.
Photo by Jerry Counselman
A West African village celebrates the

arrive of the senior adult volunteer team.

The team went to West Africa to validate

the message of God that Journeyman

Hannah Jones takes to the villages.

In this culture, age is highly respected.

By having a senior volunteerteam visit,

it showed that God's word should

be respected, too.



Women and children line the footpaths throughout the West African village, each wearing their very best, festive clothes and adornments. Today is a special day - so special that warriors escort the visitors from the main road to this village made up of mud and stick homes.

As they approach, the entire village erupts in song and dance. The visitors are overwhelmed at first, but soon join in. The chief holds up his hand to silence the joyous celebration. Then, he ceremoniously welcomes the newcomers to his home.

He tells of how his village is blessed to not only have people come all the way from America but for the visitors to be wise, respected elders. He turns to 84-year-old Alice Nelson and presents her with the most cherished gift one can offer in this culture – a sheep. The volunteer missionary from Texas smiles graciously and offers to pray for this Muslim village.

Standing toward the back of the volunteer team made up of senior adults, two International Mission Board journeymen missionaries smile. The 20-somethings are totally amazed at how well this volunteer team from First Baptist Church, Georgetown, Texas, has been received in every village. The missionaries requested a volunteer team of senior adults in hopes that the visit would bring some validation to their ministry.

“In Africa, elders are highly respected,” Journeyman Hannah Jones said. “Because there is so much sickness and very few people live to be over 40 or 50 – people who are older are given such respect.”

Many times the only believers these people see are younger people. The idea behind this unique volunteer team was to show that there are older people in the American culture who are believers as well. The concept worked well within this culture. Jones said it is customary for elders to speak through young people.

“So, to have journeymen translating for this volunteer team was so culturally appropriate,” Jones said. “Part of this culture is also that you show honor to someone by visiting them. For our senior adults to visit a village was to bring honor to them.”

Charlotte Watson said when the initial request for seniors came across her desk back in Texas; she knew this was going to be a trip of a lifetime. Her volunteers – ranging in age from mid-40s to 80s – knew the conditions would be primitive in the West African village. The hardest thing for the volunteers to grasp, however, was the focus of this trip - “being” rather than “doing.”

“This is a hard concept for Christians who feel they must be doing something all of the time…like construction, medical or Bible school,” she said. “But, this trip of ‘being’ was amazing. We spent hours praying and being spectators as God’s Word was read. We spent hours just sitting in the villages visiting, talking and observing.”

Nelson said during this trip of “being” she prayed, smiled, hugged, shook hands and loved more than ever. “He seemed to give me a greater awareness and sensitivity for these people, their simple way of life, their love for their children and concern for others,” the 84-year-old said of this West African people group numbering more than 140,000. “I have never felt so welcomed in my life. They treated us like celebrities.”

When the team visited a village, a journeyman or one of the local Christians led a session of Chronological Bible Storying, telling Bible stories in chronological order. Most West Africans are oral learners. Jones said it was amazing to have so many people come to the sessions – all because the presence of the volunteers validated that this message was very important. In one session, a group of women requested prayers that they would remember these stories and understand them.

The senior volunteers made an impact on the villages they visited. In one village, storytellers told the history of their people complete to the point where this volunteer team visited. One Muslim chief even accompanied the team on the trip from the bush back to the capital city. He attended a church service with them and then saw them off at the airport.

“We were so blessed to have him come back with us,” Watson said. “He wanted to make sure Alice got safely on the plane headed back to America!”

Prayer Requests from Hannah

1. That the chief in the village she lives in would become a believer.
2. that the Lord would raise up a "Timothy" among this West African people group that could be discipled.
3. that the work would continue after she finishes her term later this year.
Editor’s note:
Volunteers from Georgetown, TX: Charlotte Watson, Alice Nelson, Rodney and Joyce Faye Cox, Kim Hoerster
Volunteer from Georgia: Jerry Counselman.
Hannah Jones, Montreal, Quebec, Canada – home church: Impact Church, Montreal

Mali West Affrica Mission Trip, Summer 2004

By Jordan Kupisz (Impact Church, Montreal)

It has been over a month now since I returned from my trip to Mali in West Africa . It was an amazing journey for me and would not have been possible if not for the support of all of you. So first and foremost I want to thank you all for your thoughts, prayers, and financial support.

I went to Mali with a group of 11 amazing individuals who each played a vital role in our mission. Our mission in Mali was to educate the people of Mali about AIDS and how to best avoid contracting HIV. We also hoped that in our doing so we would be able to tell the people of Mail that we came from Canada not only to tell them about AIDS, but also about the love of Christ and his desire to be a part of their lives.

Our group went around to schools and villages in the mornings and evenings to perform Dramas that explained the dangers of AIDS and also ways that its contraction could be prevented. We then would ask permission to perform Christian skits once we were done. On most occasions we were allowed and we would act out stories from the Bible like The Good Samaritan and The Prodigal Son. We also did a skit called the Journeyman that was about Christ and the need for everyone to know him.

While we were there we had some trying times but were able to pull through as a group every time. I thank you for all your prayers as I know we never could have gotten through those tough times without them.

For me the trip was very trying physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. I was sick for some of the trip which made some days miserable. Luckily the group of people I was with were absolutely amazing and helped me out in those times so much. Spiritually I was challenged in that it seemed people were getting sick whenever we were going to act out any of our Christian skits. This was very hard as we knew acting out the Christian skits was one of the main reasons we had come to Mali . It was in these times that we really relied on God for strength so we could do His work. I truly believe that all our friends and family who were praying for us played a major part in our trip. Once again I just want to thank everyone for their support and I hope I can share more about my trip with you in the future. Feel free to e-mail me with any questions or if you want to see some more pictures of my trip.

