New Year 2012

January 1, 2012.  The day has dawned cool and glorious here in Mali.  Last night there was noise and celebration,with  firecrackers and rockets shot into the night sky as midnight approached.  Here at the H2tNi base we celebrated with games and prayer, goals setting for the new year after  review of goals set last New Year's eve.  There were about 2 dozen boys and young men. a few of us ladies and one little girl gathered together in our large multi-purpose hall. Christian Spindler, Eva Durst and Mattias deMink, 3 young Austrians who served here in the past year and have traveled back for Paul's wedding were also with us.



The evening started with  our customary 'family meeting' at 8pm. Then began a slide show of pictures from the last year.  Claudia has done a good job of getting pictures of everybody included in that selection: resident kids and some street kids, staff , Paul and Rokia, Anthony Turner, who was our guest speaker for the 7th Anniversary (you would have been gratified, Pastor Anthony, to hear the murmer of warm remembrance that your pictures brought from our residents and the street boys alike), Austrian and American helpers.  It is always fun to sit in a group and see pictures of good shared memories.

Games were 'youth group' types, circle competitions of dexterity and attention, which needed no props. Arms crossed and hands palm down on the floor complicate the required slap slap of left-right or the reverse right-left, and little ones were elimnated quickly.  They didn't seem to mind as a cookie from the leftover Christmas cookie stash was given to each one that lost out..I manned the camera this evening and even finagled one for myself. Yummy! :))

As the midnight hour approached, Claudia got out the letters that our boys had written to themselves last New Years Eve, listing goals and desires to be accomplished in 2011.  After they looked them over, she asked who had goals that they had achieved, and got some varied responses.  Slips of paper were given out and they wrote goals to strive for in 2012.  Rather a neat variation on the resolutions we often plan and then forget about. Thanksgivings and prayer followed as we stood for the countdown--then the noise!

Some of the street boys were ready for bed before the midnight hour struck, and some had already dozed on benches. Except for a few of the older ones who had gone off base to celebrate, things were well settled before long into the new year.

Ray and I took the opportunity to make our first skype-call of the new year to my sister in Harrisburg and wish her a Happy New Year 5 hours before they got to it. Then we saw that friends at Roxbury were on-line and skyped with them for awhile as well. 

Amazing the wonders of comunications technology-- and then I was reminded again this morning ('wouldn't you like to link your cell phone to your google-facebook-skype accounts so you can have another way to recoup if you are hacked or forget your password?") of Gods prophesies to us about the end of time, when knowledge would increase explosively, and mens hearts would faint for fear.  I often ponder on the networking that we are subscribing to -for our convenience, NOW, and wondering what it will lead to or be used for in the future. I am so glad that HE, gracious God, our loving Father, is in charge and ever will be, else MY heart might freeze in fear of the prospects. 

We are looking for Jesus' return to earth in power & glory-perhaps in 2012- and desiring that all who we know will look forward to that event in joyful expectation as well.  If you do not know God's great gift to all the world - JESUS- as your saviour and Lord, find someone who can introduce you to Him.  You will never be sorry that you did. 

We would love to make the introduction if you have no one closer.  raymimheisey@gmail.com

Wishing you a New Year of blessing, spiritually first and foremost, but also physically, financially and in all of your living.

Til Christ returns or we see you again, Be Blessed and be a Blessing.

miminmali

Market Strike and Christmas Vespers

Market on Strike 
What do you do when the market goes on strike?  Not just the supermarket but the convenience stores and the minimarkets, too! No Weis or Saylors or Turkey Hill or Sheetz are open. How long can you go without buying milk and eggs and bread and fresh produce?  Longer than many folks here, no doubt, because you likely have some food in the refrgerator or the freezer, and Mac'n Cheese on the pantry shelf.
Folks here go to the market every morning to purchase the items they will cook for their families that day. Everything they need is at the local market- from soap and 'scrubbies' to produce & spices, oil & vinegar. Some of these things are coming from local gardens, and ladies go to their neighbors stalls when they can, but many items are purchased at larger markets and brought in daily. 

Every morning, our cooks wend their way thru the rows of stalls to find the items that will be needed to make dinner and supper for 25-30 people. Maybe a kilo of meat(which the butcher has brought in that morning as a hanging quarter of beef or side of mutton),then hot peppers, onions, okra, assorted vegetables, a little tomato paste (spooned into a small piece of plastic bag from the vendor's large can), sugar, oil and vinegar(poured into ½ K plastic bags, and knotted shut)are purchased and placed in the bucket they will balance on the head to carry back to the base.  Elizabeth, who lives in another neighbohood,  carries her load to our old Toyota pick-up truck which has come to pick her up after dropping the school children off at their respective schools.  

