Audio Bibles - Check!

Word just came from Mali through Ian that the Audio Bibles are through! Thanks for praying. It cost us a very small amount, but compared to the masses they were originally asking for, this is good news! Thanks so much for praying for this and thanks to God for getting them into the hands of the people who can use them.

The staff in Mali said they are working hard at putting together content and can't wait to test them in the field!

Through the roof!

Torro Tay! Is the most common expression we hear in Bambara. It's rough translation is "no worries" or "haduna matata" for you Lion King fans.

As you know, some of our team is working on the hot tin roof of the warehouse. We are placing iron trusses across the top of the warehouse and, instead of wood or shingles, the top of the roof is layered with 20x4 ft sheets of metal. This metal is about the thickness of aluminum foil, which is fine except when you have to walk on it. There are strict rules about walking on the roof on boards etc, to be sure nobody falls through to the 15 foot drop to solid concrete below. If there is a serious injury, the closest good emergency room is Paris!

At one moment, David Holt was on the roof in a "Torro-Tay" kind of a moment. He stepped in the wrong place and the metal started to bend, then cracked right through. He quickly turned and grabbed on to the trusses as he was falling suspended above the concrete floor. From the top of the roof, my world went into slow-mo and I surveyed to possibilities to help him. Bottom line, there is no way to get to him fast enough. So I yelled out the only thing I could think of "Hold him Jesus!"

All of this was while he was in mid-fall! Well, after he caught the truss, and fumbled his way down about a foot, he was stuck. With his feet about five feet about the floor, he looked down and asked for clearance. And with the agility of a cat...OK, the agility of a rhino...his 200 plus pound frame came crashing down to the concrete below. He banged up his ankle a bit...not enough to need a doctor, but bad enough that it hurts.

Upon hitting the floor, David was quick to spring up. Malians emerged from every corner of the facility and David was quick to tell them "Torro Tay!"

"No," they responded as they saw the metal sheet dangling from the ceiling. "Not Torro Tay....NOT Torro Tay".

As a matter of fact, rumor has it that the next day his picture appeared in a Far-Side cartoon of the Koutiala World-Herald entitled "Unclear on the concept."

Inspiring Commitment

It's my first time on a CMA mission field. My first time getting to know CMA missionaries. My first time seeing the international work with my own eyes. My impression? I am WOWed by the team here. No joke, these people are all-stars.

If the term 'missionary' conjures up pictures of tired has-been Americans with sweet smiles and bad haircuts you've got the wrong idea about this team. What I have found is highly skilled pepole with outstanding interpersonal skills. I have found people with great language abilities, people who are quite intelligent. Mostly, I have found people who are called by God with dramatic marks of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

Doctors, Nurses, Business People, Teachers...seriously professional people who could have six-figure careers, but have decided to move a half a world away to do what God has called them to do. I have never felt better about giving to the Great Commission Fund. Not only is it a great mission, but there are great missionaries carrying the torch.

The count down to our return mission

-- by Nick Crellin --

It may seem odd, but several of us are thinking, pondering and praying "Where next, Lord ... where next?" Every single one of us is preparing to reenter Omaha ... changed. Our hearts, our thoughts, and our vision for the future have changed.

Not because we got tasked to paint a morgue. Not because we got tasked to put a tin roof on the warehouse. Not because we created J-bolts from straight bolts. Not because we sanded cement walls. By no means!

Let it never be said of us that we were simply a construction team. Construction was merely the "means" in which we entered the work site. There are plenty of Malians that are willing, capable and skilled to work on the site. No, we are not simply a construction team.

Many of us were not prepared for the life, thought or heart changes that have taken place. For four of us, this is our first missions trip. For four of us, this is our second or third trip. For one of us, this is the tenth (or so) trip. Yet, we have all been impacted!

It is never too early and it is never too late to go on a short term mission trip. The situations in our lives could have "demanded" we not go. We could have, every single one of us, decided that the timing was not right, we have too little to offer, or that our lives are too busy.

