Well I finally made it on a plane out of Paris and arrived at my next stop, Casablanca. I stayed here for 7 hours...7 really entertaining hours. First of all, I'm not sure if you're familiar with the "Can I have your number" skit from MadTV, but I totally had the West African version of it happen to me. He liked to say my name "Me-chelle." And then once he found out where my next stop was, he kept saying, "Oh Me-chelle, Me-chelle goin' to Bamako." He also said things like, "You got a husband? Is he rich? Is he in America? Is he in Bamako? You got a baby?" When I said that I did not have a husband, he definitely said he would come to Bamako and marry me and since neither of us had a baby, maybe we could have one together. I declined. At one point, he said, "Come. Now I buy you perfume," and proceeded to get out 150 euros. I said no, but the lady next to me really thought I should jump right on that opportunity. Then he walked into the duty-free store and picked up a bottle of Chanel perfume and went to the counter. I really had to work hard to convince him that I didn't want it. I evaded him for most of the day, but right before he got on his flight he made sure he gave me a pack of gum.
My favorite part of my Casablanca layover was a girl I'll call Hannah. During the afternoon, the terminal got really hot because it was all windows and the sun was coming directly in them. So I went and found a random hallway to sit in. I was just chilling on the ground when a girl (who ends up being from Senegal) comes breezing by. We'd been on the same flight from Paris, but I didn't think she spoke English because when she'd asked me something in French, I'd answered her in English...and that was the end of that. But she says to me (in GREAT English), "Hey, do you know where the restaurant is? You were in Paris with me. I need to find the restaurant. Have you eaten? Come. We'll go to the restaurant together." I've got nothing else to do for the next 6 hours or so, so I hopped up and went with her. Well it turns out that she'd already eaten, but the airline had given her a voucher for a meal because of something that had happened with her flight. So she just grabbed me off the floor and took me to the restaurant and used the voucher to get me lunch! This is why I LOVE West Africans.
We sat in the restaurant and talked for about an hour. The highlight of that time was when she said she loved Alicia Keys and I said I did too. We looked at each other in silence for about 2 seconds, then simultaneously busted out singing "I keep on fallin' iiiiiinnnn love with youuuuu." We weren't quiet about it either. And we sang a good chunk of the song. Again, this is why I LOVE West Africans.
Then we headed back out to the gates and sat and talked for a while. I even had the opportunity to tell her a story from the Bible. She was talking about how she doesn't want to get married at all, unless it's to a very good man. She's not very impressed with the men in her culture and the way they view women. So I asked her what a "very good man" would be. After naming several characteristics which reminded me of Jesus, I told her the story of the woman at the well. We talked a lot about Jesus and religion and prayer and everything.
Then Hannah left and I headed to my gate (after being intercepted by the first guy so he could give me some gum). Then I got on a plane and went home. Finally.
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Stuck in Paris
It sounds pretty glamorous, right? I mean, if "Stuck in Paris" was the title of a book or a movie, you'd expect that some incredibly attractive Frenchman would sweep the stuck heroine of the story off her feet and they'd spend the next couple of days seeing everything there was to see in Paris and sitting in bistros. But, as it turns out, attractive Frenchman aren't all that interested in sweeping girls who have been sleeping on the airport floor while wearing a skirt and Chacos and who haven't bathed in a few days off their feet. Here's what happened.
Upon arriving at the Athens airport at 4:45 am, I found out that my 7 am flight had been delayed until 2:10 pm. This usually wouldn't be THAT big of a deal. But. In order to save a few hundred dollars, I booked my flights from here to Paris and from Paris to Athens completely separately. So, the airline getting me from Athens to Madrid to Paris would only take care of me as far as Paris. But because of the 7 hour delay, they had to put me on a different flight from Madrid to Paris...which of course made me miss my next flight by a couple of hours.
