Sewards' Online Snapshots

Christmas week continued.

2011-12-28T07:11:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas! Last post I told you all about the African side of our Christmas celebration. This one is about December 26th. Our family Christmas celebration. We did presents in the morning. At 1:00 we had guests. We had invited the other missionary family in town, along with their visiting parents, along with a single woman who works with Wycliffe Bible Translators. We enjoyed a good afternoon together.

Our African friends are really tired after their two days of late night celebrations... so the 26th is a great day to have less visitors, and enjoy some American traditions.

One of the things on the menu were these gorgeous pork kabobs. Pork, onion, pork, carrot, pork, tomatoe, pork..with an onion near the end to hold them on. I promised Lisa I would make a bbq grill. I took 2 african cookstoves, and welded them together on legs that were tall enough to work on comfortably. We were really pleased with how the bbq came out, and absolutely loved the pork! We also did a chicken. (this poor chicken looked like he was a boston marathon winner.) Anyway, with the offerings of everyone, nobody was turned away hungry, even though there were 14 of us. And we finished with a fun time of playing cards, and sharing together. We realise we need more of those sharing times... it is just so edifying, and encouraging...

So here is a shot of the newly welded bbq. It worked great. Unfortunately, the welder I have is a very good one. But it is also very heavy. When I was putting it away, I pulled a back muscle. So yesterday, last night, and today, I've been in agony with back pain. Please pray that this temporary problem will heal quickly and I could be back on my feet again. It is definately a muscle, and not a disc... so I don't think its permanent...
but I'm hurting...
Back on the cane again... lol....
They're totally gonna be calling me old man again....

Thanks for stopping by, thanks for your prayers, we could not be here, be doing the ministry we're doing with any effectiveness without you.

Tom & Lisa Seward

Tom and Lisa work with Worldventure in Mali, West Africa. If you would like to donate online to help this ministry, click this link: http://worldventure.com/Give/Give-Now.html?id=4569If you would like to email comments, our email is:tlseward@gmail.com

Christmas in Kadiolo

2011-12-18T21:36:00.001-08:00

Lisa came back from Bamako with Ben. Ben is on a school break from Dakar until January 11th, when he flies back to school. We're pleased to be a 4some family this Christmas, although we miss Hilary being with us.

Another big event this next week is our car purchase. We've agreed to buy a Mercedes 200-c 4 cylander diesel. It is an older one, a 2000 model. But it will be much easier to find mercedes parts in Mali than it was to find parts for our mitsubishi. Another point about driving a mercedes vs any other kind of car is that they are so common here, there must be 20-25 Mercedes here in Kadiolo. (We always want to be aware not to stick out too much when we purchase a house, car, or motorbike... we want to have what the people have...)

Tom goes to Sikasso with the current owner on Tuesday to do the title change.
We thank so many of you who have given, and prayed for a car for us. It worked!
Here is a picture...

This video is from our church in Kadiolo... Men singing Silent Night.. joined by everyone... I bet you never heard words like this to silent night! Video done by Frazees' Papa Harley who is visiting...http://youtu.be/o9Los5FIYsE

This is Christmas week. People here are excited, getting ready for the "fete". Getting ready means preparing to make a special family meal, preparing a theatre piece with the other youth, men, or women in your group to share on Christmas Eve's all night party, buying this year's Christmas cloth and having clothes made for everyone in your family before the Christmas party, getting hair done, painting hands and feet with henna.
The Christmas celebration here is focused differently than our American traditions of Christmas. There is not an expectation of a lot of presents. (women consider getting this Christmas cloth their present, and kids are pleased to have new Christmas clothes, sometimes an extra orange...)
The focus of the celebration is church family, not individual families. With eagerness, they come to church Christmas eve, hear a sermon, (I was asked to preach...) then sing a lot, then share their theatre pieces with one another, a lot of celebration and laughter, then a midnight coffee, (cuz you're very very cold at midnight, it might be 65 degrees!!!) Then dancing starts. Now in our tradition dancing may be considered sexual and bad, but here dancing is joy, dancing is worship. Lisa is looking forward to dancing with the ladies... they often go until 3 am.... Then Christmas morning... everyone wakes up... slowly... they come back to church for a morning service, where: you may have guessed it... (They asked me to preach for the morning service, too..... lol) This will be a challenging one to preach, people blinking back sleep the whole time!
Some years there is a potluck following church. But this past year has been a lean year, so everyone will go home to eat with their families instead.

May God bless you and your family this Christmas season.
This year as you celebrate, remember your Christian brothers and sisters worldwide who are also celebrating Christ's birth in their traditional ways!

Thanks for stopping by
Tom & Lisa

Tom and Lisa work with Worldventure in Mali, West Africa. If you would like to donate online to help this ministry, click this link: http://worldventure.com/Give/Give-Now.html?id=4569If you would like to email comments, our email is:tlseward@gmail.com

2011-12-10T06:26:00.001-08:00

Here is a pic of our Worldventure Mali team, minus one family that is currently in the USA.
We are so pleased to be working with like minded people who have a heart for seeing african brothers and sisters come to Christ, and seeing african churches grow in strength and knowledge...

This past week I did a LOT of mediating. We had a final meeting between 3 african brothers who really had a deep personality conflict. We were able to get to the bottom, and see that it was not once sided, that each had hurt each other. One man said of the other two... I knew I hurt (A.) but I was surprised that (B.) was hurt because I say mean things to him all the time, and he was never hurt before... LOL
I said... that is no way to treat brothers in Christ. "I can be mean to him because he tolerates it." I said we as leaders need to be marked by the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Every man, woman, and child in our church looks to us to model leadership. We want them to see leaders who care about each other (and them). We want them to see that love, kindness, patience, self-control, gentleness, peacefulness, goodness, and perseverance reign in us via the Holy Spirit.
I got off my soapbox, and we went back to... "do you forgive him?" "are you ready to forgive him?" back and forth a bit....
Anyway... God is at work here... and hopefully we grow and learn. Now the problem is that I have to model the fruits of the Holy Spirit too... Lol.... You never can point a finger without four pointing back at you, right?
May God give is the grace to be the men & women of God He calls us to be...

Thanks for stopping by
Tom & Lisa

Tom and Lisa work with Worldventure in Mali, West Africa. If you would like to donate online to help this ministry, click this link: http://worldventure.com/Give/Give-Now.html?id=4569If you would like to email comments, our email is:tlseward@gmail.com

Busy Week in Kadiolo

2011-12-02T23:42:00.001-08:00

This week has been a very busy one in Kadiolo.

We started off last Saturday with a executive committee meeting for Pain de Vie.
(Pain de Vie is the name of the local church association we work with. It means bread of life.)
Our meeting went from 9am to 5pm. There were a lot of important issues to discuss/resolve.
3 hours of it exposed a serious personality conflict between executive team members.
Every night since then I've been meeting with members helping them work towards healthy reconciliation.
Please continue to pray that this happens in a Godly way. I'm encouraged by the direction things have been going in these counseling/encouragement/exhortation meetings... but there is more to do.

Several tough issues were on the table in this executive meeting.

Two of our young village believers would like to move towards pastoral training.
They would like to start right away. But they wanted to go to a non-evangelical Bible school.
(Actually the leader of this school was asked to leave the association of evangelical protestant churches of Mali.) We encouraged these two young men to change their plans and go to the more evangelical school, explaining that they are limiting their future possibilities of serving in a local church. Since most protestant churches in Mali are members of the association of evangelical churches.
We also were concerned about the theology at this other school. They accepted to change their plans, and go to the more evangelical school.

Another issue was related to the drama team. Should the drama team remain independant or should they belong to the Pain de vie association?
It prevailed that the drama team remain autonomous, but that the members of the team continue to be members of the local church, and under local church authority.
(this was a 2.5 hr discussion.)

Another tough issue is related to a church member (not a leader/elder) who has two wives, and is now preparing to marry a 3rd. This is not acceptable in Christian culture, though Mali allows a person to have up to 4 wives. So approaches have been made to him to not go ahead with the marriage. It is looking like discipline will be necessary, sadly enough.

You may know that I (Tom) am not a meeting person. Formal meetings make me nervous. However, God gave me peace & grace to deal with some of these very HOT potatoes,
and all decisions were agreed upon by concensus... although they took a long time debating.
What was neat to me about the meeting was that they treated me like a brother, an insider who knew a lot of the skeletons. They were not shy about
voicing their opinions strongly. (Almost too strongly because some feelings were hurt, and we're working on reconciliation now...)
But it was not a case of "we can't speak in front of the missionary, what will he think of us?" Definately not like that... :D lol.

Other events this week included a visit from our africa director and his wife from Littleton, Colorado. It is always such an encouragement when they come.
We also had our first full team meeting since we've come back, with Requadts and Frazees. We are currently 3 families on the field, with one in the USA hoping to come back to join the work.

We also have people visiting us hoping to sell us cars. We are looking for an older model mercedes. (Used diesel mercedes come down from Europe, after they have 100,000 miles on them. A mercedes in Mali is considered a durable workhorse, a taxi, not a luxury car. Rich people drive toyota... :D Anyway, we're interested in a mercedes because parts are available. As we found out with our last car, a mitsubishi... parts were very hard to get, and very expensive. Imagine a starter motor for $900???? Anyway here is a picture of one of two cars that were brought by. One is a 1993 and the other is a 1997. We're hoping to get something closer to a 2000-2002. We'll see what God brings... :D

Thanks for praying for us. We could not feel more useful with the church association at this time. OUr relationships are strong from our previous term, and in africa,

relationship really is everything. It is so important, that it cannot be overstated.

Thanks for stopping by today
Tom & Lisa

Tom and Lisa work with Worldventure in Mali, West Africa. If you would like to donate online to help this ministry, click this link: http://worldventure.com/Give/Give-Now.html?id=4569If you would like to email comments, our email is:tlseward@gmail.com

Best Start/ Worst Start

2011-11-25T22:47:00.001-08:00

We've had the best start and the worst start to our time in Kadiolo.
Best because relationships have started out so strong. The church people are so pleased to see us,
we are family to them.

Our neighbor, Bamba, was so pleased to see us. He comes each morning to greet us, and see how I'm
doing. He brought us a huge bag of peanuts... it was nice to have them to welcome visitors with.
(This bamba is not to be confused with sick bamba later on in the post.)

But the downtown guys I played dominoes with surprised me. This is a group of moslems. By all human
reason our relationship should be adversarial. But because of time spent sitting with them playing
dominoes, they were so warm to me! They welcomed me like a brother who's been away, and came home
after a long trip. It is like I didn't miss a beat with them. God is going to use these dominoes for
His glory this year.

A guy came to visit yesterday that we've known for many years now. He has a demon. (Literally, and
the only person I've ever met who was that clearly not himself.)
Anyway he comes, and say's I'm sick.
I say... "bamba, how long have you been sick with this demon now? 5 years?"
he replies "yes."
I say "you've been to every doctor, witchdoctor, Imam you could see, with no results."
"Yes, he says, it has been hard."
I say, "Aren't you tired?"
"Oh, yes, I'm tired."
So I laugh to myself and say to him. "Isn't it time to you came to Jesus? jesus says come to me all
you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest." I continue, "You will never have peace and rest
in your life with this demon in you. Come to Jesus, he will give you your peace and rest and health
back." (I was feeling a bit like a name-it and claim-it Christian saying that... but What Jesus
offers this guy needs...) It was because of the past relationship with Bamba, that I felt able to
unload his need for Jesus in that way. It was because of his past relationship with me that he sat
and discussed with me.
He says, "oh yes, father, son, holy spirit."
I say, "man, you can say the words, but until Jesus is inside you, in your heart, you won't have the
peace that only Jesus gives...."
Conversation trails off as he tries to make sense of what I've been telling him.
I finish with, "You go to see Pastor Karim, and ask him to pray with you. Jesus will come..."
I don't think he's going to do it. He looks so weak and frail, and almost shivering with sickness
and hunger. I don't expect he will live out this year.

It has been the worst start physically for me. I seem to have developed an adult onset of wheat
allergies. I don't know if it is full blown celiac desease, but with it in the family, its a
possibility. Anyway, I've struggled with joint pain since August, particularly in the ankles.
God gave me the gift of being able to travel through all the airports pain free. I got to bamako,
and was bedridden, could not walk for about 4 days. Then we came down to Kadiolo, but I needed a
crutch or a cane to move. I got a bit better, and made my rounds to see everyone. Then I had another
attack... bedridden another 6-7 days. We decided to go wheat free, and relief has come... and I'm on
my feet now. Hopefully, if I'm a good boy and stay away from glutin, I should be ok for a good while
to come.

Anyway, We celebrated thanksgiving. Karin was here, she is translating the Bible into the local
senoufo dialect, she works with SIL/Wycliffe. We also have a new family from WorldVenture here with
us in Kadiolo. We are so pleased to be working with Jeff & Heidi, and helping them learn more about
working with our people. (No, the people don't "belong" to us. But I feel invested in them, like

they are family... and they are....

Here are a couple of friends who came to play with Caleb.
How many kids can you fit into a bucket?

Thanks so much for stopping by,
and we do really need your prayers.

Tom & Lisa

Tom and Lisa work with Worldventure in Mali, West Africa. If you would like to donate online to help this ministry, click this link: http://worldventure.com/Give/Give-Now.html?id=4569If you would like to email comments, our email is:tlseward@gmail.com

Safely arrived in Dakar

2011-10-21T14:29:00.000-07:00

We're celebrating being together again.

As you see from the title, we're safe in Dakar. All our luggage arrived safely too. Don't be confused, though, we really are going to Mali. We just have a small pit stop here to see our son Ben who flew out to Africa ahead of us to start his 10th grade school year here in Dakar.
We'll be here a couple more days, then we fly on to Bamako, Mali.
We really look forward to getting back to Mali. Did you know Mali is the bambara word for Hippo? And Bama, as in Bamako... is the bambara word for crocodile.... Anyone need a new pair of boots...?
We are dusting off our french as we're here in Dakar, and looking ahead to using bambara again in Mali.
I greeted a wolof boy today in bambara. He looked at me like I had two heads, not understanding a word of what I said. Oh well, I'll have to save it (speaking bambara) for Mali.

If you've wondered what Ben's dorm might look like... this is thursday night supper.

Fall festival was today. It was a western theme penny carnival.

These guys paid to have Ben put in jail for 5 min. But they had to catch him to put him in there.

Here is Ben, dutifully serving out his sentence.

Caleb made friends very quickly. (surprised?)

They quickly paid and wrestled him into the jail cell too.

The difference with Caleb is that no bars can hold him...

He escaped 3 or 4 times from Jail. I guess that is one benefit of abstaining from Pizza...:-)

Keep praying for us. We think we're going to have to negotiate luggage allowance fees for our Dakar-Bamako flight. We really need the suitcases we have. We were fine to get here, using our allowed weight to get to Dakar. But this Dakar-Bamako leg is considered local because of the way we bought our tickets...
Please pray that we can come to an agreement that does not eat up all our cash.

Thanks for stopping by today,
Tom & Lisa

Tom and Lisa work with Worldventure in Mali, West Africa. If you would like to donate online to help this ministry, click this link: http://worldventure.com/Give/Give-Now.html?id=4569If you would like to email comments, our email is:tlseward@gmail.com

Video of loading crate

2011-10-17T20:07:00.000-07:00

You may not think this video is funny, but I do. We had made this crate, (that was frankly too big, about 500 pounds...) So today we rented a trailer so we could deliver it to the shipper who will send it to Mali. We rented a landscaping style trailer so that the ramp would help us. We already had the crate on 2 moving dollies...
(One of which broke in the process of moving it today.)
We really laughed a lot at this "impossible" task as Lisa, Caleb and I tried to manoever this silly thing.
So finally, we used a jack to jack up the crate to get over a 2" lip to get on the start of the ramp. And we tied the crate to the car, and while I pushed, the car pulled the crate up into the trailer... It took about an hour to set up... and only a few seconds to actually roll it up with the car.... Then we drove about 10 miles to the shipper, and he took it off the trailer quite easily with a forklift....
Here is the live video!

So here we are, tired and happy after getting this crate loaded...

The crate was the last major obstacle, other than getting on the plane, in our return to Mali. So we are so pleased! Celebrate and thank Jesus with us! He is good!

Thanks for stopping by,

Tom & Lisa

Ready to leave!

2011-10-14T04:17:00.000-07:00

We are ready to leave for Mali! God has done a miraculous work in bringing our support together...

It is only His work that can accomplish that. We believe He has called us to serve, and He provides, and He has. We are thankful to so many of you who also felt the desire to partner with us, (and God) in this mission to build the church in West Africa. As I write to you right now we are short $96 a month. What a long way we've come from a need of $1300 a month when we first came back from Mali a bit more than a year ago.

I'm writing these specific figures so you can rejoice with us! God is great.

So what is the plan? We will be overseas 3 years until 2014 when Ben graduates from high school. (does that make you feel old.. :D) In 2014 we are slated to be in Lansing, Michigan at a mission house provided by South Church. We look forward to sharing and serving with them at that time. We plan to return to Mali after a year furlough, having accompanied Ben through his freshman year of college.

In the meantime, our hearts turn to Mali, where a lot of work lies ahead. We have colleagues to work with, and consulting on a policies & procedures statement for our church association. We have more language to learn, more evangelism to do. Please continue to pray with us as we embark on this next phase of ministry.

We are sad to leave Lisa's mom, and our nephew Andrew.We are also leaving our daughter
Hilary behind in college. But we know they are in Gods' hands. We really feel like each one of these
has improved and come a long way this year.

We are sad that we go back to a Mali empty of Eadelmans... These friends have been our encouragers, advisors, mentors, and close friends... Ernie will be making a visit early in 2012, but we'll miss their day-to-day ness... And now we have to take the role of experienced lead in Kadiolo. I think we're comfortable with that as long as Eadelmans are only a skype or email away...

