Questions to ask regularly of disciples:  such as my friends like Benj & Mamadou & Ousman & Oumar, & Adama, & Modibo, & Samba, & Houseni, etc.

Adama & Samba in Dakar

-What r u reading in Bible?
-Prayer needs?
-How is the relation w/ wife n kids?
-Ministry activities?
-What books r u reading?
-Do u feel close to God?
-Do u feel on fire for God?
-Are u fruitful?
-Is your love for God growing?
-How are u doing in holiness?
-What are your spiritual gifts?
-Are you filled w/ HS currently?
-How r u helping the poor or oppressed?
-Are you being persecuted?
-Can you praise God in spite of health problems?

-What is God teaching you?

Things I've learned in Africa!

Some Things Learned Since Coming to Africa in 1984!
Not all perfectly, of course!
Some (tech items) we all learned during this period, but we learned them while on the field, in Africa :-) 

·         French language

·         Bambara language

·         Pulaar - Fulani language

·         Salutations in Moor, Wolof, and Soninké

·         Raising kids to adults!

·         Diapers and discipline!

·         4-wheel driving off-road

·         Diesel engine maintenance

·         Riding a moto in the bush

·         Living in Africa and the importance of greetings

·         Eating w/ hands (giving a new meaning to eating together)

Oumar, a Fulani evangelist, and two of his kids

·         West African foods

·         Sleeping on hard mats

·         Mali bathrooms!

·         All computer and i-net stuff

·         Networking ministries

·         Reconciliation and dialogue

·         Construction Mali style

·         Well digging

·         Car & generator mechanics

·         Games: Quarto, Phase 10, dames, Trente Deux, Speed Uno, Pigs, etc.

·         Archaeology of Israel

·         Living w/ diabetes and depression

·         Living with shoulder and back pain

·         Mali & WA social and political life and issues

·         Travel in African transport (giving a new meaning to rubbing shoulders)

·         Sahel flowers, trees and trimming them

·         Reading the Quran and Hadiths

·         Reading the Maccabees and all the Apocrypha

·         Staying cool in a hot place!

·         Digital photography 

·         WA history and slave trade effects

·         WA tribes and social structure

·         TEE & BCC ministries

·         Read classics i.e. Augustine, Origin, Knox, Eusebius, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Pascal, Brother Lawrence, Francis, Gill, Carey, Josephus, Jerome, Ignatius, Wesley, Kipling, Bunyan, Beza, Luther, De Sales, Hugo, M’Cheyne, Newton, Fenelon, Polo, Owen, etc.

·         Greek studies and exegesis

·         Liturgy appreciation

·         Church dependency issues

·         Eating healthy

·         College financing

Bala teaching about Abraham's sacrifice
after I showed him how to.

·         Stocks, bonds, mutuals, annuities, IRAs, etc.

·         Cross cultural teaching

·         Development work

·         Refugee help            

·         Mali business contracts & hiring and firing

·         Dealing w/ beggars and the poor

·         Storying of Bible for evangelism and discipleship

·         Sonlife (living with Jesus)

·         Training for Storying

·         Handling short-term teams of many kinds.

·         Digital audio ministry

·         Partnerships with 2/3^rd World churches

·         Partnership w/ WA churches and missions

·         Partnership w/ African Americans, Brazilians, and Chinese!

·         Math teaching and home schooling

·         Sending kids to boarding school

·         Fallacies of Islamic theology and practices

·         Witness to Muslims

·         Islam structure & different groups in WA

·         Bible school teaching

·         Animism theology in WA

·         Language learning techniques

·         Studio building and setup

·         French typing and letter form

·         Solar and battery living

·         Depending on God for support: always

·         Continued learning of Gods’ grace

·         Contextualization of the gospel

·         Teaching contextualization (in other languages even!)

·         Use of OT in SLM evangelism

·         Seeing Jesus in every part of OT

·         Audio recording and editing

·         Difference of  sheep and goats J

·         Navigate in bush w/ or w/o a GPS

·         Geocaching!

·         To terimelike (bartering) for everything you buy, except what has a fixed price, and knowing the difference!

·         Fine tune theo.: NCT & Unfulfilled Prophecy, but opposing Open Theo., Emergence, Preterism, & Prosperity Gospel, etc.

·         Abortion protests and support of prolife positions

·         Alphabetization (Literacy teaching) in Bambara and Fulani

·         Walking in intimacy w/ God

·         Flexibility in ministry opportunities.

·         Prison ministry

·         Christian schooling

·         Orienting new mis’ies to life and ministry in Africa

·         Walking and exercises for heart & back health

·         Christian ‘salat’ prayers to help Fulani believers

·         Field finances and spreadsheets

Pastor Moise getting ready to make a compressed dirt brick

·         Management objectives and vision

·         Casting vision & team leadership

·         Servant leadership

·         Foreign currency handling

·         Living thru a coup d’état

·         Moving family across borders

·         Understanding JWs and Mormons a bit better.

·         Losing parents & other mentors

·         Asking questions of people and scripture

·         Recognition of personal limits

·         Adaptability of media in ministry

·         Tolerance of limits in partnership

·         Allowing expression in delegation

·         Foreign language book sales

·         Film and projector operation

·         Recruiting and training new workers, 17 so far!