So I get in to Paris at about 10 pm and immediately go to information to find out where the ticket counter is for my next airline. I walk to the next terminal to find all ticket counters closed. The lady at that terminal's information counter told me that they wouldn't open back up until 6 am the next morning. She then pretty much made me feel like an idiot for not having a paper from the original airline stating that my flight was 7 hours delayed, even though when I asked what I needed to do and what they could do for me the answer was nothing. At this point I've realized that I'm going to be spending the night in the airport. Before heading to the area where people are allowed to stay during the night, I took a detour to the bathroom for a little cry (which I never do...seriously) then headed out to find somewhere to sit. All of the chairs had arms on them, so there wasn't really any way to do anything but sit straight up in them. At one point I tried laying on the ground with my suitcase as a pillow. It was FREEZING, so I dug a jacket and a scarf out of my suitcase. I still couldn't fall asleep, but I just laid there anyway.
The next morning I went to the ticket counter at 6 am. The man there told me that my ticket was not "changeable" so I'd have to buy a completely new ticket home, but since the other airline's flight had been delayed for that long of a time, they were REQUIRED to do something to help me. So I walked back to the other terminal. There, the at-fault-airline's counter lady told me that I needed to fill out a complaint form then go buy a new ticket from the other airline's counter, then bring the receipt and the complaint form back...and the cost of the new ticket should be reimbursed. I wanted more of a guarantee, but I just had to get home somehow. At this point my feet are literally bleeding and so swollen that I can't wear all the straps of my Chacos (remember that last night of walking all over Athens in strappy sandals?), so I took the shuttle. I was the only one on it waiting for it to leave when a man got on who turned out to be FROM MALI and who spoke SUNNY!!! That was a little bright spot in my day. So I bought a new ticket home (with money I had not planned on spending) and took the receipt and my complaint form back to the other terminal again. The next available flight home wasn't until 1 pm...the following day. So upon realizing that I would be spending one entire day, another entire night, and half of another day in the airport, I started trying to talk both airlines into paying for a place for me to stay...nobody would. (Here's where there was another detour to the bathroom for a little cry)
Now, I know what you're thinking...you were in Paris for 2 days and never left the airport? That is correct. Because I didn't want to spend one more euro than I had to, plus I was by myself, plus I was exhausted and afraid I'd get lost, plus my feet were bleeding. But mostly the money thing. So I settled in to a routine of wandering the terminal, filling up my Nalgene in the bathroom, and sitting at the McDonald's (which had free wifi AND tables with plugs to charge things). By now I was so tired (remember...no sleep on the ferry...then a 3-hour nap...then no sleep the night before I left...then the night at the airport) that I would fall asleep sitting straight up and wake up to find myself facing the person sitting next to me with my mouth wide open...and maybe a little drool. This happened more than a couple of times.
So yeah...no Frenchmen sweeping me off my feet.
Vacation in GREECE!
When I was at orientation, a lot of my friends doing the same thing I'm doing started making plans to vacation together during our terms and we soon began discussing Greece. Since then we've all been saving up and making plans...and saving up some more...and we finally went in August! And it was absolutely incredible.
While I was packing I was completely diligent to make sure that I could get everything in my carry-on and that all my liquids and gels were acceptable, in the proper containers, and in that little quart-size Ziploc bag. I measured and re-measured the suitcase and I was okay for both airlines' requirements. Well, I made it throught the airport in Bamako. No surprise there...smile a lot and speak a little Bambara and you pretty much get what you want because Malians are fantastic :) Made it through Casablanca with no problems whatsoever. Now the toughy...Paris. But I made it all the way through customs with no problem. Well, actually it was too heavy, but I took my Bible and a pair of jeans out and put them in my "personal item" (purse) and we were back on track. THEN I'm about to set my foot on the airplane in Paris and the lady at the door makes me put my bag in that little cage that it has to fit in. Again, I had measured and re-measured my bag according to the measurements on the websites, but it wouldn't go in that little cage. So she took my bag. I put up no fight because she didn't speak much English and I don't speak much French or Spanish. I thought about pulling a Meet the Parents and telling her that the only way she was getting my bag would be if she pried it out of my dead, lifeless fingers...but I didn't. And instead of telling me I could get it in Madrid (my next stop) she told me I could get it in Athens (my final destination). At that point I pretty much knew I wouldn't be seeing my bag again for a while because that flight was a little delayed, making my layover in Madrid uncomfortably short.
