Urgent Prayer Request

One of our next-door neighbors, a young lady named Christiana, was taken to the local government hospital on Saturday. She had been complaining of a toothache for awhile, and the night before it seemed a little worse than normal, but she was up and out visiting with everyone. But when we went to the clinic to visit with her, she was completely unresponsive, although she would sometimes jerk her arms or legs, and her eyes were open most of the time, but usually rolled back in her head. They ran some tests and she was diagnosed with both typhoid and malaria, but they also did a spinal tap and suspect she may have spinal meningitis as well. On top of everything else, we just found out she is about 5 and a half months pregnant. She had been hiding it because she was worried her family would be angry. The lab results for the spinal tap have not come back yet, but they are starting her on some broad-spectrum antibiotics, hoping something will work. When we went to visit yesterday, she seemed to be doing a little better. She was sleeping, and appeared more peaceful. She also showed some signs of deliberate movements, such as scratching her head or rubbing her eyes, and right before we left she would open her eyes and look at us, though she still isn't speaking. Please keep her and the baby in your prayers. Unfortunately, the "hospital" she is in really can't even be considered a real hospital. There is only one doctor, who is rarely there, and the nurses don't seem to communicate with each other at all when they change shifts. They have virtually no supplies, and so they send the family out to search for everything they need (from IV fluids, to a catheter and bag, and all of the medicines, syringes, and needles). They have had to go around to all the different pharmacies trying to find eveything, which just puts even more strain on the family who is already having a difficult time with this. Even the fluid from the spinal tap had to be taken by one of the family members across town to the lab to be tested.

Please keep Christiana, and her whole family, in your prayers during this difficult time for them. As far as we know, Christiana is not a Christian. We have witnessed to her in the past, but she has always been very much against anything that has to do with God. I am praying that He will use this illness to soften her heart and bring her closer to Him.

Secret Societies (the devils come out)

Ever since I first arrived here, we've been hearing people talking about the "secret societies." No one can tell us exactly what they are, or what they do. Supposedly, they are strictly cultural societies, and not related to any religious practices. Supposedly, nothing bad happens in the societies. Yet, almost anyone we have talked to tells us they would not want to be in any of the societies. There are separate societies for men and women, and each society has it's own area of town that is their "region." Occasionally, for anniversaries or other special days, one or more of the societies will have a parade. We saw one society parading right around our neighborhood several months ago, but we saw another one last week while we were out driving around. Apparantly, every men's society has their own "devil" that comes out whenever they have a parade. Ever since we first saw one, we have wanted to get a picture, so we asked our neighbors if it was allowed, and they said it should be no problem. So when we saw another society parading, I pulled out my camera to get a picture. We got it, but one of the men in the society saw us and became very angry and started yelling at us, so we drove away quickly (the picture on this blog is the "devil" for that society).

Lately, we have been told that for independence day (april 27), all of the societies and devils will come out. When we told our neighbors about our picture experience, we learned even more about the independence day traditions. While they are all out parading, whenever two societies meet, their devils will fight to see which one is better. We are told that every year there are casualties from these fights.

Last night, we had our first experience with a women's society. The group came down from the mountain range in our neighborhood, dancing and chanting. They stopped at one of our neighbor's houses and danced there. Three of the girls were wearing all black, and from what we gathered, they appeared to be the new inductees. After the dancing was finished, they made their way over to a walled compound and disappeared, although we continued to here chanting throughout the night. They were perfoming female circumcision on the new inductees. Although this practice has technically been outlawed, once a girl reaches 18, the police will not to anything to stop it.

Although we are told that nothing religious is happening in these societies, and that they are not practicing any form of devil or spirit worship, it is certainly clear that nothing good is coming out of these societies. And whether they know it or not, the members of the societies are in great spiritual bondage. Please pray for these people, and especially as Independence Day draws near, pray for the entire nation.