We know now, as it has been offered by others wiser than us, that "God does not call the qualified, he qualifies the called." Each of us has been a vital part of the team. Each of us has provided blood, sweat and tears to a hospital, a city and a country on the other side of the ocean.

So ... What are we? What did we do? What was this trip's purpose? What was it all for? John Piper proclaims it best: "To Glorify God and Enjoy Him Forever!"

The heart beat that resonates from the long-term and short-term missionaries, the Malian hospital staff, the Koutiala Christian church and our team is a deep love for God and a deep love for people. The needs of people around the world are the same, but the challenges are different.

We cannot wait to share the many stories, the great love of the hospital staff and patients and what our future holds. We return home bearing a torch from Mali for our friends and family. May you find great joy and encouragement, as you welcome us home.

Blacksmith Boys

On Sunday afternoon, during our sabbath, we got to visit the local forge, a group I affectionately call the Blacksmith Boys. This area of Koutiala backs up to a scrap-iron dump, which is filled with piles and piles of old auto parts, rebar, metal posts and other scrap-iron. Within this L-shaped area (perhaps 40 feet wide, with each section of the 'L' stretching 100 yards) was a walking path in the middle and little 'booths' on each side.

Within each of the booths (roughly 10-15 feet square) were teams of blacksmiths. There might be 1-7 on a team. A typical scene might look like this. An 8-year old boy hand-turns a fan made out of bicycle parts and a metal tube into a super hot fire. The main-dude, some kind of artisan, would pull a hot piece of metal out of the fire with a long pair of tongs in his right hand and set it on a flat forge. Then four teen or 20-ish muscular dudes would pull out these home-made sledge hammers and bang on the piece of metal until it was flat. The artisan then pulls out a precision shaping tool with his left hand and one of the hammer guys strikes it in rhythm about 20 times as the artisan moves it with great precision. The hot piece of metal looks like a perfect arrow.

The artisan changes tools, this time pulling out a square punch. another hammer guy strikes it with great force at just the right time - precisely four times, making four perfect holes in the new shape. The artisan slides the still-hot piece of metal to a curved metal surface where a third hammer dude hits it just-so, in order to shape it into a perfect curve. The artisan places the finished plow-tip onto a pile of others that have been fashioned exactly the same. He then turns and grabs another piece out of the red-hot fire. The whole process took about three minutes.

Imagine having this as your lot in life. Turning scrap metal into something usable. I thought about what my boys would be doing if they were born in this neighborhood. Josiah (9) would be blowing a forge - 6-10 hours a day in the 100+ degree heat. Caleb (14) would have a sledge hammer at an entry level position, swinging all day long, five hours in the morning and then three more in the late afternoon. His adolescent muscles would be bigger and stronger, but college would not be possible. Finishing High School would be doubtful. The fifty cents to a dollar a day that they could earn for the family would be too valuable. If they were really aiming high in life they would dream the dream of one day being an artisan. I am counting my blessings with gratitude these days.

At the same time, I saw a beautiful picture of redemption. These guys took bona-fide junk - rims from semi-tires, 50-gallon drums, and axels. They turned it into stuff that was usable - hammers, tongs, blowers, punches, plows, woks, bowls. They turn things that some people would throw away into something that will become a treasure to another person. Just like God does with us.

Body Odor

Body Odor stages during a Mali Missions trip

Stage 1: You are deeply disturbed that everybody stinks.

Stage 2: You are deeply disturbed because YOU stink.

Stage 3: Everbody stinks, but you don't really care.

Stage 4: What stink?

Audio Bible Update

Job has been working his magic. After talking with the officials, he has been able to work the amount that the 'taxes' on the audio bibles will be down from $15,000 to about $1000. After getting to this point, the officials decided to 'see if we can just make this happen for free.' Keep on praying! We are not there yet, but there is good news.

