus is mighty in power!

This is Modou, the pastor.  He was a high-ranking leader in Islam who was out to prove how wrong the Bible was and the impossibility of the truth of Christianity.  He was captured by the incredible love of Jesus.  He gives money to help Islamic students learn the Koran - so that they will know it well and be able to dialog about it, and lay its claims accurately alongside the Bible.  He gives money to Islamic students for their fast-breaking at the end of Ramadan, and they learn that Christians show love, not hatred.  He invites Muslims to come live in their Christian compound, pray their Muslim prayers anywhere on their mats, teach the Christians about Islam, bring their Islamic books.  For all these things he is heavily criticized by other Christians, but because he does these things, many Muslims come to know the truth.  When their Islamic teachers say how awful the Christians are and they all must be annihilated, some respond and tell them, no, we know these Christians, they are not like that! Modou is so respected now by the villagers, that he has become one of the elders of the village, even though he is a Christian.  Love wins!!!  
 


Modou's father-in-law Lamin is an incredible man.  He is a Fulah from Guinea who became a Christian in 1982.  He has faced beatings, persecutions,  imprisonments, isolations - he was even due to be executed.  He smiles.  God triumphs.  He is a grandfather of 8, as is Dick, so here are the two grandfathers together.  We were so honored and humbled to meet this man.  










Modou tells us, the Muslims can copy anything we do.  We build a church, they build a bigger mosque.  We build a school, they make a bigger one.   We send students off to university, they get money from Saudi Arabia and send them to even better universities.  But one thing they cannot copy, cannot even begin to come close to, is the love of Christ.  Islam is a religion of hatred, Jesus is about love.  And they have no answer for that.  

"Up Country" - South

Last Monday was a national holiday - Ascension Day of Mary, mother of Jesus.  Are you surprised?  I was, since Gambia is overwhelmingly Muslim; the holiday (actually, the holy day) is celebrated by Catholics.  Not sure I understand exactly how in an Islamic state, but most school children were off school and happy for a holiday.  We had a nice little break and Steven took us on a 100+ km trip on the south side of the Gambia river. 

So, by popular demand, here are a couple more Quiz questions for you [see bottom for answers] before you see the pictures of our trip.

1.  Twice a month, 9 am - 1 pm, no one in Gambia may be out on the streets without a very good reason.  Try to guess why.  

2.  The Gambia (country) is shaped like what creature?  

 
Gloria, Steven's versatile assistant, came along with us for the day, and Samuel, one of the students, crowded way in back with fruit, bags, & books.  We were going to be stopping in his family's village, so it was a good way for him to get to see them. 




[Oh, yes, and his darling friend Abby just happens to be a nurse at the Mission Hospital we were going to see.  :) ]

These are ground nuts (alias peanuts) growing well at the Intervarsity compound where we stopped.  

College students here hold day camps to help students with their English, Math, and other subjects they need to pass for high school.  The classes are free and are helpful to both secondary students and their parents.  Then the Christian college students are able to pray for and encourage the high school students, many of whom are from Muslim homes.  They try to visit the families, answering questions and encouraging dialog.  Saikou, one of our students from school, turns up there at the camp!  Here is the whole group, David at back left, Gloria in pink in front, Saikou, Joseph (director), Steven in front middle, and Dick at far right. 

Enroute to the WEC (Worldwide Evangelical Council ?) Mission Hospital. On the way, we heard the sirens of exactly the third ambulance since we have been in Gambia.   Stopped in Mandinaba village for Steven to buy mangoes; Dick does "knuckles" with young boys who come by the car.



 We pass by Amdalie village where one of the Bible college students, Fadil, has ministry headquarters building with a mission house.  He organizes leaders of tribes to do missionary work with indigenous peoples.  Fadil is from Mandinka tribe; he is a rare bird since Mandinka is normally about 100% Muslim.  He has an amazing story. 

At the mission hospital: They saw roughly 41,000 outpatients in the clinic last year. James, a nurse from Australia, gave us a tour.  He mainly handles the HIV clinic, 1900 on the books but they actually see about 600+ a month.  The hospital recently celebrated their 50th anniversary and has highly-sought-after nurses, whom they train themselves in a 2 year program [but so far the government has not seen fit to certify them].  Typically there are about 1200 admissions and over 500 deliveries in a year.  2-3 docs staff the program, and many nurses.  Nurse Abby tells us they will have over 90 patients a day in the clinic.  Here are some pictures from the hospital, which is so highly regarded that patients will often travel to come here rather than use other options.  They no longer do surgeries here so patients needing additional care will be referred to other facilities. 

Clinic directly ahead; a ward building to the right

Reception Room 

Birthing Room

 

We pass through Bwiam village, where the Catholic Church has built a school, church and hospital.  We are headed to Kanilai, the village of the Gambian president.  We have a delightful lunch in the hotel restaurant and are free to walk the grounds.  No pictures allowed of the president's home (he isn't there now anyway), and we don't think it is worth 500 Dalasi just to tour around it and go into a zoo where the animals will all be sleeping because it is very hot, but the grounds at the adjacent hotel are beautiful. 

Let's Have Lunch Here!  At the hotel patio in the Presidential Village. 

Beautiful grounds near the Presidential Village

Wow - could this possibly be an INDIANA catfish???

Quiz Answers:
1.  National Cleaning Day     Everyone must be at home cleaning their environs.  If you are out on the streets, you will be stopped, and unless you are in labor or on your way to work in a hospital or some other dire emergency, you could be in BIG TROUBLE!

2.  A Snake!!