And I was right. I arrived in Athens bagless, but still excited! The airline gave me a little toiletry bag (including a pair of undies made out of that gauzy, papery, bio-degradable stuff...bonus). So I wore the same clothes for a few days and a couple of the girls helped me out one day with other stuff to wear and I took my clothes to the laundromat. (I also bought some undies, but a store was hard to find and there weren't many English speakers around that day...made for some interesting pantomiming). And then after a few days my bag came! Just in time to go to Santorini.
The first full day we explored Athens. We went to the Acropolis of course and found some places to drink coffee and eat good food.
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| Acropolis! |
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| You can kind of see the monastery on top. |
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| Here's one of the places we watched the sunset. |
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| Korby, me, and Elizabeth at my favorite restaurant. |
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| Everybody else was trying to decide what to do for dinner, but Elizabeth and I were having a photo shoot. |
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| Donkey trip back up the hill. |
We arrived back in Athens the next morning, but couldn't check in to our hostel until later so we left our bags in the little storage area and set out to find breakfast (and coffee!). I realized that my flight left at 7 am the next morning...which meant I had to be at the airport at 5 am...which meant I'd have to leave the hostel at 4 am. So a plan was soon devised to take naps in the afternoon and go out that night and just hang out as much as we could before everyone left (we really like each other). I took a 3-hour nap and got up to go out to dinner. We ate dinner and then walked all over Athens. Now, most of the girls are used to wearing nothing but Chacos and we all had on different shoes so our feet were killing us. Then we went back to the hostel. I tried to sleep a little before I had to catch a taxi to the airport, but you know how when you're nervous that you're going to sleep through something, you can't sleep? So I just laid there. Then I got up and headed to the airport at 4 am. And that's where the rest of the adventure begins...
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Milk
At orientation, we were told not to drink the milk here or we would die. I don't really know how true that is, but they had stories about people being medically evacuated out, so we took it to heart. So for over a year we drank shelf milk or powdered milk. Then some of our colleagues started pasteurizing their own milk, so we did too.
On Saturday mornings, the milk man shows up on his bicycle. Our duplex-mates, another family, and the three of us all get milk...6 liters each. We take our pitchers and bowls outside and the milk man pours our allotted milk into our containers. Then we bring them inside. We filter them through a strainer first to get out any dirt or cow hair that might have floated in. Then we put the milk into a double broiler and heat it to about 170 degrees and hold it there for 15 seconds. Then we put the milk into fridge-friendly containers (usually old mayonnaise jars) and cool the milk down as fast as possible in ice water in the sink. Then it all goes into the fridge and we wait until it's cold enough to drink. I didn't even know how much I missed the real thing until I had it again!
When we first get out one of the jars, we have to scrape the cream off the top. The first time is the easiest because it's really thick and clings to the spatula. It's still hard to get it all off though. Sometimes there's not much cream at the top and it looks pretty harmless, so I'll just shake it up because I know it'll be difficult and time-consuming to get it all off. This can be regretful because later on, the milk will be lumpier faster and not all that appetizing.
Well last week our team had the opportunity to get away for a few days. One morning, we split up and spent about 3 hours with the Lord. One of the things that I pray constantly is that I will decrease and that God will increase. I started to think about how even though I pray that, I still find myself trying to increase. My attitude still says that I am so selfish. The way that I let things bother me says that I still think that this is somehow about me. No matter how much I pray for God to increase in my life, my attitude, my ministry, Michelle keeps rising to the surface. And when it's really obvious and huge and easier to get rid of, I allow God to scrape it off. But when it's more subtle--hideable--I tend to just shake it back down. But it's still there...which means it will resurface, it's inevitable. And it's not harmless. It turns into an attitude that permeates everything, every relationship, every word, every action...making it lumpy and un-appetizing.
God reminded me that part of the growing process is pruning. If there's something in my life that needs to go, I can't just let it sit there. And I may think it's doing nothing...just sitting there because I know it'll hurt to cut it away. But really it's keeping everything else from growing. I'm so thankful that God is willing to teach us these things! And I'm so thankful for cold, fresh milk.