We had a nice opportunity this last week to visit the Marshalls. They were appointed as missionaries at the same time we were.... way back in 1994. (That was back when gaga was a word babies crooned, and Iphones and Ipads weren't even conceived of yet.) They've served in higher theological education in the Ukraine, and in several universities in the USA, currently Spring Arbor. We really enjoyed catching up, and feeling like minded in so many ways through common experience, and common desires to see the kingdom of Christ built up. If you ever feel like the world is going to hell in a hand basket, look around... God has many solid people working alongside you. I think of Elijah in that cave, thinking he is the only prophet left, and God reveals to him that there are 3000 others.... It is encouraging to know that many others are serving Christ, isn't it?

Now as we go back to Mali, this blog will be kicking into high gear, and we'll be posting
new stories and new pics every week as we share what God is doing. We get to be up close and watch Him work, and we want to share that with you....

Thanks for stopping by, thanks for praying
Tom & Lisa

Tom and Lisa work with Worldventure in Mali, West Africa. If you would like to donate online to help this ministry, click this link: http://worldventure.com/Give/Give-Now.html?id=4569If you would like to email comments, our email is:tlseward@gmail.com

Busy late august & september activities

2011-09-28T08:16:00.000-07:00

Busy Busy...

We left August 19th to drive Hilary to college. John Brown University in Arkansas. We had planned a large looping trip to see many dear friends, and share in churches. We left Michigan, travelling through Illinois, and Missouri to Arkansas, visiting friends in Okalahoma, travelling through Nebraska, visiting friends in South Dakota, visiting church groups and friends in Minnesota, then sharing in a church in North Dakota. then travelling through Saskatchewan, visiting family in Alberta, then back to visit friends in Saskachewan, then family in Manitoba...then travelling back to friends in Wisconsin, and on to Wheaton, Il, then home to Michigan. 6000+ miles in all. God was good. Our old van did the trip with ease, except for the idle pulley that broke... no brakes or power steering...oops... God provided a mechanic who fixed us up in 1 hrs time we were ready to travel again...

Hilary & her roomie Hannah in Arkansas

Visited our dear friends Don & Lynn in Oklahoma.

They have known and encouraged us since we were first married back in 1987.

Visiting Reiersons in South Dakota.

Stopped to visit Jessica and help her carry her baby on her back in Minnesota.

Lisa's college roomate, Tricia, and her husband Kent.

We had such a kindred spirits visit with them, and shared at their church in Minot, North Dakota.

Visited Tom's grandma (93 yrs young) in Lethbridge, Alberta.

Really enjoyed re-newing relationship with her and 3 Aunties...(Walt's younger sisters.)

Grandma did great playing dominoes with us... We didn't play the water version, though. :D

Visiting John & Ellen, long time family friends in Saskachewan.

Visiting Ann, our bubbliest family friend in Manitoba.

A large trip like this is daunting... so many miles to drive. But God knew what encouragements & blessings we would recieve and give as we visited so many good lifelong friends. We are so thankful for you... the people who God has put in our lives... Our plan is to get to your house at some point... it may not be before we get to Mali... But sooner or later, expect us to wander by... :D

Thank you for praying for us... We're in the last phase of getting ready to leave for Mali. We have many details to take care of. We have a little support left to find... But God is good, and He is willing and able to take care of all our needs according to His riches in glory, right? I'd way rather rely on Him than on me...

Serve Him today!

Blessings,

Tom & Lisa

Tom and Lisa work with Worldventure in Mali, West Africa. If you would like to donate online to help this ministry, click this link: http://worldventure.com/Give/Give-Now.html?id=4569 If you would like to email comments, our email is: tlseward@worldventure.com

Africa Dinner evening

2011-04-30T19:36:00.000-07:00

Tonight we had a special evening at one of our supporting churches, FBC Lansing, IL. They held a special Africa dinner event as a fundraiser to help us raise money for airfare to Mali... It was especially nice as it was a more easy going evening than a high pressure presentation. And everyone had a good time. So many church members contributed to different kinds of food that we ate... and cookies, and desserts...

It was fun.

Grilled Chicken was delicious.

African grass hut cupcakes. :D

Elephant cookies...

Zebra cookies..

Ok... I'm sure you are tired of seeing all these food pics... .I just wanted you to see the creativity that FBC put into this event. Maybe you could be inspired to do some kind of missions evening like this. More of a taste & see & hear evening than a more traditional presentation. We did share stories, We did sing.... that was fun. Lisa had several ladies dress in african clothes, and do a little fashion show...
Along with a tie baby on your back demonstration. It was really a fun evening.

Continue to pray for us as we have several issues facing us this summer. We are looking forward to going back to africa this summer, hungry for it, really. But we have a couple of major things to work out first.
We covet your prayers. Please pray that God would go before us, and deal with issues that seem large to us. He is able to accomplish greater things than we can ask or think, and we need to rely on Him, don't we???

Thanks for stopping by,
Tom & Lisa

Tom and Lisa work with Worldventure in Mali, West Africa. If you would like to donate online to help this ministry, click this link: http://worldventure.com/Give/Give-Now.html?id=4569 If you would like to email comments, our email is: tlseward@gmail.com

Visits

2011-03-12T08:46:00.000-08:00

Hi, one of the fun of being back in the USA is re-connecting with friends & supporters...
Last night we were able to spend the evening with Jon & Rhonda. It was so nice to catch up.
We are so thankful for the wealth of friends God has given to us.
We'd like to see you as well. Email us today so we can make a rendevous with you.
We don't want to let any of our friends escape... Wheaton area friends especially.

We are planning to leave for Mali in August. Please pray with us that needed support comes in...
Also we need money for our air tickets (one way..) If you would like to give a one time gift, please email us at tomlisaseward@yahoo.fr.

Thanks for praying for us. It means everything...
God Bless,
Tom & Lisa Seward

Tom and Lisa work with Worldventure in Mali, West Africa. If you would like to donate online to help this ministry, click this link: http://worldventure.com/Give/Give-Now.html?id=4569 If you would like to email comments, our email is: tlseward@gmail.com

February news

2011-02-28T07:06:00.000-08:00

This past Sunday, Lisa & I were speaking at FBC Lansing, IL.
We did our new slideshow presentation in Sunday School there.
Moody Gospel Choir had the morning service. They were easy to enjoy.
They did lots of songs and testimonies.

After church we had lunch with the missions committee members & friends.
We are talking about doing a spaghetti dinner fundraiser to help raise money for airfare to go back to Mali in August.
(Normally airfare is a part of our budgjet... but with our 1 year return last year, our budget got out of sync.) So we need 1 way tickets at this point, and in 3 years that account should build up enough to bring us home... :D

If you would like us to come share at your church, small group, Sunday School, Bible study, Awana, or Youth meeting... we'd love to come... Please contact us and we'll try to book now...

Tom & Lisa Seward

Thank you to Carol Guthrie for hosting us for the night...
Thank you to Renee for spearheading our visit...

Tom and Lisa work with Worldventure in Mali, West Africa. If you would like to donate online to help this ministry, click this link: http://worldventure.com/Give/Give-Now.html?id=4569 If you would like to email comments, our email is: tlseward@gmail.com

Missions Conference at FBC Wheaton

2011-01-26T09:04:00.000-08:00

Fashion Show.

We've been honored to have several opportunities to speak this past week at the missions conference. Thursday, Lisa spoke to the women's ministries... Sat am, Tom spoke at the men's prayer breakfast. Sunday am Tom & Lisa spoke at childrens' Sunday school, 2nd grade through 6th grade...

The church has designated a portion of the conference offering to go towards our car fund so that we can get a car when we get back to Mali. The funds to buy a car are part of what we need to have in place before we can leave to go back.

We are hoping to have $6500 to go towards a used mercedes sedan. We've discovered we really need a car for the highway, more than a village machine. (Most village travel we do is on the motorbikes anyway.) A used mercedes because of the availability of mercedes parts. Also they are very common. I would say about 75% of taxis in Bamako are these used mercedes vehicles from Europe. Our main problem with the Mitsubishi Pajero was a lack of parts availability, rendering them very expensive. For example, the dealer wanted $900 (no joke) for a new starter motor.

Here are some pictures of Lisa's session with the women. She kicked it off with an african dress fashion show... Of course that includes lessons on how to tie a baby/child on your back...
The ladies really enjoyed her presentation... Thank you Lord that Lisa can handle speaking to ladies, carrying over 40 min, hearing and answering questions.... Her bionic ears are doing a great job....

Informal Q&A sharing after the presentation.

Thanks for praying for us.
Pray for God's provision of finances. Our support level is down. We need $1300 a month.
We believe that God is not yet finished with us serving in Mali. Pray for people and Bible studies and churches to want to partner with the ministry in Mali.

Pray for us as well as we share. Pray that people would "get" why we're excited about the ministry, and catch the vision...

Thanks for stopping by,
Tom & Lisa Seward

Tom and Lisa work with Worldventure in Mali, West Africa. If you would like to donate online to help this ministry, click this link: http://worldventure.com/Give/Give-Now.html?id=4569 If you would like to email comments, our email is: tlseward@gmail.com

Merry Christmas!!

2010-12-26T07:28:00.000-08:00

We pray you're having a blessed Christmas season with family. We pray that you enjoy it to the full, but remember who we're celebrating. Although myriads of "Santa Clause- be nice to your neighbor because its the spirit of Christmas" movies abound.... We're not celebrating that at all. We're celebrating JESUS. Christmas is the celebration of His choosing to come to earth the HARD WAY! Think about it... couldn't he have come with the finest clothes, finest transportation, finest entourage.... but He chose this way... humble, innocent, vulnerable.
He came as a baby, naturally birthed by a young woman touched by God's own hand. His birth was witnessed by people of extremely lowly status. (People we wouldn't invite to a worm wrestle... He invited to witness his birth..) His birth was witness by King-makers of VIP status...
And WHY did He do this? To die the HARD way to purchase for us an eternity with HIM. WOW.
It makes you look at how many times you choose to do things the easy way, doesn't it???
He didn't do things that way.... Hmmmmmmm

Something we can't do in Africa, going sledding on Christmas morning!

Hilary did two nice art pieces for Christmas presents... one for Grandma

One for Lisa...

Thanks for stopping by
CELEBRATE JESUS!!! MAKE NO NEW YEARS' RESOLUTIONS THIS YEAR FOR 2011...
MAKE 2011 A "LIVE FOR JESUS" YEAR....

Tom & Lisa

Tom and Lisa work with Worldventure in Mali, West Africa. If you would like to donate online to help this ministry, click this link: http://worldventure.com/Give/Give-Now.html?id=4569 If you would like to email comments, our email is: tlseward@gmail.com

November trip

2010-12-03T08:27:00.000-08:00

Mom H, Lisa, Mom & Dad Seward

Lisa took a trip in November to drive her mom to Florida. Her mom had a lot of health issues this summer, 3 trips to the hospital. But praise the Lord, she is quite healthy and doing well today. So Lisa drove her down to Florida for her winter migration, and flew back. While they were down there, they visited Tom's parents.
Walt & Joy Seward.

They also visited Lisa's brother Steve, and his wife Mary.

We continue to serve at our church in Wheaton, IL. We're seeing good progress in our work with the Wave. (The junior high ministry.) We are also involved in speaking frequently, and sharing about the ministry in Africa. If you think your Sunday School class or Bible Study or Small group would like to hear from us, please contact us.
We'd love to work you in our schedule.

Thanks for praying for us,
Tom & Lisa

If you would like to give online to support this ministry in Mali
Click here

Lisa's cover debut.

2010-11-13T17:40:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to say that Lisa's magasine article came out this month.
Hearing loss magasine is a nation wide magasine that is a resource and encouragement for people with hearing loss issues. They used Lisa as a cover story, and encouraged her to write her whole story.

We have just contacted HLA Magazine. They have graciously said we can have 100 copies.

So they'll be going out in the mail soon. Pray with us that God would use these for His glory.

And that people would be interested in joining with us via prayer, support, and by going themselves to serve in Mali.

Join us in thanking God again for what He's done with Lisa, and in our family. Pray with us that this article will open reader's hearts and reveal Himself to them.

Thanks for stopping by today,
Tom & Lisa

Missions Conference

2010-10-30T10:41:00.000-07:00

Hi. This last week I participated in the missions conference at South Church in Lansing, Mi.

The week was power packed.

Saturday, Oct 23 Welcome & Meeting

Sunday, Oct 24 I had youth Sunday school, as well as a short part in the first service.

Sunday Night service.

Monday, Oct 25- Breakfast meeting with missionaries, Lunch with Seniors, Home meetings

Tues, Oct 26, Breakfast with missionaries, Lunch meeting, Tues Night, supper & communion meeting.

Wednesday, Oct 27, Mens prayer breakfast, lunch with church members, International dinner wed night.

I spoke in Awana as well. Both Sparkies & T&T.
Caleb's friend send a special greeting to him.

Smiley sparkies

A pic from our Missionary communion evening.

Thursday the conference was over, but I was able to meet with local pastor from another church for lunch.

Sunday Oct 31... Heading to Rockford, MI for a special retirement celebration for Eadelmans.

After the morning service and reception, I'll be heading back to home.

Thanks for praying for us.

God really enabled me to speak clearly and well this week. I felt like I had a lot of chances to answer questions etc. People seemed to be engaged, and relate to the stories & ideas I shared.

We do have some support to raise before we go back to Mali... and we really need a car...

Our goal for the car is $6000. Pray with us that God would touch people to partner with us.

Pray that they would pray, and give, and be willing to come and visit and see the work.

If you think there is an opportunity for us to share at your Bible study, small group, sunday school class, youth meeting etc... we're willing. Please contact us... and we'll do our best to make that happen. Now is the time to book for January, February, March...

Hilary has made a very positive turn for the better at college. Thanks for praying for her.

We really need her to be settled and in a good place as we leave her in the USA while we return to Mali.

Thanks for stopping by

Tom & Lisa

Minnesota trip and Support FAQ's

2010-10-12T10:00:00.000-07:00

Hi. Last week was very busy. Tom spoke in 4 church groups over a long week.

Sunday Oct 3rd, he was with First Baptist Church of Long Prairie, MN.

Wednesday Morning, Oct 6th, he was with Hayden Heights Baptist Church.

Wednesday Evening, Oct 6th, he was with Maranatha Retirement Center.

Sunday, Oct 10th, he was with Lake Phalen Community church.

The sharing times went well, and I got to see many of our friends as well. There were many more I wanted to connect with but wasn't able to. I'm sorry I missed you.

Everyone wanted to see Lisa, as well. But she was not on the trip because of the boys being in school.

Please continue to pray for us as we share in churches and meet with families.

First, so that we could be a help and encouragement to the people we come across.

Second, that people would be lead by God to join our support team. Missionaries need team-mates to come alongside and pray and support them.

If you've been considering supporting a missionary, here are some quick answers to questions you may be thinking, but haven't asked anyone.

**Should I give half my tithe to my local church and half to a missionary. NO- we would counsel you to give your tithe to your local church. But then to give what you can to support a missionary. Maybe skipping a lunch out once a month could provide $20-30 to use for missions.

**If I support a missionary, do I have to support them forever and ever? NO- it is fine to make a 1, 2, or 4 year commitment. Communicate your commitment to the mission you want to begin supporting.

**If I only can give $10-$20 a month, that is too little, and I feel like I'm wasting the effort. NO- you are not wasting the effort, every gift helps and if you are giving what you feel you can give, that is great.

**I would rather give one time a year, than give every month. Are missions able to make that work for support? YES- they will pro-rate your one time gift and use it as a monthly support figure. NOTE- there are a lot of one-time needs that missionaries have that you could help with.

Car fund, Air Travel, Shipping costs, lots of these are good one time gift opportunities.

**I don't need to support a missionary couple that my church already supports, so should I choose someone else? NO- not necessarily. Maybe your church is supporting a missionary. But it is 99% sure they are not fulfilling ALL of the need that missionary has to do the job God has called him to do. Your church supporting a missionary is an endorsement that your church has knowledge and approves of the work the missionary is doing. It also means that missionary will be visiting your church in the future to give reports in person. A missionary your church supports is an ideal person for you to choose as a missionary to give to.

**Who should I support? You should support a missionary who is doing a work you are interested in. Maybe you're interested in computer work or building construction. Maybe you're interested in youth work, or womens' ministries. Maybe ESL or literacy classes. If you support a missionary who is doing a job like you are experienced in or interested in, you'll know better how to pray and support that missionary. Maybe you would be interested in taking a short term trip to visit them on the field and use your gifts alongside what the missionary is doing.

World Missions, in other words, reaching the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a team effort. No one missionary can do all the work by themselves. We need to partner together to do the work. Partner up with a work you are excited about and watch God work up close!!!

Thanks for stopping by

Tom & Lisa

October travel

2010-09-25T07:20:00.000-07:00

Car is in good shape, Tom ready to travel.

In our last post, we talked about the ways that we are plugging into our local setting and our local church. However, in October we are not around too much. Tom will be travelling to Minnesota to share in churches on Sunday the 3rd, and 10th, and then again later Sunday the 24th to Lansing, Michigan.

We really look forward to seeing our friends & churches again. Lisa won't be able to travel, as we have to keep home life consistent for the kids schooling. But she sends her happy greetings along with Tom.

Please continue to pray for all of the kids as they transition back into life in America this year.

Pray for Ben. He has been welcomed by some kids he knew as a 1st grader in 2001. He has enjoyed renewing those relationships. Pray for him as his new high school has over 2000 students. That is a big change from Dakar Academy, enrolling only 240 students k-12.

Pray for Caleb as he is beginning 5th grade. He likes his class, and God has given him good friends who live next door, all of them going to his school, one in his class. Pray that his heart would be tender towards God and he would apply himself.

Pray for Hilary at John Brown University. We have watched her grow up so much in the last 5 weeks. She is enjoying the schools' program, gotten involved in a local church choir, and found a job on campus. She has made a lot of friends but is still looking for that one close friend who would be an encouragement and a spur towards spiritual growth.

Thanks for stopping by,

Tom & Lisa

Settling in to Wheaton

2010-09-25T07:06:00.000-07:00

We're settling into life in Wheaton. Tom & Lisa are working with the Wave. (The wave is our junior high ministry at FBC.) We'll be teaching Sunday school, small groups wednesday nights, and holding the occasional micro-wave. (A micro-wave is a house event with the junior high kids.) Pray for us as we serve at FBC with the gifts that God has given us. Pray also that we can be an encouragement to the youth pastor, Jonathan Der and to the rest of the staff.