Sincerely,

Jordan Kupisz

Bamako, Mali, 13 Sept 2004

From Hannah Jones

Well it really feels like it has been forever since I last wrote so I will start by greeting you all in the name of Jesus-Christ. I have been reading many of Paul's letters lately and I find we often forget to greet people in the name of Jesus.

It's hard to know where to begin as so much has happened in the last few months. I guess I will begin by saying that I really had an awesome time in Canada at my sister's wedding. I don't know if I mentioned in my last letter but I was a little worried about going back home, just because I knew it was going to be crazy and also, so many things were happening in the village that I felt like I wanted to stay to continue experiencing what God was doing. Finally God gave me peace about leaving and I praise Him for every wonderful visit. The wedding was so beautiful, and I got to get all dressed up (like a REAL girl), and to see many of my friends, as well as do fun stuff like go to a baseball game and go go-carting (for the first time may I add).

I returned to Mali feeling really refreshed and ready to finish up my term. During the time I was away, I received both great and surprising news of what was happening in the village. Last time Dustin and I had been out to the village, we had met this guy who had been to Bible school in B. and was living there with our believer for a few months, his name was Y. M., our village chief had also given Dustin a list of questions he had (11 questions about Jesus, and Christianity etc...). Dustin worked on the answers here in Bamako and had a friend of ours translate them into Bambara so M. could read them and understand them. Well, it turns out, Y. ended up studying the answers to those questions with M. and some other people in the village.

Both Rucker and Dustin were so excited about this because we have always known that we would not be the ones to start a church in B. We knew we would need African partners and have been praying for them since we begun all this, in a lot of ways Y. was an answer to those prayers. That night (while the studying was going on), Dustin got really sick and felt like it was best that him and Rucker leave. He also says that he felt like God was saying: "Leave." So they left, Y., his wife, S. and M. promising they would study every night until they came back the next weekend with F. (our believer from Bamako who helps us with the work).

The plan was for Dustin, Rucker, I and F. to return to the village the weekend I got back from Canada to see how they had been doing with the studying. However, the day after I got back, we were back at the clinic because Dustin wanted to make sure he was doing ok, as he had had malaria, and Rucker wasn't feeling great. It turned out that Rucker was pretty sick, but Dustin was fine. Dustin still planned on going to the village with F. because he really felt that F. could share the vision of storying with Y. However, when we called F. on the Friday morning, he informed us that he was also sick. Needless to say we never made it out to the village that weekend.

We finally made it out this weekend. I was so excited to be going back to B. since I hadn't been there in what seemed like forever. Everyone was so glad to see me, and they all asked about my sister's wedding. They were so interested to see the pictures and asked me many questions about how we do weddings in Canada. M. was also very happy to see me, as we hadn't seen each other in over 2 months. They were all very happy for Melissa and made jokes about my future wedding, trying to give me every man in the village as a husband. It was just so great for me to feel like they really cared about
what I had gone to do. I was also glad to see one of my best friends A. I was sad to hear that during my absence, her baby had died. That was really hard for me, as that was probably my favourite baby in the village.

We spent the day just visiting with people, and M. told F. some exciting news. He said he had had a dream about Jesus. We often hear about people having visions, and dreams but had never imagined that God would choose to speak to M. in this way. It's one of those things that you only think happens elsewhere. We all rejoiced about this. We also found that he had been studying the questions with Y. and S. As night came closer, it started to rain. We were really disappointed because we knew people wouldn't come out for the storying if it was raining. However, our main purpose in going out there was to share the vision with Y. We basically wanted F. to talk with him. Since the rain didn't stop, we decided to go get Y. and S. who live on the other side of the village so we could do the storying with them and M. The storying session was excellent.
We did 3 stories that night. M., Y., S. and Y.'s wife were all present and participating as F. asked questions. At that moment I kept thinking, this is really what we came for, this is church! Rucker, Dustin and I just sat there listening. Y. seemed really excited about the storying, he agreed with F. that this would reach the people of B. because they know nothing of the Bible.

All in all, it was quite an encouraging weekend. However, I must ask you to pray. As Y. has been educated in the traditional African church way, he is having a hard time believing that a storying session is church. It is encouraging to know that he does think that he needs to story to reach the people but he still feels that there needs to be an established church in B.
Please pray for wisdom for us in this situation.

Praise the Lord as he is at work amongst the Wassulu.

Some things you can remember to pray for this month:

- we will be having another volunteer team coming in November. Please pray for that team, as they will prayerwalk and share testimonies in different Wassulu villages.
- pray for M. as he learns more and more about Christ.
- continue to pray for M's brothers, N. and S. that they may see their brother and follow in his steps.
- pray for Y. as he helps us in the work.
- pray for health for our team, we have been dealing with much sickness lately.
- pray for wisdom for the 3 of us, as our terms are soon coming to a close, on where we need to spend our time.
- pray for A., one of my best friends in the village, for opportunity for me to share Christ's love with her.

I want to thank you all for your prayers for Rucker. He is feeling a lot better then he was. I also thank you as you prayed for Dustin and I also.


I leave you with this verse. One I am trying to learn this week.

Psalms 89:14
"Righteousness and Justice are the foundation of your throne, love and faithfulness go before you."

It was so nice to see some of you and share with you during the time I was home. I look forward to having more to share next year when I come home!
As always, please feel free to send me e-mails and letters!

God bless you

Hannah

Link to Archived Stories from Students and Campus Ministries