We checked all our suitcases and we still had 23 of the 200 audio bibles in our other bags. We brought these to the director of CMA missions here in Mali. He was giddy with excitement. He has all kinds of ideas from reaching unreached tribes to ongoing pastoral education to utilize the audio Bibles. I think the full set of possibilities hit him when he saw the Bibles. God is good!

Baako

Last night we heard from missionary midwife Olive Gifford, who has spent her whole ministry career here, since 1979. She told us about a place on the other side of the river called Baako. (Which means "other side of the river".) It is an unusual place that has been isolated even from the progress that has taken place in cities like Koutiala and Bamako.

There are six hundred tribes in this massive triangualar piece of real estate. There is one 'bush clinic' in that place and two churches (defined as having at least ten adults.) The most striking thing, though, is that four hundred of these tribes are considered unreached. You know what counts as 'reached'? If there has been one person, one time, who has gone to a tribe and preached the gospel. Imagine...400 tribes with absolutely no exposure to the gospel, not even one opportunity in their entire lifetime.

It puts things into perspective when in Omaha we can get the message of Jesus in one of six services with four musical styles, and a radio option on Sunday morning. This is not to mention scores of weekly bible studies and classes that will help it all to make sense. And we are just one of hundreds of churches in our city that teaches the gospel! We are truly well-resourced and spiritually rich! May we consider anew how we can share the amazing resources God has given us with those who need it most!

On a hot tin roof

Today, some of the guys spent time in the shop welding trusses, bending j-bolts and other manly stuff. The ladies were cleaning a home to prepare for the return of a missionary family. And a few of us spent time on top of the roof of the warehouse...that's right on top of the roof. What does this mean? It means that the first sheets of metal got put on top of the roof. This is good progress. Have you ever worked with corrugated metal roofing? Me neither! Here's a mini-tour.

Metal roofs are an economically efficient way to top off good buildings in Mali. They are chosen not only for their financial value, but also because they repel the heat of the Malian sun. If you are under the roof that makes things nice and cool. But if you are on top of the roof...YOWZA! Hot! We did not realize that a 'sweatin with the missionaries' course came along with this project. David Holt lost 23 pounds on the top of the shed...just this morning. (WARNING: Pastoral exaggeration... :)

There was a sense of satisfaction in this minor victory, but what was most noteworthy was the view from the top of the roof. From there, you can see the spires of the local mosque, the cell tower, the local TV station, farmland and acres-n-acres of iron-rich red dirt. About a dozen women dotted the landscape in beautiful boldly-colored Malian ware.

Each one of the women was putting a load of that red dirt into a large (18 in. diameter?) bowl. She would lift the bowl above her head, slowly dropping the dirt to the ground. A huge puff of dust would fly through the air and the stuf would hit the ground. She would then take the same pile of dirt that just hit the ground, raise it above her head and allow it to fall to the ground - a puff of dust flying through the air. She would do this over and over again. Eventually, she picked up the pile, put the bowl on her head walk over to a pile of gravel, adding the contents of the bowl to the gravel.

That's it! That's what she is doing...eliminating the dirt (dust) from the gravel. She is getting gravel from the fields. Some of the locals told us that she would probably sell the gravel to make concrete (or maybe use it in her own home to make brick.) The little money that she would get from this bag of gravel might pay for food for a day. She worked all day long knocking dust off of gravel. And before she could sell it, she would need to load it into a bag, put it on a donkey-cart and drive it into town. What a life!

The simple pursuit of food and water consumes so much of the day for many Malians living on less than a dollar a day. Pretty sobering, eh?

Surprises in Mali

-- by Nick Crellin --
This trip has been wild. We have visited six cities on three continents. We have used four types of transportation. We are within a pocket of three languages which are spoken around us daily. We are nine individuals, melding into a family!

We are having so much fun. Both on the work site and at home. Our senses are constantly overwhelmed each day. The sheer velocity of our lives ... slowed down. The quote "Everything takes longer in Mali" is a true statement.

