We are back to life as usual. We started back on school last week as we will have some interruptions again this year and so need to get as much under our belt early as possible.
We've recounted all of our Burkina stories to all of my Burkina friends. We are always met with the same responses... "You rode the train?!?!" "What did you eat?" "Who did you see?" "Where did you go?" It's been great fun to recount people and places and food to all of my friends and see the appreciation that I understand where they come from now. They'll test my Moore out a little to see if it has improved and we all go away happy.
We are coming into the month of fasting for our Muslim friends and neighbors. Starting Wednesday, or a little earlier for the women, they will be rising around 3:30 AM to prepare a big meal for the family of rice and sauce. They will eat some time before 5 AM depending on the family. They will then take a nap or just carry on with their day. They will pass the entire day, without eating or drinking. Some will even spit out their saliva all day. They will continue with their normal prayer times and then after the 6:30 PM prayer, they will eat another large meal, again probably rice and sauce. They do all of this in an effort to do a couple of things. One this is supposed to help them decrease their sinning and increase their list of good things before God. Also this is a time to better know God. The last week or so may be spent in all night prayer meetings at the mosque. They will ask God to give them dreams and visions.
This month will allow for many conversations for us. For one thing, we will be asked why we don't fast this month. We'll be asked when and why we fast and so we'll have many opportunities for sharing our faith. Also since everyone's thoughts are on spiritual things, conversations are more likely to start on any manner of topics. In addition to that, we take this opportunity to ask God to send our friends and neighbors exactly what they are asking for. We hear many stories of Muslims that were converted after dreams and visions of Jesus and a further look at His claims and WHO exactly He is. Pray with us as you can by name for several friends we SOOO want to become believers: Agira, Mamouna, Seidou (SAY-doo), Mariam.
We also hope that you might pray with us as there is a possibility of the political climate heating up a bit again. Elections may come in October. Pray with us for peace and for the leader that God wants and can use.
Benjamin is growing like a weed as usual. He's 10 months old now. He is honing in his skills at furniture cruising. He really loves to have someone hold his hands so that he can run through the house like everybody else. He is still afraid to turn loose, but I am sure that once he gains his confidence, he'll be quite the terror! He appears to be very good at languages although his words are not at all clear yet. He very often gets his point across by shaking and nodding his head as well as gesturing. All of my Burkina friends are sure he'll be speaking Moore in no time. We'll see. I have a feeling he hears too much English, but we'll see. He still doesn't like to sleep, so maybe he's putting all of that extra free time he has into being multilingual.
Hope this finds you all well. We love and miss you all.
Heather
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