Nuts & Bolts
Usually in my email updates and blogs, I mention bits and pieces of my actual job and the storying process, but a few people have showed an interest in knowing how exactly it all goes down. So I've decided to write a blog explaining the nuts and bolts of the storying process, starting at the beginning of my term. Read if you're interested...if not, no hard feelings.
First Six Months
When I first arrived in Mali last April, I was told that my full-time job was to learn the Sunny language and culture. We lived in the village (Yosemite) 5 days a week and came into a small town (G-Vegas) 2 days a week to rest up, run errands, etc. Every day in the village, I would go meet with a language helper (Jenny) to get new vocabulary and the rest of the day I'd go visit people and practice talking. To learn the culture, we did and still do two simple things: observe & mimic. Our primary goal was to become Sunny women (right down to our new Sunny names), but we were careful to only do this with cultural aspects of life...not religious. It's one of the best compliments ever when somebody looks at you or hears you or watches the way you do something or asks your name and says, "You are a Sunny woman!"
The Why
Well...because the Bible is not available in the Sunny people's heart language yet. And even if it was, none of them could/would read it. They are an oral people group. For centuries, they have passed down information orally. All of their history and traditions are taught to the generations through story-telling. This is how they teach and how they learn and they are awesome at it. So, when we know that we have the most important message they will ever hear, why wouldn't we present it the way they will receive it? Someday, the Bible will be available to them in their heart language, and someday they will want to read it, but for now this is the best way for them to have the opportunity to hear the gospel.
Pre-Story Set
After spending time with our people, we began thinking on a redemptive theme for our Story Set and which Stories would best support and illuminate that theme. The reason we go about it this way is because every people group is different and we want them to hear the full gospel in a way that will most resonate with them. Now, the gospel doesn't change and it's the Holy Spirit that reveals it to people, but we want to make sure that we're doing our part for the truth to sink in as quickly as possible. And if that is more likely to happen, for example, by emphasizing the sacrificial aspect of salvation, then Stories that show God's purposes of sacrifice are likely to be included.
We spent several months praying for direction and wisdom, observing our people, speaking with colleagues, and talking to each other to decide on a redemptive theme that would most speak to the Sunny people. We settled on "Jesus is the Only Way." Our people are very (VERY) conservatively M. Every single day, we watch them get up from what they are doing, go wash themselves, retrieve their prayer beads, lay out their prayer mats, turn East, and go through the recited prayers. They make the atoning sacrifices. They make the prescribed statements about Allah and His prophet. They attend Qu-ran:c school. They loyally walk the M Road daily. It breaks our hearts to see them walk a road that we know will not take them where they want to go. So we knew that pointing them onto the Jesus Road...the Only Way to God...would speak to them. Even their terminology speaks to this...the phrase "Jesus Road" and "M Road" comes from them, not us.
We purposely chose Old Testament stories that would point to Jesus as the Only Way to redemption...the way that God Himself provided. And we chose New Testament stories that verify that Jesus is exactly who God says He is...the Son of God, the Promised Savior. The actual Story Set list took several days to compose and is still in the works, but right now there's a list of about 30-33 Stories that will most likely be included in the final Story Set that will be recorded onto cassette tapes for distribution to our people.
The People
NICK: This is our story crafter. He speaks Sunny and English (and about 12 other languages). He is a believer, but is not very open about it yet. He wants very much to become open about his faith, but is praying for wisdom on how to do that because his ultimate goal is to be a catalyst for the Sunny people as a whole coming to faith in Jesus. He knows a lot about Sunny culture and has traveled quite a bit around the country, so we included him quite a bit while we were choosing Stories to include in our set.
BRIAN: This is our back-translator. He is not a believer, but is actively seeking. He speaks English and hears Sunny, but does not speak it all that well. He also speaks Bambara and French. I'll explain the back-translating process more below.
TESTING GROUP/TESTERS: This is how we describe a group of women on whom we test our story once it has been recorded and back-translated. They can be found at a few different houses that we have spent the last several months building relationship with.
