a church delegation visits the imams of Kayes Ndi

Yesterday, Nov 19^th, was the 2nd day of the Muslim feast memorializing Abraham's sacrifice known as Tabaski here in West Africa.  So in an effort of fraternity and witness several of us went to a number of different mosques to visit the imams in their homes.  We focused on the Kayes Ndi (small Kayes) side of the river where there is one Bambara speaking church and where I focus my visits to the Fulanis.

As a delegation of two pastors, Pierre and Joshua, and two missionaries, Siegfried and myself, and two other church members, Abel and Benjamin, we visited about ten imams and two town officials: the mayor and the village chief.  (I think this was Siegfried's third time to do such greetings, I went with him once before.)  I knew over half of them; in fact the chief is in a "grin" group where I often drink tea!  We had a great time and were warmly rec'd in every case as we made these short visits of ten to fifteen minutes. We were even giving them a large card with Arabic writing in the round like Muslims do but this time with Bible verses such as the Lord's Prayer or the Beatitudes.  I gave a small tract in Pulaar to the Fulanis, too.   

I heard today that one of the church members really liked this and thot that we should also visit all the mosques in Kayes, too!  I was also able to sort out better who was who and to make a few connections.  It was interesting that our guide, Mr. Ndiaye, was one with whom I had eaten part of the feast the day before via Mr. Diop, too, so I've made a better friend with him, too.  Another was a relative of one family I know very well, so that connection was improved, too.  Because of my work with the Mauritanian refugees several years back and the help of one Kayes Fulani, Mr. Abba Sy, I took his family name, so I'm known by many jokingly as Abba's son, his oldest son even, since Babba is a year younger.  Abba passed away a couple years ago never confessing Jesus, and I don't think he really understood the gospel much in spite of clear witness several times.  As yet we have just one Fulani believer in Kayes, and he's not from here.  Another man form Kayes was saved elsewhere a long time ago, and he's currently in seminary in Cameroon!  Two or three others are very open and close, but stepping over the fence requires a real effort here. 

I have a dream to do more research in Kayes as to what varieties of SLM we have here.  They have many denominations, too, and most of the Christians and missionaries are ignorant of these distinctions among them.  Some have told me that every mosque of Kayes is a different denomination (brotherhood)!  Most West Africans are Sufis of the Moroccan founded Tijaniyya order (and there are now many versions of this), but some are Wahabiyya, some are Quadiriyya, etc.  Such visits as we did yesterday help me in pursuing this dream.

Those met yesterday:

M. War, a Fulani near Thiam’s home, not present, only older lady who blessed us forever!
M. ___, a Fulani behind Peter’s house and friend of Abel, cheap mud house, not present
M. Sow, a young Fulani in new mosque near Nema’s RA housing; M. Dicko was there, too.
M. Souleyman BA, jom woro and member of tea ‘grin’(Oumar Diallo’en outside)
M. Ly, near Ba family but head of grand mosque of Baka Foro (pix)
M. Adama(?) Mariko, Kayes Ndi Mayor (pix), small yard and house, next to Samba Docter (sic) place.
M. Ibrahima Nimaga, past the church in Karankaran, Kadija Diop husband, and Modibo Diop was there, and a griot, too! (pix)     Nimaga is ‘politician’ of Kayes, his bro. a deputé, he selected the mayor, etc., Family from Nioro, a cattle dealer.
M. Sacko, a Soninke, mosque in Karankaran, older house on one side two stories, newer side large and roomy!
M. Sy, older Fulani who knew me as ‘bi Abba’ (!) lives near big mosque but imam of Ba’en mosque!
M. Mogobé Traoré, a Bambara, near market (son a rapper in France!)
M. Ibrahim Ndiaye, a Fulani tailor, was our guide; he lives near Woppa Diop’en;  Joba, an old lady there is also my friend.

odd notes: 
-all named Chiekna are also called Yuba after Alamamy Cheik Hamala of Nioro.
-all named Ibrahima are also called Baya!
-all named Moussa are also called Bala,
-all named Oumar can be called Baril, at least by Fulanis, etc.

-An Oumou as daughter, the brother who follows is always Modibo (works in the Modibo Diop and Vieux Mohammad’s cases!)