What do YOU expect in Africa? Think about that, before continuing ... what would YOU expect if you were heading to Africa tomorrow?

Everyone has a different idea. Each member expected different things. Even this small list, is not enough to explain our experience. You simply have to reside here, to know our experience. But, take a moment and see a few things we have seen.

Biggest Suprises - Direct quotes from team members
The kids chasing us across town during our market visit -- Glenn
The number of local Malian labor works and medical staff -- Nick
The abundance of wireless networks -- Jacob
There is so much more to this trip than just working on a warehouse -- Dave
I was invited into the delivery room and cared for a new born baby -- Lynne
The number of missionaries kids -- Caleb
The total committment and compassion of the missionaries -- Steve


Surprises mentioned by the team
The way of life in the 3 largest cities of Mali
The number of cell phones in use
No spiders and big scary creatures
The passion of the missionaries
The number of American meals we have had here
You can hire a basic laborer for $1.00 a day
You can hire a skilled laborer (brick maker, electrition, welder) for $6.00 a day

A brief commerce exchange
A Coke costs $1.25 (Omaha), $4.50 (Paris), and $1.50 (Koutiala)
A pound of cheese costs $3.00 (Omaha) and $6.00 (Koutiala)
A watermelon costs $5.00 (Omaha) and $1.50 (Koutiala)
A custom tailored shirt costs $75 (Omaha) and $10 (Koutiala)
Doctor/Hospital cost for labor and delivery $10,000 (Omaha) $22 (Koutiala)

Paraphrased quote of the Day - Tim Wright - Mali Field Director
"In Mali, it is more common for a Muslim man to convert to Christianity, before women and children. However, it is the Animism women who are most likely to convert."

Team Highlights

Here are some great highlights from team members on the events so far:

Glenn Leapley - Glenn is a power player on our team. You may not know him, but he is a metalworker by trade and our biggest need here is welding! What a great thing to have a pro! One day, when we were working, a woman started bleeding bad. She had a rare blood type and the need was urgent. Now, the way things work here is that there is no blood bank. When they need blood, they just ask the family of the person in the hospital. People are reticent to give blood for non-family members. Well, this woman needed it and her family did not match her type. She needed at least two donors and one of the missionaries matched and gave her blood. Guess who else matched? Glenn Leapley...Mr. A- Type blood. His being here might have saved this woman's life. Cool, eh?

Lynne Holt - Lynne got to deliver a baby today. She's a mother of five, so she's not grossed out by that stuff. As soon as the baby came out, she got to clean it, hold it, and do that stuff you do with babies. She loved seeing the miracle of birth and the frontline ministry of the hospital!

Caleb Ashton - In addition to being a painting machine, Caleb hangs out in his off time with the missionary kids. He loves it. One kid is David - age 12 and a half, and his situation is that there are a load of girl missionary kids, but his little brother is the only other boy. What a blast to have another boy to play with! It is a little joy we did not anticipate, but has worked out well.

Sickness - Nobody has any stomach sickness! Thanks to God! Pray that this continues. I have been laid low by an ear-nose-throat thing, but I am not sure if it is allergy or cold. Pray that this annoyance goes away!

Audio Bibles - I should know more tomorrow, but there is no update. Job is still working his magic!

Hosptial Tour

So, today was our first day at the hospital. You know, I have been communicating to you all about this place, but I have never seen it myself... Of course I saw the pictures, but it never does it justice.

The Koutiala hospital is not just a building with a parking lot a-la Lakeside or Emmanuel. It is actually a nine-acre compound with multiple buildings. The complexity is far greater than I imagined, with about 10 international missionaries and 55 Malian staff. This is just to run the hospital. There are other teams of Americans (like us) and Malians who are doing construction to expand the facilities.

The hospital building most utilized for patients is the hospital for women. On average, there are about 5 births and two surgeries per day. Beyond that, there are dozens of appointments for pregnant women and people who are sick. Of course, it is not all evenly distributed. Their busiest day, there were 21 births in 36 hours - and only three beds for deliveries!

