I have been keeping an eye on the Michigan news sites and finding some entertainment in the current weather situation there. Here, it is the other extreme. Today was probably around 95 degrees.
Thursday was market day, and also the first full day we were in Kadiolo. We went to the market in the morning to buy some food. We also bought some cool fabric and took it to the tailor to have it made especially for us. They should be ready on Tuesday. For the fabric plus the tailor expense it will come to $16 (US) for a shirt and pants. Then in the afternoon we went back to the market to buy each other Christmas presents.
Also on Thursday, we got a tour of the ministries in this village. There is a Christian radio station in town, which is also in the same building as the church. The radio station is very important as it reaches 3 countries. It has won several excellence awards in categories not specific to Christian radio. Another ministry, which is closely related to the radio station, is the drama team. The drama team writes and records radio dramas that are very entertaining and Bible based. This country is 90% Muslim, but people all over gather around radios to hear these stories. The impact that this ministry is having is immeasurable. We couldn't meet most of the drama team because they were selected by the region (region is like a state) to represent them in the national arts competition and that is where they are now. This is by no means a Christian oriented competition, and it is very exciting that the team is getting national recognition.
Some of the languages around here are very tonal languages. So Jan was telling me that some of the early missionaries had tried to translate some of our hymns, but they didn't work because the meanings of words are based on pitch. This is the case so much so that sometimes when a musical instrument is being played it is actually saying words. The instrument is actually talking! When they had translated the Jesus film into one of these languages, they made intro music for the video that was just for that culture. When they were playing it on the marimba, loads of people started walking down the street towards them. Jan asked why and the lady there said that the music was saying "come, come and hear the story of Jesus". That is pretty cool.
Friday morning I did some work on the computer network system with Ernie. They really have quite the setup here. Ironically, my parents can't get internet at their house near Ludington, but we have broadband out here in the bush.
In the afternoon we went into town to buy some notebooks for the packets of stuff we will be giving the kids at the street kids ministry in Bamako. Then later we got a lesson in Bambara, one of the local languages. We had to learn the numbers because we will be teaching the kids at the street kids ministry how to read and write the numbers in Bambara.
In the evening, I gave a guitar lesson to a boy from the church.
Saturday was a very exciting day. We got up at 5 in the morning so that we could leave by 6am and drive 2.5 hours to another village. Here we attended a New Testament Bible dedication. since 1949 these people have been working on translating the New Testament into this language called supyire. It is finally done and the first books have been printed. There were hundreds of people there including the mayor and other figure heads of the local and regional government. To see the joy that these people had now that they had a Bible in their own language made me so much more appreciative of my own Bible. The entire ceremony was in French and Supyire, but I was able to understand what was happening. Few people get to have the experience that I had today, I really can't express how grateful I am for having it. Ernie said that in all his time spent over in this part of the world, he also had never experienced a Bible dedication. There are now 4 out of 40 Malian languages with at least a New Testament. That means that 90% of the languages here in Mali do not have a Bible. That makes me want to read mine a little more often.
The whole ceremony was about 4 hours long.
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2 comments:
Wow! I would love to be able to understand a language where the instruments actually talk! I think that would make my guitar playing so much more meaningful!
Thanks for the updates on what's going on there. I bet it will seem like a dream once you get back. I hope you'll have a chance to talk about your trip with Lifeline (at LEAST the leaders) when you get back.
when i read about you having the net in the bush but your parents couldn't get it in Ludington i laughed and had my entire family stare at me...good times.
Also, this trip sounds amazing. I cannot wait to hear more.
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