Neighborly November

November Edition

Hello random people that read my blog (and the non random people as well!), 

How are you? I hope this letter finds you well. It is almost November and I don’t have a clever intro.

-Mali: Things have been peaceful lately, praise God. Back in January the French brought in a lot of troops and things kind of settled down. But now they are gradually (or at least talking about it) taking their troops out. Please pray that as the troops leave that the Islamists will not make trouble once again. Pray that the new president, IBK, will have wisdom in knowing how to handle the situation.

-My parents: My parents are back! We have set up a time for us to skype every week, so that is nice.  What’s more I will get to see them at Christmas!! My first Christmas with them in 6 years! I am pretty excited and sometimes when I think about it I do a hop, skip, and a jump… When they arrived my dad hurt his back from carrying luggage. Please pray for health for him so that he can be as active as he normally is without feeling pain. In addition, he will be going back to Kayes sometime to pick up and move our stuff to Bamako – something that will be difficult for him with his back as it is (it is already difficult, my sisters and I did a lot of heavy lifting when we were doing the initial packing in 2012). My mom has been learning the ropes of an ESL ministry that exists in Bamako. Please pray that she will learn quickly and be able to teach classes soon. Pray also that she realizes that this is where God was preparing her to be.

-Missionaries: Well, I asked you to pray about this month, and soon after we received news. The people who threatened to shut down the ministry finally came. The Brazilians were out of town and got a phone call when they came. I mentioned previously that they were unable to leave the country – this is because their passports were taken away. We recently received news that the passports are supposed to be returned on November 19. Please pray that this happens! This has been a very stressful time for them and getting their passports would mean they can go to Brazil for a while and rest.

- Water situation: For almost a month the city of Dakar was experiencing a water shortage. The reason is due to damage, in two places, to the pipe that supplies water to the city from the Senegal River that defines the northern border of the country. This pipe supplies 40% of the city’s  water needs. There were Senegalese who would stand in line for hours to get just a bucketful of water. This damage is akin to if something happened to the LA aqueduct – if the got contaminated or somehow a large portion of the water was diverted away – LA would have a difficult time. For a few weeks things went back to normal but now the water has officially been cut off, from Tuesday to this Thursday/Friday/Saturday depending on who you listen to. The water is being cut off so water company can install a new piece that just arrived from France which is supposed to completely fix things.

I think that is all for now. We think that the weather has turned – the last few days have been rather cool. Go into November making a choice to be grateful for the little things. 

Ruthanne