We're living out front of the church in their mission house. It is so nice to be on the church property, and handy to all things ministry. If you're nearby, we'd love to see you. Drop-in friends are ALWAYS welcome!

Last week, Lisa was in Michigan taking care of her mom who had a bit of a medical emergency, and was hospitalized. Tom adopted a mr mom role, and held down the fort so the kids could get a good start in school. Tom made apple pie one day, but couldn't find pie pans in this new house...

Apple pie tarts came out quite well... very yummy!

Please do pray for us as we get involved at the church, but also as we seek to see friends all over the Wheaton greater area. We really want to see all of you this year.... If you're inspired and we haven't called you yet.... Please call us...

630-668-2252.

Thanks for praying

Tom & Lisa

Road Trip!

2010-08-18T04:43:00.001-07:00

Road Trip! We, (Hilary and Tom) are driving to Arkansas. Hilary starts at JBU this fall! We pray God's blessings on her as she enters this new phase of education and life. We made a stop last night to see Massaly. (Massaly graduated with Hilary in Dakar, and their reunion was a bundle of joy.) God has blessed Hilary with friends like this from many different places we've been.

Short blog today...

Thanks for stopping by,

Tom & Lisa Seward

Where are the Sewards?

2010-08-15T17:37:00.000-07:00

Tom & Lisa

Where are the Sewards??

Good question. We've been travelling a lot recently. Hilary went to Cedarville University for a 2 week MK re-entry seminar. Then, we went up to Winnipeg for our neice, Kristy's wedding. Then we drove back to Wheaton, fully intending on settling in to our new home for the year. The morning after we arrived, we got a call explaining that Lisa's Grandma, Marion had died during the night. This afternoon (Sunday) Lisa, Ben, and Caleb took a train to Lansing, Michigan to help in any way they can.

Lisa and the boys ready to take their train

Hilary and I leave for Arkansas on Tuesday. We'll have a long road trip to her new college home, John Brown University. Pray for her as she settles in, makes new friends, and gets used to all the newness of college life.

When I return next week to Wheaton, hopefully I find Lisa and the boys here, with the boys enrolled in school. Hopefully we can settle in, and live a slower pace of life than we have been.

Have you noticed that God doesn't waste anything? We notice that all the time. Saturday our new church neighbors had a cuban-style pig roast. They invited us and we enjoyed cuban food that was very reminiscent of food in Mali. And guess what game the guys were playing?? You may have guessed... Dominoes... what fun. Their version of dominoes is a bit different than the game we made up and played in africa. But we'll enjoy playing some with these guys as we get to know them better...

Gorgeous Pig Roast!

Believe it or not! They play dominoes in Wheaton!

Thank you so much for following us, praying for us...

We'll be a bit more regular on the blog now....

Thanks for stopping by,

Tom & Lisa

Visit with Emily

2010-07-30T16:06:00.001-07:00

Tom, Lisa, Emily, and Caleb

Hi. We went down to Cedarville University to pick up Hilary after her 2 week re-entry seminar. She really enjoyed it, meeting other missionary kids who are in the same position as her was inspiring and encouraging for her. Hilary feels extra ready for her next step of college because of these last two weeks.

On the way down, we were able to meet with Emily. If you remember, Emily was in Kadiolo in 2007, and some of 2008. We enjoyed a nice Bob Evans dinner with her, and shared news from Kadiolo, and greetings from so many friends. It was a joy to be with her again.

God has been working in Emily's life, and has given her a job within her training as a nutritionist.

We pray that God continues to lead Emily as she seeks to serve him.... God speed, Emily.

We begin our trek to Winnipeg this weekend. A special thank you to friends who will house us on the way.... see you guys soon.

Pray for road safety for us, and that our van would be in tip top shape...

Pray for our kids as travel isn't their favorite part of their life...

Thanks for praying for us.

Tom & Lisa Seward

Life speeds up

2010-07-24T18:38:00.000-07:00

Hi. This last week Hilary has been at a re-entry seminar for MK high school graduates. This conference really helps kids who have been out of the country for extended periods of time, even to the point where they are not sure which country to call "home".

Hilary has been very encouraged by 40 other students who identify with the same kinds of mixed feelings of leaving a foreign country, and lifelong friends to re-enter America. You may think "What's wrong with America? Isn't it really easy to come back and enjoy things like Wendy's and Cable TV? But the issues are more than that... Hilary's class of 28 graduating students are going all over the USA, and overseas as well. Hilary and one other will be at JBU, one will be in St. Paul, Mn, one will be going to Houghton, one will be going to Cornell, 3 will be going to Wheaton, 1 will be going to a Bible school in England, so you see how scattered this fairly close-knit group will be.

So now you may say.. "oh, well if its gonna be hard, then I would never put my child in that sort of position." But our kids would change very little, if anything about their whole experience... and God is in control. He's given them the gift of multi-culturalism and the gift of broad life experiences for His own reasons... We have to do what God calls us to do, and trust him with our families' and our children... God does not let us down.... He is worthy of this kind of trust.

Anyway.. Hilary has been really soaking in the richness of this seminar. Pray for her in the coming months ahead as she will be putting into practice some of the thinking/strategies shown to her in this seminar....

Pray for us... Thursday this week we leave for Cedarville, OH, to pick her up at the end of this seminar. Sunday, we travel to Wheaton, Monday we travel to MN, Wed we travel to Grand Forks, ND, Thursday up to Winnipeg, Manitoba....

Our schedule will be very tight... and we'll be travelling quickly. We will get back to Wheaton in time to move into our new home for the year. We will arrive in time to enroll the boys in their school, about 5 days ahead of time, and the same day the boys start school in Wheaton, Hilary will be starting college at John Brown University....

So life is speeding up for the next month....

Thanks for stopping by,

God Bless,

Tom & Lisa

What do you do for encouragement/downtime?

2010-07-05T19:45:00.000-07:00

This is all of us, (Ben taking the picture) waiting at mainstage for festivities to start.

There are so many things people do to relax/recharge. Our mission, Worldventure encourages us to remember to take time off, and to find ways to recharge our batteries. Some of our members like to do canoeing trips, some like to play board games like Settlers of Cataan. We (it used to be Tom, but the other members of our family have been won over...) like to go to Cornerstone music festival. The festival is full of Christian music, some of the long time greats, and lots of new ones. It also has its share of the weird & wonderful. Sometimes you have to debate which category they fall into. The seminars taught by people like John Perkins, Floyd McClung, George Verwer, Norm Geisler are what Lisa likes best. None of those were there this year, but all have spoken there in the past. Multiple times.

Caleb enjoyed the kids ministries that go on. Artrageous where kids can do all sorts of creative things. And Creation Station where kids praise goes on every morning. This year he liked the swords best. Someone sold swords made out of swimming noodles & duct tape. That sword Caleb bought made instant friends for him all over the festival.

Hilary & Ben enjoyed music, more than ever before I think. It was a joy to see them excited about Christian music. (NOTE: what they were excited about was not in the weirdo category, but in the "come together and worship God as loudly as possible" category.) They also participated in the youth worship time every morning and heard the youth speaker.

A great time had by all. :D

I should also mention that Lisa had an appointment with the cochlear people before we left to come to the festival. Whatever adjustment they made really helped music be much more enjoyable for Lisa. So she really enjoyed hearing David Crowder, among others... Praise the Lord for her ears! God is so good. He wasn't obligated to give her such hearing success. But he's chosen to give it to her. We are grateful. Her ears will be restored 100% in heaven though... Come Lord Jesus, we're ready... :D

So now we're on the way home. We spent Sunday night with our longtime friends the Frosts. It was neat to celebrate 4th of July with them. (and watch their cats hide from fireworks....)

Thanks for stopping by today. Thanks for praying for us.

We hope to see you sooner rather than later.

Tom & Lisa

Hi from the USA

2010-06-22T08:47:00.000-07:00

Hi. I don't have any good pics yet.

We've been in Lansing, Michigan for the last two Sundays.

This coming Sunday, we'll be at Wheaton, Il

Then we go to Cornerstone Music Festival the following week.

We come back to Lansing, Michigan after that.

We'll have a couple of weeks to help Hilary get her drivers' license, and to get our new car registration done. (We were able to link up with a second cousin of Lisa's who works with Youth for Christ here in Lansing. He was able to help us find our car.) Thank you Lord for providing a car for the year!

We will move into our home for the next year, in Wheaton, Illinois in August.

We still need to get physicals, register the boys for school, and to get Hilary installed at John Brown University. So we have a lot of comings/goings/doings ahead of us....

Pray for us as we do a lot of road miles... and as we see friends, family that we would be an encouragement where we go.

Thanks for praying... pictures to come next time...

Tom & Lisa

In Dakar. Together again!

2010-05-23T02:55:00.000-07:00

We are so blessed to be together again. Yesterday we spent the afternoon at the school's art show. All the students art was displayed, and awards & honorable mentions were given.

Hilary won in the category for Graphin Design for her book cover..She also did these two great watercolor pictures of some people we know. ;-)

Then the handbells & choir made presentations. It was nice to be a visiting parent and see some of the hard work the students have been doing.

Today we'll go to the church service at school, and take part in the other activities for the week.

God has really given our kids a blessing through Dakar Academy. The blessing of other adults who can put positive input into their lives, and to encourage them and train them in areas we're not quite so strong in. As well as the social interaction and interplay with the other kids.

Ben has loved being a part of sports like handball, basketball, volleyball. Those activities have been a great source of enjoyment for him this year. As proof of this he showed us his running shoes, that even a liberal dose of duct tape could never save.... Lisa went out with him yesterday, and found a pair to help him finish these last weeks, and get on the plane.

Thanks for praying for us, and our family.

Tom & Lisa Seward

Leaving Kadiolo

2010-05-21T02:38:00.001-07:00

Saying goodbye to one of our former english students from Kadiolo who is now in university at Bamako.

We arrived in Bamako a bit early before our departure to spend a few days meeting with a Christian media mission who is interested in helping produce film in West Africa. They are already very involved in Kenya, Rwanda, and some other countries in East Africa. The drama team came up with pastor youssouf to discuss a possible partnership. Great scriptwriters/actors working on radio theatres, the next step would be putting some of that great work on film, right?
We met and discussed what a partnership would look like. It looks very positive.
Good News, (The media mission) wants us to make a local commitee of church leaders to oversee whatever film media work is to be done. Then Good News relies on the local church to review content, and manage the finances that would be coming in to produce films.

So in all these meetings Tom had to translate. Our Good News friends had almost no french, our drama team friends have almost no english. Lisa worked hard to keep everyone fed. So between the two of us, we really put our everything into these meetings for 3 days.

Hopefully this future partnership can bear fruit. We'd love to see some of the drama teams' best work be recorded on DVD. Dvd's can't really be sold in Mali due to piracy, so we're not expecting a big income from this work. But we're counting on pirates spreading the gospel via these dvd's all over west africa. Our dream is to get on a bus, and have one of our dramas playing on the tv monitor.

Trying to translate thought for thought not

word for word on the fly is exhausting work.

The drama team came ready to discuss

and explore possibilities of a partnership.

In Bamako we were also able to celebrate Caleb's 10th Birthday. Our friends opened their home and pool, and the kids had a blast. It barely seems like 10 years ago he was born in the Ivory Coast. Congrats Caleb!

Caleb 10 years old and counting.

"How many girlfriends, Caleb?"

Crazy mk fun in the pool.

We thank God for friends like these for our kids here in Africa.

God does provide.

Thanks for stopping by,

We appreciate all of your prayers.

Tom & Lisa Seward

Eadelmans left this week.

2010-05-01T10:09:00.000-07:00

As you know last week we had a big goodbye fete (party) for Eadelmans in Kadiolo. It was designed by the local church for them to say goodbye in their way to Ernie & Jan.
Both missionaries and church members came up from Cote D'Ivoire from Korhogo to take part of this fete. The lady singer and musicians came along with them. What a special celebration this was!

Jane & Linda came from Korhogo.

The group of friends who came from Cote D'Ivoire to say a special goodbye to Ernie & Jan.

The africans gave many gifts, including 3 complete outfits for both Jan & Ernie.
But this gift was extra special I think. Ernies' ministry was highly technical.
Helping the ministries through computer training & troubleshooting.
They had designed this beautiful wall hanging explaining how they saw this ministry.
@ church in doing the work of God's hands! What a blessing.
What a great summary of ministry! I want to finish that well when the time comes.
Of course if I'm not careful my wall hanging will have dominoes on it... LOL

We all came up to Bamako, where we hosted an open house at the GMU/WV guest house. This was designed for missionary friends and colleagues from other missions to be able to come and say goodbye to the Eadelmans. Both fetes went so well. I really think the send-off was a good one.

This picture is from the Bamako open house. It was fun, so many people came out to greet. Pete & Debra McKlurkin worked so hard on the food. (We helped some too)
One of the african ladies who came asked which hotel catered the event. We said "none, we did all this" she was amazed.

Ernie & Jan, suitcases in tow, hand on the door, ready to get in their taxi and go to the airport. Godspeed! God bless!

Well this has been what is on our hearts and minds this week. We were going to be heading back to Kadiolo today. But I (Tom) have had a tendonitis attack, and have bee laid up the last 3 days. Ibprofen is really working well on it, so maybe 2 more days, and I'll be ready to get on a bus.
Thanks for praying for us...

OH.. please pray especially for Hilary right now... She is in the throes of choosing between college plan "A" which is very affordable, but at a secular school, and a plan "B" which would be about 5 times more costly, but at a Christian university that has a special love for MK's. We are moving ahead on both, and watching to see God open/close doors. Pray for her in the stress of choices... new for her. But for the rest of us we know that is what adult life is about, don't we?

Thanks for stopping by,
thanks for praying,
Tom & Lisa

two video links

2010-04-24T19:12:00.000-07:00

Hi. These two videos are from the 2 day celebration the church put on to honor our colleagues, the Eadelmans. They are retiring in October 2010, but this is their last week in Kadiolo. What fun the people had as they dancing late into the night both friday and saturday.
The actual recognition service was attended by the cheif of gendarmes, the prefet, and other important civil leaders. Our friends had touched a wide variety of people through service with computers. The gospel was so clearly presented today to these dignitaries, and they seemed to be listening!

This woman, Korotoumou is a celebrity amongst the Christian Senoufo people of Cote D'ivoire. She and her group are often requested to play for various celebrations... enough that it is hard to book her time. To your western ear, her voice may not be appealing. What is interesting is that she sings bible stories... Senoufo songs tend to be 10-20 min long, this lends itself to being able to sing bible stories.
This video is a 1 min sample of a song that (I think) recounts several of Jesus' miracles.

This video shows the joy of the people as they're enjoying the music. Our friend Cemogo... waves at the camera... Emily... thats' especially for you!
A lot of people also mentioned how dusty should be there to dance with them.... he made quite a name for himself at christmastime.... LOL

Thanks for stopping by today.
Thanks for praying... We are still struggling with power cuts. It is hard to keep from being depressed, and hard to stay at top effectiveness with that kind of thing going on..

Tom & Lisa Seward

A few random pics

2010-03-26T01:43:00.000-07:00

Hilary & friend Amber motorbiking.

Hi. Hilary & Ben came home for Easter break. It has been a lot of fun to have them back. We celebrated yesterday by breaking out pie irons to cook biscuit dough and pizza sauce over the open fire. That was fun.
Hilary had 2 friends come with her. Their parents are missionaries in Greece. They go to the school in Dakar as well. So this visit to Mali is a first for them. So of course we're giving them the best of the boonies tour by bringing them to Kadiolo.

Church visit

I'm sure church in Kadiolo is quite different from church in Greece.

Pray for us as we work here in Mali. It seems like the electric issues of the past 2 months are over. We've enjoyed 24 hr electric since last Saturday. It is such a blessing to let that worry go away.

Maybe you read a few blogs ago about Dominoes evangelism. It is still going strong. Those relationships are building, and new guys are interested and being added all the time. 5 guys this week between the two locations. May the Gospel go out because of this silly game. :D

Thanks for stopping by today. Thanks for praying for us.
It means a lot.
Tom & Lisa

God's Provision

2010-03-13T08:05:00.001-08:00

There are so many ways that God provides for us, isn't there...
We've been "suffering" the last 6 weeks of hot season with half time electricity.
(12 hrs a day, roughly...) In spite of that... I'm interested in these ways God has been providing for us, and for those around us...

Away with the old, broken generator.

Welcome to the brand new one...

1. Because of this power outage problem. The radio station guys have been using a very old generator to make electric so they can transmit programs. They were able to sell the big old generator that doesn't work for a new diesel one! Is that a provision of God or what?
We were very thankful to see this new generator installed today.

We thank God for providing transportation in a variety of ways.

A mercedes in africa is not quite as much of a luxury car as in the USA.
But this one was in pretty good shape.

2. We went to Sikasso this week in a rented car. A mercedes sedan. A man in town rented it to us for $30 for the day. So even though Eadelmans' car was totalled in the accident a few months ago, and our car has been sold... God has been providing transportation as needed. What a blessing. It was so nice to go to Sikasso, and get a change of scenery for the day as well.

Issa & Wife. If you zoom in a bit, you can see the intricate henna tattoo on her hands... Temporary... and part of making yourself beautiful for a special event in Mali.

This is me (Tom) with several of our friends. Issa's guys are one of the regular groups of guys I sit with each week.

3. Our good friend Issa is not yet a christian. He has been a good friend since 2005. This week we celebrated God's provision in his life as he got married. He told me he is pleased with the girl he's married, she is serious. (not a floozy.) He told me his Imam had encouraged him to be pure, and he is getting married as a pure man to a pure woman. I think God will honor that in their marriage, and give them something special that many others in Mali don't share... God Bless Mr & Mrs Kone!

I liked this picture.

4. We can't think of God's provision in our lives without thinking of Lisa's ears. I think she is tired of hearing it... :D but she has done so well out here in Mali with high tech ears. This picture shows her enjoying a womans' meeting last week. She's able to take full part, even with french and bambara parts...
Praise the Lord for is provision...

