Missionaries come from many lands today, not just North America and England! You might rub shoulders with co-workers from Singapore, Korea, Africa, China, Latin America, Brazil, etc. Latinos, Europeans, and North Americans have worked side by side in Kayes, MALI for over a dozen years. We all have happily happlily welcomed several African missionaries to Kayes also. In mid 2003, 2005, and again in 2006 Jim took trips among the Moor peoples; on the first there were three Americans in the ministry team: one from Canada, one from the US, and one from Nicauragua, and our common language to each other was French! And, the Canadian is an immigrant from China! The third partnering trip involved six men from all six inhabited continents!
What a change is happening in missions, PTL!

. BRAZILIANS: Praise God, the team of 4 ‘radical’ Brazilians coming to work
for 2 years among the Fulani of western Mali has finally been granted their
visas, and will arrive here March 1 (2006). Pray for Migueias, Tito, Aliné, and
Talvania, in their adaptation to life in Mali, in their mastery of the
Fulani language, and in their relationships with nationals. Pray for the
work of the Gospel to be greatly advanced by their presence here. They are
arriving right at the beginning of Hot Season, so pray that they not be
discouraged right away!

Sept 10th, 2006

This has been quite a week of evangelism among the Moors north of Kayes. Andrew Lee (China-Canada) of WEC and Camilo Mairena (Nicaragua) of PMI who came last year were joined by John Brett (New Zealand-England) of Stromme Foundation, BKO, and Chris Clarke (England) of Frontiers in Nouakchott. Of course Idi Thiam was our guide, host, and door-opener to the villages, and Oumar Diallo (MALI) of ELOM came and helped considerably in every way. Someone remarked that we were actually representing all six of the inhabited continents of the world! I said that “Jacques Chirac would be happy to know that we spoke French as our common language!”

We had several goals for this trip and group of Christian workers: direct evangelism in several Moor villages north of Koussané, formation of a group for further work among the Moors of MALI, introduction of the area to several newcomers, and evaluation of the spiritual receptivity of the local Moors. I am still seeing myself as an outsider/insider in this ministry! I’m an insider as I’m the only one actually living in the area in the outreach group and it was thru my contacts with Idi that this started in 2002. Yet I’m an outsider because I don’t know the language or the culture (and don’t plan to branch into it either). This being the third visit of Andrew and Camillo and potentially this first of many for John and Chris I felt it was time to get some ground rules laid out on the table, especially to develop a common approach for evangelism and establishing church groups. For that reason I proposed that we do some Bible study on this theme together, so I found a paper written by Randy Creswell based on Hesselgrave’s wheel of church planting. We were able to do just three of the studies together, looking at verses in the Acts of the Apostles. Travel and discussions in the villages precluded more study together.

This was now about my tenth trip among the Moors since I met Idi in 2002. Just to recall: I met Idi in early ’02 after he approached the Christian bookstore in Kayes Ndi for a Soninke gospel of Luke. This man, a retired Malian English schoolteacher speaks many local and foreign languages; in fact he works at the courthouse as an interpreter for the judges and plaintiffs. He had heard via the radio the Nativity story that SIL and Frontiers and put together for the Noel season of ’01 and took them up on their offer of a free gospel that had just been published that year. Finding he was actually a Fulani man I was informed that here was a man who desired to become a Christian so I went to visit him in Kayes Ndi. While visiting I discovered he had been an English teacher, had been to London years ago for studies, had visited a church there, and was married to a Moor lady form north of Kayes, Kadiatou. After a few visits and Bible studies together one day he asked if I’d like to meet his father-in-law in a Moor village. Of course I said “yes” seeing an opportunity for ministry that had never existed in our region of MALI before: an open invitation into a Moor home and village. So we can say that a Fulani man, listening to a Soninke radio broadcast opened up the way for ministry to the Moors! Amazing, only in MALI!

So in March ’02 Sekou Djikine, Idi, and I visited Mojji, Bilajmi, Koussané, and far away Daba in a quick two-night visit. It turned out his father-in-law had died a few years ago, but another brother was alive and well! Sekou was quite amazed that only 50 kms from his home village of Kouloum was such a spiritually needy people group. He stated several times that it should be him, the Malian pastor, taking the missionary to such villages and not the way it was. Perhaps one day it will be thus: the Malian churches leading outreach to the peoples of MALI. We had a great time of discussions about the gospel with Idi, and were served wonderful hospitality in each village.

The second visit later that spring was similar, with Benjie along instead of Sekou, and we went to the eastern side to such villages as Seibat, Nema, Mojji, and El Kabara, one of the two royal villages of the area, but a bit inaccessible. Again the reception was wonderful. We were able to play some cassettes in Hassaniya that had been in my house a while; and folk were most attentive. I find that a number of the Moors speak Fulani so I can chat with those who don’t know French or Bambara, too.

In the rainy season of ’02 we began to hear of drought and need for food assistance among the Moors. I organized a survey trip to several villages in Oct ’02. It came about, by the Lord’s providence that two young men with the Baptist mission were in Kayes that week and would be able to go along, one being a professional photographer. So I was able to have along one who could document what we saw on film and movie of the poor fields and empty granaries of the villages. Todd and his friend were quite a blessing. Moussa Sarambounou came along as a representative of the Soninké community to help us see the needs.

We were able to organize some aid for the Moors and give 10 tons to the 17 villages concerned in Dec 02. We made the village of Seibat the central point of distribution, so in mid-Dec my daughter Susanna and I visited Seibat to explain the pan and receive the grain in trucks form Kayes. Even more I was able to make reports to the Malian government and to several embassies in Bamako of the need. As a result the, via the SAP program, we were able to recommend a major distribution of grain in the area. The government was later able to give over 400 tons of grain to the Koussané district (and 400 more to two other adjoining districts just as badly affected.