Day of Rest - Part I

This morning Jon, Andy, Rachel and I got up early (on the one and only day we could sleep in) and went for a run.  I could have easily been talked out of it, but Jon kept saying that we will be able to say we ran in Africa, and I thought he had a good point.  I can't keep up with Rachel, so Jon ran ahead with her, and Andy stayed back with me. I'm pretty sure Jon never runs out of energy. Andy and I ran to Bethel Bible College, and Jon and Rachel ran a little past it.  We ran by many people who pointed and said "tubabus!"  We are getting used to being the center of attention!  Several people greeted us.  I had enough air in me to respond to the initial greeting, but if they continued with questions, Andy had to do all the answers because I was too out of breath.  When I say "all the answers," I basically mean he said "toratay."  Toratay is the basic response we learned, and if the questions get too complicated, it often becomes a question from us... toratay???  The Malians often laugh at us! Malians, in general, seem to love to laugh. I did stop and ask a group of kids if I could take their picture.  I showed the picture to them after I took it, and they all smiled.  It's so funny how they like seeing their picture on our camera screens.

We went to church at 9am.  I love how simple everything is here.  The church had simple concrete floors, white walls with a few things hanging crooked on them! The men sat separately from the women. I think the church is pretty conservative.  Ewien said that the church she and Anco attended when they lived in Bamako allowed men and women to sit together.  However, Marilyn and Craig sat together in the Bethel church, so I think things are slowly starting to change. All the windows and doors were open (no air conditioning).  The view out the doors and windows was trees and corn fields.  It was so peaceful.  I can totally see why people become long term missionaries here.  There was a lot of singing in church.  While I have no idea what the words were that they were singing, it had a great beat.  Several of the young girls who sang also danced.  Marilyn (wife of the director of the hospital) said they normally do not dance, and she thinks it was something special for us. During the prayer request and praise time, one of the pastors thanked us for our work and had our group stand up.   Marilyn said the sermon was about living your life in Christ.  She said the pastor talked about how you aren't a Christian simply because you are born into a Christian family, and if you aren't living your life in Christ, you are following Satan.  It was a very long sermon, but that was the quick summary.  The sermons are given in French and Bombara.  First a pastor speaks in French and then another person (who happened to be his brother) follows in Bombara.  Jason, Jon, Adam, Chris, Andy, Rachel, me and Doug and Angela's two boys rode on top of the roof of the van on the way home from church.  I guess that's another African experience.  We see trucks all the time that are full of Malian people on the tops, sides, hanging off, everywhere :)

Like I said earlier, it's so nice how simple everything is here and how happy people are.  Our lives get so complicated and cluttered in the U.S.  It's a very nice change being here for these two weeks.  It also seems the people are very trustworthy.  I know that the missionaries are introducing us to vendors they know so we may be sheltered from a few things, but Andy and I bought a drum for our nephew a few days ago from a vendor outside of our compound.  When we bought it, he said he needed to tighten the strings, and he owed us about 2000 Francs.  He said he'd bring it to us later, and Ewien said we could trust him.  We would never be that trustworthy at home. He came to the door of the house about half an hour later with the drum and our change. Then again, Angela told us to make sure our backpacks were in front of us at the market the other day because sometimes people will try to get in them and take things.  So, I guess everyone isn't trustworthy!

We are going to the blacksmith area later today and then to Craig and Marilyn's for dinner.  Craig is the director of the Women and Children's Hospital.  I'll try to update the blog again at the end of the day.

Say a prayer that our time in Dakar on our way home goes well.  We were hoping to be able to stay in a guest home (we are there from 11pm-8am or something similar to that on Thursday), but Craig is having a hard time finding us a place to stay (he and Marilyn used to live in Dakar), so it sounds like we really are going to be sleeping in the airport.

Bethel Church

 Bethel Church

 Bethel Church

 Bethel Church

Bethel Church -- the fan Rachel's niece gave her to use for the trip came in very handy during church

Bethel Church

Leaving church

It amazed me how all the women carried their babies this way

morning jog

morning run

After morning run -- petting Anco and Ewien's dog, Bantu.  Running is the only time Rachel and I can wear pants (no shorts though)

I stopped during the run and took this picture of these kids (I'm always looking for an excuse to take a break running!).  They laughed when I showed them the picture on my camera screen.