I don't know... Maybe you're nervous about being a missionary. There are a lot of unknowns when you leave your country to go to another. You have to learn all the language and culture stuff of the new place. But I want to encourage you, and witness to you that God provides! Here are 4 concrete ways he's provided in our lives & ministries in just the last month! (Ok for Lisa over the last 2 years...)
God is bigger than yours & my problems. He is the God of solutions...
Praise the Lord...

Thanks for stopping by today...
Tom & Lisa Seward

Celebrating end to Excisions in Gninlasso

2010-02-27T22:10:00.000-08:00

No more excisions in our village...... ever! Declares the slogan on the banner.
Female excision was made illegal in both Cote D'Ivoire and Mali almost 30 years ago.
Yet today is still a hot topic as many many villages still practice it. Women are weak, and prone to wander sexually, african theory goes... So to avoid this removal of their external sex organs keeps them interested in home and family. This practice, destroying women's bodies in a painful way, is to promote purity. It is interesting that this culture that prizes babies so much, makes it that much harder for a woman to deliver a baby.

This village is celebrating the fact that they are now complying with the law that was passed over 30 years ago. They are being heralded as a village to be looked up to. So other villages would follow their good example. In American timing, they are way late.... In Malian timing, you can never be late. Anyway... I do certainly support an end to this practice.

Even though this villages' decision is 30 years late. It is not too late for these girls. Several of these girls are christians, and go to the Gninlasso church there in the village. Pray that they would follow Christ with all their hearts, and become the women of God Christ wants them to be.

As with any celebration in Africa, dancing, dancing, dancing is the way to celebrate. One time in a church, we showed pictures of africans dancing. Someone was totally appalled that Christians would dance in africa. Dancing has a lot of bad connotations in the USA, but in africa is a expression of joy. For many women, it is one of the few outlets they have to celebrate and have fun. They work so hard most of the time. African dancing is cultural, not boy-girl based like in America. And when the dust kicks up... the grins appear. Todays celebration was something worth dancing about....

Praise the Lord for the work he is doing in Mali

Thanks for stopping by,
Tom & Lisa

Dominoes & Evangelism???

2010-02-22T23:23:00.000-08:00

So you may read our blog, and in the back of your mind you may be saying something like this: "I wouldn't know how to go about sharing the gospel with someone." or "What are some good ways to open spiritual conversations with people near me?" "If I was a missionary in Mali, what common ground could I find to share with the Mali people?"

Well of course being a bit creative helps. But many simple ways really work. Last week Lisa was cleaning our storage room. We found 2 old sets of Dominoes. She said lets get rid of these. I thought about taking them to my 2 regular groups of guys. Soon we were all playing dominoes like crazy. One group is all m-lim men who are open to talking about the gospel. One group is church guys, but now with the dominoes game going on... (almost constantly last week) people are being drawn in, unbelievers that we can share with. It is really funny. Anyway, relationships are being built for Christ with little black & white peices of wood. Its amazing.

Anyway, the point is that you don't have to be a "super christian" to share the gospel. You don't have to wait for a perfect "Max Lucado" moment to share. Just hang out, share a donut with someone you are praying for, and let God work. Relationship time pays off.

Speaking of praying for things to happen. This is a pic of our Sunday School youth. I have been praying for about 2 years for 10 kids between this Sunday school class and the Choir (older youth) to be serious enough to be baptised. I now have 9 who've taken the baptism class, and are awaiting their interview with Pastor Youssouf. I was resigned to 9. (Maybe I was over zealous, God thank you for 9...) Yesterday, a young girl from choir said... is it too late to be in the baptism class? I want to take it too. Of course the classes are done. But I say.. .hey.. no its not too late. Come to my house, meet with Lisa and me this week, and we'll do a personal version of the class just for you. If she follows through... 10 students!!! Thank you God.
Don't be afraid to pray boldly for God to do stuff. He can do it....

Thanks for stopping by,
Tom & Lisa

Together again

2010-02-15T00:52:00.000-08:00

Even though our colleagues Tom & Laura only work about 45 min away in Fourou, we don't see them very often. The road gets really bad during rainy season, making visits from either Kadiolo or Fourou difficult. This time Tom & Laura made a special 3 day trip over to Kadiolo to help Ernie & Jan sort through their stuff as they begin to pack for retirement. At the same time, we 3 couples enjoyed hanging out together again. Playing wild card games of hand & foot, and eating ice cream, and almost-delivery pizza. :D

Ladies working on sorting.

Guys trip to Sikasso for hardware stuffs

Before you get too excited about this lebanese hamburger... know that while it is tasty, it has cold fries in it, cole slaw, and a distinct sheepy flavor to the patty.
It does go down okay, though... :D

We enjoyed 3 days together... knowing that this is the last time all 3 couples will be together in africa. Tom & Laura leave this week for 6 months of furlough. In April, Ernie & Jan will be retiring. In May, We (Tom & Lisa) leave for furlough as well. When we come back next year, Tom & Laura will be here, but Ernie & Jan will be gone. We will have new colleagues on the field, Jeff & Heidi are now in language school for french, and will be joining us. We have 2 other couples who've been appointed but won't have arrived on the field yet. We look forward to our new team-mates... :D

Changes like this are sad. We've relied on Ernie & Jan's advice so much, and now we're supposed to be the guys who have all the smart advice... (Lord, give us the grace and wisdom to guide others on this path.) It is humbling, and scary.

Pray for us as we take the baton(s) that Eadelmans are leaving for us. Pray for the continued growth in the churches, and that God's word would continue to go out. That is way more important than our other issues.

On other issues.... Our electricity has been cut. We've been on a schedule of 8hr of electricity, 16 hrs cut. for the last month. This is supposed to go on until May 2010. Apparantly in the Ivory Coast, the main power station (hydro power) has 2 turbines. One is broken down. So they are repairing/replacing it. So now they only can make 1/2 the electricity they used to. So there will be these cuts until the plant is back up to normal.

Also in Cote D'Ivoire... President Gbagbo closed the government. That is like having the president of the USA suspend congress indefinitely. He's cancelled the elections indefinitely. (I'm not sure what he actually said as far as the elections' time frame, but indefinitely was the general idea.) So the Ivory Coast has taken a big step backwards as far as restoring normalcy to the country, sadly enough. We pray for peace & safety for our colleagues still working there, and for the national church.

Thanks for praying, and stopping by!

Tom & Lisa

Women's Visit to Gninasso

2010-02-07T23:39:00.001-08:00

This is Lisa today....How do you combine an official village visit to celebrate God's healing someone you prayed over 3 years ago, plus a "funeral" visit that's a year overdue, plus a new funeral visit from last week? You just go, ready to sing and dance, with lots of snacks!

This was our women's group yesterday in the rented bus, on our way to the village of Gninasso, about 5 miles outside of Kadiolo, where one of the rural pastors lives and is working on starting a church plant. A couple of years ago, we went there and prayed for a widow, named Bintu, who had been struggling for months and was dependent on Pastor Salif's family to help raise her children since her husband had died. We had intended to return later when she was healthy again to praise God for answering prayers on her behalf and to witness to the watching villagers. But then when Lisa got sick and we left on medical leave last year, this return visit was delayed.

And during that year, Pastor Salif's wife, Chiata, lost her mother. Since we weren't around with our car and no-one could afford to rent transportation, a group visit was never done then, either. As we were evaluating ministry opportunities for this year, the ladies wanted to do this visit to Gninasso, so Tom and I agreed to fund the transport for the group, since we have recently sold our car. Then, last week at the end of this planning meeting, word came from this village than one of the young women had just passed away and they were trying to get word to Pastor Salif who had been preaching at another church that morning. So, we were glad that we were already "on our way", so to speak, to encourage the believers there.

We arrived and greeted the villagers, shared our "news" (why we were there), had some singing time and I shared some Bible passages, and then the food! Various women had prepared donut holes, popcorn, peanuts, and drinks, and then there was more singing and dancing at the end. The women were so pleased to be able to go. The village church really enjoyed their visit, too.

Just as we were leaving the village, the van blew a tire, and it became apparent that the driver and helpers' tools were tired out and not doing the job. Getting very little phone network signal, I called Tom and asked him to help us. He found the van owner in town and let him know the situation. They scrambled around with the other car owners, came up with a wrench, then sent it off with Pastor Youssouf on a motorbike so the guys could fix the tire. Rescued and back to Kadiolo just as dark was falling. In the picture above, Pastor Salif is the man on the far right; he would covet your prayers as he is working on two very different church plants many miles apart, the one where he lives, and also the church in Misseni, at the gold rush.

Back to Tom...
You may not know we've been having severe power cuts. Ivory Coast provides our electricity via 2 giant turbines in a hydro electric dam. One of those is broken.
So they announced we'll be on half time electric until May.

We have been pleasantly surprised to find the generator we bought in August in Bamako does not use a lot of gas. It has been such a blessing to be able to pump water with our electric pump, run the freezer, and fridge, and do lots of the other things we need to do with electric, all without consuming a lot of gas. What a blessing! Last night we were supposed to have our power cut from 1 pm to 5pm today. Monday. Well for some reason we enjoyed electric all night last night. Another blessing from God. He is so good to us...

Thanks for stopping by,
Keep on praying for us.... we know you do!!

Tom & Lisa Seward

Africa Cup Football (Soccer) championship

2010-02-01T00:01:00.000-08:00

Watching Africa cup finals with a bunch of friends

A good part of what I do is sit with guys in the street. My goal is evangelism, but I also need constant practice as I strive to learn Bambara. So the lines between evangelism, relationship building, and language learning really blur when I'm hanging out with the guys. All of good mission work is based on good relationships though, and the stronger the relationships, the better our friends are ready to hear the message of Christ we've come to bring....

Some people ask how or what you do as a missionary to present the Gospel? A lot of it is this kind of thing. Hanging out, sharing time together, looking for teachable moments or opportunities to share. And they are numerous.

One of this group just this week was very interested. It was a guy I don't know as well as the others. But he popped up with the question... what is the difference between Islam and Christianity? Aren't they both ways to serve/praise the existing God? I was diplomatic. But I said they are different because what Mohammed taught and what Jesus taught are different. I explained how Mohammed taught salvation comes through weighing your good actions against your bad ones. And how Jesus taught that if you stumble on one point of the law you are guilty of breaking all of it. Jesus knew I could not do enough good stuff, so he gave his life as the sacrifice for my sins. Therefore he who has the sacrifice is forgiven, he who does not have the sacrifice, good as he may be, is not forgiven. Heavy words for him to hear I guess.
The thing is that when a conversation like that springs up, only one guy will ask the question, but 8-10 guys are around to hear, and largely they follow the conversation closely.

Continue to pray with me that God will open the hearts and minds of people to recieve his love. Pray with me that these guys would see the light of Christ...

Thanks for stopping by,
Tom & Lisa

Travelling in Mali

2010-01-18T01:33:00.000-08:00

Link to the bus video on youtube here -Click-

Dusty was with us for the month of December. It is always fun to see Mali through the eyes of someone visiting for the first time. So much of what is "weird" to a visitor is common place to us.
So this video is Dusty & Tom's bus ride down from Bamako to Kadiolo...
It has been edited so you wont see all 9 hrs of this particular trip... :D (The bus ride can be much faster than this, but unfortunately this trip was not an example of Mali speed.)

But watching this video may give you an idea of what it would be like to visit! And may be fond? memories for those of you who have rode our buses... Pastor Mike, Emily, Dusty, Joannie, Jason, Ashley, Susan, Amy, and others who may have had this dubious honor and neat opportunity.

Enjoy, and remember to pray for us as we travel often in this fashion...

Thanks for stopping by,
Tom & Lisa

Motorbike gets new home.

2010-01-10T03:24:00.003-08:00

Pastor Youssouf hands Pastor Daouda keys to his new motorbike.

I had explained to Youssouf that I was ready to give my old motorbike to the Pain de Vie association. I asked which pastor should recieve it. (our pastors each have a motorbike, and have a small fund each month to pay for gas and maintain it, but have no replacement fund.) I had pastor Daouda in mind... because his motorbike was easily 15 years old, and in the worst shape of all of our local pastor's motorbikes.
Youssouf replied Daouda... I grinned and said that was who I had in mind. (we had both been out to Daouda's church a couple of weeks earlier for a baptism. evidently we both noticed Dao's bike was tired... and needing replacing..)
So pastor Youssouf called pastor Daouda, and it was agreed that he come to my house the next day for a meeting. He and Youssouf came that next morning.

The meeting started out with... "Pastor Daouda, do you know why we called you to the meeting here today?" Dao says "no"
I explained how at the end of this 5 year term in June I had intended to give my motorbike to the Pain de vie, expecting that I would give it in June. But that the car sale included a new motorbike in the selling price, freeing me up to give my older motorbike now instead of later in the year. I explained how I had approached pastor Youssouf, and we had both identified him as having a need for a motorbike, and it was agreed that he recieve it. I explained that I cannot give a new motorbike every three years, but God enabled me to do it this time... So I gave him the keys, the ownership papers, the tax papers and all. He about fell off of his chair. He was so happy. It was my old motorbike, but it only has 7000km on it, about 3500 miles.. it has a good 3-4 years left on it if treated well. It was all up to date.
We prayed God's blessing on Pastor Daouda's ministry, and the motorbike he would now be able to use... He drove the bike away... so pleased....

It is a blessing to be able to encourage the servants of God.

Thanks for stopping by,
Tom & Lisa Seward

Christmas Celebrations.

2009-12-26T02:47:00.000-08:00

Lisa with her Santa Hat. (the hat was not part of her regular Christmas dress.

Hi. Christmas is different in Africa. The church has an all night party Christmas eve, with singing, theatre, dancing, a film (this year the Jesus film was shown..) Midnight coffee, and more dancing. They asked me to give the evening sermon. I shared about Mary's angel visit, and Josephs' angel visit, explaining that the angel was announcing no normal baby's birth. I then jumped to John 14:6. What did this baby later say about himself? "I am the way, the truth, the life, nobody comes to the Father except through me..." I shared that unless you have Jesus in your heart as your sacrifice for your sin, it is impossible to have a right relationship with God. I was preaching to a very fidgety crowd of 300+. (Most of them under 13...) After I sat down, an invited m-lim friend poked me. "Is that true what you just said? About Jesus being the sacrifice, and unless he is in your heart there is no way to have a right relationship with God?" Someone had been listening... Pray for Khaki as he weighs through what he heard, and that the Holy Spirit would work in his life.

Dusty and Lydie Christmas Eve 2009

Early evening Christmas Eve 2009

Christmas day was church service, followed by a huge potluck. This year the ladies cooking decided to make a huge pot of french fries! What a joy! They called me, "You like ketchup with your fries, don't you? Maybe you should go buy some..." I did, and it was so good with them... put a smile on our faces.... The everpresent rice & sauce was pretty good too.. :D

So then we switch gears, and move to a more family celebration. We exchanged gifts, laughed, and are now getting ready to eat! Pic to come...maybe... :D

In our house people,(especially Tom) get excited about licorice.

Caleb with a new shirt.

Tom & Hilary... (no no daddy.... not that picture... LOL)

A Merry Christmas to all of you! May God bless you!

One can be full of self-pity being far away from family on Christmas,

But we really feel like we are right where he wants us to be.

And that He is not done using us....

Thanks for stopping by,

Tom & Lisa Seward

Together again

2009-12-20T11:15:00.000-08:00

"Together again, together again...." if you recognise those song lines from the Muppets take manhattan, then you may have watched too many muppet movies...

But the song represents how we feel right now....

We are happy to all be together again. Lisa and the kids bused down from Bamako on Friday. They had quite a good bus ride... So we've enjoyed being together.

This week is going to be full. I'm (Tom) recovering from an amoeba. (dyssentry) so that is fun. Today we had the opportunity to go to a village to witness a baptism, but I declined to go because I'm still a bit weak. Tomorrow Dusty and I will visit Fourou, and Dusty can see what a miracle church the Fourou church is...

I'm supposed to be picking up a motorbike tomorrow. The mason is supposed to come over to start work on our septic system. I was able to buy 2 fat chickens, they will be delivered tomorrow, and be eaten Christmas day for our family meal! Two ivoirian guys are coming to Kadiolo to celebrate Christmas with Ernie & Jan, so they will stay with us for a few days. Ernie & Jan are arriving tomorrow with their son & family (4 kids) who are coming out to visit. So their house is too full to house anyone else... Our cat gave birth to 3 beautiful kittens. But our dog wants to steal them from the mother, and nurse them...

Does our life sound crazy yet? Oh- yes... Freddi came by today to inform me that they announced that I would be preaching Christmas Eve. (Nobody told me that yet...) It is fine, I'll be ready... but it was a bit of a surprise.... in fact, I don't think Lisa knows yet, cuz I haven't had a chance to tell her... LOL

Life in Africa is fun... :D This entry may sound a bit disjointed, but that is only because that is how today was.

Come visit sometime and experience this kind of chaos firsthand.

We're so pleased that Dusty has the opportunity to see all of this.... And we pray that God is able to speak to him in the midst of the rush....

Thanks for stopping by,

Tom & Lisa

Dusty arrives!

2009-12-13T09:00:00.000-08:00

Hi. Our new friend Dusty just arrived in Mali. He is here for 4 weeks. He is exploring to see how God could use him in Mali. He will be living with an african senoufo family, he will be learning a bit of Bambara. He will be generally experiencing what missionary life is in southern Mali. Also he will be visiting the various ministries, and hearing from our African brothers and sisters what their vision is for the church and the advancement of the gospel here.

If you are twinged with a teeny bit of jealousy because you're saying to yourself. "HEY! Could I do something like that??" Maybe you could. God has gifted you in many ways that you are aware of, as well as a few ways that would surprise even your mother. Sometimes we need to step out in faith to find these things.

On the other side of experiences in Mali, our colleagues Ernie & Jan E. had a car accident. They were on a very dusty road, and stopped because they couldn't see. They were stopped lest than a minute when a semi truck (who did not stop when he couldn't see.) hit them almost head on. Fortunatly he was going fairly slow. But the semi truck just about demolished their car, but did not harm Ernie or Jan nor their 2 passengers.