Today, we saw triplets born about 10 days ago. They were only 2.2 pounds at birth - born in the bush, but brought immediately to the hospital. Three years ago, these kids would have no hope of survival. But now, with some great equipment (O.K., it's from the '90s...but state of the art by Malian standards) and skilled staff, the babies are thriving and should go home soon. (Interesting side-note... the mother of these triplets already has three sets of twins! This even beats John and Kate Rlus Eight)

The other full facility is the center for children. This is not yet open for children, but they are hopeful to open it within months. One pediatrician is due next month and another in the spring. Pediatric nurses are already in place. The pent-up demand for this is enormous. Not only are 50% of the 120,000 people in Koutiala under 15 years old, but there are thousands of women who have had a great experience with the hospital. They know where they want to come when their kids are sick, but the pedatric building/personnel are simply not ready.

Much of the pediatric building is filled with supplies that are generously sent from U.S. supporters. Because of that, we are building a massive storage and office facility behind the pediatric building. It is the length of a football field and about 20 yards wide. This will provide all the support area necessary to make the hospital thrive. One of our many jobs this week is to weld the trusses for the roof and then lay the corrugated metal roof on top of the trusses. This will allow them to finish the inside. This should all happen in a matter of weeks! This means adequate facilities and the opening of a pediatric facility.


Quote of the Day - Bob Braffhart - Facility Manager - "The Muslim women who come here would never darken the door of a church, but they will come to deliver their children at the best hospital in the country for Ob/Gyn. They will also sit and listen to a Malian pastor tell them the good news of Jesus that they would never hear anywhere else. They will sit in the waiting area for hours and watch the Jesus film in their own language."

Watermelon Crash

Mali Update, October 7

I am sure you are all wondering about the audio Bibles. Keep praying. The missionaries here sent "Job" (yes, like the Biblical Job) to go and handle the situation. Normally, Daniel Thera, a legal and governmental genius, would go, but he is in Omaha to connect with CCC! BTW, don't miss his message on Sunday at the 10:45 Sanctuary service! Anyway, Job is also a well conncted savvy Malian who is trying to get the Audio Bibles out of customs. Pray for him as he negotiates with the right people!

********

As for us, we spent most of yesterday on the road. We woke up to a flat tire on the van that transports us, so the missionaries put on their auto-mechanic hats and got it fixed. The next 6 or so hours were spent driving from the thriving metropolis of Bamako, a bustling city of 2 million people, through the rural roadside villages to Koutiala - the place that CCC folks have heard so much about.

Along the way, we peppered "Bob the Builder", a missionary-mechanic who will lead our team this week, with a zillion question about the sights, sounds and smells that assaulted our senses. We learned everything from the roles of men and women to the people groups of the area to how long meat can be left hanging in the sun before it becomes full of maggots. We saw stuff that we did not even know existed: Fifty or so goats tied to the top of a van - live! Kids as young as eight years old with their little businesses on the road side. People with deformed limbs and faces begging for bread. More mopeds, motorcycles, pedestrians, vans, bikes and busses than you ever thought possble - crammed onto a single city street.

We learned that 80% of Malians live on subsistence farming. That is, they grow enough of their own food - corn, sorghum, millet, or melons - to feed their own family and pay for life's basics. There is so much labor available that you can hire a day laborer for about $1.25 per day. Many of us would pay a kid eight times that to mow our lawn! But here, people work very hard for every dime. If they have a job, they are grateful!

On a good year, farmers harvest more than their family can eat. The harvest that they bring in is sold in the market for a small profit. Or, more likely, the abundance of crops are brought to the roadside for trucks to drive by, pick up the produce, and haul it to Bamako - where the population far outstrips its ability to feed itself.