NOT today! Fanta says “sugu te!”--there is no market!  It seems the vendors are on strike.  We are not sure exactly who the strikers are or whom they are trying to cause change in, but the bottom line is that there is no market open today.  So Elizabeth will not come to cook and Fanta will cook with what she can secure from the small boutique nearby.  That also means that Fanta will not be doing her regular cleaning routine for Hawa or us.  We do have bags of rice stocked, so there will be that to eat, tho probably not the usual tasty sauce that goaes with it.  We will see! 

When I wrote my last blog about experiencing Christmas here in Mali, I was not aware that we would be having a lovely Christmas vespers service at the Avant Center last night. It was planned by the English speaking fellowship we have been a part of here, and there was a larger than usual representation of the English speaking population of Bamako there. On the front lawn, under creative Christmas lights and decorations strung from tree to pillar and post, we sang Christmas carols together. We sang Silent Night (all 4 verses)in English, and then the first verse in each of 5 other languages, representing the home lands of our gathering. We were also treated to several special Christmas numbers, readings and a devotional by members of our missionary community.  I think my favorite was the Vanderaa family singing a ballad-y piece with at least 5 part harmony.  Lovely!
  
No Christmas gathering would be complete without food, would it? After the vespers we chowed down on the excellent selection of 'sweet or savory' snacks spread out on the buffet, with a beautifully plum-colored mulled cider drink (bi-sap??).  Just like at our potlucks at home, we were each asked to contribute to the buffet, and so we had treats from our many cultures.  It was so nice to chat in our native tongue among these new friends with whom we share a common purpose! 

This week I hope to make a (mock-apple) papaya pie, finish my Christmas baking so that I have some goodies to give to neighbors in celebration of Christ's coming (thanks to Ruth and Charles Lehman for their example of this) and find a tailor who will be able to make us each a good Malian outfit for Paul & Rokia's wedding. Also on the agenda is to schedule a few dates when we can invite friends in to our apt for a meal, or at least an evening of games, tea & cookiesor chocolate fondue.

We are hoping that you are also preparing to celebrate this season of God's great gift to us by telling your neighbors and friends the good news.
Be blessed and be a blessing this Christmas.

Looking Like Christmas!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christ-mas……! Except that the particles in the air are red dust and black plastic bags instead of crisp white snowflakes.  We have hung a few red and gold ribbons in the livingroom, set up a tabletop Christmas tree on a wooden box,  and placed the new African nativity set on the small cupboard that holds our dishes. We listen to our one Christmas CD - a Chris Tomlin CD of Christmas carols (why didn’t I think to bring more? ...next year!) and have even baked some Christmas cookies.  It doesn’t quite look and FEEL like Christmas to us yet!  But then, what does “Christmas” look like?    In reality, that first Christmas must have looked a lot more like where we are in Mali this year, than any place we have been for Christmas in our lives!!   When I look out my window, I can see small houses with flat roofs and unscreened windows, and courtyards where small fires are built to cook simple meals.  The streets are rough and dusty—one NEEDS a feet-washing after walking any distance on them.  I can hear (CLEARLY, at 4 am) the braying of a donkey that might be the descendent of the one we like to think Mary traveled on to get from Nazareth to Bethlehem in answer to Caesar’s command for a census count. There might be a few cattle wandering down the street, tended by a Fulani herdsman, like as not;  probably a few sheep are in view, and a couple of hens with a flurry of chicks scratching in the dust. There may be a neighbors’ dog, or a couple of goats in the picture as well.  [No need to seek out a live nativity scene.: )]          

Children of all sizes are out and about from daylight til well after the sun goes down.   Infants are carried on the hips or slung on the backs of sisters just slightly older themselves. (Well, maybe a little older. – But we have seen tiny babies on the back of children that look to be no older than 3 or 4, and I watch in amazement as a mother places her newborn on the lap of her 2 year old (Yes, her 2 year old!) sitting on the bench beside her, then calmly picks the baby up again in a few minutes when the toddler gets restless.)  ‘Big’ brothers  stop in at the church services and listen for a bit, then shepherd their toddler siblings back out the door and down the street to wherever it is they have decided to go that day.  [I can visualize Mary telling Jesus to take young John or James out to play, and a similar scene ensues.] 