I've had a very busy week this week. I've been meeting with Ernie, and with our pastors of the Pain de Vie (Bread of life) church association. (In case I've never said this, Pain de Vie is the name of our church association here in Mali.) Anyway, they have been reworking their Statement of Faith. So we've been talking through issues like baptism, communion, baby dedication. We walked through the example of World Venture's statement of faith. So now they're writing theirs along those lines, but in french. Once the french one is accepted by the association, then they will write it in Bambara.

The idea is that when we are done, the pastors will have a statement of faith that can be taught to believers who neither speak nor read french.

I've also been meeting with the radio drama team. A mission concerned with media would like to come to Kadiolo in February 2010, to offer some training to the team on video production. So we've been discussing/working through a lot of issues with that trip as well.

I really felt needed and useful in a profound way this week. I was at the right place at the right time, and able help navigate some of these issues. And God is blessing.

Thank you for praying. Your prayers, even in the "simple" matter of travel. As you can see, it means a lot.

Thanks for stopping by,

Tom & Lisa

Moving day African Style

2009-12-07T06:02:00.000-08:00

Hi. I've been realising that looking for the perfect blog entry is not the thing to do. You want pictures and stories of life in Africa, not perfect stories every time. We've struggled the last couple of weeks with our car. First repairing it, then finding out it was not fixed, trying again, again finding it was not fixed. Or at least the problems multiplyed. So now looking to sell it.

We are excited about Dusty. He is coming this next week. He'll be here for 6 weeks or so. He is coming to see how God has made him for africa. We are praying that God will show him many ways that God has gifted him that work for people here in this culture.

Anyway, we're preparing his house for him. Dusty will be living with an African family, which will probably be the best part and the worst part of his stay here in Kadiolo.
Because our car isn't in good health, we hired 3 push-cart guys to do the move. It went well today, and after a little more work, Dusty's house will be ready for him.

If you are jealous of Dusty, and want to come spend a month with an african family too, write us, and come out! It would be fun to have you!

This last picture is from last Sunday. Pastor Youssouf's new baby was dedicated. The tradition here is that a baby dedication be accompanied by a food celebration. Here is Lisa brandishing a nice plate of meat & rice! Makes your mouth water, don't it? Maybe not, but it sure was tasty. And we were happy to celebrate the occasion!

Thanks for stopping by,
And thanks for praying for us.
Your prayers are so important!
Tom & Lisa

Comings and goings

2009-11-07T13:49:00.000-08:00

Hi. This last week has been full of comings and goings. It seems like we were welcoming people all week. First, Rod & Angelika came up from Ivory Coast. They have been working there throughout the war. They came up so Rod's brother could meet with the drama team, and talk with them about their work.

Then, a SB church group came out. Their church has adopted a group of small villages near us, and they come out 3-4 times a year. They've rented a house in town, and I went over to welcome them. We are thankful for all kinds of missionary partnerships, so it is nice to have them come.

Then, Karin, our german Wycliffe worker, came back from furlough. She now has an irish partner who will help her for the next two years here in Kadiolo. We're praying that this relationship will be an encouragement to Karin, and help her in doing all the necessary things to begin translation. Karin has had almost 2 years here learning the Senoufo language Shenara. So Godspeed to them as they work to bring God's written word into this language for the first time.

Zoom out of the first picture, and you see the beautiful environment it was taken in.
Rod & Angelika had never seen the waterfall, so we were kind enough to show them. If you come out to see us, we'll show you too... :D

Hilary on Dakar Academy outreach last weekend.

Meanwhile back in Dakar, Hilary and Ben are hard at work in school. Ben has been serving a lot with the sound crew, setting up microphones, and plugging in wires. Hilary had the opportunity last weekend to take part of a village outreach that the school arranged. There are more pics on her facebook page, if you'd like to see them. But I liked this one.

Thanks for continuing to pray for us. We are safe. Since the riots against the police about 3 weeks ago, all has been calm. Business as usual. We thank God for a productive environment to work in. We thank God for our church members we work with. they are such a joy. We did get invited for dinner the other night. We had foutou and beef sauce, followed up by riz gras and duck. How do I know it was a duck? The head was on top of the meat, winking at me... Very tasty anyways... :D

Thanks for stopping by,
Tom & Lisa

Sunday's trip to Missiogo

2009-10-19T07:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Sunday, Oct 18th. I went with Pastor Youssouf to Missiogo. I know the name Missiogo means nothing to you, probably. But think of the miner 49ers, and the Klondike gold rushes, and you get the idea. It is like 1849 in California out there. People mining, panning for gold. Way too many people in one little area scratching the earth for gold. Like the Gold rushes in the old west, lawlessness, corruption, prostitution, drugs and alcohol reign. People go off to the gold rush, get so entangled in sin that they are ashamed to return to their families. Sickness, including cholera, meningitis and typhoid are common. At one point over 200,000 people converged out there, camping in ramshackle grass huts. It is in this setting that a church has come to be.

This church is serving believers who have come. It encourages them not to leave their faith, and encourages them to continue to be a witness, even in this dark place. It also serves as a beacon of light to those who are desperate, and may be ready to turn to Christ.

Long dusty road.

Swimming motorbikes through flooded creek.

It was a long 140 km round trip ride on my motorbike. The longest trip I've taken on it so far. The road was good for awhile, then we left the road, and went into trails in the backbrush. Muddy, slippery. At one point we had to "swim" our motorbikes through a flooded creek. (we had to swim them on the way back too...)

Shiny New Church building.

Some of the local believers in front of their grass hut home.

But the trip was worth it. The believers welcomed us and were so pleased to show us their new church building. It is made with metal roofing panels over a strong wooden frame. It looks flimsy to you and I, but to people who live in woven grass huts, it is a shining thing. A beautifully built building. They could not build a brick building because all of the gold rush area there is illegal. Nobody is allowed to build there. (although I could not count the hundreds of grass huts that have been thrown together.) So the church has been built right alongside the people. One day it will be torn down like all the other buildings. Then the church will relocate to a property they own legally. In the meantime they serve where the people are.

Youssouf preaching in Missiogo

We took part in the church service. Me to say hello from you all. :D Pastor Youssouf bringing a message with grace and excellence. The people really appreciated his message. He does his job so well.

Yummy liver & spaghetti

After the service, the people had such meal prepared for us. They had Spaghetti & Liver, bread, Rice & Beef sauce, Oranges, and Pops.... Such a generous spread. (All food items cost twice what they cost in Kadiolo because they have to be trucked in so far...) It was very touching. We were hungry after the trip, too.

Pray with us that the church in Missiogo would continue to grow and be a beacon of light in a very dark place. Pray with us that the leaders would grow in faith, and win others for Christ. Pray for safety for the church and for the people in Missiogo. Pray for Gods grace to fall in Missiogo.

Thanks for stopping by,
Tom & Lisa

October- Back to School

2009-10-10T00:49:00.000-07:00

Hi... Back to school?? "Isn't it a bit late?", you ask? School normally starts first week of October in Mali. University hasn't started yet. We've been scrambling to help families be able to get school supplies, and to get their kids in school. Every year there are more needs than we can supply. We do have some people who sponsor kids. Elementary 2500 cfa ($5) a month. Jr High 5000 cfa ($10) a month. Sr High 7500 cfa ($15) a month. Very cheap, unless you only make 40,000 cfa per month, and you have 2 or more kids... How do you eat? The nice thing is that many of our high schoolers have made good grades, and the government pays those fees now... But school is very far away, so they need a bicycle to get there, and a backpack. But monthly costs are easier to manage.
We're hoping that by helping these kids through school they may be able to get jobs that pay better than 40,000 cfa ($80) a month, so they will be able to put their kids through, etc...

It has been a month of mini-crisis too. Angeline works mornings for us. She does kitchen stuff and cooks our noon meal so that Lisa is free to homeschool Caleb. She got word that her mother in Bouake is very sick. She broke up in tears, unable to pay to go take care of her mother. So we and our colleagues pulled together some money for her to travel as well as have some money to pay for meds/doctors. She left 2 days ago on a night bus for Bouake. Godspeed Angeline!!

Angeline

Some of Angelines' mouth watering donuts.

On the more fun side of life, we ordered some banana ice cream from our good friend Lazare. How do you make ice cream in Africa? Some of you who are older remember the old crank machines. They work so well. But how do you get crushed ice? Ha ha, you get Claudia to pound it.... She does a good job. Ice cream should be ready for today, yum yum... :D

Claudia pounding ice.

Lazare turning some banana ice cream.

The nice thing about ice cream is that you can make it anywhere. You don't need a fancy ice cream parlour, you can churn right on the side of the road. Lazare is under a mango tree right in front of his resaurant.

Thanks for following along with us, and taking the time to stop by.
Keep praying!
Tom & Lisa

Last Sunda y

2009-10-05T23:14:00.001-07:00

Road to Kanbo

Hi. Last saturday night Pastor Youssouf invited me to go out to a nearby village, Kambo, where one of our small village churches is. So I said "Sure, I'll come...". So we arranged to drive our motorbikes out there, and to meet in the morning at 8:30 am. In the morning, about 8:15, Youssouf called, and said, "Ok, are you coming?" I was ready, so I got on my motorbike and went to his house.
But when I got there he was gone. Just after calling me, he received a call that a family member was being brought in from another village and had died. So he went off to the hospital/morgue to deal with the family crisis. I called him, and said "Should I go, and preach in your place?" He said, "Wow that is a good idea, take my nephew to translate." So Gauchou and I got on my motorbike, and drove out to Kanbo.

Kanbo is outside Kadiolo, but not too far. Maybe 6-7 km out. So we got there in about 20 minutes, driving on one of our "good" roads. Church was already started. So we joined in. This congregation has 4000 members and 5 services.... NOT... :D... at least not yet...
There were 6 adults including me and Gauchou, and 4 kids. If you remember the story a few months ago of the woman and her husband who said they would turn to Christ if she was healed from her sickness? She is from Kambo, too. But she was not at church this week. Pastor said she is faithful, but is really receiving opposition from her family. They do not want her to be a Christian. So she is struggling. Pray for her. Her name is Asita.

Here is a pic of our group, (Gauchou took the picture...)

I preached on Hebrews 7, how Christ is our sacrifice on time for all. I contrasted how the witchdoctors and priests have to do many sacrifices, and how they have to sacrifice for their own sin first. But how Christ, according to Hebrews 7, does not need a sacrifice for His sin, so is free to be the sacrifice for ours.
Gauchou did a good job translating for me.

So when church was over, it is the village tradition to feed the visiting speaker. So Pastor Moussa invited us to lunch. His wife quickly ran over to the house, and lit her fire to cook rice & sauce. We had time to talk, and rest a bit, and about 1 hr later, lunch was ready. She nicely provided me with a spoon so I could eat like a white guy. I appreciated that. (Africans eat with their hands, which may sound interesting and romantic to you... but after burning your hand with sloppy hot rice & sauce, you may prefer to eat with a spoon or fork like I do.) :D

Another bit of news/prayer request.
Our neighbors 1st wife is very sick. She has an ulcer that hurts when she eats, so she has eaten very little in the past 2 weeks. She is really wasting away. She can't walk now, on her own. She is really looking bad. We went over there yesterday to pray for her. But she really looks like she will die without intervention. Pray for her, and the whole family.

Thanks for stopping by!
Tom & Lisa

Celebrating God's provision

2009-10-03T06:49:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Water!!

Have you had a crisis recently? We did. Our water pump died. So our water was in our well, but not able to get to our sinks, showers, toilets. We quickly installed buckets of water all over the house to use for water. (Bucket baths arent' so fun...)

Marikot & Jonas- Thanks guys

We were able to get colleagues in Bamako to buy a pump for us. We sent one of our believers up on the 5pm bus on Thursday night. He arrived Friday morning, got the pump, got back on the bus in time to get a 10 am bus to come back. He arrived late at night Friday. Saturday morning he arrived bright and early at our house, smiling with pump in hand. Jonas, Marikot (Eadelman's guard) and our neighbor Bamba all helped me install the pump. In about an hour or so, we turned it on, and celebrated the sound of water running into our water tower!!

I told the guys we were going to celebrate God's provision of the pump. I went to the bus station. (That is where you can buy ready-cooked food in Kadiolo) I bought about $4 of roasted sheep meat. Yum yum... We celebrated God's goodness together, a good finish to a job well done.

Do we celebrate God enough in our lives? Not the big big stuff, but even little things like this? I've been reminded about celebrating this kind of thing a lot recently, and is partly why I even thought to do it this time. I think we need to celebrate Him more... don't you? So we celebrated with a prayer, and sheep meat to enjoy!

Caleb & Stephan

Caleb was pleased yesterday, too. His close friend came back to Kadiolo. He'd been away visiting family for the summer. So they enjoyed a night in a tent, watching an intellectual movie in french. Those two boys laughed and giggled, and pinched and poked... like boys do. They had a great time. We are so thankful to God for friendships like this for Caleb.

Thanks for celebrating with us. Thanks for praying, and stopping by!
Tom & Lisa

A couple of before & after pics

2009-09-26T00:59:00.000-07:00

This may not look overly exciting as missionary work to you. But it is part of living out here. You always have to repair/keep up your house. That is one reason landlords like us because we do keep up. Anyway, now we're not in the mud, our cement is better and the house has kept its value again. We thank Moussa & his team for being cheerful to work with, and keeping his word. (That means a lot out here.)

We started this job because of scorpions, etc. It was an intense 2 weeks of workers carrying sand, pounding it down, making bricks, having the welder in town make doors, coming in to hang them, etc. almost all done... Just a little electric work left for our generator to be installed and ready to go...

Before... Old cement pounded out, sand brought in

Moussa laying bricks. (Great job Moussa!!)

New porch area! Nice.

In the midst of all this, it seems that ministry opportunities are booming too. I've been teaching ESL 4 days a week. Starting at 4pm ending at 6pm... I come home tired from that, but encouraged because the students are really making progress. They can talk to me in English now. Short termers coming out, (Like Dusty in December) will appreciate being able to speak to some people in English.

Also, night/evening conversations with pastors keep going on. We've been talking alot recently about cults, and denominational differences and how to know who is a sister or brother in Christ and who is a downright stranger to the Gospel.
Its been fun to talk through this with guys here. The idea has been brought up for me to teach a section on this at church for whoever is interested, but focusing on village pastors. We'll see how that turns out.

Thanks for praying for us,
God is really blessing, and we're doing great.
(Caleb was sick, and it turned out to be a case of Malaria. The meds did fine, and he's fine now. PTL!!!!)

Tom & Lisa

September house work

2009-09-13T05:10:00.000-07:00

Hi. This week we've been doing some remodeling on our house. We've brought out some money to improve our house a little bit. We're trying to re-cement our porch area, which is also our dining room & veranda. We've also bought a generator so that even if the electricity is out (Like it was all of last night) we can still charge Lisa's batteries so she can hear. It would be nice to run fans and a few lights as well...

So there has been a lot of pounding and thrashing as the builders are ripping out the old cement, then pouring the new...

Hopefully, we'll have no more holes where scorpions and other six legged friends will come from. When you get one like this walking boldly through your living room, it makes you think its time to fill some holes in the walls & cement.

Yesterday we got tired of listening to pounding, as you can imagine, and we took a motorbike ride out of Kadiolo into the countryside. We had a little picnic. That was fun. Caleb is enjoying being an only child right now, having all of mom & dad's attention. This is a pic of Caleb & Lisa on her new "old" motorbike. It is running really well now, thanks to a repair job on the carborator.

Lisa likes this bike better than mine because it is like the ones we had back in the Ivory Coast. It is also a lighter bike, and has no gear box. So she doesn't have to change gears. Some african friends in town asked my why I have a nice bike, and she has the old ugly one, though... :D

I've been working a lot teaching english to some of our students so they can start the school year stronger in english. So that has been interesting too.

But it is all for the kingdom. Pray for us as we continue to build and sustain redemptive relationships....

Thanks for stopping by,

Tom & Lisa Seward

Motorbike Video

2009-09-07T11:38:00.000-07:00

Hi. I just went to Zegua today on the motorbike. This would not be such a big deal if it wasn't RAINY SEASON. The road is 14 km of dirt, very bumpy on a normal day. But today it was both bumpy and mushy. Fun :D
I had to drive to Zegua, because that is where Ecobank is where my money is coming in from the States. So I was able to get there and back without wiping out or having an accident, and I was able to get our money for September.
So look at the attached youtube video, and see what kind of good road conditions we have here.
The video is 4 min long, so it won't take you all day to enjoy.

If you cannot click on this link, maybe you can copy & paste it into your browser.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-bIJwfYqJs

Thanks for stopping by,
and thanks for renewing your prayers regarding safe travel!
Tom & Lisa

Women's prayer and fasting

2009-09-06T01:05:00.000-07:00

Hi. This week the women at our church contacted Lisa and asked if she would like to be a part of the prayer and fasting Friday and Saturday. From Friday 6pm to Saturday 10pm.
The commitment these women have is humbling. The AGEMPEM women from all over Mali had set aside these days for prayer and fasting. (AGEMPEM is the association of evangelical churches of Mali.) So our women locally here wanted to be a part of that. A prayer agenda sheet was sent from AGEMPEM. So the women met from 6pm to 10pm Friday evening, then from 10pm to 6pm yesterday. Lisa was amazed because they had no breaks. It was pray pray pray, sing a bit, pray some more... Which is great. The commitment these women show... wow.
Lisa came home tired but encouraged....

Calebs' new bed

Another project I took on last week was to remodel Caleb's bed. We had seen what some friends in Bamako did with their kids' beds to put mosquito nets up. So I thought I could do that too. Mosquitos are a problem, and Caleb seems to get bit more than we do. Of course, we've had our turns with malaria, hoping to minimize those sick times as well...

In the past we've not been excited about mosquito nets, they can bunch up and make you feel claustrophobic. And if your body is next to the net, the mosquitos can bite through it into you anyway. But with this frame, it addresses both those problems at the same time.

So I welded, shaped, painted... and this is the result. We were pleased with how it turned out...
Caleb objected to the mosquito net because the fan is outside of it, and doesn't blow through well. So I installed one in side attached to the bed. He was happier then... :D

Keep praying for us,
Thanks for stopping by!
Tom & Lisa

From the Shadows into the light

2009-08-31T07:19:00.000-07:00

From the Shadows

Into the light!

