Week 7

This has been such a fun week.  On Tuesday, I went to Bamako Christian Academy.It is a school for mostly missionary kids.  I helped with  third and fourth grade mathematics. It was a lot of fun.We were covering geometric shapes. J I enjoyed it. I worked with a child who was from Nigeria who has issues with story problems in English. It was a great experience.  Geometry is used even in Africa.

Then Tuesday afternoon we went to the Kalanbankura Christian School. The kids at this school are about 80% Muslim. Their parents want them to have a great education so they are willing  to let them hear Christian doctrine. So the kids at the school have Bible every day! We are teaching English to the students there every Tueday. They currently speak only Bambara and French. There are two different classes.In one class the students are younger and  in the other class they are older.  It is a lot of fun. We teach them English by playing games. This week we had an obstacle course for the older  kids, where one kid was blind folded and two other kids were giving the one directional commands in English. So like stop, go, go forward, go back, sit, stand, jump, and crawl. The kids had a ball! J

 The other class  covered  parts of the body. The head, shoulder, knees, toes, eyes, ears, mouth, and nose.  After reviewing the parts of the body with the kids we were able then to sing the song “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.” The kids loved it.Later we played Simon says with them so that they could review all their English vocabulary. Still later, we used the new basketball phrases that they are learning. We will be coming in on Thursdays to teach the kids how to play basketball. They now know the words pass, dribble, and shoot .

Then on Wednesday we had a Bambara test. Fun times:/ I think that I did well, my only  problem  is I understand the vocabulary but have probelms in getting past the baby phrases. I just am praying that God helps me. I need to practice more with the locals on the phrases, that will help.

God has been dealing with me about how He is here even when I miss my family and even when things don’t always go as I pictured them, He is there. I have to say that when I came to West Africa I had stars in my eyes about a missionary’s life. I had an idea of how it would be.  God turned my ideas around and changed them to His ideas.  There are a lot of great things that happen when you are a missionary, like ministry opportunities and divine appointments.There is also a lot of heart ache and homesickness and even culture sickness. God  is changing me into who He wants me to be even in my weaknesses and incompetency. I have noticed the longer I am in Africa the more inconsistencies I see in my own life. God didn’t just send me to West Africa to share Jesus with the Muslims. He sent me here to save me from myself. It is clique, everyone says that, but it is so true. I have been such a selfish ,self centered person.  I have limited myself by own hang ups. Only when I have fixed my gaze on God will I be truly content. That doesn’t happen overnight it happens by daily surrendering to Him my ideas, goals, dreams, and desires. When I look at Him,He changes me.

“Look to Me, and be saved,

All you ends of the earth!

For I am God and there is no other.”

Isaiah 45:22