Pray for Boubon

Written 7/12/13

Boubon isn’t a familiar place. Everything seems so unfamiliar. Somedays this is fresh and new – other times it just seems like life. It feels like I’ve been here for more than just a week – It feels like it’s been at least two weeks. Time goes by slowly here.

The people are friendly, but 80% of the time they ask for things. They say “cado” which means gift – all the time. We were told not to give any gifts – so our response is always, “cado sino” or no gift. Giving them things doesn’t help them – we could give them everything we have as they request – and it would do them no good. There is too much need here to help every single person… So we must trust in the Gospel.

The Songhai people live day to day – just making enough money to eat for that day, if that. It’s a hard thing for them to think about eternity – especially since they are hardly thinking about tomorrow.

We’ve found some women are very welcoming and willing to listen to the stories we have to share. It seems that they just listen to our stories in hope that we might give them something in the end. They’re always asking for the clothes off our back, or for us to bring the baby some clothes – for our earrings, water bottles – anything we have. We’ve been asked if we’d take them to America.

Some of them believe the stories we tell (the Gospel) but they do not wish to act on them… they simply want to listen – or they just want to listen because they believe if they honor us we will give them want they want.

However, other times the Songhai women seem truly interested. It’s really encouraging to see this – even if it’s us sharing with the children – and the women are listening in the background as they work. So maybe God is doing things that we cannot see.

When a Songhai person accepts Christ – since most of them are Muslim – there is a great cost to following Jesus. The fear I have is that they will simply add it to the religion they already have. They’re Muslim on the outside, but really their Muslim faith is not a deep Muslim faith – they still believe in the spirits and such. Since they added Islam to their animistic faith – what stops them from adding Christianity to the mix? This is defiantly not what we want. We’re all praying that God changes their hearts – and they will want to act on the things that we tell them.

I almost feel like I’ve stepped back into Old Testament times- with the offering of sacrifices and all… with no air conditioning or real luxuries – minus our indoor plumbing, electricity, gas stove, and fans. Also thankful for the water pump and the water filter (Praise God!). By real luxuries I mean A/C, TVs, Ice/cold water…. Etc.

It is so hot here… and all the sand and dust takes some getting used to. It’s still not too different from what I’ve seen in Brazil. The weird part, is that this makes me miss Brazil. It makes me examine myself as to why I’m doing what I’m doing. I have to be careful to remember that I’m here for God’s glory only – to tell of the Gospel story – and not for anything else.

Pray for the Songhai people – that they will want to act on what we tell them. Pray for God to give us the right words to speak to them – that we might tell the Gospel with boldness and clarity. Pray for the whole Songhai team (including us, the interns) to stay strong. Pray that God might move within the village and bring a spiritual awakening – and if nothing more, pray that seeds will be sown among these people.

The Songhai are so blind to spiritual things. Pray that our hearts would be broken for them.

Pray that we would not be distracted by the people and things we left back home – that we miss so much. Pray that we would be focused on sharing the Gospel. Pray that we would be satisfied in God and God alone –because God is most glorified in us, when we are most satisfied in Him (Piper).