Items of witchcraft to be destroyed

This story is a huge one in the life of a small village near us called Nabilasso.Yesterday after Pastor Youssouf preached at the small church service there in the village, this woman came forward and accepted Christ. Her name is Zele Kone, she is a widely sought after witch-doctor. She brought her magic articles, and she and the pastor destroyed them together.

People (And other sorcerers) come from all around to consult her and learn from her as she is old and has done this for a long time. Now she is leaving all of it behind for Christ. It makes a song like "I have decided to follow Jesus" have a deeper meaning for someone like this...
(Or maybe Bloodgood- "Out of the Darkness----Into the light...." :D) Of course we were all dead in sin before Christ, But maybe not so mired with the devil?

Pray for her as she embarks on a life of Faith. Pray that the new presence of Jesus would remove the evil spirits' power in this village, and that others would come to Christ now that the devils influence is diminished.

The praying neighbor,
Pastor Daouda (holding items of witchcraft to be destroyed),
and new believer Zele.

The accompanying story is represented in this picture. On the left is an old man, he and his wife have been believers and have been praying for this woman for a few years now, since they themselves accepted Christ. They have prayed and witnessed in spite of her cursing them, and putting spells on them. Have you witnessed to your neighbors recently? Have you said "My neighbor Sam is too embroiled in his sin. He won't accept Christ, He's lost." If anyone was lost it was this woman. Yet this older couple prayed for her, and Christ changed her heart. Take heart friends! Christ is in the business of changing lives! Don't give up!

Pray for our village pastors as this is the kind of things they face in their villages. Rocky soil for the gospel. But Jesus is not deterred by rocks.
Thanks for stopping by for this newsflash!

Tom & Lisa

Pastor Training Seminar

2009-08-30T01:37:00.000-07:00

Our seminar group picture.

Tom teaching in french, Pastor Youssouf translating into Bambara.

Pastors very interested and taking notes.

Friday and Saturday this week we held a Pastor's training seminar on leadership. Our village pastors and some lay leaders came for the two days to study what it means to be a leader, and to have vision for a church. Tom R. from Fourou came and taught. He taught in french, and Pastor Youssouf translated into Bambara. (Tom drove a dirt road that is normally a bumpy 45 min drive, but because of rainy season was a squishy, mushy 1.5 hr drive...) Thanks for coming out, Tom!

This was kind of interesting because some of the key words are hard to translate into Bambara. So there was a lot of discussion over what word was best to describe "vision" and a few other words. It was a bit annoying at first, because it was a bit disruptive to the seminar... (Western point of view--- get the material out!) But I soon realised that this discussion was processing time, and they were getting it way better than if we "glossed over" the glossary. Anyway, the seminar was well recieved, and each pastor was challenged to come up with a measurable vision for his church.

One pastor shared that his vision was for his church to reach 23 villages around his village in the next 10 years, and to see leaders raised up amongst these new villages. (He has a church of about 120, he counted 4 adults he considers trained and ready to go now...) God bless a man of agressive vision for Christ!!

It is really a privilege to be with these pastors, and encourage them. They are the future of the church in southern Mali. I'm expendable. They are vital. Pray with us that God would protect them physically and spiritually. Pray that God would grant these men their aggressive visions for the cause of Christ. Pray that we would be a help to the process, and an encouragement to these pastors...

Oh- did I mention that these pastors' salary is $50 a month? Who among us is willing to sacrifice and work like that for Christ?

Thanks for stopping by,
Tom & Lisa

Sunday

2009-08-23T23:21:00.000-07:00

We wanted all the adults in the picture,

so Caleb was our photographer. Thanks Caleb!

This is our group at Amandines today.

Hi. We had a fun weekend getting to know the McKlurkins. Pete & Debra have come to Mali for 1 year to be the guest house managers. We're rejoicing because now we are free to do our ministries. We are thankful for the Mcklurkins who now have a bit of a learning curve ahead of them. They've been to Africa before, but Kenya, not Mali. And they will be starting french study with language school we've found here for them.

Saturday night we had a fun time with them and Eadelmans playing a card game called "Hand and Foot". We also shared testimonies, and enjoyed getting to know one another better.

Sunday we had a service here. We watched a video "How great is our God?" this is an amazing peice of work, and really makes you see the grandeur of God in nature and science, as well as focusing in on His signature written in every one of us as creator/designer. We were all impacted by this message this morning.

We went to Amandines for lunch. Mcklurkins' first time to go to the restaraunt mecca here in Bamako. When you visit, we'll take you there too... :D

Please pray for Pete & Debra as they are just getting started out here. Pray for Ernie & Jan as they are working to finish well. Pray for us, Tom, Lisa, Caleb today as we ride the bus down to Sikasso, pick up our car, and drive to Kadiolo.

Thanks for stopping by,
Tom & Lisa

Leaving Dakar

2009-08-19T01:39:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture from Ben's dorm at supper time. I got to eat supper Monday night with them. Pizza night.
I'm thankful that Ben has had an easy time making friends at Dakar, he's off to a great start. He likes his dorm, its a good setup. only 7 boys in the dorm, so its very family/homey feeling...

Please do continue to pray for Ben & Hilary at school this year. Pray that they both continue to grow in Christ.

I left Dakar yesterday. Rode this taxi at 6am to the airport, however we got a flat tire on the way. So I took the taximan's picture as he fixed his tire. We still made it to the airport on time.

I'm back in Bamako with Lisa and Caleb now...
Looking forward to heading down to Kadiolo.
Haven't had any word on our car yet. It was in a mechanic's shop in Sikasso. We were hoping to have the turbo fixed. We'll see if he found a part.
If it is not fixed yet, not sure what step to take next, other than waiting.
But we can continue down to Kadiolo anyway, I think.

Thanks for stopping by,
Tom & Lisa

Dakar Academy again

2009-08-16T08:15:00.000-07:00

I leave Dakar on Tuesday to go back to Mali. Shortly after I arrive we head back down to Kadiolo. We are excited to get back to our good friends there, and to sleep in our own bed again. Hopefully our little cobra friend has found another home outside of our yard.

Hilary and Ben are both off to a good start at school. Continue to pray for them. Days are busy with classes and activities. They need to be able to weigh good friendships, and to be good friends in return. They need to continue to grow in Christ as they apply their relationship to him to this new school setting. This is a Christian school, and should encourage them in their faith. But we all need to constantly and actively apply our faith to our daily tasks at hand, don't we? I pray for that for my kids. Especially as how it relates to their choices in friendships.

Other news: Pete & Debra McKlurkin have arrived in Mali. They will now be running the guest house. Erne & Jan will be helping them with getting acclamated, and getting a tutor for french study. We are glad for their arrival, and look forward to being teammates with them.

Thanks for stopping by, and thanks for praying!!
Tom & Lisa

School starts in Dakar

2009-08-13T07:12:00.000-07:00

Yes, it is the beginning of the school year. A very different one for our family. Hilary has been at Dakar Academy for 4 years now, and it is like home away from home. Ben just started 8th grade. I (Tom) am still here in Dakar, where I'm spending the first school week helping them settle in, and have the things they need to make it more comfortable for them.

Ben is in a new dorm, his dorm parents are the Walkers. Pray for them as they guide middle school boys. There are 7 kids in the dorm including Ben, we're thankful for this as it allows for a close family atmosphere. 5 out of the 7 play guitar. So Ben started in right away playing with the others.... He hit it off well right away.
Ben's roomate is someone he hasn't seen for a long time, we have a long history with Karlins' family, having known each other since the boys were 3 yrs old. And now they are roomates. So that is great. Ben was a bit concerned about being 8th grade, and being cool. Karlin brought a big box of Legos... This softened Ben right up, and they have a lot in common. (You are never too old for lego, right?)

Ben with his classmates at lunch. Karlin is seated to the right of Ben.

Hilary has a new situation in her dorm. Senior priviliges. The Vantlands are her dorm parents for the 2nd year. Pray for them as they are parents to (14?) High school girls. One of these new priveleges is a senior girls' suite. They have 2 rooms, one with 5 beds for them to sleep in, and one for laundry and desks...
So that will be interesting to see how that all works... Its kind of a party room now... That is mostly a good thing I think... Hilary's addition to the decor was a 60's style bead doorway... The girls liked it and voted to put it up.

Hilary at lunch with friends

So all is off to a good start.

Pray for the dorm parents, pray for our kids, that they would really soak in the mentoring, teaching, and new experiences they can have here that I can't give them on my own. The principal spoke yesterday, and said the value of a school like this is that our kids get pushed beyond what we give them on our own, and have enriching experiences that they come back to the parents and share and process. We covet that enriching for our kids. We want to see them grow further in Christ, and own their faith. We pray for these Christian teachers, mentors, and dorm parents as they partner with us in this process...

Thanks for stopping by,
Tom & Lisa

Jessica's house

2009-08-13T06:54:00.000-07:00

We have mentioned Jessica's ministry to street kids a couple of times. These kids are abandoned or sold by their families into slavery. Some are in the sex trade, others beg for money, that they must turn over to their masters at the end of the day, or risk being beaten and abused. These kids have nobody to care for them, and eat garbage, and turn to non-drugs to get high. (gasoline in a rag, etc...)

Jessica is a woman who came to Bamako from Nigeria. She is a believer, and when she saw these very rough, difficult-to-love kids all over the streets, she began a ministry to them. She offers them safe shelter to sleep. She feeds them. She does her best to keep them from illicit activities and drugs. She is trying to get some of them into formal school, but does what she can to teach the others.

We met Jessica, and were won over by her heart and commitment to this ministry, which she describes as difficult, but rewarding.

Kids gathering for a meal. Street kids are not taught politness or manners while eating. It is eat fast or you may not get any...

Jessica started her ministry in this small storage building where 50-70 kids would come to sleep safely at night. She is now moved into a larger home, and sees 70-80 kids now...

Jessica is Nigerian, so does not yet speak the french or bambara the kids speak. So she needs help from local believers to accomplish these tasks. Here is a man teaching the kids some basic literacy lessons.

We really think highly of Jessica's ministry. There is a project that can recieve funds for her if you would like to give, or if you would like to do some kind of 1 quarter project for a Bible study or Sunday school class.

We believe the world is changed 1 heart at a time. Which of these hearts has the Spirit prepared to recieve the word of God? We don't know, have to preach to all of them.

Thanks for stopping by,
Tom & Lisa Seward

Shopping in Bamako

2009-07-25T14:30:00.000-07:00

Ok, here is something a little different. Lisa is shopping in the market.
The video is short, but you see the fruit lady and her wares for the day.

Thanks for stopping by and praying for us

Tom & Lisa

The last week or so

2009-07-13T01:33:00.000-07:00

Hi. You may know that we're in Bamako for July and part of August. Another mission was about to close their guest house, and Worldventure made an offer to run it. We have a couple who are coming out to help. But in the meantime we are all taking our turns to help out.

We're healthy and adjusting well to Africa again.

Lisa had a neat opportunity to participate in the womens' camp. This one was more widespread than the ones we normally send the women to in Sikasso. This one was country wide, and was held here in Bamako. Our Kadiolo ladies were very excited about coming. I don't think any of them had been to Bamako before. Anyway, the conference was held in the big soccer stadium. The ladies had seen it on tv, but were now camping there for the week. Lisa was able to go there and take part in the opening day with our ladies. But as the custom often is, she was ushered way way up front to the front row, because she was the missionary. This was a bit uncomfortable for her, but then she realised she'd be able to hear so much better. And she did.
The ladies are all wearing the uniform cloth they had bought for the conference. A few of them, Lisa included weren't able to get the cloth because so many ladies, even those not attending, bought it. So she stood out a bit more than usual.
But the ladies had a great week, and really enjoyed hearing the word of God to them.

These are our ladies from Kadiolo. I was able to help them when they arrived on the bus. I had gone to the station to meet them. But the bus driver brought them there instead of taking them to the stadium. They would have had to walk more than 2 miles. But because I was there, the bus station director, (of his own accord) had the bus driver load them all up and take them to the stadium.
I rode with them, and made sure they got to the right spot.

Lisa and I celebrated our 22nd wedding anniversary! So many hotels are being bought up in Bamako by Lybia. (Mr. Quaddaffi is investing heavily in Mali.) So somehow the USA brought in a Radisson Hotel. It was like stepping off the streets of Bamako into New York or Chicago. So nice. The kids came for the afternoon and we all swam in their beautiful pool. Then the kids went back to the guest house, and we had a nice night together.

So now we're back in the guesthouse, things are going well. A lot of people are coming and going. One lady came in sick from a village situation, and was recovering for about a week, and is now going back. One family from Timbuktu had to delay going back because of Al-Queda fighting the Malian soldiers in that region. So they are staying until the 19th, deciding if it calms down enough for them to trek back up there.

I've(Tom)been making friends on the streets nearby. One group of guys I've visited a few times asked, "Do you know the white guy Daoda?"I said no. They said he lived in our guest house, but is gone now. He worked in Guinea. I said, "oh, is he tall and blond? His name is Nathan". "Yes that was his toubab (white guy) name." they said. So I'm making contacts with guys who have connected with Nathan Kendall a few weeks/months ago. Life is funny. (Nathan and his family were here earlier in the year taking their turn at the guest house as well.

Anyway, Keep praying for us, for health, for a positive witness.
We are enjoying this time with our kids before we lose two of them while they go to school.

God Bless,
Tom & Lisa Seward

Arrival in Kadiolo

2009-06-20T02:12:00.000-07:00

This is a picture taken yesterday. Do you like the hamster Ben is holding? It is one of 2 newborn puppies! The kids have been enjoying them.

So we've arrived. This morning is Saturday, we've been here since Tuesday night.
We've had a steady steam of people coming to greet us, Christians, and non-christians alike. It is heartwarming to see so many who we have had a good relationship with. This time coming to Kadiolo was not like moving to a weird place in Africa, it is like coming home to friends.

Some news was sad. Drissa, the man on the left in the above picture, a good friend, a m-lim interested in the Gospel, died in January from Typhoid fever. Should I have been more in a hurry to share the Gospel with him? We had so many conversations over the three years we were here before. And I know I shared my faith with him. But should I have done more? Maybe... Anyway it is sad to see anyone die without Christ.

This morning, Bamba came to visit. (This guy is not to be confused with our neighbor Bamba) This man was a talented painter who did work for everyone in town, and had a good reputation. about 3 years ago, he had a demonic encounter, and has never been the same. You could call it demon possession. It is not just a mental illness.
He really needs Christ. Only Christ can cast out a demon, and take its place so no other can enter. But if Bamba is happy (though misled) with the presence of whatever is in him then what? Christ is waiting for Bamba to ask him in. But Bamba prefers (ignorantly or intentionally) to live with this thing. This is sad to watch, too.
I gave Bamba a few coins so he could eat. His family has rejected him because of the demon. He wanders around town aimlessly now. Satan promises big things, but really only wants to destroy.

I'm listening to an old Bob Dylan cd. The song is "You're gonna have to serve somebody. It may be the devil, it may be the Lord, but you're gonna have to serve somebody." Joshua 24:15 says "Choose you this day, who you will serve...as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

Pray for us, as we seek to share the gospel and encourage the believers here.
These are just a couple of the issues we face daily.

Thanks for stopping by,
Tom & Lisa

the Taxi video

2009-06-17T06:45:00.001-07:00

Just a small blurb from our taxi ride. We were riding Sikasso- Kadiolo. About a 1hr 20 min trip. It took much longer... You'll figure out why... :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt8JdjHrQrQ

Come to youtube, and watch it...

Tom & Lisa

Arrivial in Kadiolo!

2009-06-17T00:56:00.000-07:00

Finally, arrival in Kadiolo. This is the first time we've been able to be back since Lisa went to the hospital in Bamako.

This is the bus we rode yesterday.

A few of you have ridden the bus with us. Emily for sure, and Pastor Mike probably won't forget his trip in the near future. Sometimes you get a good one, though. :D
And this was a good one. We made really good time on the way to Sikasso. The road was in good repair for most of the trip. Then from Bougani to Nienna, it was sometimes better off the road than on it. That is how africa can be, though.

We arrived in Sikasso with all our luggage intact. I was concerned about finding a ride to Kadiolo. But a taxi guy was available. So we loaded up with him. Caleb thought it was the worst car he'd ever seen! It may have been. :D

Anyway, we were so pleased to arrive back home. Jonas gave us big hugs, Bamba came over from next door, beaming smiles everywhere. Pastor Youssouf came and we had a good "catch-up" talk.
Our two silly dogs remembered us, and were happy. Ocho apparantly had 2 puppies last week. So while that is inconvienient, the kids are enjoying them, too.

A nice welcome home.

Thanks for all your prayers that carried us through to this point.

Tom & Lisa

We've arrived in Bamako.

2009-06-12T22:36:00.000-07:00

Hi. Here are a couple of pics from Dakar. We are being surprised by a couple of things that should not surprise us. The heat is really affecting us more than expected.

In the 4 days we were in Dakar, Tom lost 8 pounds. (That is a good thing, just quite surprising that it happened so fast. A few more to go... :D)

Also, we're realising that while we all have a bit of culture adjustment to do, Caleb seems to really noticing the changes most. He needs a bit of time to process the new surroundings.

He went out with Hilary on Thursday, and came back very tired and a bit dehydrated. We need to make sure he's drinking enough...

So he has been a little unsure, and a bit grumpy. Pray for him as he adjusts. Friday in Dakar, he did find a boy who wanted to play. So he went outside and played for about 2 hrs. He was happier after that.

Last night in Bamako, Ben & Caleb got to play with 2 GMU/Avant families that we knew well in the past. One family with 3 kids leaves today for 6 months. But the other family has 3 kids, the oldest being just a bit younger than Caleb. So running in the dark did the kids a lot of good.

Thanks for praying for us.

Tom & Lisa

Arrival!!

2009-06-10T02:54:00.000-07:00

Hi... We're in Dakar now... Arrived with no problem. Hilary was waiting at the airport with Mr. Adamson, the family she was staying with. We're at the CMA Guest house here in Dakar... Just a short walk from the school. We fly out Friday from Dakar to Bamako.