Toys are what you make them



Toys are made of whatever is at hand:  a bicycle tire or a plastic bag on a string make dandy toys to chase down the street with a stick or watch fly aloft on the breeze.  An empty plastic coke bottle works to play kick-the-can, by your-self or with a friend. ( A recent picture captured 3such tires lined up in parking-lot fashion against the church wall, with rolling sticks balanced on top, while their young owners ventured inside to hear the Bible story, or listen to the singing and the drums. [No, I don’t think that Jesus had coke bottles to play with, or plastic bags either, for that matter.  But maybe his kite was made from a scrap of material from a worn and discarded garment, or he had a whistle made from a length of sweet grass, or bamboo.  And I imagine that his feet got as rough and calloused as these boys’ feet get as he ran and played with the other boys in Nazareth.]  In Yirimadio, donkey carts and small pushcarts raise trailing clouds of dust (and flies) as they wend their way over the rugged streets and roads.  Piles of rubbish seem to be everywhere.

Small boutiques open their doors for customers and tailors hang up their samples on pegs on their shop walls. Carpenters set their beds and cupboards outside tiny workshops  to be seen by passersby, maybe choosing this quiet morning to varnish a new piece. The crippled beggar makes his way to his spot where traffic has to slow to cross a dry waterway and then turn a corner, hoping to make enough to sustain himself another day.  Children head off to school and enterprising women sit at food booths near that busy corner.  Fruits and vegetables, eggs to be fried and served on fresh bread for breakfast sandwiches, maybe a few soaps and household items are for sale.

Mary and Joseph may have looked out on a similar scene, don’t you think?  If the angels did not visit you and give you a heads up—Christmas looked like any other day in Bethlehem.  Mary probably planned to go down to the market to buy provisions for the day, and draw water for the day’s work from the community well. She may have had a scarf to wear draped over her head to shield her from unwelcome stares, as well as the heat of the mid-day sun. That scarf could also be coiled to make a more comfortable resting place for the pot that she carried back to her house on her head, pregnant or no. [Plastic buckets and light metal basins substitute for clay pots around us here in Yirimadio, but I still stand amazed at the loads they can carry on their heads.]  Joseph was most assuredly dressed more like the men of Mali, with their long flowing kaftans and loose trousers, than in the Docker’s and polo shirts that you guys might see in your closet.

Living in Mali has given us a new perspective on what Christmas looks like.  It is a different, and sometimes uncomfortable picture. We still enjoy some of our traditions,and the Christmas carols we listen to.  But my material trappings of ‘Christmas’ seem much less worthwhile, and I am forced to look at this gift of God in new ways.  What about you?  How does your ‘Christmas’ look this year?
Make it a meaningful one, no matter how and where you celebrate it.  It is still a celebration of the greatest gift ever given—Jesus, incarnate/come in the weak form of a man-child- to bring new life to us all.

Have a blessed Christmas!



We get watermelon for Thanksgiving AND Christmas!



Black plastic bag transformed into fish kite

 


At market with Fanta last summer.

 

School sucess and Christmas Celebrations

The boys are doing well in school and that is good to see. Sometimes, in the past, they have not risen to the top like good fresh cream. I wrote about the daily chores and the Bible meorization that is on their daily schedule. They also have regular homework time scheduled each day after school. Undoubtedly, that scheuled time when they have to sit down and at least look like they are studying is bringing postitve results. There is someone there who can answer questions if they have them, and is also there to see that the study time is being observed. This year we have 1 that is first in his class, another that ranks 3rd and another 5th. That is a pretty good record for kids who have been on the street and not under a caring parent's protection for these formative years. We are proud of them! I think they are understanding the value of learning and are really working at it.
When Claudia came home after being gone for 10 days for her Christmas shopping trip and visit with family in Austria this week, they were eager to show her their good reports, as noted in their workbooks. Claudia asked a question about how they were doing, and I watched as Karim (who happened to be the quickest to return with his evidence) pointed out page after page with a teachers 'tres bien' or similar comment posted. Jeremie and Boubacar and Amadou and Flo were grouped up behind him with their books to show her.
We have wondered what a Malian Christmas celebration would be like, and have been told that churches celebrate with an all night worship service with dancing and singing on Christmas eve, then go home for a few hours before gathering again on Christmas day to continue the festivities til mid afternoon. No gift giving or fancy decorations. "It's all about Jesus!", I was told. I hope we get a chance to experience that kind of a Malian Christmas.
Our base celebration will be more western, it seems. Claudia brought back some Christmas candies in the guise of Advent Calendars which a few lucky boys get a chance to sample each evening. Lights have been strung in the familyroom, and a snow and Santa cloth adorns the table there. We will have to wait and see what other celebration there will be.
We have put up Christmas decorations in our apartment-- the few that we brought with us, and a few that we have bought since we are here. Our decorations are quite eclectic. While we are missing the smell of fresh pine greenery that we usually cut off our 'back 40', we do have an Advent Calendar that Mattias,our exchange student from Gernmany, brought us many years ago; a tabletop Christmas tree with a tiny string of lights and a few carefully selected ornaments from our stash at home; our new Malian Nativity set, watched over by the hand-crafted-Malian-angel-ornaments that I purchased from a ministry to girls who are being rescued from prostitution here in Bamako. We also brought some bright red and gold bows to add color to the strands of dainty pine garland we purchased in upstate PA several years ago, while celebrating our 35th anniversary with the Freys (Remember that, Wes and Lena?). We have succeeded in downloading a few carols from the innernet but mostly are playing our Chris Tomlin Christmas CD.
Not like at home but, it is where we are for this season. We are of course missing all of our families and some of the extra celebrations that we enjoyed so much when we lived in Pennsylvania--but Ray & I are having a chance to sing in an 'Anglo-phone' (read English speaking) choir of Handel's Messiah, and we will be attending Julie's school Christmas program at BCA.
We are Occupying CHristmas here in Bamako, tho in different ways than we have in the past.
Celebrate with us the birth of the one and only Son of God- Jesus, Saviour , Redeemer, and Lord.
Mim in Mali