We are at the end of the rainy season, the time of watermelon harvest. So on our trip, we saw about a half-a-gillion watermelons (in technical terms). Nearly every village we passed had multiple mountains - 6 ft high - of watermelons for sale on the wholesale market, waiting for the Bamako-bound trucks. Men gathered in small groups of men while the women socialized with other women and the children too small to be in school. School-aged kids might be in the government run schools, or -beginning about 10 -they might be herding cattle, gathering watermelon, or utilizing a donkey/cart to do farm chores.

One sight that I will never forget is an accident. Somewhere midway through the trip, our van approached a produce truck, tipped over on it's side - watermelon had washed over the rims of the truck edges - splattered all over the streets and rolling up the sides of the road. An African man stood in front of the truck - one hand waving wildly, the other holding a cell phone near his exasperated lips. A woman about the same age stood near him, chattering passionately in his direction. Off to the side of the road was another figure under a tree - a man lying in the shade. his knees pointed toward the sky. Was he hurt? Resting? Frustrated? How long had they been there? Is there anything we could do to help?

All of a sudden, I was overwhelmed with a feeling of helplessness. Even if we did stop, what could we do? We don't speak their language, don't have any connections or any skills that would serve these people well. Turning the truck over would take heavy machinery that we sure didn't have. So I prayed a short prayer "Lord have mercy" and trusted him to take care of the situation.

I wondered about the guy and his wife as we drove on. Was he carrying a year's wage in that truck? Had he saved for a decade to buy the truck? What level of tragedy is this for his family? Would the guy under the tree be alright? This side of heaven, I'll never know the answers.

It reminded me of our smallness in the face of a vast world of troubles.

It is my instinct to want to solve every problem...to be a person who has kingdom impact. But I was reminded last night that Jesus did not even solve every problem. He could have set up shop in Capernaum and healed people for 12 hours a day. People would have come from everywhere based on his reputation. He could have spent all his time in famine-stricken lands multiplying bread to be sure every person was fed. He could have had a show-down with every demon in Israel..and won. But he didn't. He had an intentional strategy. He did what the Father told him to do.

He went from town to town, healing the sick and proclaiming the kingdom of heaven. And when the time was ripe, he set his face toward Jerusalem, to die a sacrificial death. At the end of his suffering, he was able to say "It is finished." He did exactly what the Father sent him to do.

God has a mission for us, friends. It won't be to solve every problem in the world, but it will be to live our lives in such a way that we look more like Jesus with each passing breath. It will be to have kingdom impact in the place we live and work and breathe. It will be to release resources for worldwide transformation in places like Koutiala, Mali. And by God's grace, he will weave a tapestry of his goodness and we will be able to say that we finished the work that God has given to us.

The team!

So, Here's a picture of our Mali team...you can tell by their look that they need prayer! One more prayer request to add in is for my wife, Kelle, and our three kids left here in Omaha. Also, pray for the four Holt kids that will be here during the trip. I think it is often harder to hold down the fort at home than it is to go on the adventure of a trip, so please pray for them!

Mali Bound

OK, so it has been a long time since I published a blog. I hope to do a few in the next couple of weeks. Why? Because the excitement is pourning on! On Sunday, Oct 5, I will be going to Mali, West Africa with my son, Caleb and seven others from Christ Community. We will be on a construction team building a hospital storage facility and possibly laying some foundations for the big hospital building! It looks to be about 104 degrees in the daytime, so I'll be sweating off some pounds there. Here are some things you can pray for if you are interested.

1) Safety in Travel
2) Team Unity
3) Working across language barriers
4) Opportunities for me to teach in the Church and seminary
5) Effectiveness of the 200 Audio Bibles we will bring
6) Vision for our future partnerships in Mali
7) Great, great relationships with the nationals and missionaries
8) Flexiblity and adaptability.

Our team members are: Mark, Caleb, Nick, Shantel, David, Lynne, Jacob, Glen and our faithful shepherd Steve.

Look for more updates here from me and my comrades!