Getting off the plane yesterday, we were tired. But it felt so right to be back in africa again.
We were crowded by a gang of people who wanted to "help" us with goods and services we didn't need. But one guy helped us with baggage, and was so great at helping us protect baggage from the others. So I paid him $10 for a $3 job... He was happy, and we didn't lose any bags. So I thought it was a good deal... :D We went out with Hilary to a nearby ice cream place that serves food. Caleb ordered a cheese pizza that came with anchovies on it... I thought it was tasty... He didn't.

We'll arrive in Bamako Friday, and spend the weekend, then we'll bus down to Kadiolo.
Looking forward to seeing everyone there...

Thanks for praying, and for stopping by,
Tom & Lisa

Report from Drama Team

2009-06-03T03:36:00.000-07:00

The Jula Radio Drama team has just completed 2 weeks of touring in Bamako. They've been doing evangelistic live theatre performances in neighborhoods adjacent to churches who've invited them to come. Our friend Mark Datson, who is a Wycliffe/SIL missionary helped facilitate this tour/visit. It has been an amazing time. Churches have really had their eyes open to a new method of evangelism that is less confrontational than direct preaching.

Here is a picture of the team getting ready for an evangelism event during the last week.

Here is what Mark had to say about the experience of having them come out.

the Jula Radio Drama team 'Tour of Bamako'
2009 is now over!The team left on the bus for Kadiolo this
morning, all in good health and feeling
that 2 weeks in Bamako, though tiring, has
been a lot of fun and been a great
blessing.

Yesterday evening, the team and I (Mark) were
invited for a meal and an evaluation
session with the ECE church Bamako district
President and his committee of four
pastors. Overwhelmingly, the district President and
pastors judged the tour a success, and were
very grateful to the team for their
patience, their great testimony, and the
impact on the audiences they have had.

All the pastors are now wholly convinced
that drama adds a vital element for
communicating the good news to people here
in Mali.

One pastor reported that another person had
contacted him a few days following the
team's performance, and has become a
believer. The district President said he'd
had 3 different phone calls from people who
were really impressed with the
performances, and who wanted to know more
about these Christians.

The pastors were all thinking ahead to the
next time the team would come to Bamako, or
to other towns in Mali, and how to improve
the organisation of the tour.

I (Tom) was a bit jealous when I got these updates, because I was supposed to go on the tour with them. I had been communicating with Mark, and trying to help facilitate the tour. I really enjoy the members of the drama team like brothers and sisters, and it is always so much fun to go out with them on these evangelism events. Well, maybe next time. And if you visit, you can go too! :D

But it is great to get the news of the success of the tour, and once again to know that God is at work in Mali.

Thanks for stopping by,

Tom & Lisa Seward

Getting ready to go

2009-05-26T08:32:00.000-07:00

We got our trailer from storage. (Big Thank you! to Carpenters!)
And did some patch work on it. Family work day. reviewing storage boxes, checking for damage, and repainting/calking the trailer.

We are getting ready to go, but still are somewhat short on support. Please continue to pray that God would supply those needs.

Thanks for stopping by,
Tom & Lisa Seward

Last weekend

2009-05-18T08:46:00.000-07:00

Hi. We have only less than 3 weeks before we leave Lansing. We plan to fly out of Chicago June 8th. So we're packing up like mad, and still seeing people we haven't seen yet, and speaking in churches. We still have support to raise, so pray with us that God would touch hearts.

Yesterday we spoke at Mayflower Congregational Church in Lansing, MI. We were so warmly recieved. We shared in the service, and they had a cookout & Sunday School picnic afterwards. When we got to the church, we were even greeted by the church sign.

Several church members expressed interest in what we shared and our call to Africa. Pray that God would continue to work there, and that the relationship we've started at the church would be a long enduring one.

On Saturday, the Schilder family visited from Wheaton. We used to work with Carla at Scripture press. Anyway, they have been friends since before either of us had kids.
It was great to renew, and catch up again.

Keep praying for us. Tom, Caleb, and Ben have been hit by an awful sinus-cold affliction. We pray for this momentary health glitch to be resolved so we can feel like normal.

Thanks for stopping by,
Tom & Lisa

Recent Pics

2009-05-06T08:00:00.001-07:00

Hello. Here are a couple of recent pictures.

Lisa speaking at FBC Lansing, Il.

(I had just finished my part, and someone had to take pictures.)

A yummy lunch with members of FBC Lansing.

At FBC Lansing, Il.

Jerry L & I.

Our friends the Maugel family from Ft. Wayne.

Thanks for stopping by today. Please continue to pray for us as we travel and speak. This weekend I'll be teaching youth at South Church in Lansing, Michigan. Next weekend we'll be at Mayflower Congregational church, also in Lansing, Michigan.

Please pray for our support needed.

We are $1200 a month short still. But God is good.

He is able to provide.

Thanks again,

Tom & Lisa

Church visits

2009-05-02T04:41:00.000-07:00

Hi. Last week we visited Wallen Baptist church in Ft. Wayne, IN. It was so nice to see so many of our Wallen friends again. We also had a Christian dentist work on us. It was a little interesting for me (Tom) to speak after having a wisdom tooth pulled on the Friday before.
Thanks again to Maugels who are really a joy to hang out with. Ben & Caleb had a great time there, too.

This weekend we are leaving for FBC Lansing, IL. We are looking forward to seeing friends there again, as well. Pray for us as we travel, and that we would be sharing what God has us to say.

Also, pray that needed support would come in.

Thanks for stopping by,
Tom & Lisa

Departure plans contingent on support

2009-04-24T05:11:00.001-07:00

Hi. As many of you know we are planning to leave for Mali in June. We really need to rejoin Hilary at the end of her school year, and we are eager to get back to work in Mali again.

We've been quoted a good price on air tickets. They're about $1800 round trip per person. Other agencies quoted as high as $2200 per person.

We've been told by WorldVenture, though that we need to make strides towards being at 100% support before leaving. We are so grateful for the many of you who've partnered with us this far, and so many of you have increased support in the last 4-5 years. All of that is an answer to prayer, and we thank you. So if you are already committed in this way, don't feel like your arm is being twisted for more. We are partnering already. Please pray that God would continue to bring support in so that we could leave.

If you follow our blog, and pray for us, and are not yet a partner, would you consider partnering with us financially? You do not have to commit to partner for eternity. 1 year or a two year commitment would be great. A $25 per month commitment does make a difference. Would you consider prayerfully if God would have you join us in this way? If you would like to donate easily online click this link to our missionary page, and then click make a commitment, or give a gift.

http://www.worldventure.com/Missionaries/Missionary-Directory/Missionary/Seward_Tom_Lisa.html

We have a shortfall of $1400 per month to raise. These funds are more than salary, they are work funds, shelter funds, overseas medical insurance, retirement funds, etc...

Our support percentage changed a bit not because we've lost supporters, but because added expense of a 2nd child going to boarding school. Ben will be joining Hilary this fall at Dakar Academy for his 8th grade year. He is so looking forward to it.

We do not want to make our blog a constant appeal for support, but maybe this kind of frank information will be helpful to some who are unaware of the issue in detail.

Thanks for stopping by,

and for praying for us...

Please continue to pray that the support needed would come in.

Tom & Lisa Seward

Travelling to Minot, ND

2009-04-04T14:38:00.000-07:00

One thing about missionary life is that we travel a lot, especially when we're in the USA, and have churches to see and share with. Our kids don't always like travelling to new places to speak. However, the benefit of this travelling is that we have friends everywhere. So this time we left Lansing, Michgan for Minot, North Dakota. (It is a fairly long way.)

Anyway, here are a few pics of friends we got to see on the way, and some fun we were able to have on the trip as well. God has given us beautiful weather, and clear roads. We arrived in Minot about an hour ago. :D

Melissa & Caleb in Wisconsin.

The Everett Family in Fargo, ND.

(Greg is a long time friend of Tom, grew up in the same church since 2nd grade.) He has been a youth pastor, and a pastor, and now is heading up the YFC chapter in the Fargo area. We wish Godspeed to him and his family as they start to dive in to this new ministry.

So today on the way to Minot we made a discovery! North Dakota has snow! You may have already known that. But we found this big drift on the side of the road, and felt compelled to stop the car, and climb it.

I decided it was warm and took my shirt off. Not to surprise you, but our african brothers and sisters will read the blog, and will LOL forte! at my pic. Of course, I'm never cold in Africa, (you probably would not be either at 44 degrees celsius.) But they think I can never get cold. So I guess I'm perpetuating a myth with this picture.

Anyway, when you get the chance to stop along the road, renew friendships, and then share the good news of Jesus Christ and how he has worked in your life... this whole travelling thing is a privelege, not a chore.

We look forward to coming near you someday soon!

Thanks for stopping by

Tom & Lisa

Life back in Kadiolo

2009-03-28T08:57:00.000-07:00

Our friends in Kadiolo sent pictures this week of the women's literacy ministry. These are m-lim women who approached us saying they wanted to learn to read, but their husbands would not allow them to learn at church. So they've been meeting at our house for about 2 years now.
They have continued all this year while we've been here in the US. Our teachers, Naomi and Mai have done a great job. We are so blessed to have capable, trustworthy people to continue with these ministries! We look forward to rejoining them, however. There are babies to hug!

Pray for this ministry as women are having a need met in furthering their learning. Pray that they would understand the gospel, and see Jesus modeled in Naomi and Mai.

Thanks for stopping by,

Tom & Lisa

Hans' visit

2009-03-11T08:13:00.000-07:00

Hans visited Kadiolo just this week. He sent us this picture last night.
It is our guard, Jonas with our neighbor, Bamba, and himself, and Ernie, all in front of our house.
It is nice to see them again. We're sorry we weren't there to host Hans, but are glad he was able to see the people there, and see our work firsthand.

Our time here in the US is drawing to a close, Lisa is really doing well with her hearing, so we are getting excited about going back.

We still have some support to raise, please pray with us that God would bring people who would be interested in partnering financially with all of us on this "team."

Thanks for stopping by today,
Tom & Lisa

A neat story from the field

2009-03-05T18:17:00.000-08:00

This picture is from her first visit to Ernie & Jan.

You can see she is quite sickly looking here.

Last month Ernie and Jan wrote and told us about a woman who had been sick for a long time. She accepted the Lord and her family turned her over to the Christians to see if they (or their God) can make her well.
They said if she gets well the whole family will accept the Christian's God. She came to visit them early one morning. She is so little and frail—but has a BIG smile. Her son and daughter-in-law had brought her in to the doctor so they stopped to see us on the way. It was really fun to see her. The latest news is that she is eating well, walking all over the village. The swelling in her hands is gone and she is a happy lady. Pray with us that God will continue to work in her family. They cannot help but realize that God has healed her. It is their turn to keep their promise to Him.

Pray for her. Her name is Ashita. Pray that she can continue to grow in her faith, and that the Lord will reward her desire to follow Him. Pray for her family that yes, indeed the family will be willing to hear more of Jesus, and follow Him.

It is stories of people like this that make Africa so compelling. God is working in Southern Mali amongst these Senufo people. It is so exciting to see Him rise to thise kind of challenge, and win people to Himself. I never get tired of these testimonies/stories.

Thanks for stopping by,
Tom & Lisa

Wheaton visit

2009-02-25T19:24:00.000-08:00

We had the privelege of going back to First Baptist of Wheaton to participate in their missions conference. Because there were so many people to see, and so little time, (We had to be back Monday for school for Ben & Caleb.) we decided to have an open house. Problem was, we were busy Saturday and Sunday with mission conference events. So we asked our friends the Frosts if they would help. Edna was only too happy to do lots of kitcheny yummies. That is a specialty of ours. Shirly W. helped a lot too. She worked tirelessly even though she was responsible for a lot of the missionary conference logistics. Thank you guys!

The Frosts with Lisa, and Shirley. Thanks for your help!

Johnson family

Scripture Press friends. McClellands, and J. Morris

Sarah & Emily.

Anyway, because of that, we've got some more pictures of some of you on the blog. Every one of you is part of a team who prays, gives, and supports us in many ways.

People at Wheaton have been asking our plans. We plan to return to Mali in June 09, when this school year finishes. We will join Hilary in Dakar, and then head on to Mali.
We are so looking forward to getting back, but we haven't announced our plans until now because we're waiting for clearance to leave from WorldVenture. We have a bit of support to raise. Please pray with us that God would touch some new people, and maybe 1 new church to join all of us as partners.

As far as medical expenses from this past year goes, God has blessed in such a huge way. The expenses for Lisa's surgeries are all taken care of. There will be some ongoing expenses as the therapy part isn't done, but the main surgical expenses are gone! Thank you.
One expense that is related to this is the air tickets to get back this summer. Some of your churches have had projects to raise money to go towards medical expenses. We explained to the missions committees that the airfare to go back was part of that. While the insurance brought us home, it does not take us back. Airfare to come home at the end of our term was in the budget, but this unexpected leg was ... well .... unexpected.

Anyway praise to God for these great things He has done! Lisa can hear! Bills are minimized!
The kids have had a good school year! Praise Him!

Thanks for stopping by,
Tom & Lisa

Men of Faith?

2009-02-15T10:34:00.000-08:00

Hi. We're gearing up for several church visits this spring before we go back to Africa. Next weekend will be FBC Wheaton's missions conference. Looking forward to seeing many friends there. We'll be having an open house Saturday the 21st from 2-4 at the blue house in front of the church if you want to stop by and see us.

Today I spoke to the Junior High sunday school here at South Baptist.

My theme was summarizing Hebrews 11. Who is a man of faith? What are myths about the men & women of faith in the Bible? Myth: they had no doubts. Myth: they found it all to be smooth sailing once they began to serve God. Myth: They had no weaknesses or faults.

Of course we know that is not true. The heroes of the Bible are men of faith, they are heroic. But they all have flaws, faults, doubts. And they all served in spite of diverse challenges and difficulties, many even to death. These guys having flaws encourages me. I am a guy with flaws and limitations. Seeing how God used guys like Abraham, Moses, Gideon, and others encourages me.

I talked to a friend this week who was discouraged about being a missionary because he saw so many others that he considered better equipped than himself. He felt like they had smaller flaws and less doubts than he does. So he was intimidated, even to the point of wondering whether he fits as a missionary. I encouraged him that to be a man of faith means to have faith, certainly, But also it means to act in obedience to God's call in your life. Each hero in Hebrews it states..

By faith ______ acted... in obedience. That is what made them heroes of the faith. In spite of flaws, etc. They obeyed. That means any of us can be a hero as well. By faith, ____ answered Gods call and went to a land far from his home... (That could be Abraham, or it could be Tom & Lisa Seward. Or you...)

I hope my friend was greatly encouraged at the end of our conversation. God knows each of us intimately. He knows our strengths and our weaknesses. (By the way, to him our strengths can be weaknesses because we rely on them and not Him.)

God chose us for the tasks He's laid out for our lives! He knows us like no human resources person can!

So be encouraged, Step out in faith, and join the heroes of Hebrews 11.

Thanks for stopping by,

Tom & Lisa

Mali update!

2009-02-07T15:26:00.001-08:00

Hi. Lisa just talked on skype with Pastor Youssouf back in Mali.
He has good news about the literacy camp ministry this year.
(Literacy camp is held in dry season so unoccupied
illagers/farmers can take a concentrated time to advance in studies.)

Last year, we had a small turnout for camp. (or so I thought). We had about 8 guys who came for literacy camp in Kadiolo. I asked Youssouf about it, kind of disappointed. He said, "Oh, you don't know... We have 23 in the village this year, and our other pastor is teaching." So we had actually grown the size of our literacy camp by splitting it up between teachers.

This pic is of Pastor Youssouf, and two of our village pastors.

(All of our pastors including Youssouf accepted Christ through the literacy program. )

So yesterday, in talking about the literacy ministry, Pastor Youssouf reports to Lisa that we had about 16 in Kadiolo, and about 23 students in the village.

Praise God!!

Also, of the 16 in Kadiolo, 3 were m-lim women who came to learn! That is exciting! So Lisa suggested that after the short camp period was over, they could join the women already meeting at our house. We are excited that God is continuing to move, even in our absense.

This pic is some of the women involved in literacy that these new women would join.

Continue to pray that these ministries make an impact for Christ.

Thanks for stopping by

Tom & Lisa

Colorado Part 2

2009-02-07T15:16:00.001-08:00

Hi. We had an amazing time at WorldVenture HQ in Colorado. One week of debriefing time with other missionaries also home from their fields. Some we knew from before. Some we just met for the first time. But what a blessing it is to meet people who have shared those overseas experiences where you are the new guy, and don't understand the language or the customs of the local people. We really hit it off with these friends, from Uganda, Ireland, Russia, Romania, Pakistan, and Senegal, and of course, Cote D'Ivoire and Mali.

Us with our new friends Skip & Ruth

The second week we attended the WorldVenture Renewal conference. WorldVenture puts on this annual conference for Missionaries who are home. It is a time of teaching, renewal. This time really was for us as well. We really enjoyed the time.

We did not get enough pictures of us with our new friends. Sorry guys. But I was able to rob a few from here and there...

Update on our departure date. We plan to leave to return to Mali in June 09. That leaves just a few months before we go. (5 months, is it?).
We do have a bit of support to raise before we go. (It seems like there is always some we need to raise.) But God is good, and has supplied our needs so generously! And we are really grateful to partner with you, our partners. Thank you!! for you prayers and support. It means a lot!
Come out and visit! Our little town is an amazing sight!

Thanks for stopping by,
Tom & Lisa Seward

Colorado Part 1

2009-01-31T11:05:00.000-08:00

Hi, Lisa and I have been in Colorado the past 2 weeks. The first week was a week of debriefing/encouragement. It was a really neat time. We got to know several missionaries that we hadn't met before.

We actually took an Amtrak train out from Lansing to Denver. It was a very nice experience.

We also were able to visit friends in Colorado Springs last Saturday.

Our colleagues Charlie and Sherri and their kids.

Our nephew Andrew. We had a really neat time with him.

And one of Lisa's college friends, Liesl. Who we haven't seen in a long time. She actually sang in our wedding. It was nice to meet her husband and kids.

It is always a joy to reconnect with old friends, isn't it?