Faith Like a Pikin

Last night's children's service was amazing! I love our pikins! (the krio word for "child"). I have been teaching them Bible lessons chronologically, starting with creation, and now tracing God's covenant with Abraham through future generations. Last night we got to Moses and the burning bush, and the kids absolutely loved the story! It was like they had heard it for the first time! They were so attentive, and did a good job of answering my follow up questions after the story. Then I opened it up for questions from them if there was anything they didn't understand, and they had some really great questions! One of them wanted to know why God allowed the Israelites to be enslaved so long in the first place, which opened the door for a little bit of review of previous stories. Another one wanted to know why Moses didn't want to obey God, and how he could have so easily lost his faith. What a question we can learn from! In the eyes of a child, it's so simple....when God asks you to do something, He will protect you and give you everything you need to accomplish it. So why do we so easily forget our faith? It was truly humbling to hear those thoughts coming from our precious children.

In other news, my time here is winding down SO fast! I have only a little over a week left! It amazes me how quickly it really has gone by. I feel like I am just starting to really get into the swing of things and build relationships and now I am leaving, but that's the way it has to be I suppose. Tuesday night with the girls was a blast though! They tried to teach Megan and I how to "plant" (the tiny braids they wear), although we were both terrible at it. And even though this time with the girls is really just a fun, hang out and relationship building time, it always seems to open doors for really good conversations with them, including talking of spiritual matters. And two of the girls, who have never come to our services before, came Sunday morning after our first girls' night! God is truly blessing! Pray that He continues to work in and through me, even in my final week here.

Flogging Judas

It never ceases to amaze me, all of the interesting...and strange...customs and traditions that are celebrated here, even among Christians! While we were out driving last Friday, I saw a teddy bear sitting in a chair on the side of the road. There are always beggars everywhere sitting like that, but it seemed a little funny to find a stuffed animal. We just figured maybe some little girl wanted to giver her doll a chair. The bear also had a plate in his lap, so maybe the child thought he was hungry? Well, after the Easter celebrations had finished (Easter Monday is actually a bigger holiday here than Easter Sunday, although I'm not really sure why), we were out visitng with our neighbors and asking them how they enjoyed their holiday. A few of the older kids got very excited and told us that they "flogged Judas." Apparantly, the custom for the Christians here is that on Good Friday, they make a Judas doll. They dress him up and set him on the side of the road with a plate in his hand, and half a Bible at his feet. I don't really know why half a Bible, or how they even get half a Bible (hopefully they don't rip one!), but that's what they do. They leave him there all day, then they "flog" him, and then dump him in the river! There seems to still be quite a bit of infulence of animism, as well as some Catholocism, mixed in with their Christianity. It is always a struggle to get to the heart of the issues there, but pray that as we continue to disciple the new Christians that they would grow in Christ, and in their knowledge of the Bible.



Easter Sunday went extremely well. The kids absolutely loved the Easter egg hunt! It was so adorable! And Megan, Mrs. Owens, and I, had traditional African outfits made, so everyone thought it was great that we were wearing them. We even attempted to make head wraps :)



We had a team meeting this weekend to discuss ways to revamp our youth outreach. Our attendance has been way down the past couple of weeks, and in general it is just difficult to get the youth to commit to anything, because they have so many other things competing for their time. It is especially difficult getting girls to come, as they seem to have to do everything around the house, from cooking to laundry and taking care of siblings, among other things. And with no electricity or running water in most of the homes, these chores take much longer than you might expect! So Megan and I have decided to have a time just for the girls, building relationships with them, at a time when they are available. We invited the five teenage girls who live in the houses next to us to come over on Tuesday evening, after they had finished eating and all of their chores. In a culture where the role of women is so extremely downplayed, we feel that it's important to have a time where we can really just minister to them and show them how important they really are and help them to see their worth and their value in God's eyes. We had a great time of painting nails, looking at pictures, and talking about boys, relationships, and purity, which actually went very well. Please pray for us as we continue to try to reach out to these girls. There is a little bit of a language barrier, as their English isn't very good, and we obviously haven't mastered Krio yet, but between the two we seem to be able to have fairly good conversations. Please pray that their hearts would be open, and that God would open up opportunities for us to really witness to them, and that He would give us the words to say to reach these precious girls.