ABBY/SOKONA: This is one of my teammates. Her term technically started 3 months ahead of mine, but she plans to extend 3 months so that our terms will both end in January. She has the mind of a steel-trap and can remember vocabulary that I don't even remember learning! She's from Georgia.
SARAH/MAGOU: This is my other teammate. She and Abby were college roommates and they started their terms at the same time. She can hear the Sunny language like crazy. These women will get to talking insanely fast, but Mags will still know what they're talking about! She's from South Carolina.
JUDY/NAFI: This is our supervisor. She is passionate about making the Word of God available to oral people groups and has supervised several teams like mine who were creating oral Story Sets in various languages. She's from Kentucky.
The Process
1. Abby will gather several resources...different versions of the Bible, our storying training book, a translator's program on the computer, etc...and craft the Story (in English). She will include any questions we need to address with Nick, any Key Terms, as well as reasons she chose to word something a certain way, or include/exclude a certain part of the story. This goes into a Word document.
2. Sarah and I will gather all of the resources Abby used and revise the story. We write down any concerns, add our own questions for Nick and/or Abby, and do any editing that needs to occur.
3. Abby schedules a Crafting Session with Nick and gets everything ready for it.
4. Abby and I meet with Nick to craft the Story. We tell it to him orally (in English) and then he verbalizes any immediate concerns or suggestions he has. We ask him all of our questions and tell him the non-negotiables of the story...meaning...if he wants to change something for the sake of contextualization, we have certain things that cannot be changed in order to maintain the integrity of the Word of God based on research with Bible translation. Then he reads the story for himself a few times to familiarize himself with it even though he already knows it. We make any changes that need to be made, then we record him telling the story (in Sunny) on one of our voice recorders.
5. Then I get the story ready for the Back-Translation session. I type up a new Word document that has any questions that we have for Brian. I list out all of the Key Terms so that we can make sure we have the right Sunny words for them. (Example of a Key Term: Adam) Then I call Brian and set up a time to meet for the session.
6. Abby and Sarah go meet with Brian. They take the voice recorder and some speakers and play the Story all the way through for him. Then they will play it again one line at a time. As he translates the line from Sunny back into English (hence the term back-translation), Abby will type the English version into another Word document. They will make sure that all the questions are answered and that all of the Key Terms are understood and translated. We do this step because even though the Story was crafted in English, once it changes into Sunny it's worded differently. And even though we speak some Sunny, we still need a Sunny person to tell us exactly what it says word-for-word. The reason this has to be a different person than the crafter is because the crafter knows what he's trying to say and would tend to just translate it back the way he wants it to sound. Here's an example from our Story of Abraham sacrificing Isaac: The line, "When they were near to the place of sacrifice Isaac asked his father, 'I know that we have the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb?'" becomes this in Sunny, "While they were getting closer to the place, Isaac said, 'Now I am seeing fire and I’m seeing firewood, but the sheep we are going to kill…I’m not seeing that.'" This step just ensures that even though the wording may change because of the way Sunny people speak, the meaning of the text is still communicated and understood.
7. Then Abby will create an Excel document. Each line of the story will be inserted into a row in its English form. Under each line there is a place to list the Anchor (scripture reference...every line MUST have an Anchor), any Key Terms found in that line, a place to include any notes to explain how and why that line is crafted the way it is, a place to list Testing Questions and Answers, and a place for Nafi to add any notes/suggestions.
8. Sarah and I will go through the Excel document and come up with as many Testing Questions as we can to make sure that the Story is being understood by Sunny people in the way it should be according to the original intent of the Bible. We also put any information that has already been obtained into a Key Terms tab and a Cultural Notes tab of the Excel document. We list all questions onto a piece of paper for the Testing Session and schedule a time to go meet with a Testing Group.
9. Abby and Sarah will go to one the houses that we have built relationships with to test the Story. They will play it through a full time and ask if they understood the language in the Story. Then they will lay it through line by line and ask the questions corresponding to that line. They'll also make sure that the Key Terms are correct and understood. Most of the time, the testers will offer more information on the Key Terms according to their own culture because most of the Old Testament stories are already known by our people. At the end of the session, the girls will ask somebody from the testing group to retell the story. This shows us if the story is memorable and easy to understand. If an important part of the story is left out in the re-telling, we know that we might need to emphasize it differently or that maybe it wasn't understood very well or that maybe the story is too long. The entire session is recorded in Sunny and English.