Stand by for part 2 of our Colorado trip installment. :D

Thanks for stopping by,

Tom & Lisa Seward

Goodbye to Hilary

2009-01-10T07:55:00.001-08:00

Hilary flies back to Dakar, Senegal

No, she is not flying in this plane. (One of her Christmas presents was a demo flight with instructor from her cousin Andrew, and this is a pic from that trip.)

It is hard to send her off again, but we are so excited for her because she enjoys school at Dakar so much. We'll see her when we join her in June at the end of the school year.

Pray for her as she travels today. She is scheduled to arrive in Dakar at 5am tomorrow the 11th.

Thanks for praying,
Tom & Lisa Seward

Two stories from Kadiolo

2009-01-10T07:18:00.000-08:00

Tom & Lisa with Ernie and Jan.

Story 1: A lady and her husband came to see Ernie and Jan. He explained that they were from a village about 15 min away. He said they were family (Aunt and Uncle) to one of our village pastors. This aunt has been sick a long time, and neither she nor her husband are believers. (in fact there are no believers in this village as far as we know.) They have been seeking treatment from a witchdoctor who is in their village. Finally they decided that was not working, so had come to see Ernie & Jan, explaining that they've decided to give the Christian God a try, and if He could heal her, their whole family would turn to Christ. So Pastor Youssouf prayed for her, and they went back to their village.

We received another note from Ernie and Jan about 3 weeks after the first. The aunt was really showing improvement. Keep praying for this lady. It would be so neat for the village to see a miracle of new creation if this family does trust Christ.

This is the drama team all dressed up for their competition theatre piece.

Story 2: We've talked several times about the drama team. They do radio theatres, and record them, and they are played on 55+ radio stations. 3 years ago, they performed theatre in the Mali national competition. They did not win, but were asked for perform for the president of Mali. This year, they entered the national competition again. They won the local and state levels. They went to the nationals, and did very well. They did not win, but Lydie Konate was given the award of best actress in the competition.

This is a pic of Lydie.

(FELICITATIONS LYDIE!!)

The competition IS a great opportunity for evangelism. Not only the audience, but also the other performers. Performers for orchestra, dance, choral, instrumental as well as theatre all represented our region (state) Sikasso. All the performers lived together for more than a month during all the competitions. Last time they held services every morning, and attracted others to join them. We'll hear more stories of how they influenced them. From the competition 3 years ago, one man accepted Christ, (he was a drummer in the instrumental groups) he moved to fourou, and was baptized.

We are here in Michigan, doing what we can to help Lisa re-establish what she can. It is a bit hard to be away from the ministries going on in Mali. But we know God is at work there, and rejoice when we hear news like this...

Thanks for stopping by,
Tom & Lisa Seward

Update on Lisa

2009-01-10T07:11:00.000-08:00

Hi. Lisa is doing well with her 2nd cochlear implant. She is a bit bothered with it because it doesn't compare with the first one yet. But in reality, the new implant started even farther along than the first one did. (If you remember, she has had fantastic results with the first one.) So we are really encouraged that this 2nd one will be as effective as she adjusts to it.

We have a lot to thank the Lord for. Lisa has come from completely deaf to being able to hear, talk on the phone, do conversation. We thank the Lord for her progress.

Do keep praying for her, therapy is not done. Every week she advances in her adjustment to digital hearing.
Thanks for praying, you have all been so encouraging to us. We have felt Gods' love through so many of you.

in Christ,
Tom & Lisa Seward

Pre-Christmas

2008-12-18T17:23:00.001-08:00

Hilary arrived from Senegal today. We all were so glad to see her.

We had a bit of a Christmas celebration before we take to the snowy road tomorrow.

(We're driving to Florida to join family for Christmas.)

This will be the first Christmas we'll spend with Tim & Wendy, Mom & Dad Seward, and Q's family. First time in 3 years. So we are excited about that.

We'll also be seeing Valerie Holsteen, and Steve as well. Looking forward to all of that.

To Hilary's distaste, Ben has passed Hilary. He is the taller one now. Its kind of funny to see.

We'll be travelling back the 2nd or 3rd of January. So we won't be posting right away. But thanks for praying and for stopping by today.

Tom & Lisa Seward

Lisa's 2nd ear activation.

2008-12-18T17:05:00.000-08:00

Lisa went in yesterday to have her new imlant activated. The activation went well. The second ear actually started more advanced than the first ear had started out. (And if you remember, the first ear really started out better than our expectations. )
Now there is a still a lot of work to do for the new device to catch up to the same level the first one is at now... She has really come a long way to the good for her hearing.

Anyway, this bit of video you see here is her first number test with the new ear. Lisa does really well, only misses one number. But this will give you a glimpse of what it is like when they work to calibrate the hearing implant device.

Thanks for praying so faithfully.
Tom & Lisa

Thanksgiving

2008-12-01T08:47:00.001-08:00

Alicia & the boys made a gingerbread house.

Alicia and Lisa did a new puzzle.

Caleb & Alica had a good time together.

Played in the snow, played chess, and of course Mario Kart...

This thanksgiving we have a lot to be thankful for, even though we had no idea in January that we'd be celebrating thanksgiving here in Michigan. All of our kids are doing well in their school situations. Lisa is recovering at a very good rate. We were able to celebrate this year with Alicia, our neice who was an MK in africa, but is now doing Biblical studies in Ohio.

We enjoyed turkey, stuffing, the whole hog.. :D

And we thank God for all of these blessings and more. He pours more that we can count!

Wish all of you could have been here with us...

Thanks for stopping by,

Tom & Lisa Seward

Tom- Florida

2008-11-20T07:37:00.000-08:00

Hi. I (Tom) just got back from Florida. This is the first time I've been able to see my parents in 3 years, since leaving for Mali. I spent a week helping them move into a new place. They are in a trailer park, and are enjoying the close relations with neighbors. I met so many who Mom & Dad have gotten to know...
Mom is working her evangelism machine... :D
Go mom....

I also had the opportunity to share in their Sunday School class. They were very gracious to allow me to share. And they, like so many of you have been praying for Lisa and were eager for news.

Lisa is recovering well. The after-effects of her surgery are almost passed.
So then the next step will be the activation Dec 17th. So Lisa should have two ears for Christmas. God is so good...

Hilary continues to do well in Dakar. School is going great for her. Studies, too. :D

Ben & Caleb are adjusting well to school here in Haslett. I'm particularly proud of Ben. He's doing a great job...

Thanks for praying for us. It does mean a lot...

Tom & Lisa

Lisa's 2nd Ear surgery

2008-11-14T02:22:00.000-08:00

Hi. Lisa had her 2nd cochlear implant surgery Nov 12th. She was operated on in the morning, her surgery being scheduled for 10:30. She was released and they (She and Mom Holsteen) were back home mid afternoon. Lisa seems to have a bit more pain with this one than the last one, but we trust that it will heal like it is supposed to, and all will eventually go well.

Lisa is scheduled for Dec 17th for activation, which means she could have 2 ears for Christmas.
Is that how the song goes? "All I want for Christmas is my own two ears?" Maybe not, but it fits this setting.

As you may know, Lisa has been making a remarkable recovery in hearing. She does very well on a face to face conversation... She was able to watch tv last week without subtitles... and she is able to do some telephone, but not every voice is easy for her to hear.

We really want to thank Valerie for coming all the way back from Florida to help Lisa on her surgery. (We recieved a call last Wed saying can you be ready in a week for surgery. I was already scheduled to come down to Florida to help my parents move. My flight was the same morning as Lisa's surgery. So Val drove up here, and I flew down there... :D)

It has been good hanging with my parents. Its the first time we've been together in 3 years.
So it is nice... I'll put some pics of my time down here on the next post.
But here are pics of Lisa post surgery...

October Hayride

2008-10-26T13:35:00.000-07:00

Hi. This post follows the theme of events with friends/supporters.
Saturday night we went out to a friends' farm with our Sunday School class from
South Church.We had a fun time roasting hot dogs, and bundling into a haywagon...

This was the first hayride we've been on in years that did not require a PDA check because all the couples were married!

It was fun...

Lisa continues to do well. She is going to ask for an early mapping this week though. Sounds are a bit muddy, and she's hoping that she can get them cleared up a bit...She did hook her processor up to the computer, and was able to skype with Hilary today! Modern hi tech is cool, isn't it?
You can be completely deaf, yet talk via internet with your daughter in Dakar, Senegal.

Thanks for praying. It really means a lot...

Tom & Lisa

A new video...

2008-10-18T10:25:00.000-07:00

This is a shot I took of Lisa and our audiologist Rachel. She's the voice you hear in the videos, but do not see much. Rachel has been such a blessing to us. We're so thankful to be working with her...

Lisa is in for a new visit. This happened Wed Oct 15th. This time I videoed the software a bit so you can see how it works. Also Lisa is given a test for her to try out the new settings. Again, this is the first test, and Lisa misses a lot of words. But I found this interesting because it reveals the areas she has trouble hearing right now...

http://www.youtube.com/v/mkhafhJJEKE

This next video is from the first day that Lisa had her cochlear implant activated. She's talking to Tom's parents in Florida. Our audiologist warned that we may be discouraged trying the phone so soon. So our hopes weren't too high... The video is kind of funny, though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bfJNUHb1mc

I was encouraged to post these videos because so many people said they enjoyed the other one.

Thanks for praying,
and thanks for stopping by today.
Tom & Lisa Seward

Lisa 2nd audiolist appointment

2008-10-10T07:46:00.000-07:00

WOW!! You may be as surprised as I was today!

Up until Wednesday the 8th, Lisa had been tested at 0-4% word recognition (With hearing aids).

There have been no signifigant changes from April until Wedsday the 8th of Oct.

Ok, yesterday they turned on her cochlear implant. To our surprise, she could hear and understand words...

Today we went back. Lisa's hearing improved between yesterday at 9 am and today at 8am.

She improved about 30% or more according to the hearing graph I was shown.

Then the audiologist took her to the same booth to test her hearing.

Lisa was tested using an audio only cd. She was to repeat the words she heard in short sentences. She scored 70% average on word recognition without visual cues.

So face to face talking with you she would do better than that, unless the back ground noise really was interfering...

The audiologist said that many, even most people reach this hearing level with a cochlear implant after 3 - 6 months. So certainly reaching this level has surpassed all our expectations.

God is so good.

The recovery is not yet complete, and Lisa will reach a plateau where it will take her some time and a lot of tweaking to pass. But we've not reached it yet.

Our next appointment is Wed the 15th.

So thanks for praying, and stopping by today.

Tom & Lisa Seward

PS. Her mp3 player hook up is working, and she's trying it out today... :D

Lisa hears today!!

2008-10-09T13:00:00.000-07:00

Hi. Lisa did get her ears turned on today!!This link will take you to the video I posted on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67cvw9McwIg

This video is boring unless you understand that she's heard nothing since April.Her surgery a few weeks ago to install the Cochlear implant went very well, and we've been anxiously been waiting for this day to see the results.Today is not the whole recovery, of course, just the first step in the process she will go throughfor the next year. We were anxious to see what she would have as a starting point.

Todays activation went so well! She understood the audiologist quite well.
She even understood me. I've been able to talk to my wife today! That is cool.

Anyway, the interesting part of the video for me was the number test.The audiologist hid her face behind a folder, and said numbers randomly between1 and 100. So Lisa was to repeat them as she heard them. She gets about 6 out of the 10 right.This is huge, especially considering the device had only been active about 15 min or so... Yesterday for me she would have gotten 2 out of 10. For her mom or Caleb she would have got 4 out of 10.The second run of the test, after a tweaking of the device's settings she got 10 for 10!! (This second test is not on the video.)
Needless to say, we are so excited, and pleased. Lisa is at a great starting point today to recover her hearing. Please do keep praying for her, and praise God for the special care he's shown us through so many of you...

Later today I will post the xray they did today, that actually shows the new bionic part that makes it possible for her to hear.

Some people have asked today how this changes our plans. Well the recovery is not yet complete, of course. It will take most of the school year to get to a high level of hearing.
But we do plan to go back to Mali in June. We'd like to be there at the end of Hilary's school year in Dakar.

Tom & Lisa Seward

PS. Some of you may get this as an email or see this on facebook as well as reading it on our blog.We just want everyone possible to know how well Lisa is doing...

Nice visit with Muggs

2008-10-05T13:17:00.000-07:00

As you may know, The Muggs were first colleagues of ours in Cote D'Ivoire, then were colleagues of us in Mali. They served in such a key role as business managers for us and our other colleagues. They served also in several creative ways in evangelistic ministries, in fact our study room model was partly inspired by their success with their marche study room.

Incedentally, they were on a trip from Colorado, all the way to Detroit, and stopped to have coffee with us on the way. They have a good car with a bad starter. So... where 2 or 3 missionaries are gathered, someone has to push their car!! So we pushed their car to get it started so they could get on their way... It really brought back Africa memories... :D

And we were well familiar with how to do a push start!

Anyway, pray for them as they are now in the USA, and seeking Gods' next step for them.

They will be GREATLY missed in Mali... But we know God will use their open and willing hearts wherever he puts them....

Btw- Countdown to Lisa's activation....

Thursday & Friday this week. Be in prayer as we see what we'll have as a starting point towards her hearing journey to regain full hearing again.

Thanks for sticking with us in prayer. Your visit today meant a lot to us... :D
Tom & Lisa

Camel Trip in Senegal

2008-10-04T14:07:00.000-07:00

Hi. We're jealous of Hilary this week.
She went on an outing with her dorm to a desert overnight.
They camped out in tents (one night or two? I'm not sure.)
And rode camels, and went dune-sledding.
The kids had a great time, and they got some great pictures.
(Grace of her dorm parents John & Jenny- Thank you!!)

Have a look!

It started with a crazy desert truck ride...

Then a bit of Dune Sledding.... (Don't fall off!)

Hilary's dorm

Riding a camel!

Great silouette shot!!!

Hilary is doing so well at Dakar. We really are glad we made the difficult decision to send her back to Africa without us. She is really happy at school, and continues to grow in so many ways.

We are proud of her in too many ways to count...

Thanks for stopping by,

Tom & Lisa Seward

Hello! It is almost here!

2008-09-27T10:46:00.000-07:00

YES!! It is almost here. We feel like we've waited, well, all spring and summer for this moment.

October 9th they are going to turn on Lisa's bionic ear.

The surgery went well, and she is feeling great. So now we're in the home stertch.

We'll certainly report on what her hearing test comes out to after activation. This will be her starting point... She probably won't do very well on the phone right away, but conversation should be passable. We don't know we'll have to see. I really want to video the event, so you can see her eyes bug out when she starts to hear... :D

Thanks again for following the blog, and praying for us.

While we have not had a miraculous "healing" experience, we've felt God's grace this summer in too many ways to count. So many of you have been a part of that, too.

Thanks for praying.

Tom & Lisa

Ps: this is our photgrapher for the day. I wonder how he can shoot with his eyes closed?

Lisa's activation date

2008-09-15T13:32:00.000-07:00

Yes, the surgery went well, and Lisa continues to heal back to normal.
The device was installed but she needs to heal well before they turn it on, and we begin the process of her learning how to use the device to hear well.

So she is scheduled for 2 appointments. Oct 9th, and 10th, and then a follow up appointment the 15th.
These are the miracle appointments. When they turn the device on, she will hear probably 30-50%. So already we'll be able to converse orally. (We've been waiting all summer for this moment.)
So please keep praying.
I do plan to video the activation if I can.
Then those who are interested can see her face light up as she hears for the first time since easter. :D
That will be a fun day...

Thanks for stopping by,
God Bless
Tom & Lisa

Surgery is done!!

2008-09-10T12:00:00.000-07:00

Hi. The surgery was completed successfully today with no complications.

The doctor said that he did not have to cut any nerves... (one complication of this surgery can be that taste bud nerves need to be cut...) So that didn't have to happen, that is a blessing.

Lisa had no nausea nor dizziness following the surgery so she was released to come home...

She is here, and doing well.

So that's great!

Here are a couple of pics:

Lisa had to have her skin marked before the surgery.

Lisa, all ready to go.

Here she is safe at home... ready to recover...

Thanks for praying for us, and following along.
It means a lot.
Tom & Lisa Seward

Tomorrow is the big day!

2008-09-09T19:31:00.000-07:00

Hi. Lisa and her mom are down in Ann Arbor tonight. Lisa is to arrive at the hospital at 6:15 am tomorrow. She will be prepped for the surgery.
Surprisingly enough this surgery is an out patient procedure. So unless there are complications she will be released tomorrow afternoon and will be back here at the house for recovery over the next 2 weeks...
Thanks for praying for Lisa, and pray also for the doctor. Dr. Telian. He has a lot of experience in these cochlear implant surgeries...

Thanks for sticking with us.
Tom & Lisa

1st Day of School

2008-09-02T07:41:00.000-07:00

Hello again!
This week is different for our kids... They are starting school like all of your kids, with a few differences.

Ben starts 7th grade. He's been homeschooled in Africa for the last 3 years, homeschooled in Ft Wayne, IN 1 year, he's also been to public school in Quebec 1 year. We wont bother with the rest. But needless to say, he's had a varied school experience this far. He is excited about starting school in Haslett, where he'll be in a class of 30 or so others who speak English, and can swap gameboy games...

Caleb is starting school as well. 3rd grade. With the difference that he's never been in a formal classroom. (although, he has visited the mk school in Bamako, Mali on occasion...)So he is very excited about school. He got on the schoolbus today, and had to transfer at another school before finally arriving at his school.
He was so cute this morning...

Hilary is at Dakar, 3rd week of school starting there...
She is happy there. We are so pleased that she could return,and didn't have to face the challenge of yet another new school. She is a Jr this year... and should know most of the ropes by now...
Her roomates' name is IZZY. You can pray for Hilary and Izzy that they would build one another up, and enourage each other in having a good attitude.

If you wonder what being in a dorm in Africa is like, look at these pics...

Hilary & Isabeau (Izzy)

The girls in Hilary's dorm.

Power outages happen fairly frequently in Dakar!

We are counting down the minutes to Lisa's surgery. Sept 10th...

Thanks for stopping by, and praying for us!
Tom & Lisa Seward