Quiet Evangelism

After church I rode my moto over to Kayes Ndi using the pirogues to cross the river. The bridge is still under repair, and the old bridge is now under water from rainy season, so we have to go by ferry or pirogue. I first headed to see Modibo & Sanusy Diop who were sitting under a tree outside their yard. We chatted a bit about the ferries, my recent trip to Budapest, Houseni's eye operation, the MegaVoice player I loaned Modibo a few weeks ago, and the Duduya well digging progress. After a bit one of the kids came to announce lunch was finally ready, so naturally they invited me in to eat rice and sauce. I was surprised they hadn't eaten yet at 2:30pm. They were kind enuf to keep the peanut gravy away from me!

So I moved on to find Ousman Diop who had ridden with us to Kayes the other day from Dakar. I went first to his sister's on one end of the Bakaforo neighborhood and found he was staying with another brother at the other end! It was nice to chat with Abus Diop there a bit and give out one of the Bientot (Soon) broadsheet tracts (as at each place I visited today). So I rode over to the brother's and found the sister, Adama! She also was waiting for Diop with a couple of other ladies, Seleni and Jouba. While drinking some tea and chatting I tried to play one of the MegaVoice Bible stories in Fulani. They liked it quite a bit, but then while playing the chanted Psalms, the batteries died. With rain threatening I moved on to Idi Thiam's where we caught up a bit on folk, happenings, and my trip. I offered to read a Bible story and selected the Lord's prayer and comments in Luke 11 and we discussed it a bit. His idea of what is the Holy Spirit was mostly a Muslim concept, but much else was correct. This was one of the rare times Idi actually stayed on subject and discussed something without changing the subject for quite a jump!
Rain still ready to fall, I moved on to see Mahmadou Aan and Mamadou Dioum (both from Senegal) in the Sidiya neighborhood. We had a fine time of drinking tea and chatting about the Bible. Mr. Aan had recently helped another Ousman (Gene) translate a longish Christian book on the Seven Beautiful Signs in the Qu'ran. I also found out he'd lived in Cote Ivoire for about 15 years before coming to teach in Mali, and there had lived near a church and a number of Christians so had learned a lot then. Mr. Dioum also has lived in Liberia (speaks fair English) and learned a lot about the Kingdom of God there.
I'm trying not to speak of Christianity, baptism, Christ, Son of God, Trinity, evangelism, church, or other negative connotation code words, in my visits and presentations of the gospel. Neither am I in any way requiring attendance at church or other religious things to show whether one is a believer or not. I'm trying to let them make the declarations by themselves in their own time.
After much chat, and reading Ps 15 about the high bar of a just man, I offered to read the same Luke passage. We

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had an interesting discussion on the Lord's prayer, importunity in prayer, faith, what is the Holy Spirit, etc. Mr Aan has read one book, The Way of Salvation, and listened to most of The Way of Righteousness tapes, and other things, seems to have good answers and comments, so I feel he is getting close to the kingdom, PTL. I left several Bientots for Mr. Aan to give to friends, and a tape in Senegal's Wolof language on fasting for Mr Dioum (the Muslim month of fasting, Ramadan, begins shortly).
May the Lord continue to reveal Himself to these friends.

croc pond and flooded wadi

I had a nice short trip with Idi Thiam to visit some Moor villages.  Claudio Elian went along, and it was his first time in most of the places and among the Moors.  Idi’s grandson, 10, was along and was a lot of fun.  Also along were three men who live in Kayes but come from some villages: Ould Baba of Hamo, Dade of El Gelita, and Salek of Taskaye.  
We left Sat morning, had lunch in Daba 1, spent one night in Daba 2, left early, had lunch in el Gelita, spent one night (with rain) in Taskaye, left early again, got held up for 3 hours by the flooded wadi at Nyakalel, finally ate at Hamo, broke down at Medina, and made it home to Kayes about 9 pm Monday.  They wanted to give condolences to an old man whose wife, an aunt of Salek, had died recently.  They also wanted to discuss a lot of village problems and politics with everyone and held some informal meetings in the Dabas and Gelita for that.   Claudio, Mamadou and I, and a guide, visited the croc pond of Gelita, but found only one dead croc above the dry falls.  Great pix tho ;-)    I was able to read or play quite a bit of Fulani scripture to Idi in the car and in the villages since he wasn’t really involved in the village discussions.  As several of the men also speak Fulani they heard the Psalms being sung on the car cassette player, too.  