10. I will listen to the recording and enter the Testing Answers into the Excel document. I will also add all Crafting Notes, Key Term Notes, and Cultural Notes into the appropriate places. I'll go through all of the tabs and do any editing that needs to be done in order for the document to be ready for submission to Nafi.
11. Abby will email the document to Nafi and wait for her to email back with any changes that need to be made or more Testing Questions that need to be asked.
12. All necessary changes are made and the document is ready to be re-submitted to Nafi. Then...hopefully...we have an approved Story! Just FYI, we currently have 16 of the Stories somewhere in the process. We split up the tasks so that we could be more efficient in our work and we also believe the work is of higher quality because of this. God really put the 3 of us together in a way that we each enjoy and thrive in doing different parts of the process. It's been amazing to watch Him work in our team. We switch off sometimes as needed, but the way I've listed it is true most of the time for now.
13. Eventually we will begin the process of making the final recordings that will be put onto cassettes for distribution, but I don't know what that looks like yet.
Whoa. If you've made it this far, thanks for reading!
Friday, June 3, 2011
All Downhill
Rain is one of the things I miss the most about America. And heat has been one of the hardest things to get used to in Mali. Which means that I pretty much adore rainy season out here. It's short and sweet...and still hot...and a lot more humid...but it RAINS...and for a few glorious hours afterwards it feels fantastic outside.
Rainy season also means that your electricity goes out a lot more. And the other day, the 3 of us were sitting at our kitchen table working on some stuff and the electricity kept going out. We were getting a little agitated because we needed the internet...and most importantly, a fan. But then it would come back on and we'd celebrate briefly. Then it went off for a longer while...but THIS time we noticed that it was all dreary-looking outside...and the wind was kind of picking up. We ran outside and sat on our porch and waited...while everyone else on our street packed up everything to run inside. I know...crazy white girls. It got crazy windy and then slowly...one by one...giant cold raindrops started falling. Then the wind picked up and the rain came faster. The kind that makes you suck all your air in real fast when it hits you because you were just sitting in a 100 degree living room and now you're being pelted by cold rain. We stayed until we were soaked through and couldn't stand the cold any longer. I bet it got down to 80 degrees out there! Rainy days are ALWAYS good days...even if you do get the truck stuck in the mud :)
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
A Different Easter
Ever since I was little, I have LOVED Easter. I admit...it mostly had to do with gift-giving bunnies, dyed eggs, plastic-grass-filled baskets, and purple Easter dresses. I loved that one Saturday afternoon when my mom would spread a newspaper out over the kitchen table and put out coffee mugs filled with vinegar, one for each colored tablet that came in the egg-dyeing kit. Did anyone else always want to eat those tablets? They looked like my Flintstone vitamins, which I loved. One by one I'd drop the tablets into the mugs and watch the beautiful colors appear. And then I'd get that little wire egg-lowering-and-raising device and start coloring the carton full of eggs.
As I got older, I began to more deeply understand the significance of Easter. It's about our risen Savior. I would attentively listen to my Sunday School teachers deliver the story I knew well. I would read the passages of Scripture which tell the story I knew well and I would celebrate with the other people at church over God's perfect redemption plan and His power over death. But...Easter Sunday still had a lot to do with getting to wear a new dress.
Then as I began serving on staff at a church, Easter took on some different meanings and I didn't even realize it. It became about making sure I had Sunday's lesson planned perfectly for all the kids that would be visiting for the first time. It became about planning parties and egg hunts and making sure there were enough snacks. It became about having a back-up plan if we ran out of chairs. Now...all of these things are perfectly fine...it's just that sometimes I allowed these things to become more important to me than our risen Savior. I let the stress of busy-ness steal my joy...and that is not perfectly fine.