I also ask that you would be in prayer for the upcoming Independence Day, which is April 27th. There will be massive celebrations and parades all week and, given the tenuous nature of the relationship between the political parties as it is, there is the potential for rioting. Pray that this truly would just be a time of celebration and nothing more. And please pray for me too as I start to really wrap up my time here. Pray that I would really make the most out of these last three weeks. Pray that I stay focused and not get too distracted by everything that will be going on once I get home, but that I would keep my eyes and my heart open for whatever God has in store for me here. Thanks again!!

Sports days, puppet plays, a village visit...hooray!!

Well, we are just wrapping up what will probably be the busiest week of my time here. It's been exhausting, but SO exciting! Last Friday and Saturday, we spent the whole day down at the local football (soccer) field for two different Sports Days. Sports Day is a MAJOR event for every school here, and is somewhat similar to the track and field days that many American elementary schools have. It is an all day event, and the students from the schools are split into different "houses," (teams with different colors). They have a big parade down from their school to the field to kick the day off, marching and carrying banners for their houses. The teachers and judges have a special covered sitting area, where there are trophies, a sound system with big speakers, and even a D.J., and vendors walk around selling food, drinks, and colored ribbons (so fans can support their favorite house). Some of the games are easily recognizable, such as regular races and relays, musical chairs, and even "tug of peace," which was explained that the name had been changed because they already had enough war in Sierra Leone. Some of the games, however, you would certainly never find in America! Friday was the Sports Day for Kaningo, the school where we had been volunteering, and on Saturday all of our next door neighbors had their sports day, so of course we attended both of those. The announcer even had Megan and I be the judges for one of the events at Kaningo's sports, so that turned out interesting. The house leader for the team which placed last seemed pretty upset with us, and demanded that we explain why her child didn't win, but it turned out all right :)

This week we got creative and worked on different crafts and projects for Easter. In anticipation of our weekend trip to the village, we made 800 wordless books for the children. Our driver suggested that we would probably have anywhere from 300-500 kids, or possibly more, so we wanted to be sure we'd have enough. We actually ended up with only about 200 or so, so we've got plenty of them left for another ministry outing. Then we decided to dye Easter eggs for our Sunday school children. Of course, even though they celebrate Easter here, they've never heard of Easter eggs before, so it's been interesting to see what they think about it. I'm pretty sure they think we're crazy, but at the same time they get a hard-boiled egg to eat, so they are excited about that. We let our teen group hunt for eggs this afternoon, and it went pretty well. We'll see how it goes tomorrow morning with 50 kids! We also have construction paper Easter bunnies, which we made cookies to put inside, so they will get a little extra treat. Meanwhile, we have been practicing our puppet skills, getting ready for our first puppet debut. We actually even got some little African outfits for them, although mine is a dog so he just has a scarf made from some extra material. But they look pretty adorable!

Yesterday, we drove upcountry to Moses' village, which was absolutely amazing!! Of course, I love the village setting anyways, so I knew I would enjoy it, but it was still so great. We had about 200 kids, and we went over the crucifixion and resurrection stories, had a few object lessons (including Bill and Bob, which are always a big hit :), and played some games with them. We even decided to go ahead and do our puppet skit with them as well. Some of the kids seemed a little bit afraid of them, but for the most part they seemed to enjoy it. Later in the evening, we showed the Jesus film in Timne (the local dialect), so everyone loved that. The pastor gave an invitation following the film, and several decisions were made for Christ. I feel like you can never really know in a situation like that how many people truly become Christians, and how many just raise their hands and go along with it because they think you want them to, but I thank God for the opportunity to at least share the gospel and plant the seeds, and pray that the Lord would continue to work on the hearts of the people there. We arrived back home very late last night (well, technically it was very early this morning), but the trip was well worth it.

Tonight we made an Easter bunny cake, just for fun :) Even though we're in Africa, it's nice to still try and keep up with some american traditions. We are all very excited about tomorrow. We have quite a few things planned for our kids, and we are going to try and show a portion of the Passion movie in "big church." Yes, I still call it that :) So please be in prayer for our services and for the people who are coming.

Ah, the adventures!