·         New 2012: compressed mud brick construction

At least 53 Questions to Ask New Workers to West Africa
re Strategies and Adaption to New Cultures:

Is there a written strategy document?
Do they understand contextualizing the gospel?
Do they understand that not all methods work in all places?  That not all media is appropriate for all situations?
Can they tell Bible stories?  Do they know the seven key characteristics of God useful in SLM evangelism?
Can they do personal witness in another culture setting?
How does their agency train workers for ministry here?  How many months?
What cross-cultural training is done in the home country? 
What training is planned to be done in West Africa?  What cross-cultural orientation will be done?  How often?
Is continuing education encouraged?  Will they be studying while on the field?
What kind of supervision is planned?  What model?  How often? 
Do they have a mentor for spiritual life & growth?  Would they like one?
What kinds of evaluations and debriefing will be conducted?  How often?
How often will they leave the district for conferences and vacation?

Benjie holding a ....... ?

 What language learning method will be used?  Have they had specific training in this method?
Can they learn a language in the field without direct supervision?
Do they understand social structure issues?  Have they had any anthropology courses? 
Do they have any plan for understanding the social structure of the culture in which they’ll work?
Have they considered what effect the discovered social structure will have on their strategy?
Do they understand the stages of culture adaption and culture shock? 
Have they looked at all the possible ways to educate their children?  Would they accept far away MK dorms for their precious ones?

Can they suspend judgment of a culture for the first year or more?
Can they settle beforehand the question of trust in relationships?
Have they studied working on conflict resolution in team relations and also in relations with nationals?
What do they know of spiritual warfare?  Do they practice fasting? 
Have they studied animism and folk Islam?
What is their understanding of revelation, dreams, visions, and God’s healing?
What kind of lifestyle do they expect?  Can they live simply?  What transport?
Do they understand the issues of bonding?  Who will they bond with?
Will they want a village house and also a base house in a larger city? Or just one place?
Have they studied Islam?  Have they studied the varieties of SLM in West Africa?
Have they studied well the concepts of the Trinity, Jesus’ incarnation, God’s grace, inspiration of the Bible, & destiny/fatalism to answer common SLM questions?
Have they read on West African history and current politics?  How many of these 18 countries’ current presidents can they name?  Which ones are French or English?  Which ones are Christian?
Do they have a personal holiness commitment?  Are they intimate with God?  Would there be testimonial references for this available?
Are they able to feed from the Bible and God directly?  What is their practice of study and worship and prayer?
Will they be able to freely worship in other orders of service, sing in other forms, and use other forms of prayer?
Do they practice absolute dependency on Jesus Christ in all areas i.e. relationships, money, protection in bad places, health, travel, family, kid’s education, ministry results, language & cultural ability, etc.?  

Do they understand servant-leadership roles?
Are they comfortable with, do they respect people of other races, languages, education, & economic levels? 
If they are African-American (or African-European), do they understand the special expectations & challenges on them in Africa?
If they are African, do they understand the special challenges on them in Islamic West Africa?
Have they studied issues of poverty and community development? 
Have they worked out concepts & strategies of outreach via development?
Have they studied issues of church dependency?  Are they committed to circumventing it?
Have they worked out how to handle beggars, scammers, the truly needy, and pan handlers in a gracious way?
What skills/jobs/vocations have they trained for?  Business? Farming? Health care? Accounting? Teaching?
How flexible and adaptable are they?  Can they tolerate significant changes in their assignment while on the field?
Do they value networking and partnering with other agencies?
Do they see the value of using the OT in SLM evangelism for redefining God for the Muslim?
Can they tell the difference of a sheep and a goat? 

and here we have two ......  ?

After thirty years in the business, Jenn & I are still learning.  We have some notion of answers on these, and others unasked, but we have yet to answer all fully.  New workers must consider these and set a goal of attempting to answer them as they live and minister among our friends.

prayer updates April 2011

I want to update pray-ers on how things are coming with previous requests.

1/  Digging at the well in Fulani nomad village of Duduya has progressed to 26 yrds deep, but blasting in the very hard rock is slow, and not much more water has been found.  We will stop in a few days and wait until after the coming rainy season. Pray for God's provision of funds to reach 30 yrds deep.  btw:  It is very hot and dry here now, it was over 120 degrees the other day (in shade) with promise that Easter will be celebrated on a very hot day.

2/ Our good friend Hasel Sow, an older Fulani nomad, is very sick with a cancer, and Jim hopes to visit him in Assoum soon with some other Fulani believers to encourage him and to be encouraged in the word and faith.

Hasel on left ready to pour his tea,
Oumar on right, one of the Bile school students

3/ The reconciliation process of the Malian church association, AGEMPEM, is moving, but slowly.  The next meeting, where we expect good progress, is not until June!  It is critical to achieve much more progress before assembly meets again in September.  Pray for wisdom for the reconciliation committee members:  Pastors Dondo and Kalan, Ruth, & Jim.

4/  Some missionary coworkers have been hit by severe challenges of health and culture adaption, pray especially for new workers Andrew, Sherry and Eva.  Andrew Lee spent three months with us in Kayes and is now hosting as Chinese team from Hong Kong in Dakar.  He will return to Canada in June before Mary and he come back to Kayes in September.

5/ Two Fulani brothers are studying in Bible schools: Ousman in Cameroon is writing his final thesis, on polygamy in Senegal, and Oumar is back in Benin for his 2nd year of studies.  UWM is helping partly with their scholarships.

6/ The Malian Malinké pastors will be helping churches in the Nyagala and Bafing areas with evangelism campaigns.  Pray for hosting pastors Toma, Joel, & Yousouf, as they work with Pierre, Sekou, Eli, and Jacques.  Also, Pastors Founeké and Pierre will be conducting a dry season preparatory school for mountain village kids in Kenieba in May.