( see more photos on Picasa at: http://picasaweb.google.com/malibowers )

Jim's Journal from June 22nd - Staying with the 'Devil'

I feel I’m sitting in the house of the devil! Idi’s Moor friend whom we are visiting is a renowned marabou healer, Mohammad Siby, in Yelimané where his son, Bassirou, has been staying for several months: he’s transformed and sane and calm! Idi says he was terribly violent last year, insulting, angry, suicidal, depressive, and for the first months here he was attached by chain to a log! You wouldn’t believe it for seeing and chatting with him now. There’s several here like this, near thirty, mostly healed or in process (none in view are chained). A man’s daughter wouldn’t talk for over a year and hardly ate: OK now! Another young man, a truck driver, violent and out of control now calm and friendly. Idi says the marabou, our host, gives each a ‘special secret only they know’ and this heals them. I’m sure it’s a combo of traditional medicine that affects them physiologically, as well as psychologically, and there are Islamic incantations of evil nature and compacts that affect them spiritually. It’s a success story! And people send cases from miles around, even from BKO, DKR, and France! May God give us wisdom in the face of such magic, and may he have mercy on these folk for believing such lies.

chatting n drinking tea

We arrived after a three hour trip, 175 kms from my house, after short stops in Medine for meat, a commission in Keresignané, and greetings to Brehima Konté in Djoni. BK had heads the transformed eye clinic now that Andrew and Cilla have retired and left back to England. Emma ‘Guindo’ also works there as an aide and evangelist. They said they can do most treatment that Andrew did except cataract operations. For that they save up a list of candidates and have the Kayes eye surgeon come every so months; just last week they did around forty. J Tito S, Salomon, A, Idi T, Benjie, and Idi’s youngest son, Brehima, are in the car which got us here smoothly with no tire or mechanical problems yet. I pulled out a MegaVoice Hassaniya mp3 player (recently supplied by LeRoy), and our host and two others are still listening to it two hours later. May the Gospel of Truth bring bright Light to this home! I was able to show them an SBC Bible Storying scarf and explain in Bambara the stories of Adam, Cain, Noah, and Jesus for about half an hour, PTL. We brought Fulani literature, as usual, but this is a Soninké and Moor home so Salomon and Tito can barely communicate here! We also have some DVDs and tiny players (sent by Gordy last year), in Bambara, French, Fulani, and Hassaniya, so we’ll see how they work this evening. [We showed the Hassaniya Jesus film to a small audience; the battery kept going until the Upper Room story. Perhaps if on battery some parts can be skipped so the cross and resurrection can be shown in full. [The Hassaniya DVD also has a Wolof soundtrack, one on each channel of stereo, but since this player can’t control balance we had a mixed voice, but no one complained.]

pix says 'house of Mamadou Sibi: demon master':

Early on Sunday morning we drove back down the highway to near Keresignane and then turned north to Davou, it turned out to be 45 kms off the highway right on the north country border. We think we even stopped in a north country village to ask directions. Our host was a cousin of Idi’s wife and his mother had recently passed away, so Idi was up there to express condolences. He has lived and worked in France for years, and on this six month break he’s rebuilding his home in concrete. He was very gracious, and after a fine meal he showed us all over the small village. I think his brother is the chief, but he was away. They have a brush arbor school house and a pump well, but not much else yet. We were able to show the new “Gidli Baba O” (love of the father) movie in Pulaar of the Prodigal Son. Again we used one of the small DVD players, and this time we got thru the whole movie. A few Fulanis bought some of our literature. I forgot to get out the mp3 player, so I’ll send one up via Idi soon. We left around 5:00 pm and made Kayes by 8:00 pm after driving thru a driving rain storm.

from Jim's Journal on 18th April, 2006 -March for Jesus in Kayes!

We had a great day yesterday marching for Jesus! Well over 100 marched in the heat on Easter Monday singing and dancing and preaching from Diabougou thru Kayes Ndi. We got started about 8:30 am, crossed the bridge about 9:30, paused at the Evangelical Sahel Church around 10:30 and finished near the Deeper Life Church by noon.Our Toyota was the lead car with the speaker system and even a small generator running the whole time for power. Preachers included Josué Komaté, Djikiné, Phillipe Dembelé, Pierre Keita, Oumar Diallo, and David Sogoba. This was great for unity and as a witness to the city. Easter services were long with lots (too much) joyous singing. Mark Harris had a great message on walking with Jesus in holiness, very practical sonship.

I tried to get Idi Thiam to come to a service, but he and his sister were fighting sickness. Yesterday however, he invited Oumar & I over for dinner, so we went in spite of the tiredness after the march. While Oumar dozed I had a great Bible discussion with him concerning such issues as the Son of God and the substitutionary death of Christ. He’s getting closer!