Whew! We have been SO busy here lately! So I'll try to give a brief recap. Last week, I was able to do a skype interview with my home church for their missions conference. It was such a blessing to be able to hear the voices of friends and family from back home! We revisited Cherith, an orphanage about an hour and a half away, where we were took some time to just sit and play and talk with the kids. Dr. Peper arrived a few weeks ago. He also brought another pastor who will be staying here for six weeks and is doing a Walk Thru the Bible seminar, so we spent some time preparing for that. We had our first session on Monday, where we spent six hours covering the Old Testament (and memorizing 77 different hand signs to go along with it!) About 25 fellow missionaries and national pastors attended the training, and we will have the New Testament seminar next Monday. The biggest upcoming event on our schedule is Easter weekend. Friday, Moses, our driver, will be taking us upcountry to his village where we will show the Jesus film. We plan to have a children's service first, followed by the film, and then a message from Pastor Owens. Please pray for this opportunity to minister in a new area.

My Wednesday night Bible stories with the children has been going great. It's wonderful to see the kids getting so excited about the stories, asking and answering questions. What a blessing! Our adult service on Sunday mornings has also been growing, which has been such an encouragement. During the "Sunday school" hour, we have several who have really started asking questions and wanting to learn more. We also have a group of men who have started a choir, and one who has been leading worship for us. They come twice a week for practice, and have been very faithful.

Unfortunately, it has not all been good things which are happening. Thankfully, the political situation remains mostly stable in our region for the moment. However, there is certainly potential for another outbreak. The people here tend to have extremely fiery personalities, and clashes happen often. Lately, there has been some major conflict between some of our neighbors and our caretaker, who lives in our compound, which has really started to put a strain on our ministry to them. They took thier conflict before the chief, and were told to stay off of each other's property, meaning that the neighbors (along with all of their children, who are really a core group within the church) will no longer be coming to church, since it is inside our compound. We are currently looking to find another place to hold services in hopes of resolving some of the issues, and have been trying to encourage both parties to reconcile. Please pray for peace in this situation, and that we would be able to provide wise counsel without being thrown into the middle of the controversy.

As always, your prayers are very very much appreciated (and needed!) Thank you so much for taking the time to keep updated with the things going on here, and for your continued prayer support.

market ministry and other matters

Well we started our market ministry today! For the first lesson, I think it went very well. Because the outreach is for women, we are doing a study of women in the Bible, starting today with Eve. We had a good handful of women who were actually attentive, as well as many children, so that was encouraging. However, as our Krio has improved, we are able to understand much of what others are saying, and we noticed that our translator was leaving out some important things which were said, but I'm sure we will be able to work around that. Please pray for these precious ladies we are trying to reach out to. As in many African cultures, women here are considered much lower than men and aren't always treated very well. We actually had some national pastors here tell us that God did not create women equal to men, because Adam was the only one God really created, and then Eve just came out of him. They also have some very strange ideas about every woman today being made from the rib of another man, and their job is to find the man whose rib they have and that is who they should marry, but that's another story completely. It is very sad and troubling, though, to hear of all the false teachings (and this is only one of them), which are being taught to the people here. We have been noticing that some men who come for our Sunday services have really started to question these false beliefs, and truly have a desire to learn more about what Scripture teaches, so that has been such a huge blessing. Mr. Owens has been doing discipleship lessons with many of them, and it is our prayer that they would grow in the Lord and be able to share that with other members of the community.

On another note, I would ask you to please be in prayer for safety and stability within the city. Before I explain any further, please know that this situation is most likely quite minor and will amount to nothing, so please do not be worried, just pray that nothing more will come of it. On Sunday, the vice president closed down the radio station for the political party which he is not a member of. That caused quite a bit of quarelling between the two parties. Yesterday, there was a "demonstration" by the offended political party, which was peaceful, but took a strong police force to dispel. Today we received emails from the embassy urging American citizens to stay away from Freetown proper (the busy, "downtown" area), for the next 48 hours. As of now, it appears that nothing will come from the situation, because neither political party has any financial backing, but I would just encourage everyone to pray that it would be resolved peacefully. Thanks again!