'Chili' in Mali- (tho not so chilly as in PA right now)

This morning I read a post from a friend that was making a pot of chili. You have to know that a good bowl of chili is one of my favorite comfort foods, so my ears perked up--or is that my eyes perked up, since I was reading it?--anyway, I read her recipe. Yumm! I can make a taste-of-home-pot-of-chili here!
Large stock pot (Got it!-- I brought several good pans with me in a suitcase)"brown 2 lbs of ground chuck"(my taste buds almost started salivating. My beef comes in hunks that I watch them cut off the back quarter, or hanging side of beef at the open air market, and is so lean that I have to add oil or water to cook it well. In Home Economics class all those years ago, they called that 'moist heat methods for less tender cuts' )
"with 2 diced onions" (easy-- they are abundant here)
"Worchestershire sauce, and cumin" (yep I have those too
!)"...and drain the grease". (or NOT!)
"Add...tomatoes, and ..tomato paste". We can get large cans of extra thick tomato paste here, as it is a staple in many Malian sauces. The ladies buy it at market, a few tablespoons spooned from the vendor's gallon-sized can into a piece of plastic bag, enough to flavor a large pot of sauce. It is not the several cups that we use to make spaghetti sauce, or chili. And cans of diced tomatoes cost 3 times what I paid for them at home (6 times what I paid at BB's LOL:)) Remembering that the average Malian earns in a week less than most of you make in an hour of work, you understand that canned tomatoes are NOT on their shopping list.
"Add 2 cans of kidney beans"--(mine will be dried beans, soaked and cooked the old fashioned way. I will buy my choice of beans from perhaps 8 or 10 varieties displayed in open bags at one of the stands at market. They will then need to be picked over, to remove stones and other bits of the plant, before that are washed, soaked overnight and cooked. Not quite as simple as opening a can or two, but Hey!..>..>>..Pot of Chili!!)
..and simmer another hour, watching that it does not scorch or burn." Thats the same around the world! So is the "sit down and Enjoy with family and friends" part.
We'll be enjoying chili later this week, after I get to market again. We will also be intentionally naming out our blessings and thanking the God of all grace and mercy for His abundance in our lives. I encourage you to do the same.





I thought about how blessed we are in many ways. Beef is cheaper here than chicken, but the average Malian gets very little of either, while we can afford to buy as much as we want. The beef is very lean, as it is fed on what grass is available in sparse pastures,so it is also healthier for us. (THere was a reason that God said to His people that they were not to eat the fat!)

The dust has settled--but changed hearts remain.

The dust has settled.  The tents have been taken down. The crowds and Pastor Anthony have gone home. But there have been lasting changes in the lives of our boys -- and of us!  


Pastor Anthony prayed into each of our boys while he was here, many of them more than once.  He spoke truth and life into their spirits and their futures. Last night we heard testimony during family-meeting of the changes and the impact that they, themselves, are aware of in that impartation.
 One of the powerful things that Claudia has instituted here 