This year was different. My teammates were on vacation, my supervisor was out of town, and we had a company Easter celebration on the Saturday before. I decided to go spend Easter with some friends in a town about 3 hours from here, called K-Town. Our Jman friend, Scott, and 5 guy volunteers are serving out there. They spend weekends in K-Town, but spend most of their time in various villages outside of K-Town. The main one is called the Dunes.
Here's the story...to the best of my knowledge...of the Dunes. Several years ago there were 2 Jgirls doing the same thing that my teammates and I are doing. They crafted a chronological Bible story set into the language of the Dunes. They recorded the Stories and distributed the tapes. They never got to see any of these people choose the Jesus Road. BUT after they left, the power of God's Word reached a handful of these people and resonated within their hearts as the truth that it is. So Scott encourages and equips this handful of believers in the village. He has modeled and taught Christian living and leadership and is essentially training one of the men to be the pastor of this village church.
Saturday night, when I arrived in the village, I got to meet everybody, got settled in, set up my tent, and took my bucket bath (I was a little out of practice, but I realized I REALLY missed being in the village). Once everybody was gathered together, Nya (the leader of the group) began to lead us in the Lord's Supper, and it was absolutely, hands-down, my favorite experience since I've been in Africa. There was no table at the front of a sanctuary holding all the platters of bread and juice. There were no deacons spanning the pews to pass out the elements. No little cups. No crackers. I wasn't sure how it would go. By the time we all congregated, it was completely dark outside. There were about a dozen of us, sitting wherever we could find a place, crowded around a flashlight in the middle of the African bush.
The guys had brought in some bread from K-Town and Nya proceeded to make the juice. We used a drink mix called Jolly Jus in cola flavor. One packet of this stuff makes 2 liters of juice...Nya used 2 packets for 1.5 liters. It was pretty stout. Then Nya read the passage of the Lord's Supper from a Bambara Bible and then spoke about it in his own language. Scott translated a little for me. I couldn't even tell you what all Nya said, but it was the most powerful Lord's Supper experience I've ever had. Maybe it was because I knew so little of what was being said. Maybe it was because there was little to look at besides a flashlight. Maybe it was because I knew that this was the first time this group of believers had ever taken part in this ordinance together. Whatever it was, I've never been so aware of what the original Lord's Supper must have been like. I've never been so aware of how important it is for us to partake in it in remembrance of our Savior. And I've never felt so connected to fellow believers...even though we don't speak the same language.
Then Nya gave each of us half a loaf of bread and a (pretty big) cup full of Jolly Jus. As he individually handed the elements to each of us, he said what they represented and why we do what we were doing. Again...pretty powerful. And then we all ate and drank. Then we sang!
The next day, I put on my best tie-dye and we all just hung out together in celebration. Scott would read Scripture passages of the weekend's events. I went with two of the guys to visit their village. Went and met some more people in the Dunes. Unbraided a little girl's hair and let some other little girls braid mine. Watched Scott kill dinner. All in all a great day. Then everybody met back up to eat together. We had chicken and pasta...one of my favorites! I shared a bowl with two of the African men (this usually would never happen, but I was a guest and it was Easter). In our bowl was the chicken's entire head, some giant organ, and a big beautiful piece of white meat. The head was closest to me, but as I was looking at it, figuring out my attack mode, one of the men flicked it toward himself, the organ toward the other guy, and the white meat at ME! Happy Easter!
Later that night, we gathered again. Nya read from the Bambara Bible and then spoke for a short time. And then we all sang again. We sang lots and lots of songs in various languages. I think some were Bambara, some were the Dunes language, and some in English. It was just a great weekend...definitely the best time I've had in Mali, and probably the best Easter ever. It was so encouraging to get what one of the guys called "a glimpse into our future." Abby, Sarah, & I are working furiously to finish a Story set in the Sunny language, but we know that we will most likely not get to see the fruit of it. Although we try to strike up spiritual conversations whenever we can, we probably won't get to lead a Sunny person to Christ, or watch a Sunny person's face as the Truth clicks. But Scott and the guys were very convinced and very encouraging that a few years down the road, a group of Sunny believers will also be having the Lord's Supper for the first time.
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