7th Anniversary Celebration

November 18-20, 2011 we celebrated 7 years of ministry for Central Apostolique Malian (CAM) here in Bamako.  The ministry began in the part of Bamako known as Banakabougou, where Claudia Wintoch lived and worked, and began to reach out to the boys who lived on the streets around her, surviving by whatever means were at hand. They would congregate at 'people places' like the bus station, or traffic intersections where they could beg some coins from passersby on which to survive. They slept wherever they could find a safe place to lie down.  The younger ones served the older, and in return got such protection as they could provide.
 Today we are located in the quartier of Yirimadio, on a plot of land that was given to Claudia by God's grace and the at the hand of the governing body, as a base to serve the needs of these boys and others. More than a dozen boys and young men live at this base, going to school, eating and sleeping together as a family of sorts, and learning about the creator God that so loved them that he gave His only son Jesus to provide payment rescue them (and us!).
 We have had a weekend of special services and have been blessed and refreshed by the teaching and Fathering presence of Pastor Anthony Turner, our special guest speaker from Colorado Springs, Colorado. Let me walk you thru the days- with pictures!
 The day began for us on Sunday with a knock on the door just before daybreak. The boys were ready to slaughter the large sheep that had been purchased 2 weeks ago and has been kept on base in preparation for this day. Ray's help was wanted- and I soon went down to take pictures of the goings-on.  I was more than ready for them to end the ram's marauding of the gardens we had planted - he decimated our sweet corn patch and ate tops off many of the mango plants, tomatoes and young seedlings. (Maybe that was a contribution to his tastiness!) Pastor Anthony soon came out on his rooftop to chronicle the event as well.
 The kitchen was empty at that early hour, but would soon be bustling with the cooks and their helpers and friends who pitched in to prepare lunch plus an evening meal for an expected 150 guests. A huge kettle of rice, another of cous-cous, and a pile of onions, squash, potatoes and other vegatables that would find their way into a tasty stew --along with billiba sheep, of course!
 Tents had been arranged for to provide shade and their set-up started early on Friday morning.  For awhile there were an army of scurrying helpers laying out the poles and fittings, and they quickly began to take form. The whole open area where the boys play soccer was soon covered for the event.  There was a Friday morning service in the main building, with Pastor Anthony teaching, then a full day on Saturday and the main Celebration on Sunday under the tents/ Chairs and benches were placed in the newly created shady area and mats rolled out in front of the platform to provide a place for worshipping feet to move without stirring up too much dust. 
 The Baptistry had to be filled, and a chair placed in the water for the ones who were to be babtised to sit on. Ray supervised that project and made himself useful in many places.  After our Sunday breakfast of bread and jam (this morning we had mango jam that I had made and canned while mangoes were so plentiful), Julie and I played a game of Qwirkle with Pastor Anthony and some of the younger ones.  Ray stopped for a minute to look over a shoulder, but didn't stop long when there was work to be done.  (That will surprise none of you who know him :))
 After lunch the gates were opened and people began to arrive.  Crowds of children and a few adults came from nearby. Two bus loads of people from the old neighborhood arrived in one overloaded run, and we were amazed to see how many spilled out of  it's doors when Ray drove up. A few special friends arrived on motos and by car.  The radio crew—scheduled for the day of broadcasting-- did not arrive til 4 pm and so missed much of the program.  They did interview Paul and Claudia after the service. 
 Some of our boys were stationed at each gate to welcome people and hand out a piece of candy to each child (and then later, to watch that the plastic plates that food was served on didn't go out those open gates).  Others were positioned at the dining hall doorway to hand out  bags of water. Flo tended the sound board and Jeremie played drums.    Our resident boys all had their assignments to help with serving, gathering up and washing the plates, and then handing them out again.  (Unfortunately the food did not stretch to match the crowd and some street boys went to bed hungry, with out even their customary dish of fat rice.)
 A review of CAMs history and ministry was shared.  Energetic Bambara worship, lead by Paul, was interspersed with the more familiar(to us) praise music of the guest band, led by Daouda, the boys music teacher. We had a boys choir to help with worship, and Claudia had worked with 6 of the kids to do a worship dance number. 
 A highlight of the afternoon was the baptismal service.  Four boys gave testimony of their allegience to Jesus, and were baptised in the concrete baptistry  that is a part of the concrete platform area. They changed clothes and returned to receive their certificates and a blessing from Claudia and Paul, their Pastor.
 Pastor Anthony delivered a timely message on Fatherhood, and the blessing that our children are and give. He culminated his teaching by calling all the children to come forward, and prayed a blessing over them. He then asked them to turn and stretch out their hands to their parents and the other adults and pronounced a blessing from the children. It was awesome.  A proclamation of submission and blessing was passed. 
  Ray drove the double-bus-load of people back to Banakabougou, arriving back well after dark. It was a full day of anticipation, preparation, stress, blessing, relationship, celebration... and then rest. Our boys gave us reason to rejoice.  We see such growth and promise in them.  Please pray for us and them as we live and work together.
Striving to be a blessing to those God has planted us with in this season.  
Won't you join us!?!